Flags Flying High for Zoffany

Coolmore lost Zoffany (Ire) three years ago when he succumbed to liver failure at the age of just 13 ahead of the start of the 2021 covering season. Members of his final crop are now three, and they include the Jerome Reynier-trained Fun With Flags (Ire), who kept Classic hopes intact for her owner Erika Gilliar by claiming her third successive victory in the Listed Prix Rose de Mai.
Out of the Galileo (Ire) mare Marie Celeste (Ire), Fun With Flags was bred by Sonia Rogers from a family which has been at Airlie Stud for three generations and traces back to Rough Shod (GB) (Gold Bridge {Fr}) through her celebrated daughter Thong (Nantallah). The latter is in turn the dam of Special (Forli), whose offspring include Nureyev (Northern Dancer) and Sadler's Wells's dam Fairy Bridge (Bold Reason).
With entries in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane, Fun With Flags is one to follow as she attempts to become a Classic winner from her sire's farewell crop. She would be the first for her prolific trainer Reynier, who is currently behind only reigning champion Jean-Claude Rouget in the French trainers' table.

Listed Double for Scott at Home and Away

On Thursday it was a Dandy Man (Ire) gelding out of a Dark Angel (Ire) mare out in front in the Listed Spring Cup at Lingfield and 24 hours later the reverse of that cross was seen to good effect at Chantilly in the Listed Prix Maurice Cauillault.
Watch My Tracer (Ire) was the Dandy Man three-year-old in question, and he set up a thrilling 24 hours for his trainer George Scott and owners Victorious Racing with his debut success of the year, which was followed the next day by the triumph of Isle Of Jura (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) in the King's Cup in Bahrain.
That second Listed win was hailed by Scott as “the highlight of my career to date, miles ahead of anything else”, and it is easy to see why he would be walking on air after the winter campaign his four-year-old has had in Bahrain. Having won twice at Newmarket and Newbury last summer in for his Bahraini owners, Isle Of Jura travelled to the Gulf to compete in Bahrain's lucrative turf series and he has been a near-unstoppable force there, winning four of his five starts, including two Listed races, and finishing second, beaten a short-head, on his only other run. Pattern company back in Europe now beckons for the Godolphin-bred gelding, who is a full-brother to the treble Australian Group 1 winner Cascadian (GB).
The aforementioned Prix Maurice Cauillault was yet another strike for Jerome Reynier, trainer of the easy winner Darlinghurst (Ire), who was bred by Yeomanstown Stud and, as noted, is by their kingpin Dark Angel. It was the second stakes winner of the day for the 19-year-old stallion after Godolphin's Real World (Ire) landed the Listed Al Methaq Mile in Bahrain.

Donworth Goes Dutch

There is nothing like seeing the Chateau de Chantilly in the backdrop of races to make one feel that life is again worth living and, though Friday's card was on the Polytrack, it provided plenty of interesting pointers for the season ahead.
There won't be many Dutch-bred stakes winners this year (or ever), but Tim Donworth, once of the parish of Roundhill but now a fully assimilated French dweller, saddled the Listed Prix Montenica Skylight Brochard (Hol) who may remain unique in that regard this year.
“I think he's probably the only Thoroughbred who's been bred in Holland in the last couple of years,” Donworth told TDN. “It's worked out great. His breeders happened upon the mare, they'd never had a horse before and they've now bred this horse.”
The son of Mehmas (Ire) was bred by his owner Jill Brochard and is a full-brother to eight-time winner The Covex Kid (Ire). Their dam is Fonseca (Ire), by the late Red Clubs (Ire) who has a notable record as a broodmare sire despite his having stood for only three seasons before dying at the age of seven. His daughters have produced the Group 1 winners Lucky Sweynesse (NZ), Snow Lantern (GB) and Lezoo (GB), as well as the useful sire and Group 2 winner Ardad (Ire), Group 3 winner Spycatcher (Ire), last season's Lincoln winner Migration (Ire) and the Listed-winning half-siblings Arthur Kitt (GB) and Eartha Kitt (GB).

