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Viva España As Kitty Marion Has The Whip Hand

BADEN-BADEN, Germany–It is not often you hear the Spanish national anthem ringing out across Germany but there was an emotional rendition of the 'Marcha Real' on Saturday as Kitty Marion (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) became the first Spanish-trained group winner at Baden-Baden racecourse in the G3 Goldene Peitsche.

Guillermo Arizkorreta is well known in his native country as the multiple champion trainer with the largest string based at La Zarzuela racecourse in Madrid. He has also made a number of international forays in the past, to France and Dubai, but this was the first time he had brought any runners to Baden-Baden. Along with Kitty Marion, he saddled Hold On Now (GB) (Farhh {GB}) to finish fifth in the listed Wackenhut Mercedes Benz Fillies Cup earlier on the card. On Sunday, he will be represented by Rodaballo (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) in the G2 Kronimus Oettingen Rennen.

“This is an experiment, our first time here,” said the trainer. It is unlikely to be the last.

Jumping smartly to take an early lead under Czech-born jockey Vaclav Janacek, the well made chestnut filly bossed the race along the six furlongs of Baden-Baden's curved sprint course, hanging on defiantly to repel the fast-finishing favourite Majestic Colt (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}).

Previously trained in France by Henri-Alex Pantall, Kitty Marion was let go by Godolphin last July for 3,000gns at Tattersalls, where Edgar Byrne selected her for his friend Arizkorreta and a group of 10 owners made up of friends and family of Angel Saenz. A group of 20 supporters made the trip from Madrid to the outskirts of the Black Forest to cheer the mare home.

And they have had much to cheer about in the 14 months that they have owned the 5-year-old. Kitty Marion won over 1600 metres on debut as a 4-year-old for Godolphin at the rural French track of Lignieres en Berry. Two disappointing starts followed before she was sent to the sales. Since moving to Spain she has won three of her six starts in the country as well as finishing runner-up in the listed Premio Certosa at San Siro back in April.

Bred by Julia Scott, formerly of Glebe Stud, along with her brother James Dean and Lady Fiona Trenchard, Kitty Marion has only enhanced what was already a very promising pedigree as her dam, the six-furlong winner Pretty Primo (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}), is a half-sister to Group 1 winner and sought-after sire Wootton Bassett (GB), who shares his sire with Kitty Marion.

“We bought her at Tattersalls and since we dropped her in trip she has improved a lot,” said Arizkorreta after welcoming his new stable star back to Baden-Baden's winner's enclosure. “Sometimes she doesn't jump very well from the stalls but today she was very quick, and she was very brave to hold on. She had run very well in a listed race in Milan but this is our first Group 3 win.”

As the translation of the race name suggests, the race trophy is a gold whip inscribed with the previous 150 winners of the historic contest. The list includes the former Spanish-trained Silverside (Pleasantly Perfect), who won the Goldene Peitsche 10 years ago when it was still a Group 2 contest, but he was based in France at the time of his victory.

It will be worth keeping an eye Rodaballo, last year's Spanish 2000 Guineas winner, in his Group 2 contest on Sunday.

The highly consistent colt, bred by Spencer Chapman's Aston House Stud, has won four of his eight starts in Madrid and finished runner-up in the other four, as well as being listed-placed in France last September. He too was bought at Tattersalls, but this time from the Ardglas Stables draft at the 2019 Guineas Breeze-up Sale.

Arizkorreta said on Saturday, “It is a tough race but we were actually more confident about his chances than for Kitty Marion.”

Watch this space.

Saturday, Baden-Baden, Germany
151ST CASINO BADEN-BADEN GOLDENE PEITSCHE-G3, €50,000, Baden-Baden, 9-4, 3yo/up, 6fT, 1:09.05, g/s.
1–KITTY MARION (GB), 127, m, 5, by Iffraaj (GB)
1st Dam: Pretty Primo (Ire), by Kyllachy (GB)
2nd Dam: Balladonia (GB), by Primo Dominie (GB)
3rd Dam: Susquehanna Days, by Chief's Crown
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN; 1ST GROUP WIN. (28,000gns Ylg '17 TAOCT; 3,000gns HRA '20 TATJUL). O-Gonzalo Usandizaga; B-Glebe Stud, J F Dean & Lady Trenchard (GB); T-Guillermo Arizkorreta Elosegui; J-Vaclav Janacek. €30,000. Lifetime Record: SP-Ity, 12-5-1-1, €102,500. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Majestic Colt (Ire), 130, h, 6, Clodovil (Ire)–Majestic Dubawi (GB), by Dubawi (Ire). (19,000gns RNA Ylg '16 TAOCT). O-Jaber Abdullah; B-Rabbah Bloodstock Ltd (IRE); T-Andreas Wohler. €11,000.
3–Manjeer (Ire), 130, g, 5, Footstepsinthesand (GB)–Navajo Moon (Ire), by Danehill. (€50,000 Ylg '17 GOFORB). O-Natalie Steinmann; B-Brittas House Stud & Grange Stud (IRE); T-Carina Fey. €5,250.
Margins: NK, 4, HF. Odds: 30.20, 3.90, 12.70.
Also Ran: Ainsdale (GB), Dibujaba (Ger), Waldersee (Fr), Schwesterherz (Fr), Worth Choice (Ire), Kodi Beach (GB), Rubaiyat (Fr), Crushing Power (GB), Ninario (Ger). Scratched: Juanito (Ger). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Outbreak of EHV1 Reported in Spain

An outbreak of the neurological form of equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1) has been reported in Valencia, Spain, the Irish Equine Centre (IEC) announced via a statement on Twitter Monday. The virus was discovered at an FEI competition, and the FEI Veterinary Department is collaborating with the Spanish authorities. Additional veterinarians have been brought in to assist with the 160 horses quarantined on site.

