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Shock At Leopardstown As Mehmas Filly Strikes

Sunday's G3 Ballylinch Stud “Priory Belle” 1000 Guineas Trial was one of the most competitive in recent times, with last year's G1 Moyglare Stud S. heroine Shale (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) topping the list, and so it was with a deal of surprise that the winner was duly announced as the 80-1 shot Keeper of Time (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) for the John Feane stable. Fifth on her 3-year-old bow in the well-contested Madrid H. over this seven-furlong trip at The Curragh Mar. 21, the bargain €3,000 purchase at the 2019 Goffs February Mixed Sale was settled on the rail in mid-division early by Ronan Whelan. Working her way to the front with 150 yards remaining, she was determined to hold on by a head from the strong-finishing Mehnah (GB) (Frankel {GB}), as the 66-1 shot Sense of Style (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) finished a length back in third. “Kevin Manning thought she ran a cracker in the Madrid at the Curragh and she toughed it out well today,” Feane said after greeting his first group winner. “The better ground helped and she wants good ground. She's probably a filly that would suit America or somewhere like that. There were offers for her before, but there will probably be more on the table after this.”

Last month's Cheltenham festival and the Aintree Grand National meeting that immediately preceded this fixture hammered home the point that Irish-trained horses are in the ascendancy more than ever before. There have been frequent occasions over the past year when even the small Irish yards were able to land decent prizes and this was just another to underline just how much strength in depth there is in the country's racing. Keeper of Time was largely unremarkable at two, finishing adrift of St Mark's Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) on debut over six furlongs at The Curragh in August and last of 11 on her second start in the course-and-distance Listed Ingabelle S. on the Irish Champions Day card. Winning her maiden back over six just five days later at Naas, she was out again 10 days after that when seventh in the G3 Weld Park S. reverting to this trip at The Curragh. Her latest effort in the Madrid was boosted when the seventh-placed Erzindjan (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) scored at Gowran Park in the interim, but there was little suggestion she could find sufficient improvement to upset this host of bluebloods.

Keeper of Time is the second foal out of the Shadwell-bred Motheeba (Mustanfar), a 2,000gns cast-off at the 2011 Tattersalls Horses-in-Training Sale two months before she achieved a listed placing in Italy. A half to the Listed John Musker Fillies' S. runner-up Jabhaat (Hard Spun), she is a granddaughter of the G3 Princess Margaret S. winner Muhbubh (Blushing Groom {Fr}) whose best progeny was the GII Tom Fool H.-winning sire Kayrawan (Mr. Prospector). The latter's full-sister Sayedat Alhadh was to go on to throw the G2 Diadem S.-winning sire Haatef (Danzig), his stakes-producing and G3 Athasi S.-winning full-sister Walayef and the listed scorer and G1 Moyglare Stud S. runner-up Shimah (Storm Cat), in turn the dam of the smart sprinter Mushir (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Muhbubh is also the ancestress of the G2 Rockfel S. winner Sayedah (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}), the G2 Duke of York S. winner and G1 Haydock Sprint Cup third Magical Memory (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}) and to Sandreamer (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) who also captured the Princess Margaret. Motheeba's 2-year-old filly by Mastercraftsman (Ire) was bought for 52,000gns by Kevin Ross Bloodstock at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale.