Like Mother, Like Son

Perhaps the largest scribble in the notebook from Friday in Chantilly was the name Dolayli (Fr) after the running of the Prix Darshaan. The Aga Khan Studs-bred son of Siyouni (Fr) and Group 1 winner Dolniya (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}) has won six of his eight starts, including all three of his runs this year for Francis Graffard. It is a rare Aga Khan runner that remains in training at five, but Dolayli may well repay his owner further as he is aimed at classier assignments through the spring and summer. His trainer told the Jour de Galop that he is looking at the G2 Prix d'Harcourt and considering the Ganay and perhaps even the Ispahan as potential Group 1 targets. Dolayli had the G1 Hong Kong Vase winner Junko (GB) (Intello {Ger}) five lengths behind him in second as the latter winds up for a shot at the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic later this month.
It seems scarcely believable that it is nine years since Dolayli's dam Dolniya took the Sheema Classic herself after she too had won the Prix Darshaan, each time beating Flintshire (GB). She is now the dam of three black-type offspring, including Group 3 winner Dilawar (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Listed-placed Dolia (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). Her current two-year-old is an unnamed Frankel (GB) colt who is also assigned to Graffard.

Heating Up

Darley's second-season sire Too Darn Hot (GB) has four colts and two fillies entered for the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas in May, and he may well have a Classic hope even farther afield following the victory on Sunday of Etes Vous Prets in the G2 Hochi Hai Fillies' Revue at Hanshin. The daughter of G1 Falmouth S. winner Nahoodh (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}) was bred by Godolphin and exported as a yearling to Japan, where she races in the colours of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.
She is the fifth Group/Graded winner in a fourth different country for Too Darn Hot following Fallen Angel (GB), Darnation (GB), Alyanaabi (Ire) and Carolina Reaper (GB).

A Fitting 19th G1 Winner for Exceed And Excel

In the week in which the retirement was announced of successful shuttle sire Exceed And Excel (Ire) there could have been no more appropriate winner of the G1 Newmarket H. at Flemington than his son Cylinder (Aus). The Godolphin homebred became his sire's 19th Group/Grade 1 winner in the race won by Exceed And Excel 20 years ago. Following that victory he was bought by Sheikh Mohammed and became a valuable addition to the Darley stallion ranks on both sides of the globe.
We may yet see Cylinder racing in Europe, with Godolphin Australia's Nacim Dilmi suggesting after his victory that a trip to Royal Ascot in June could now be on the cards.

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What are your goals for 2024?

To train more winners than 2023. More winners each year while maintaining the strike-rate has to be the goal really.

Give us a horse to follow…

Fathom (Ire) (Almanzor {Fr}), a big, tall filly who got black type for me last year I think she will be nice three-year-old.

And a young person in the industry to keep an eye on…

Joe Callan of Whitsbury Manor Stud.

Who do you think will be champion first-season sire in 2024?

Earthlight (Ire).

And the best value stallion in Ireland, England, and France?

Sealiway (Fr) for me looks good value for his profile.

Your best buy of 2023?

I guess we won't know until I get them to the races. However, I got a lovely Galiway (GB) filly at Arqana October called Galway Bay (Fr) that seems nice.

The best yearling/weanling you saw at the 2023 sales (that someone else bought)?

The Sottsass (Fr) filly out of Up in Time (GB) was was a nice buy (bought by Howson & Houldsworth Bloodstock for Chris Stedman for 110,000gns). She had a lot of class.

Who is or was the perfect Thoroughbred?

Frankel (GB)

Your biggest professional regret?

Too young and not enough time for regrets yet. I just keep going forward and try to always take the positives.

If you could be someone else in the industry for a day who would it be, and why?

Ah, I'm not sure who but a day with a big breeze-up operation or a big stud would be interesting as something different, but I'm pretty happy being me.

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With conditions which could be soft to yielding, trainer Chad Brown saddles three entries with GISP Appraise (Ire) Kodiac {GB}), Mischievous Angel (Into Mischief) and Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), while also present is the winner of GIII Manila S. July 7 in Elmont, More Than Looks (More Than Ready) from the stable of Cherie DeVaux, who was installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite and cross-entered in the GII Secretariat S. at Colonial Downs on Saturday.

General Jim (Into Mischief) gets back to the turf, something he hasn't tried since he was a juvenile. The Shug McGaughey trainee won the GII Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs on the Derby undercard and then was a well-beaten sixth to Arabian Lion (Justify) in the GI Woody Stephens on Belmont S. Day.

As for the European contingent, who customarily relish a saturated course, Ocean Vision (Ire) (U S Navy Flag) ships over. The bay colt competed in Ireland, France and Qatar and is trained by Godolphin Flying Start program grad Tim Donworth and was last seen running fifth June 11 in the G3 Prix Paul de Moussac at ParisLongchamp. He will be joined by Mysterious Night (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) for Charlie Appleby, who will look to harness some of that late speed that he flashed the last time he was in North America when he won the GI Summer S. at Woodbine over Appraise as a juvenile.

