Dullingham Park To Sponsor Group 2 At Leopardstown During Irish Champions Festival

Dullingham Park is the new sponsor of the G2 Clipper Mile on the first day of the Irish Champions Festival at Leopardstown on Sept. 9, Leopardstown Racecourse announced on Thursday.

One of Newmarket's oldest establishments, Dullingham Park has recently been renovated and expanded as part of owner Steve Parkin's Clipper Group. The one-mile race was upgraded to Group 2 status in 2014, and has been won in the past by Parkin's Space Traveller (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}), who now stands at stud at Ballyhane Stud in Ireland.

Ollie Fowlston, Managing Director of Dullingham Park, said, “This is a wonderful opportunity to be involved in such a prestigious race meeting, it is a race that Steve Parkin has a close affinity with due to him owning past winners Suedois and Space Traveller. Dullingham Park is a new venture and we look forward to welcoming visitors from both Ireland and the UK. Irish Champions Festival is a remarkable meeting and we could not be more thrilled to support one of the biggest days in the Irish racing calendar.”

Tim Husbands, CEO of Leopardstown Racecourse, added, “We are delighted to welcome Dullingham Park to Leopardstown as sponsor of the G2 Dullingham Park S. Steve Parkin has had a long and successful association with Irish Champions Festival as an owner and sponsor and we are thrilled that he has chosen this elite racing festival to showcase his new stud farm.”

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‘The Pressure Is Now Officially Off’: Joe Foley Lauds Breakthrough Win For Branton Court Stud

The all-grey silks of Steve Parkin's Clipper Logistics have become an increasingly familiar feature at racecourses over the last two decades, and the prolific owner recently added another string to his bow in becoming a breeder. His Yorkshire-based Branton Court Stud notched a major milestone on Wednesday when Dramatised (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) scorched home in the G2 Queen Mary S. to provide Parkin with a first homebred group winner.

“We started in racing 20 years ago and, through Joe Foley, I started a breeding operation,” said Parkin. “[Dramatised] has come from the farm and it is a huge thrill. We saw her as a baby, watched her develop on the farm, and to watch her come through like that is very special and very emotional.”

Emotions were also running high for Foley, who is better known as the doyen of Ballyhane Stud as well as for his roles on a number of Irish racing and breeding committees. He and Parkin had extra reason to celebrate as they are both involved in the third filly home, Maria Branwell (Ire) (James Garfield {Ire}), who runs for the Bronte Collection.

“Phew!” Foley said with a huge grin. “The pressure is off now. To win the Queen Mary is fantastic. Steve loves Royal Ascot. Soldier's Call (GB) was our first winner here, and then Space Traveller (GB) won, so this is our third winner. It's not all about early, fast horses though. We've had horses by Sea The Stars (Ire), Dubawi (Ire), Frankel (GB)–we'd like to come back and win the Coronation–but this filly is a very fast filly; she's out of a big, good-looking mare and we covered her by Showcasing and luckily she did it.”

That good-looking mare is Katie's Diamond (Fr), an early star performer for her late sire Turtle Bowl (Ire) who was bought by her trainer Karl Burke for just €18,000 as a yearling before going on to win the Listed Empress S. and finish third in the G3 Prix du Calvados. Burke also now trains her highly impressive juvenile daughter, while William Haggas has Katie's Diamond's 3-year-old filly Public Opinion (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who recently broke her maiden at Lingfield.

Foley continued, “I went round the mare sale that year looking at all the good race fillies and I came to [Katie's Diamond] and she was such an outstanding-looking filly; I'd never really seen her before. But I remembered her running in the Marcel Boussac and she ran off going to the start, then they got her back to the stalls and she ran away in the race and she was in front 50 yards from the line and finished fifth, beaten about two lengths. I thought then that she must have been pretty good.

“We sent her to Dark Angel and her first filly is a good one. She also has a very nice Night Of Thunder (Ire) yearling filly and a magnificent colt foal by Pinatubo (Ire) and now she is back in foal to Showcasing.”

There could yet be more cause for celebration for the Clipper Logistics team in Berkshire this week, as Parkin has another five runners in his own right, including recent Listed Marygate S. winner Pillow Talk (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), the only filly in the line-up for Thursday's G2 Norfolk S. One of their leading contenders, Romantic Proposal (Ire) (Raven's Pass), had been set for a bold dual Group 1 sprint bid but she was withdrawn from the list when found to be coughing. The Eddie Lynam-trained 6-year-old will now be prepared for the G1 Darley July Cup.