Sunday, Leopardstown, Ireland
BALLYLINCH STUD PRIORY BELLE 1,000 GUINEAS TRIAL S.-G3, €55,000, Leopardstown, 4-11, 3yo, f, 7fT, 1:28.29, gd.
1–KEEPER OF TIME (IRE), 128, f, 3, by Mehmas (Ire)
1st Dam: Motheeba (SP-Ity), by Mustanfar
2nd Dam: Ishraak, by Sahm
3rd Dam: Muhbubh, by Blushing Groom (Fr)
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GROUP WIN. (€3,000 Ylg '19 GOFFEB). O-John Nolan; B-D & E Phelan (IRE); T-John Feane; J-Ronan Whelan. €33,000. Lifetime Record: 6-2-0-0, $51,035. Werk Nick Rating: First SW from this cross. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Mehnah (GB), 128, f, 3, Frankel (GB)–Asheerah (GB), by Shamardal. O/B-Shadwell Estate Company Ltd (GB); T-Kevin Prendergast. €11,000.
3–Sense of Style (Ire), 128, f, 3, Zoffany (Ire)–Attire (Ire), by Danehill Dancer (Ire). (€110,000 Ylg '19 GOFOR). O-Mrs B V Sangster & Mrs John Magnier; B-B V Sangster (IRE); T-Joseph O'Brien. €5,500.
Margins: HD, 1, 3/4. Odds: 80.00, 6.00, 66.00.
Also Ran: Zaffy's Pride (Ire), Shale (Ire), Joan of Arc (Ire), Amber Kite (Ire), Messidor (Ire), More Beautiful, Empress Josephine (Ire), Loch Lein (Ire), Hazel (Ire), Sziget (Ire), My Generation, Allagar (Ire). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Dawn Approach’s Poetic Flare In Charge At Leopardstown

Back at the Leopardstown venue at which he had won the G3 Killavullan S. in October, Jim Bolger's homebred Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) proved best in Sunday's Listed Ballylinch Stud “Red Rocks” 2000 Guineas Trial S. Sent off the 3-1 second favourite, the bay was quickly in an ideal spot in second under Kevin Manning and when committed approaching the furlong pole gave generously to score by 1 1/2 lengths from Ace Aussie (Ire) (Australia {GB}), with Monaasib (GB) (Bobby's Kitten) a short head away in third. “He is a very uncomplicated horse who is very switched off and goes up through the gears nice,” his rider commented. “He only does what he is asked to do and is one of those you enjoy riding–he can do it from anywhere. I think he'll benefit even more when he steps up another furlong. There were plenty in there that were well-fancied and it read like a proper trial.”

Poetic Flare, who was off the mark on day one of the 2020 Irish turf flat season at Naas last March, was remarkably next seen taking part in the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket off a near seven-month absence and fared respectably when 10th appearing to tire late on. A week later, he was here for the Killavullan putting 2 1/2 lengths between him and the smart filly Zaffy's Pride (Ire) (Pride of Dubai {Aus}) who would run so well to be fourth in the G3 1000 Guineas Trial 30 minutes later. Bolger has a strong hand in the Guineas with the G1 Futurity Trophy winner Mac Swiney (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) also in the mix and his daughter Una Manning had some news on that matter. “I'm told he could go anywhere. He hasn't decided which of the Guineas, he'll go to Newmarket or the Curragh but the two of them won't run in the same race,” she said. “He hasn't been away anywhere this year for a gallop, so he's absolutely delighted. We were confident he wouldn't have any problems handling the ground. Last year we just had to play the cards we were dealt and he had to run on soft ground, but he's not ground-dependent.”

Poetic Flare is out of Maria Lee (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), whose dual listed-winning filly Glamorous Approach (Ire) is by Dawn Approach's sire New Approach. She is a full-sister to Bring Back Matron (Ire), who in turn produced the Listed Eyrefield S. winner Dubai Sand (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and hails from the family of the Listed Derrinstown Stud 1000 Guineas Trial S. winner Speirbhean (Ire) (Danehill). She achieved fame by producing the aforementioned champion and successful sire Teofilo and the G2 Cape Verdi scorer Poetic Charm (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). Maria Lee's 2-year-old Frazil (Ire) is a full-brother to Poetic Flare, while she also has a yearling filly by U S Navy Flag.

