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Seven Days: Hooked on Hukum

It's Goodwood, it's Galway, but this week's column comes to you from Glorious Golspie, 170 miles north of Britain's most northerly racecourse, and roughly the same distance across Scotland from the country's most recent retiree from the training ranks. Keith Dalgleish has packed up his stable at Carluke and moved to Oban in the western Highlands to pursue, at his own choosing, a life outside racing. A successful jockey in his days working for fellow Scot Mark Johnston, and later Scotland's most prolific trainer, Dalgleish will be missed both north and south of the border. We wish him well.

Life in the Highlands certainly has its appeal. Over the last week there have been peregrine falcons, seals, sheep and cattle, not to mention my faithful lurcher, to fan my love of fur and feather, but I miss the horses. I missed being at Ascot, too, for a proper humdinger of a 'King George'.

With August now upon us, the Arc is just two months away. It may still feel like we've only just dried out from a horribly wet Guineas weekend but the season, and life, gallops on. It appears that it will be at Longchamp that we next see Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in public, and thank goodness that he was allowed to gallop on, eventually, after the injury he sustained when winning the Coronation Cup last season.

The Classics are, of course, important tests by which we measure Thoroughbreds and, with such a premium on precocity, some budding young stars are never allowed to perform beyond even their juvenile season. The later-maturing types, however, may not even be ready to show their mettle in a Classic. Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}), beaten only a head by Hukum in the King George, is clearly still improving, despite having been a brilliant three-year-old who was third in the Derby before winning the Irish Derby. Hukum, whose Classic year was the Covid-delayed season of 2020, was given a Derby entry but didn't run at Epsom after winning the King George V H. and being struck into during that race. (Royal Ascot, in that strange season, was run before the Derby meeting.) It is impossible to say how much that may have been a blessing in disguise, and Hukum did run fifth in the St Leger, but the initial softly-softly approach of his trainer Owen Burrows, perhaps as much by necessity as by design, is certainly paying dividends now. Hukum's progression has been immense: from solid multiple Group 3 winner in the shadow of his celebrated younger brother Baaeed (GB) to star status himself.

Baaeed was the top-rated turf horse in the world last year. Hukum would have to win the Arc in sensational fashion to overturn Equinox (Jpn) or his fellow Shadwell colour-bearer Mostahdaf (Ire), but he is bearing down on them and, as we saw on Saturday, he doesn't shirk a battle.

It is not the first time, either, that siblings from this family, passed on from the late Queen to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum through the sale of Height Of Fashion (Fr) (Bustino {GB}), have excelled. In 1989, Height Of Fashion's son Nashwan (Blushing Groom {Fr}) added the King George to his victories in the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, and Eclipse. That same year, his half-brother Unfuwain (Northern Dancer) won the G2 Jockey Club S. after landing the previous year's G2 Princess of Wales's S. Later, another half-brother, Nayef (Gulch), piled extra glory on the family with four Group 1 victories, including the Prince of Wales's and Champion S. Previously, for the Queen, both Height Of Fashion and her half-brother Milford (GB) (Mill Reef) won the the G2 Princess of Wales's S.

However long Burrows holds a training licence, it is unlikely any horse will ever surpass Hukum in his regard. The trainer's first Royal Ascot winner, first winner in Dubai at a crucial and emotional time for the Shadwell operation, and his first Group 1 winner, the six-year-old has been the most wonderful advertisement for the talents of Burrows, who spent many a year learning from Sir Michael Stoute, himself a master at handling progressive, middle-distance horses of this ilk.

Following a banner weekend for his stable, when Alfaila (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) also won the G2 York S. for his major patron, it is worth reflecting that Burrows has but a fraction of the equine ammunition gifted to some of the country's biggest stables. Of the top 20 trainers in Britain, he has been represented by the fewest number of runs (62 for 29 horses) with the next lowest in that group having been 142 runs for Julie Camacho's 53 runners. How wonderful, too, to have seen her stable shine through with a serious horse this year in the dual Group 1 winner Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}).

It is, of course, each owner's prerogative to send their horse wherever they like to be trained, and to run them where and when they like, even if the braying mob on Twitter (yes, I'm still calling it that) may think otherwise. But at a time when the trainer numbers are falling in Britain and Ireland, and racing could do with extra diversity in its stories, it would be refreshing to see some of the major owners consider their options more widely.

With so many of the better horses in increasingly fewer hands, one can't help wondering about the knock-on effect this has, not just on field sizes, but on that key tier of horses just below the top level who appear to be missing from our racecourses. Admittedly, a number of them are sold to race on abroad for more lucrative prize-money. But how many perhaps do not contest as many big races as they might do in other hands when situations might arise in which a trainer could have several realistic chances for a Pattern race but only wishes to run one, or maybe two, in it? A more even spread among a wider range of trainers would surely increase the competitiveness of a good number of Pattern races.