Meanwhile the Bronte Collection, a syndicate set up for Parkin and friends, remarkably has four juvenile runners in stakes races at the royal meeting. Two of the quartet were bought by Foley, including the €22,000 Goffs Autumn yearling Maria Branwell, while another, Thunder Moor (Ire) (Dandy Man {GB}), was bred by his Ballyhane Stud and the last of the four, Cathy Come Home (GB) (Expert Eye {GB}), was bred by Branton Court Stud. As suggested by the syndicate name, the horses' names are inspired by the famous literary Bronte family of Yorkshire. Maria Branwell was the name of the mother of Emily, Charlotte and Anne Bronte, and their brother Branwell.

Foley said, “It's a fun syndicate. There are 13 guys in it with Steve and to have a runner placed in the Queen Mary is just magic for them. They are all here and they are having a ball. To have the winner and then for Maria Branwell to be placed is just fairytale stuff really. The pressure is now officially off.”

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Queen Mary Glory For Showcasing’s Dramatised

Making it two-for-two for the TDN Rising Stars in Royal Ascot's juvenile prizes, Clipper Logistics' Dramatised (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}–Katie's Diamond {Fr}, by Turtle Bowl {Ire}) put up an impressive display in a fast time in Wednesday's G2 Queen Mary S. under an in-form Danny Tudhope. Handed the monicker after her dynamic four-length debut win at Newmarket Apr. 29, the filly that Karl Burke regards as the fastest he has had through his hands was backed into 5-2 favouritism and raced near the front line towards the stand's side early. Committed passing two out by Tudhope, who had won the last two races on Tuesday's card, the bay was green and possibly idling in the clear as her rider lost his whip but stayed in command to the line. She had 1 3/4 lengths to spare over Maylandsea (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) there, with Maria Branwell (Ire) (James Garfield {Ire}) 1 1/4 lengths away in third. “It's job done,” her trainer stated. “She has a lot of natural speed. She lengthens and she keeps going. She's a diva, but was very good today and is definitely a group 1 filly.”

Dramatised, who beat the dual subsequent winner Malrescia (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) hollow on her racecourse bow at the Guineas meeting, could be asked to carry her considerable speed over an extra furlong now according to Burke. “We'll certainly consider the [G1] Prix Morny,” he said. “There's still more to come from her. I think she was just green at Newmarket, where she was jamming on the brakes and still clocked a fast time. I think she will stay six. We trained her dam and she was good enough to be a Guineas filly. We could be looking at the Cheveley Park at the end of the year, but I'm not sure she'd be a Guineas filly, that might be a stretch.”

Clipper Logistics' Steve Parkin added, “We started in racing 20 years ago and, through a guy called Joe Foley, I started a breeding operation and this is our first big winner in terms of something we have bred. She has come from the farm and it is a huge thrill. We saw her as a baby, watched her develop on the farm and to watch her come through like that is very special and very emotional. This is a five-to-ten-year plan, and to come here and have a homebred winner so early in the stud's life is a massive thrill. It is the biggest thrill in my life, apart from having my children.”

Foley, who acts as Parkin's bloodstock advisor, added, “Karl told me last night it was only a matter of how far today! Trainers usually get scared coming into a run, but I had to tell him to stop talking. Her dam Katie's Diamond ran away going to the start in the Boussac, she ran away in the race, and was still in front 50 yards from the line. She was a highly-talented mare, but a bit crazy. She is a beautiful-looking mare. She has a belting yearling filly by Night of Thunder, a beautiful colt foal by Pinatubo, he is gorgeous, and she is in-foal to Showcasing.”

Michael Bell said of Maylandsea, who was further advertising the prowess of first-season sire sensation Havana Grey, “That was an excellent run. She's a filly with a big future, hopefully. I think the winner is very highly-regarded and beat us fair and square today, but this is a very nice filly going forward.” Jockey Kieran Shoemark said of Maria Branwell, “She travelled nicely, but actually when I let her down, the ground was quick enough for her really. She'll get six furlongs and is an exciting filly for the rest of the year.”