BALLYLINCH STUD RED ROCKS 2,000 GUINEAS TRIAL S.-Listed, €42,500, Leopardstown, 4-11, 3yo, c/g, 7fT, 1:28.02, gd.
1–POETIC FLARE (IRE), 131, c, 3, by Dawn Approach (Ire)
1st Dam: Maria Lee (Ire), by Rock of Gibraltar (Ire)
2nd Dam: Elida (Ire), by Royal Academy
3rd Dam: Saviour, by Majestic Light
O-Mrs J. S. Bolger; B/T-Jim Bolger (IRE); J-Kevin Manning. €25,500. Lifetime Record: GSW-Ire, 4-3-0-0, $75,333. *1/2 to Glamorous Approach (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}), SW-Eng, SW & MGSP-Ire, $224,182.
2–Ace Aussie (Ire), 131, c, 3, Australia (GB)–Queenscliff (Ire), by Danehill Dancer (Ire). (€125,000 Ylg '19 GOFOR). O-Zhang Yuesheng; B-Longfield Stud (IRE); T-Jessica Harrington. €8,500.
3–Monaasib (GB), 131, c, 3, Bobby's Kitten–Mullein (GB), by Oasis Dream (GB). (£65,000 Ylg '19 GOFFPR). O-Shadwell Estate Company Ltd; B-Landmark Racing Limited (GB); T-Kevin Prendergast. €4,250.
Margins: 1HF, NO, 1. Odds: 3.00, 18.00, 5.50.
Also Ran: Notre Belle Bete (GB), Laws of Indices (Ire), Magnanimous (Ire), Horoscope (Ire), Charterhouse (GB), Matchless (Ire), Merchants Quay (Fr), Snapraeterea (Ire), A Case of You (Ire). Click for the Racing Post result.

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Frankel One-Two In the Vanteaux

It was all about Frankel (GB) in Sunday's G3 Prix Vanteaux at ParisLongchamp, with the Juddmonte giant supplying the first two fillies home in this early Prix de Diane pointer. While the market spoke very much in the favour of Petricor (GB) carrying the green-and-pink livery, it was the 14-1 shot Rumi (Fr) who had first run on that rival to upset the odds. Racing for Al Shira'aa Farms, the latter who had won in impressive style on her sole 2-year-old start over this course and distance in October and had been fourth just eight days prior to this in a 10 1/2-furlong conditions event at Saint-Cloud. Positioned in a close-up second with the tempo only tepid, she had five lengths in hand on Petricor as a result and it is testament to the ability of the 7-5 favourite that she managed to get on terms and briefly get her head in front a furlong from home. Rumi, who had been committed by Olivier Peslier with over two furlongs to race, had raced more efficiently and despite the effort of Pierre-Charles Boudot to claw back the deficit on the runner-up there was a 3/4-of-a-length margin between them at the line. Omnia Munda Mundis (GB) (Australia {GB}) was the same margin away in third in a race that could prove a significant guide to the Chantilly Classic. “She is a filly I really like and she had won well as a 2-year-old and when she ran eight days ago it was a matter of giving her a race to get her fit for this,” winning trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias commented. “She won nicely and we'll come back here for the [May 24 G1 Prix] Saint-Alary.”

Rumi, who made a splash at the Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale, hails from a proven Wertheimer family with her dam Secrete (Fr}) (Cape Cross {Ire}) being a daughter of the high-class producer Featherquest (GB) (Rainbow Quest). Secrete, whose prior black-type performers are the G3 Prix Noailles third Normandy Eagle (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) and the Listed Bluebell S. scorer Solage (GB) by Frankel's sire Galileo (Ire), is therefore a half to the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud heroine Plumania (GB) (Anabaa) and the G2 Prix de Royallieu scorer Balladeuse (Fr) (Singspiel {Ire}). Responsible for three black-type performers each, the former is the dam of the G2 Prix du Muguet winner Plumatic (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and second dam of the Saint Alary third Solsticia (Ire) (Le Havre {Ire}) who took the Listed Prix Zarkava on this card. Balladeuse's trio is headed by the G1 Prix Vermeille heroine and G1 Prix de Diane runner-up Left Hand (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). This is also the family of the G1 Prix Lupin-winning prolific sire Groom Dancer, the G1 Prix Vermeille-winning champion Indian Rose (Fr) (General Holme) and the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains-winning sire Falco (Pivotal {GB}). Secrete's as-yet unnamed 2-year-old colt is by Galileo (Ire), while she also has a yearling colt by Roaring Lion.

