Order Restored With Euro Quartet

LEXINGTON, KY–Everything must fall the right way, no doubt, to win any horse race, let alone one on the greatest of stages. There were many dominoes that fell that led to Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}) getting a start in Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland, and as the English and Irish Guineas winners Kameko (Ire) (Kitten’s Joy) and Siskin (First Defence) toiled in behind, it was a dark horse-indeed, the longest shot in the field at 73-1-that burst from the pack in midstretch to lead home an Aidan O’Brien-trained trifecta from Circus Maximus (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Lope Y Fernandez (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). Given O’Brien’s record at the Breeders’ Cup, it is quite remarkable that the great trainer’s three runners here were no shorter than 10-1. Even more surprising is that O’Brien had never before won the Mile, but he amended that record with aplomb on Saturday.

When Order Of Australia traveled across from Ireland last week, he wasn’t even in the race, having been placed on the also eligibles list as the 15th horse in a maximum field of 14. Just hours after leading the Ballydoyle string through their first spin over the Keeneland dirt on Thursday, the 3-year-old was in the Mile with the scratch of William Haggas’s One Master (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) after the 6-year-old mare had tied up.

Just a further few hours after that, Order Of Australia’s plans changed again when his rider Christophe Soumillon tested positive for COVID-19, ruling him out of his two rides at the meeting. Soumillon’s fellow Frenchman, the in-form Pierre-Charles Boudot, stepped up to deputise, and in fact the rising star rider was a huge beneficiary of others’ misfortunes on Saturday due to the virus; Ioritz Mendizabal had ridden the James Fanshawe-trained Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB} to win the G1 Prix Jean Romanet in August and finish third behind Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) in the G1 Prix de l’Opera, and had been set to travel to Kentucky to partner the 4-year-old filly in the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf before a positive COVID test stopped him getting on the plane. Audarya and Boudot bested the six-time American Grade I winner and 3-1 favourite Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) at 12-1 in that mile and a quarter contest to make Fanshawe a perfect one-for-one at the meeting. Audarya and Order Of Australia were just Boudot’s fourth and fifth mounts in Breeders’ Cup races, and while he has been ascending the ranks in Europe for some time, he has assured his status as a world-class jockey.

“It’s a dream come true,” Boudot said of his Breeders’ Cup double. “It is only by chance to get these rides and I’m sorry for Ioritz Mendizabal and Christophe Soumillon. It’s a difficult situation with COVID, but I was given two nice opportunities. I’m over the moon.”

Order Of Australia, fourth in the G1 Irish Derby and seventh in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club this spring, broke his maiden over the all-weather at Dundalk on Sept. 18. He is a three-quarter-brother to Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler of the World {Ire}), who made history of her own at last year’s Breeders’ Cup when making her trainer Joseph O’Brien the youngest-winning conditioner ever at the meeting in the Filly & Mare Turf.

Audarya had franked the form of the Aga Khan and Dermot Weld’s Tarnawa, and that 4-year-old filly obliged four races later in the G1 Turf to make it three straight Group 1 wins. Tarnawa, remarkably, had been the second of Soumillon’s two rides at the Breeders’ Cup, and as Soumillon served his isolation in Lexington that ride was picked up by Colin Keane, who had come to Kentucky to ride Siskin in the Mile.

Another weighing room star inevitably on the minds of many after Tarnawa’s victory was Pat Smullen, who served a long and successful tenure as stable jockey to Weld. Smullen retired from race riding in the spring of 2019 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and tragically passed away in September aged 43 following a courageous battle in which his courage and fundraising efforts were life-changing for many others.

Tarnawa led home an exacta of European-trained fillies in the Turf, with Ballydoyle’s ever-reliable Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) delivering once again to be second. She had filled the same spot behind Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) in the 2018 edition of the same race at Churchill Downs.

It was the first win at the Breeders’ Cup for Weld, and in fact that was a major theme on the day for the European contingent. It was another veteran Group 1-winning mare, the 4-year-old Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead), who got the ball rolling earlier in the day on Saturday for team Europe after a blank Friday, bursting from the pack in midstretch to give trainer Kevin Ryan and jockey Tom Eaves their first Breeders’ Cup winner. It was also a fairytale result for Terry and Margaret Holdcroft’s Bearstone Stud. The Shropshire nursery bred both Glass Slippers and her winning dam Night Gypsy (GB) (Mind Games {GB}), and while the Holdcrofts offer some of their small yearling crop at auction each year, Glass Slippers was one they held on to. She has validated that decision many times over, having won last year’s G1 Prix de l’Abbaye as well as the G1 Flying Five S. in September. Glass Slippers was the first European-trained winner of the Turf Sprint, and Ryan was already putting a return trip to the 2021 Del Mar Breeders’ Cup on the radar in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s race.

“Why not?” Terry said. “Kevin and Margaret [Holdcroft] are going to keep her in training. We don’t get a lot of time with these horses. If everything goes right, we’d love to come back.”

Mark Pennell, stud manager of Bearstone Stud, said, “She’s so cool. Wherever she travels, she just seems to thrive on it. There was something different about her today. She got very excited, pawing the ground and wanted to get on with it.