What next for Epsom heroes?

It was not a good week for Derby winners. Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), who also won the 2021 King George, was officially retired after being well beaten into second in the G2 Princess of Wales's S. at Newmarket, having added the rescheduled G3 Gordon Richards S. to his wins' tally on his seasonal resumption.

Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) was again stood down, this time with a leg infection, while Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who started favourite for the King George, continued his 'all duck or no dinner' season when being eased down a long way out and cantering over the line in last place.

It is fervently hoped that both Desert Crown and Auguste Rodin will return to the fray and to the level of form that it took to win at Epsom in the first place. Racing careers for colts at this level are of course always conducted with a weather eye on a future stallion career. Losses can be costly, but the level of interest in Saturday's big race and those major weight-for-age contests to come show just how much giving such horses a chance to race beyond their Classic season enhances the level of engagement with the racing public.

It is worth considering, too, how much the World Pool is boosted by a decent double-figure field. For the King George card on Saturday, World Pool turnover reached a new high of HK$287.3m (£28.8m), up from HK$253.4m last year, albeit the number of races on the day increased from seven to eight. Of that, HK$49.4m (£4.9m), the highest turnover for any race on the day, was bet on the King George, which was up from HK$29.9m (£3.2m) in 2022 when there were only six runners.

The Rothschild for Rothschild

While Sea The Stars had bragging rights through Hukum at Ascot, it was his fellow Aga Khan Studs stallion Siyouni (Fr) who had a major say in events during Deauville's opening meeting on Sunday.

While being responsible for a new TDN Rising Star in the juvenile Elbaz (Fr), from the family of Siyouni's first Classic winner Ervedya (Fr), most notably he was represented by a new Group 1 winner, Mqse de Sevgine (Fr). The four-year-old's win was extra special for her owner/breeder Baron Edouard de Rothschild, whose family gave the race its name.

Rothschild, who under more normal circumstances would have been presenting the trophy, instead accepted it from his son Louis, and he admitted that his thoughts were very much with his father. The latter, Baron Guy de Rothschild, who died in 2007, not only bred the winner's dam, Penne (Fr), but also her sire, Sevres Rose (Fr), granddam Une Pensee (Fr), and that mare's sire, Kenmare (Fr).

The name Sevres Rose won't be jumping off too many pedigree pages. The son of Caerleon was unraced but, as a son of Rothschild's homebred G1 Prix Vermeille winner Indian Rose (Fr) (General Holme) and grandson of the classy stayer and top producer Lady Berry (Fr) (Violin d'Ingres {Fr}), he was afforded a place at stud, standing for several years at Haras du Quesnay and later at the Rothschild family's Haras de Meautry.

As a Listed place-getter and dual winner, Penne, one of six foals by her sire born in 2003, was certainly to the forefront of Sevres Rose's runners, though his best is arguably the G3 Prix de la Nonette winner Viane Rose (Fr), who was later bought as a broodmare prospect by Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm. Her group success in 2005 may well have helped Sevres Rose to his record number of foals in his 14 years of covering. From a total of 127 foals born through those years, 42 of them arrived in 2007.

Although Viane Rose has a pair of Listed winners among her seven winning offspring in Japan, she has been far outdone by Penne at stud. Mqse De Sevigne is the latter's second Group 1 winner following Meandre (Fr) (Slickly {Fr}), whose four wins at the highest level included the Grand Prix de Paris. A top-class winning filly ensures the line of succession for the equine family as much as it will encourage the humans involved to continue in their successful endeavours which have seen the Haras de Meautry remain in the family's ownership since its inception in 1875.

Renaissance

Hardly anyone will have been more delighted with the French resurgence on the track this season than Edouard de Rothschild, who combines his breeding activities with being president of France Galop.

All four French Classics run in 2023 have been won by French-trained horses, as well as five other Group 1s. Only Ralph Beckett and Owen Burrows have so far made off with a French Group 1 trophy, courtesy of Westover and Anmaat (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}). In Ace Impact (Fr) (Cracksman {GB}), Blue Rose Cen (Fr), and Feed The Flame (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), the French also look to have three of the best three-year-olds in Europe.

Sangster's Winning Combination

A chestnut filly by New Bay (GB), bred at Ballylinch Stud, winning a stakes race in the silks of Lucy Sangster? One could be forgiven for thinking that this was Saffron Beach (Ire) all over again, but there is one key difference for the young filly following in her considerable wake.

While Ollie Sangster was the co-owner, with his mother and James Wigan, of the dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach, he is the trainer of Shuwari (Ire), the latest black-type winner for New Bay and the first to score at stakes level for Sangster, who is in his first season training at Manton. With seven winners from 29 starts to date, he has made a promising start to his career with his 27 horses on the books.