The aforementioned Katie's Diamond captured the Listed Empress S. and was third in the G3 Prix du Calvados and, as Joe Foley recounted, finished fifth in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac on her penultimate start. A half to the dam of the GIII Jimmy Durante S.third Quattroelle (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), she hails from the family of the G3 Prix Miesque winner Aquatinta (Ger) (Samum {Ger}).

Wednesday, Ascot, Britain
QUEEN MARY S.-G2, £115,000, Ascot, 6-15, 2yo, f, 5fT, :59.34, g/f.
1–DRAMATISED (IRE), 128, f, 2, by Showcasing (GB)
1st Dam: Katie's Diamond (Fr) (SW-Eng & GSP-Fr), by Turtle Bowl (Ire)
2nd Dam: Aaliyah (Ger), by Anabaa
3rd Dam: Arpista (Ger), by Chief Singer (Ire)
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN; 1ST GROUP WIN. O-Clipper Logistics; B-Branton Court Stud (IRE); T-Karl Burke; J-Daniel Tudhope. £68,080. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $91,722. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Maylandsea (GB), 128, f, 2, Havana Grey (GB)–Different (GB), by Bahamian Bounty (GB). 1ST BLACK TYPE; 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (40,000gns Ylg '21 TATOCT; 100,000gns 2yo '22 TATBRE). O-Middleham Park Racing LXXI & Partners; B-Denniff Farms Ltd (GB); T-Michael Bell. £25,749.
3–Maria Branwell (Ire), 128, f, 2, James Garfield (Ire)–Princess Pearl (Ire), by Teofilo (Ire). 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (€22,000 Ylg '21 GOAUTY). O-Bronte Collection 1; B-Barry Kennedy & Anna Murphy (IRE); T-David O'Meara. £12,869.
Margins: 1 3/4, 1 1/4, NO. Odds: 2.50, 28.00, 9.00.
Also Ran: Love Reigns (Ire), Miami Girl (Ire), Katey Kontent (GB), Olivia Maralda (Ire), Carmela (Ire), Funny Money Honey (Ire), Lady Tilbury (GB), Yahsat (Ire), Omniqueen (GB), The Platinum Queen (Ire), Manhattan Jungle (Ire), Primrose Ridge (GB), Queen of Deauville (Ire), Lady Beano (Ire), Grand Oak (Ire), Lost Angel (Ire), One More Olly (GB), All The Time (Ire). Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

 

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The Weekly Wrap: Time For British Racing To Heed Warnings

If we can view Europe’s largest training centre of Newmarket as a microcosm of the wider racing world, then events in the last week give a pretty concerning snapshot of the future of the sport.

On the positive front, there was a first winner for the town’s newest trainer, Terry Kent, who, at 53, is also one of the longest-serving members of its workforce, having previously been a jockey and worked for trainers Michael Jarvis, Julie Cecil, Saeed Bin Suroor and Roger Varian. Another recent recruit to the training ranks, George Boughey, continued to show his aptitude for the job when Songkran (Ire) (Slade Power {Ire}) completed a hat-trick from just four runs for his stable. We’ll hear more about Boughey in a TDN feature later in the week.

Along with the good news came the sad announcement that Ed Vaughan, an extremely popular member of the racing community in Newmarket and beyond, is to relinquish his licence at the end of the season. This news came barely a week after Vaughan had celebrated the biggest win of his career with Dame Malliot (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) in the G2 Princess Of Wales’s S. and just a day after Miss Chess (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), a juvenile half-sister to the G1 Prix de Diane winner Fancy Blue (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), had made an extremely promising debut for him at Yarmouth. Then on the day of the announcement Magic J (Scat Daddy) underlined Vaughan’s capabilities by pushing his rating into the 90s with victory in a decent Sandown handicap.

Here we have a trainer with decent horses for major owners deciding that training racehorses is no longer a viable business. Vaughan isn’t the first to have come to this conclusion and he won’t be the last, certainly not in this awful year. But the plight of British racing, and its stakeholders’ apparent inability to hold racecourses to account regarding what many of those providing the show believe to be a fair return, is now desperate enough for the cracks to be showing vividly through the paper.