“It’s just massive for everybody because we’re not a massive breeding operation; we don’t keep many horses to race. We lost the mare and decided that we were always going to keep that filly from a foal. She always looked like an athlete. I’ve worked with Terry and Margaret for 40 years and to get a horse like this at the end, it’s been worthwhile. If you’re persistent and keep trying, you’ll get one. We kept her, and raced her, and broke her in at home–we’ve done absolutely everything with her and it’s just been unbelievable. I can’t tell you the number of messages I’ve had off people that have been in the racing industry for years; it’s just been amazing. It’s just phenomenal and she’s really put us on the map.”

Audarya, likewise, was the first Breeders’ Cup starter and winner for longtime Newmarket trainer James Fanshawe. The progressive bay has hit her best stride this year over a mile and a quarter, and she put an exclamation point on a stellar year for Coolmore’s recruit Wootton Bassett (GB). The son of Iffraaj (GB) had long promised to explode into the major leagues, and he fulfilled expectations in major fashion in 2020. His 14 stakes winners this year is more than double what he has achieved any other season, and in addition to Audarya includes G1 Prix de l’Abbaye scorer Wooded (Fr), who bested Glass Slippers by a neck in her Abbaye defense at ParisLongchamp on Oct. 4.

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Tarnawa Gives Weld First Cup Victory With Late-Running Turf Triumph

With jockey Christophe Soumillon taken off his second winning mount of the day after testing positive for COVID-19, substitute rider Colin Keane guided the 4-year-old Irish-bred Shamardal filly Tarnawa to a stretch-running victory over Magical, the 2-1 favorite, in Saturday's $4-million, Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

The win gave globe-trotting Irish trainer Dermot Weld his first Breeders' Cup victory from his 17th starter. The Aga Khan homebred finished a length to the good of the 5-year-old Galileo mare Magical and jockey Ryan Moore, with pacesetter Channel Maker finishing third, another half-length back and 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Lord North. They were followed across the line by Mogul, Arklow, Mehdaayih, United, Red King and Donjah.

Time for 1 1/2 miles was 2:28.02 on firm turf after fractions of :25.57, :51.06, 1:15.99, 1:40.52 and 2:04.45.

Tarnawa, the third choice in the wagering, paid $11.40 to win.

This was the third victory in the Breeders' Cup Turf for the Aga Khan, having won the inaugural running in 1984 with Lashkari and again in 2000 with Kalanisi. Tarnawa, produced from the Cape Cross mare Tarana, is the fifth generation of mares bred by Aga Khan Studs.

Tarnawa is the third filly in the last six years to win the Turf, following in the footsteps of Found in 2015 at Keeneland and Enable in the 2018 running at Churchill Downs. Distaffers Pebbles in 1985 and MIss Alleged in 1991 were earlier winners.

Tarnawa, who was winning for the eighth time in 14 career starts, was coming off a neck victory over Alpine Star in the Group 1 Prix de l'Opera at Longchamp on Oct. 4. Before that she won the Group 1 Prix Vermeille by three lengths at the Paris, France, track. She began her 2020 campaign with a victory in a Group contest in her native Ireland at Cork.

Soumillon rode Tarnawa to her two  recent French victories but tested positive for COVID-19 upon his arrival in Kentucky. He lost the mount on Order of Australia in the G1 Mile for Aidan O'Brien and that horse was ridden to a 73-1 upset victory by Pierre Charles Boudot.

 

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Tarnawa Gives Legendary Weld a Maiden BC Win in the Turf

Trainer Dermot Weld, widely regarded as the pioneer of traveling horses, has accomplished most everything there is to accomplish in this business, winning the 1990 GI Belmont S. with Go and Go (Ire) (Be My Guest) and the G1 Melbourne Cup twice with Vintage Crop (Ire) (Rousillon, 1993) and Media Puzzle in 2002, to name just a few of his considerable achievements.

The latter was a son of Theatrical (Ire), trained by Weld for Bert and Diana Firestone to a runner-up effort in the 1985 G1 Irish Derby before finishing a low-odds 11th to Pebbles (GB) (Sharpen Up {GB}) in the second running of the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf at Aqueduct. Ironically, under the care of Bill Mott, Theatrical would go on to just miss to Manila (Lyphard) the following year at Santa Anita before going one better at Hollywood Park in 1987.

From the previous 35 runnings of the Breeders’ Cup, Weld had saddled 16 horses without a winner. But in the course of 150 seconds on a sunsplashed Central Kentucky Saturday, Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) put pay to that streak with a commanding defeat of the boys at Keeneland.

Last-out winner of the G1 Prix de l’Opera over easy ground at ParisLongchamp in early October, Tarnawa dropped out to near the tail of the field as Channel Maker (English Channel)–making his fourth appearance at the Breeders’ Cup–led the way early, as expected, from 2019 runner-up United (Giant’s Causeway). The Aga Khan homebred was ridden patiently by two-time champion Irish jockey Colin Keane–replacing the COVID-19-stricken Christophe Soumillon–as they passed halfway in a pedestrian 1:15.99, and still had only one beaten as the field hit the three-eighths marker, with Channel Maker still bossing things from the front.