The IEC statement read in part, “Currently 84 horses are showing clinical signs, 11 are being treated in external clinics and four have died. Horses that left the venue before movement restrictions were implemented appear to have spread the virus to France, Germany and Belgium where additional cases have been reported.

“It is understood that to date, no Irish riders affected have travelled from the event in Valencia to Ireland. However, anyone receiving horses particularly competition horses, from the continent should seek veterinary advice concerning isolation and EHV1 testing by PCR. Similarly, competitors planning to travel with their horses to events in Spain should see veterinary advice.”

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‘Thinking Big’: Young Spanish Trainer Alvaro Soto Takes Aim On Saudi International With Oriental

Spanish trainer Alvaro Soto is aiming to fly the flag for his country with his star horse, Oriental in the $500,000 Saudi International Handicap on Feb. 19, 2021. The 2100m (about 1 5/16 miles) race, a new addition to The Saudi Cup meeting, is open to horses trained in countries not included in the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities' Part One nations.

Oriental was horse of the year in Spain in 2019 having joined Soto from his old boss Carlos Laffon-Parias, a Spaniard based in Chantilly, France. He had been used as a lead horse for the top-class Recoletos, who won two French Group 1 races before retiring to stud at the end of 2018.

Having won two of Spain's biggest mile races in 2019 – the Gran Premio Gobierno Vasco and Gran Premio de la Hispanidad – as well as one of Morocco's top prizes, the 1 1/2 mile Grand Prix de la Sorec, Oriental was hampered by breathing issues earlier this year.

Madrid-based Soto is now confident he has solved those problems and he will give the 6-year-old a run on Dec. 30 before hopefully preparing him for the Saudi International Handicap.

Soto said: “He's in great form. He could have run two weeks ago but I was waiting for this race. I think it's going to be a very easy race because it's on the all-weather and all-weather races in Spain are not strong.

“In the morning Oriental is doing things I saw last year – I didn't see them at the beginning of this year. He's been galloping with a filly who won by six lengths last week and he was very easy beside her. I'm full of hope.”

Soto might only be 29 years old, but he has packed a lot into life so far with little room for anything but racing. His father owned horses in Seville, where Soto grew up, and he started riding out racehorses in his early teens after having started off with showjumpers. After riding 15 winners as an amateur jockey he turned to training in Madrid three years ago. He now has 22 horses in his yard.

Soto said: “My whole life has been racing. When I was at school I was always riding. I used to go to the racetrack in the morning and then on to school at 9:00 a.m. It was the same when I was at university studying business. I had a very good relationship with Carlos Laffon-Parias as he is from Seville also. Our families are good friends so every summer I went to him in Chantilly.”

The link with Laffon-Parias has certainly been a fruitful one as it led to him snapping up Japanese-bred Oriental after he had won a Listed race at Craon, France in September 2018.

He explained: “When I came back to Spain I met M'Hammed Karimine, a Moroccan owner who was looking for a good horse. I saw Oriental work and said 'you have to buy this horse – you are going to have a great time with him'.

“I knew he was a very good horse and we only had to change his mind as he had been the lead horse for Recoletos. I think we've done it. He was expensive but he won two of the best mile races in Spain last year and he was runner-up behind a good French horse in the other. He won in Casablanca, Morocco, over 1m4f. That's why I think he can be very useful in Saudi Arabia.

“He is very competitive from a mile up to 1m4f. The race is very good for him. He's also a good traveler. To go to Casablanca last year, he had to travel for 18 hours and his behavior was amazing.”

Travelling horses to the Middle East is nothing new to Soto. He took runners to Qatar and Dubai when pupil assistant trainer to Marco Botti in Newmarket, England.

Having also spent time as assistant to Laffon-Parias, he was tempted back to Spain to start training three years ago. He is fiercely ambitious and sees the Saudi International Handicap as a chance to show what he can do on racing's world stage.

Soto added: “We would love it if we were invited to Saudi Arabia for the International Handicap. This is the type of opportunity I'm looking for – it is very important for my career. Everyone will be at The Saudi Cup meeting and everyone will be watching. It's very important to go to these type of races to meet people.

“I'm always thinking big. If you don't think big you don't go anywhere. I started training to be involved in these sort of races. It's why I decided to make my life about racing. This is what makes me get up at 5:00 a.m. every morning – in the cold, on Sundays. I love horses and I love training – I don't like anything else more than racing.

“For me, it would be amazing to go to Saudi Arabia but I wouldn't be going there to make up the numbers, I'd be going because I think Oriental can be very competitive. If we could win, personally for me it would be very important and it's also very important for Spanish racing. In Spain we only have 600 horses – that's like two yards in Newmarket!”

Organized by the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia and run at the King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, The Saudi Cup is a two-day festival of international racing headlined by the USD$20m Saudi Cup – the world's most valuable race.

Established in 2020 with the second renewal set to be run on Saturday February 20, 2021, The Saudi Cup day card carries a total prize purse of $30.5m and features dirt and turf races for the highest caliber of racehorses in the world.

A full card of racing on the preceding Friday includes an International Jockeys Challenge which sees seven female and seven male jockeys compete as individuals as well as the $500,000 Saudi International Handicap for horses trained in IFHA-registered Part II and III racing countries.

The Saudi Cup is charged with raising awareness of horse racing in the country, encouraging participation among men and women. It also aims to promote Saudi Arabia at international level, acting as a marker for the Kingdom's transformational journey, encouraging tourism and investment.

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