The National Trainers Federation (NTF) was moved to release its own statement later that day which acknowledged Vaughan’s success in selling horses on to race abroad in Hong Kong and Australia and calling for a reform to the funding of the sport. It read, “It is all the more sad that such a trainer is being forced to relinquish his licence due to the inadequate levels of prize-money in British racing and the resulting economic pressure on his business. While a successful record of capitalising on the value of British-raced horses in the overseas market is admirable, this should not be a prerequisite for running a sustainable training business in the most highly regarded horseracing industry in the world.

“The funding model of our sport requires two reforms: an improved return on betting turnover; at 0.6% this is by far the lowest of our international competitors. And a revenue sharing agreement with the media rights holders to ensure a fair distribution of the commercial revenue that is jointly created by horsemen and racecourses.”

Ralph Beckett, who is currently president of the NTF, added his personal thoughts on the situation via his website, on which he stated, “I hope that those who are in a position to do something about it, i.e. the racecourses (who receive £1,000 per runner from media rights) and bookmakers, are proud of what they haven’t achieved.

“Don’t forget Ed made this announcement one week after the biggest success of his 16-year training career. This is a man with no dependants, training successfully for owners who pay their bills on time, who owes no one, and cannot make it pay. He is the proverbial canary in a coalmine.

“One of the things that used to attract people to racing is that no one knew where a good horse would come from. Nowadays, the best horses are in fewer and fewer hands and it is damaging irreparably the sport as a spectacle.”

To further emphasise this point, on Monday morning it transpired that only two stables would be represented through eight potential runners in Saturday’s G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. The fact that Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) and Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) are entered guarantees a thrilling contest if both mares stand their ground, and they of course represent the two most powerful stables in Britain and Ireland respectively. But how have we reached a situation where only two stables in the British Isles contain a horse good enough to contest our premier weight-for-age race?

Courses Must Help The Cause
While one does not begrudge the success of the big stables it is hard not to view the growing void between 200-horse yards and smaller outfits, which seem to be ever contracting, as similar to supermarkets and corner shops. Sooner or later the former push the latter out of business. Owners of course have the right to send their horses wherever they wish, and the rise of the ‘super yard’ in turn provides an awful lot more business for pre-training yards, some of which charge a higher daily rate than many small trainers.

But Beckett’s comments about damaging the sport as a spectacle are accurate, and this is why so many people revelled in the July Cup victory of Oxted (GB) (Mayson {GB}) for Roger Teal. It was simply refreshing to be hearing about some different names for a change.

We have come a long way from racing being the ‘Sport of Kings’ to one of greater inclusivity for a wider range of owners through syndicates. Current COVID-19 restrictions are in the process of being eased further to allow a greater number of racegoers to be in attendance, but the utmost priority must be given to ensuring that all owners can attend with a horse if they wish to do so and, taking sensible precautions, be allowed to convene on course with their trainer and jockey.

This year has been testing but racecourse bosses need to take a longer-term view. Prize-money was already poor before the pandemic and, while many will accept a short-term cut in levels while tracks get back up and running, this cannot be sustained. Owners and smaller breeders leaving the sport—which they will if the situation doesn’t improve rapidly—will inevitably lead to smaller race fields and a decline in media rights income for the racecourses.

Calls for unity between the Horsemen’s Group and the RCA are well meaning, and of course the united front presented in order for racing to resume ahead of any other sport in Britain shows what can be done, but this must not come at the continuing detriment to the people whose support is at the root of the industry: the owners.

Red In The Black
Four years apart by birth, Red Evie (Ire) and Snow Fairy (Ire) were the standout performers for their sire Intikhab, who died shortly after his retirement at Derrinstown Stud in 2016. The influence of both mares has been felt this season, with Snow Fairy’s second foal, Virgin Snow (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), winning a fillies’ handicap before gaining black type when second in the G3 Hoppings S.

Red Evie had a head start on Snow Fairy and has been mated exclusively with Galileo (Ire). The outstanding Found (Ire), winner of the Arc among her three top-level victories, is the highest achiever of Red Evie’s six winners. Found it turn has made a promising start to her own stud career as the dam of this year’s Chesham S. winner Battleground (War Front).

With a proliferation of Galileo mares at its disposal, the Coolmore team has made good use of the American-based War Front to provide a successful blend, and another cross with the very best Japan had to offer, Deep Impact (Jpn), also proved fruitful up until his death last year.