Sunday, ParisLongchamp, France
PRIX VANTEAUX-G3, €80,000, ParisLongchamp, 4-11, 3yo, f, 9fT, 2:01.43, vsf.
1–RUMI (FR), 126, f, 3, by Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: Secrete (Fr), by Cape Cross (Ire)
2nd Dam: Featherquest (GB), by Rainbow Quest
3rd Dam: Featherhill (Fr), by Lyphard
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN; 1ST GROUP WIN. (€700,000 Ylg '19 ARAUG). O-Al Shiraa'a Farms; B-Ecurie des Monceaux (FR); T-Carlos Laffon-Parias; J-Olivier Peslier. €40,000. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, €55,200. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Petricor (GB), 126, f, 3, Frankel (GB)–Ruscombe (GB), by Dansili (GB). O-Exors of the Late Khalid Abdullah; B-Juddmonte Farms Ltd (GB); T-Andre Fabre. €16,000.
3–Omnia Munda Mundis (GB), 126, f, 3, Australia (GB)–Regina Mundi (Ire), by Montjeu (Ire). (€190,000 Ylg '19 ARAUG). O/B-San Paolo Agri-Stud SRL (GB); T-Fabrice Chappet. €12,000.
Margins: 3/4, 3/4, 1HF. Odds: 14.00, 1.40, 13.00.
Also Ran: Vrigny (Fr), Kribi (Fr), Tiger Tanaka (Ire), Libertine (Ire), Lady Day (Fr), Keyflower (Fr), Standby for Chaos (Ire). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by TVG.

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Remembering Roy Rocket

Roy Rocket, the one time co-record holder for the most number of wins at Brighton, has died. He was 11.

That's the style in which I would normally start an obituary, for a horse or human who has left their mark on the racing world. I wouldn't normally be writing an obituary for a middle-of-the-road handicapper. And I wouldn't normally be writing at four o'clock in the morning, but Roy wasn't normal, he was special, and he died yesterday. And when something terrible has happened, for days afterwards my brain wakes me at the hour of dread, always at ten to four, and after that it seems pointless to lie in bed fretting.

In a few hours Jana, Abbie, Ivona and Vendi will arrive at the yard and the daily routine will begin again. They left yesterday in tears after Roy didn't return from first lot. This morning none of us will want to walk past his empty box but there's no avoiding it. It's the one right next to the tack room and feed room, the one closest to our house, the one which, once the sun is up, I can see from the window next to me as I type.

Roy was born in France, 11 years and one week ago. He was bred by John, his trainer, who co-owned him with our dear friends Iris and Larry McCarthy. Iris's late husband Joe had been like a father to John, and he had been a lucky and loyal owner for this yard. Every horse Joe raced in his yellow and navy silks had won, and after he died in 2006 we were touched that Iris and Larry wanted to keep the colours going. With Roy, however, at first it seemed as if the McCarthy luck had run out.

Roy started racing in the October of his two-year-old season but it took him 16 starts and two and a half years to win. That first one came at Brighton almost six years ago on April 21 and, clearly delighted with himself, he decided to win there again the following week. So began a love affair with the quirky seaside track. In return, the Brighton faithful loved him back. He ran there 31 times for nine wins, two seconds and six third-place finishes.

But those are just the statistics. Roy's trips to Brighton became like high days and holidays. I spend much of my time writing about the top horses, and I fully support the racing and breeding ethos of striving for and rewarding the very best. To be among the best, of course, is to be in rarefied company, meaning that those we regard in that bracket every year number into the low hundreds at most. There are more than 14,000 horses in training in Britain alone. They can't all be great, or even good, and plenty of horses may never even win a race.

Roy won nine, once rising to the lofty mark of 74 but more usually plying his trade in the 50s. But to go to the races with him, to Brighton especially, was to remember that racing, as much as it is about deciding who's best, is also about entertainment. Without people enjoying it, and continuing to support the sport or perhaps even becoming an owner or breeder, we would have nothing.

In the later years, Roy's arrival at Brighton would start with a cheery call from the road crossing attendant as he was unloaded from the lorry and walked across to the stables. “Here he is, the Brighton legend,” he would say without fail.