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The conference, “Impact and Influence”, attracted over 100 graduates from around the world. During the prelude, the focus was on His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and Godolphin Charitable Initiatives led by Godolphin Flying Start Chair Joe Osborne. Diana Cooper, Godolphin's Strategic Adviser for Charities was also among the speakers, as was Lisa Jane Graffard (Class of 2005). Class of 2008 alum Gina Bryce hosted the conference.

Other speakers during the evening included GFS Executive Director Clodagh Kavanagh; CEO of CPL, Lorna Conn; entrepreneur Heinrich Anhold, founder of Stable Lab; Cathal Beale, CEO of the Irish National Stud (Class of 2010); Anna Jones, author of the book “Divide”; and Michael Hardy (2012).

The award winners of the night were:

• Rising Star Leadership Award: Annise Montplaisir (2021), the Executive Director of Amplify Horseracing
• Rising Star Business Award: Tim Donworth (2018), French trainer
• Leadership Excellence Award: Craig Rounsefell (2007), CEO of Boomer Bloodstock and Chair of the Federation of Bloodstock Agents Australia
• Business Excellence Award: Gary King (2010), Senior Vice-President, Thoroughbred Daily News & President of TDN AusNZ.

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“The fact that I was voted on by fellow graduates means an awful lot,” said King in accepting the award, which is voted on by the approximately 250 graduates of the program. “A couple of the other award winners touched on it as well, that people recognized what you've done in the industry over the last 13 years. I graduated in 2010, and I've been with the TDN since then. I'm surrounded by such talented, hard-working people every day, and it's such an inspiration.”

The conference brought together 20 years of graduates from the program, an international management training program which spends two years teaching aspiring future industry leaders in various aspects of the field.

Other winners on the night were Annise Montplaisir, who won the Rising Leadership Award; Craig Rounsefell, who won the Leadership Excellence Award; and Tim Donworth, who won the Rising Star Business Award.

To wrap up the evening yesterday the peer voted Alumni Awards were presented to four worthy winners! pic.twitter.com/NAyndDlW4V

— Godolphin Flying Start (@FlyingStartNews) June 30, 2023

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Those three victories have all come during this week's sale at Arqana, starting on Sunday at Le Mans with Cotai Hero (Ire) (Cotai Glory {GB}) and, like buses, the second winner coming along almost immediately the next day at Clairefontaine when She's Evaporust (Ire) (Galileo Gold {GB}) struck in the trainer's own colours. 

Perhaps most importantly, however, was Donworth's third 2-year-old winner, Allada (GB) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), on Thursday. The homebred filly of family friend Kirsten Rausing looked extremely polished on debut to win convincingly over the heavy turf at Deauville in a newcomers' maiden and already has her trainer dreaming of next season.

“To have my mum and dad and everyone close to me here is very special,” said Donworth after greeting Allada in the winner's enclosure in heavy rain with his parents Bobby and Honora Donworth of Round Hill Stud and a group of friends. The filly has also contributed to a record year for Rausing as the 13th juvenile winner this season to have been bred at her Lanwades Stud.

“It is the most wonderful thing to have a winner for Kirsten in her colours. She gave me so much confidence and sent me a lovely filly, and I'm just so happy that I could prepare her and have her right for the day. She's a beautiful filly but I didn't want to dream of winning again, especially in Deauville, but we knew she was good and she is going to be my filly for next year now. I'm so delighted for Kirsten and I am so lucky have such a good team, including Jason who rides her at home.”

Allada will not be the only representative of her sire at Donworth's Chantilly yard, which he rents from his former boss Nicolas Clement. On Monday at Arqana he bought a Sea The Moon filly from the Wildenstein family of Arc winner Peintre Celebre for €62,000 from Haras de Beaufay, and he has another filly on the way from the Tattersalls October Sale for new American owners in the stable.

He continued, “I am very happy to say I have a nice Sea The Moon from Book 1 for LNJ Foxwoods, so I'm lucky to have a nice team of Sea The Moons for next year and we have some nice yearlings coming. I have about 10 to come in so far so we should have a team of about 20 horses for next year.”

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He was, however, born to a life with horses. The 27-year-old grew up on Round Hill Stud in Co Limerick, which is owned by his parents Bobby and Honora and has also been the birthplace of plenty of decent Thoroughbreds down the years, including dual Group 1 winner Rizeena (Ire) and the stallions Puissance De Lune (Ire) and Bow Creek (Ire).