The Ontario-bred increased his advantage when United appeared to take an awkward step at the 2 1/2-furlong pole and, given the pace dynamics to that point, appeared a serious threat to lead them all the way. But, leaving nothing to chance and knowing how much he had underneath him, Keane allowed Tarnawa to circle some seven or eight wide off the final turn and she stormed down the center of the course to score handily. Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the Turf runner-up in an epic battle with Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) in the bog at Churchill two years ago, raced in the second flight of horses, but was beaten to the punch by the winner and settled for a battling second. Channel Maker held admirably for third.

“It’s thrilling to win this race, it doesn’t really get any bigger,” the trainer’s son Mark commented. “It’s been a long time since 1990 when my father first won the Belmont with Go and Go and it’s kept going ever. Instructions-wise, we left it to Colin. He’s not champion Jockey of Ireland for nothing. He took over from the late great Pat Smullen, who we miss terribly here today and I really must mention him. I also must mention Christophe, who had done so brilliantly on her in Paris as well.”

A maiden from three starts at two, Tarnawa was three times a winner at group level last season while finishing 11th in the G1 Investec Oaks. Saved for a second-half campaign this term, she resumed from an October absence to defeat Cayenne Pepper (Ire) (Australia {GB}) in the G3 Give Thanks S. at Cork Aug. 8 and made her two most recent appearances at ParisLongchamp, carrying Soumillon to a victory in the G1 Prix Vermeille Sept. 1 and to a neck defeat of the talented Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) and Filly & Mare Turf heroine Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) when last seen in the Opera.

Tarnawa is the fourth runner to carry the Aga Khan green-and-red to victory in the Turf, joining inaugural winner Lashkari (GB) (Mill Reef); 1999 hero Daylami (Ire) (Doyoun {Ire}, campaigned in partnership with Godolphin; and 2000 victor Kalanisi (Ire) (Doyoun {Ire}). All were homebred winners.

Pedigree Notes:
Tarnawa–somewhat surprisingly–becomes the first Breeders’ Cup winner for her globally successful stallion (by Giant’s Causeway), who was euthanized at Darley’s Kildangan Stud this past April. Tarnawa’s dual stakes-winning dam was out of Irish highweight Tarakala, who won the Listed Galtres S. at York and was placed in the G3 Noblesse S. at Naas, each over 12 furlongs. One of 26 top-level, 77 graded/group and 150 overall black-type scorers for Shamardal, Tarnawa has an unraced 2-year-old half-brother named Tazaral (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) and a weanling half-sister by Siyouni (Fr).

Saturday, Keeneland
LONGINES BREEDERS’ CUP TURF-GI, $3,680,000, Keeneland, 11-7, 3yo/up, 1 1/2mT, 2:28.02, fm.
1–TARNAWA (IRE), 123, f, 4, by Shamardal
1st Dam: Tarana (Ire) (SW & GSP-Ire, $141,525), by Cape Cross (Ire)
                2nd Dam: Tarakala (Ire), by Dr Fong
                3rd Dam: Tarakana, by Shahrastani
O-HH Aga Khan; B-His Highness the Aga Khan’s Studs S.C. (IRE);
T-Dermot K. Weld; J-Colin Keane. $2,080,000. Lifetime Record:
MG1SW-Fr & MGSW-Ire, 14-8-2-2, $2,868,503. Werk Nick
Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Magical (Ire), 123, m, 5, Galileo (Ire) (Ire)–Halfway To Heaven
(Ire), by Pivotal (GB). O-Michael B. Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier &
Derrick Smith; B-Orpendale, Chelston & Wynatt (IRE); T-Aidan
O’Brien. $680,000.
3–Channel Maker, 126, g, 6, English Channel–In Return, by
Horse Chestnut (SAf). ($57,000 RNA Ylg ’15 KEESEP).
O-Wachtel Stable, Gary Barber, R. A. Hill Stable & Reeves
Thoroughbred Racing; B-Tall Oaks Farm (ON); T-William I.
Mott. $360,000.
Margins: 1, NO, 1 3/4. Odds: 4.70, 2.10, 9.10.
Also Ran: Lord North (Ire), Mogul (GB), Arklow, Mehdaayih (GB), United, Red King, Donjah (Ger). Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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Soumillon Positive For COVID-19; Colin Keane Picks Up Breeders’ Cup Turf Mount On Tarnawa

Leading Irish jockey Colin Keane will pick up the mount on Tarnawa in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland, reports At the Races  on Twitter, because regular rider Christophe Soumillon has tested positive for COVID-19.

The Dermot Weld-trained 4-year-old daughter of Shamardal is listed at 6-1 on the morning line off an undefeated season in 2020; she won the G1 Prix Vermeille and the G1 Prix de l'Opera in France this year.

“It complicates things a little,” Weld said. “She takes a bit of knowing and he'd won two Group Ones on her. But that's the way it is.”

Soumillon was also listed to ride Order of Australia in the Mile for trainer Aidan O'Brien. No replacement has yet been named.

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