That Roy was almost white by the time he was five made him easy to spot, and plenty of his followers would make a point of finding a place on the parade ring rail to watch him go out and, win or lose, cheer him back in. As he went to post, Iris, now 86 and no more than 5ft tall, would produce from one of her many voluminous handbags a flask of gin and tonic and insist that John took a swig for luck. It sometimes worked.

Roy won all his races by being dropped out last before coming with a rattling run up that hill for home. At the festival-like August meetings especially, you could hear people start to shout for him. “Here he comes,” the cry would go up, along with the volume.

Brighton, toppling high on the chalky South Downs, suited him perfectly as the easy-draining ground there is often fairly quick, allowing Roy to scuttle across it in his strange, short, low action. He couldn't really cope with soft ground, which is what made his final win all the more special.

“Roy Rocket, he's getting up, it's a ninth course win. He's done it. Roy's the boy at Brighton,” shouted commentator Simon Holt as our horse crossed the line, seemingly as thrilled and surprised as we all were that soggy day.

That year, Roy's growing status as a bit of a cult hero was acknowledged at the ROA Awards. In an open vote of members for the Flat Special Achievement Award, he beat the 1,000 Guineas winner among others. It was the only time he could hold his own in Group 1 company, but the people had voted for a horse who made lots of them happy.

He made us happy too, even when he was up to his antics, which included helping himself in the feed room if left unguarded while he was having his morning wander round the yard post-exercise. As much as the saying 'horses for courses' can often hold true, especially in Roy's case, I also believe, up to a point, that there are horses for trainers, or vice versa.

Roy was every bit as singular as the man who trained him. John runs something of a free-range racing stable, which wouldn't be at all eyebrow-raising if he trained on a farm in the middle of nowhere, but in Newmarket, alongside the vast strings of bluebloods, his methods can be viewed as unusual. John's maxim of being a benevolent dictator towards his horses didn't really cut much ice with Roy, who decided from quite an early age that he would be the one who decided on his regime.

Hence, you could never travel him to the races with another horse: he needed the full two-box, with all partitions removed, to himself. There were certain parts of the Heath John would never dare take him for fear of Roy being held up behind a big string and turning cartwheels in frustration at being made to wait. Warren Hill was out, but he would bowl happily up Long Hill, head down low, as long as he was allowed the freedom of the yard and an afternoon in the field, coating himself in mud, in return.

That John gladly gave him, and he gave us some of the best days of our racing lives. The pandemic has scuppered many plans for many people and, with Brighton shuttered for all of last season, Roy had only two underwhelming runs elsewhere before John decided to give him a proper break in the hope of a return to his favourite place this year.

As spring emerged from the bleakness of a lockdown winter, Roy had been his usual ebullient self until on Friday morning he went out to work and didn't come back. Realising early in the gallop that something was amiss, John managed to pull him up and dismount. Seconds later, Roy took his last breath with the person who loved him best at his side and sank to the turf.

When Roy went to the races for the first time in October 2012, we walked him over to the Rowley Mile with his stable-mate Many Levels, who was making his debut in the same maiden. John's blog post that night was titled 'All my sons', which is how he regards the horses in this stable. This, in part, was his assessment of that day, which marked John's first experience of training a horse that he owned and bred:

“They beat a few, which in an ordinary race wouldn't be much of an achievement, but in Newmarket maidens at this time of year is fine because all the horses in the field tend to be nice horses, so cutting not significantly less ice than the bulk of the others is fine. It's early days yet – but when horses go to the races for their debut, behave impeccably, run adequately and come home clearly having enjoyed the outing, then you feel as if you've had a winner. Especially when one of them is one whose life you've been overseeing since a long time before he was conceived, never mind born.

“If I can ever achieve any amount of success in this three-fold role, however small that amount can be, that that would be a really lovely thing.”

It was a lovely thing indeed, and 68 races and almost nine years later, Roy's record stands testament not just to his own great zest for life, but to his trainer's patience, care and indulgence.

We mourn him today and we will miss him forever. But now there's light in the sky and work to be done. Life goes on, just more unhappily than before.

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