“I'd be nowhere only for Round Hill, but I never really wanted to be a breeder,” says the Irishman, who will be up and running as a trainer in Chantilly from the start of September.

“I knew I could never be as good as my mum and dad at it, so I wanted to do my own thing and make my own name. When I got it out of my head that I was going to be a jockey, I always wanted to train. I always knew Ireland would be very hard as it's dominated by a couple of stables and it's just highly competitive. Training in France is, I suppose, a good example of how you just don't know where life is going to take you.”

A former point-to-point rider, Donworth's initial major racing foray outside Ireland was to the Newmarket stable of William Haggas, where he was pupil assistant alongside Michael Kent Jr, who is now training in partnership back home in Australia with Mick Price. While there he was lured to apply for the Flying Start apprenticeship and, having been accepted, he later completed a placement with another former Flying Starter-turned-trainer, Tom Morley. On completion of his course, Donworth was initially offered a job back in the United States assisting French ex-pat Christophe Clement, but fate intervened in the form of Clement's elder brother Nicolas, the doyen of the Chantilly training fraternity, who poached him to be his own assistant.

“Christophe had said he didn't need me until the spring when New York, Florida, and Keeneland are all in operation at the one time,” Donworth explains. “So I was very keen to do it, but I had four months without anything to do. Christophe organised for me to go to Chantilly for some more experience and then I guess after four or five months, Nicolas took it upon himself to try and nick me. So I never went back.”

One brother's loss then was another's gain, but Donworth clearly appreciated learning not just from one of the masters of the French scene, but also the chance to try to master the French language. In Chantilly, one can get by on a bit of Franglaise, but it was a different story when the Irishman headed south-west to broaden his experience with Jean-Claude Rouget in Pau.

“I couldn't speak French when I arrived. So it was a massive challenge and I love a challenge,” says Donworth. “I decided to stay and then when I went to Pau, I found I was speaking French all day every day because nobody spoke English, and with Mr Rouget I only ever had a relationship in French. So it got good thankfully, and now it's a sufficient level to run a business in the country.”

The aspiring trainer's year-long stint with Rouget was split between Pau and Deauville, and it is in the latter where Donworth has been hard at work recently, attempting to recruit youngsters to his stable from the yearling sales. For his solo business venture, he has returned to familiar territory in Chantilly and will be renting a portion of Clement's yard.

“I will have around 20 boxes to start with and hopefully with the room to expand as well,” he says. “I have 10 horses ready to come in and then I will probably have another three or four yearlings. I claimed a horse about two or three weeks ago that will run in October. I have another owner that is very into claimers, so I was lucky to find him. Then I have a 2-year-old for someone else that will be running straight away. I'm very lucky in that I had a background involved in breeding. So I was always going to sales, always meeting people.”

Donworth will of course be able to rely on some support from his parents, who were at the Arqana sale on the lookout for yearlings with French premiums, and he has also been sent a horse by long-term family friend Kirsten Rausing, who is currently enjoying a tremendous season with her homebred runners.

“She's a brilliant woman. She's been a massive support and always been good for advice my whole life,” says Donworth of the owner of Lanwades Stud.

He is also appreciative of the support shown to him by his former boss, with whom he will be involved in a new Franco-Irish racing club.

He adds, “Nicolas is head of the Trainers' Federation for a reason, because he's always been a man to get things done. He's a very well-respected trainer who won an Arc when he was probably younger than me. He knows what he's doing and he's always had a very good reputation for helping young people, just like Christophe in the States. Between Nicolas and Christophe, they've had some top-class people pass through their hands, so I guess I'm lucky to be part of that Clement family fraternity.”

Donworth continues, “I was his assistant for two years and I don't want people to be confused and think that we are training together. We're very separate operations, but at the same time, Nicolas has been a bit of a role model for me. So I'm delighted to be in his yard, delighted to have him there for advice if I ever needed it.

“Nicolas is setting up a racing club and he's been very kind to say he's going to give me half of the horses. I think the plan is to buy four to six horses. For an owner buying into it, it's a good mixture because you have someone with an awful lot of experience. Then you have a young guy who's very ambitious. I want to take over the world, whether I can do it or not, nobody knows, but we'll give it a go.”

Donworth may have long-term plans for world domination but he is keeping his immediate expectations in check as he prepares to send out his first runners.

He says, “I think when you start in September, the goal is next year, really, but it would be lovely just to have a couple of runners this year, and if I could win a race or two before Christmas, brilliant.”

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