Saxon Warrior (Jpn) is the flagbearer for this particular cross but Sunday’s Curragh maiden winner Snowfall (Jpn) looks like another we’ll be hearing plenty about in future. The 2-year-old filly is the first foal of Found’s sister Best In The World (Ire), and if the mare didn’t quite live up to her portentous name she was certainly more than useful and posted a listed win at two followed by a Group 3 victory at three.

Snowfall wasn’t the only good winner over the weekend to represent the Deep Impact-Galileo cross as Harajuku (Ire) earned herself a TDN Rising Star for her debut success at Chantilly. The Andre Fabre trainee represents the Niarchos family, who were among the first European breeders to patronise Deep Impact and were rewarded for this with the G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Study Of Man (Ire).

Harajuku is herself from a family which has also been in the news this year as her dam Phaenomena (Ire) is a full-sister to Nightime (Ire), the dam of Ghaiyyath (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). Furthermore, Harajuku’s 4-year-old half-brother King Of Koji (Jpn), by another Shadai resident, Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), won the G2 Meguro Kinen in Tokyo in May. Their 3-year-old sibling Mystical Land (Jpn) (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}) is also with Fabre and is entered for a Dieppe maiden on Wednesday.

Don’t Stop Believing
Ubettabelieveit (Ire) had originally been entered for the Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale by pinhookers Roger Marley and John Cullinan of Church Farm and Horse Park Stud, who bought the Kodiac (GB) colt for 50,000gns from breeder Ringfort Stud at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale. But in a delayed season the youngster was one of a number of horses sold privately and he notched his first win on his second start on the track adjacent to the Goffs UK sales complex the day before the sale eventually took place. He then stepped up a level to win the listed National S. at Sandown last week, with another colt withdrawn from the breeze-ups, Mcmanaman (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), taking third.

Trained by Nigel Tinkler, Ubettabelieveit continued a fine season for Derek and Gay Veitch’s Ringfort Stud, which has recently been represented in the winner’s enclosure as co-breeders with Paul Hancock of the Cheveley Park Stud-owned Indie Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}). The same breeding combination was also responsible for fellow Newmarket July meeting winner, the 2-year-old Youth Spirit (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), while Ringfort alone bred Mayfair Spirit (Ire) (Charm Spirit {Ire}), who won his sixth race on June 28.

Juvenile winner Rebel At Dawn (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) is another winning Ringfort graduate, as is last year’s dual Group 2 winner Threat (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}), who holds an entry for next week’s G1 Qatar Sussex S. at Glorious Goodwood.

Eagles Has Landed
Steve Parkin’s Clipper Logistics has become a major force in the owners’ ranks and has been represented by 41 runners already this season in Britain. Over the weekend a pair of Group 3 races came Parkin’s way via Eagles By Day (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Queen Jo Jo (GB) (Gregorian (Ire}), whom he owns in partnership with Roger Peel.

Eagles By Day, the first son of Vanessa Hutch’s excellent staying mare Missunited (Ire) (Golan {Ire}), has a somewhat different profile to the earlier, faster type of horse with which one usually associates Parkin’s all-grey silks. His victory in the John Smith’s Silver Cup on his first start for David O’Meara should see him go on to bigger and better things, perhaps even back at Parkin’s local track, York, where he is being aimed at either the Ebor or the Lonsdale Cup.

Queen Jo Jo was the first group winner for the hugely likeable Gregorian, who raced 25 times in his four seasons in training with John Gosden and is now back at his breeder Maurice Burns’s Rathasker Stud.

Joe Foley and Federico Barberini, who regularly work in tandem at the sales on Parkin’s behalf, bought the group-winning duo and it was to Foley’s Ballyhane Stud that one of the most exciting runners in the Clipper Logistics silks, Soldier’s Call (GB), was retired at the end of last year.

The young sprinter has been well supported in his first season and he will do a good job if he can match the popularity of his stud mate Dandy Man (Ire), who is enjoying another good season. The unbeaten dual group winner Dandalla (Ire) is his flagbearer to date, and on Sunday Dandy Man was responsible for the valuable Weatherbys Super Sprint heroine Happy Romance (Ire), who was the first winner for new owners The McMurray Family. Her trainer Richard Hannon is already eyeing another lucrative pot which will entail a trip to Ireland for the new €320,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stud S. The race also carries a bonus of €50,000 if the winner is by a Ballyhane stallion. Joe Foley had better start emptying his piggy bank.

 

 

 

 

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