Shuwari, who is co-owned by her breeder Ballylinch Stud, added the Listed EBF Star S. to her maiden success at Newbury a month earlier, and is the stand-out of the string so far. The young trainer also now has one of the rising forces of the ownership ranks in his stable following the private sale of Per Contra (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {Ire}) to Wathnan Racing after his winning debut at Chepstow. Ruled out of a start in the G2 Vintage S. this week, the colt holds an entry for the G2 Champagne S. next month.

The post Seven Days: Hooked on Hukum appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Beckett Hopes To Crown Record Season In Style

LEXINGTON, KY — Though introducing no fissure of light into the bruised grey sky hanging over Keeneland, daybreak on Wednesday nonetheless spread an array of crimson and saffron, dazzling as any sunrise, into the trees peering over the rituals of training track and shed row. And for those supervising one horse in particular, it felt especially apt that a final, lingering blaze of autumn glory should be preserved against the fading of the year.

For if he could win the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile here on Saturday, Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) would not only extend to a quite remarkable climax to his own spree of improvement through 2022; he would also set a corresponding seal on a landmark season in the career of his trainer.

Last year, Ralph Beckett posted his best haul yet, in domestic prizemoney, at £1.94 million. This time round, his Kimpton Down team have not just consolidated but smashed their way to £2.74 million already. Contributors include four Group 1 winners, and their diversity attests to a versatility that Beckett, during his rise, was not always given adequate opportunity to measure. While he has reiterated his mastery with a homebred Classic colt in Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}), he has also saddled the winners of two elite sprints.

One of those is Kinross himself, whose autumn schedule–he's seeking a third Group/Grade I success in five weeks–is not just bewildering local horsemen, with their collective neurosis about spacing out races. It's also allowing Beckett to show equal flair in a very different discipline to the type in which he largely made his name.

There were times when he would be sent fillies at a ratio approaching two-in-three, many of them requiring patience and distance. Here, in contrast, is a gelded dasher who has thrived on a timetable so hectic that Beckett even permits himself comparisons with a couple of indefatigable sprint handicappers of a generation ago: Chaplins Club (Parade Of Stars) and Glencroft (GB) (Crofter).

“It's slightly shades of those David Chapman horses,” he says. “Those guys who were really good at it, Dandy Nicholls was another, I never really worked out how they got it so right. But really all they were doing was just going with the horse. And that's rather what we're trying with Kinross: just not to stand in his way. I think it was David Elsworth who said, 'At a mile or less, it's all about wellbeing.' And that feels like a good way or looking at it, particularly with an older horse like this one.”

To a degree, in fact, the art of training can in these cases sooner become the art of not training. It's about restraint, about going from race to race as though you were lighting one candle with another. The growing weight of accumulated starts inevitably tugs at the thread, and Beckett and his team just have to stop it fraying.

“He just hacked a couple of laps of the training track this morning, and that's all we'll do with him,” Beckett explains. “He's not a horse you ever want to do much with, never mind need to. He trains himself really. These older horses, going out in the mornings, they really know their own way around. He's enjoying life out here. But by Friday he'll know exactly what he's going to be doing, how many laps he's going to go.”

It's important, then, to ensure that horses find their regime to be congenial. Because that's one of the few doors through which a trainer can offer a horse something as elusive, but critical, as confidence. A year ago, Kinross was beaten in both the the G1 Prix de la Foret and the G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint after travelling powerfully but running out of track and/or time. As a fully rounded professional, aged five, he has won both with the same mechanical efficiency as he had previously two races in the tier below.

“I think there are always layers, it's always a sum of parts,” Beckett reflects. “The jockey understanding him, the way he does now, is definitely relevant. Frankie [Dettori] is not afraid to sit closer to the pace now. But I do think confidence is a big thing with this horse as well. It's just grown and grown as he's got older. It's a hard thing to nail down, but it's definitely part of your role, particularly with an older horse, to make sure they're happy what they're doing.”

This race will be a whole different ball game for Kinross, spinning round the dizzy bends of the inner track while going back up in trip. Things are complicated by a tiresome draw, 13 of 14, but there's definitely a scenario in which the environment will appeal to the horse's zesty style.

“And that's key,” Beckett says. “He's pretty straightforward, a horse you could put just about anywhere, he's like a scooter. So yes, it's a tough draw but I don't see it as the end of the world. Frankie will just have to deal with it. And I'm not concerned about the mile at all, particularly given the nature of Keeneland. Whether he handles that or not is another question, but I don't think trip will be an issue. Nor would I have any concerns about the ground, it was quick when he won the [G2] City of York S.”

Asked to assess his stellar campaign, Beckett stresses one thing immediately. “It's been great fun,” he says. “I've really enjoyed it. There have been setbacks, too, but that's inevitable. When Scope (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) broke a hindleg, that was obviously a huge blow–we didn't run at Ascot because it was too fast, and then for that to happen… Especially when you consider how few miles he had on the clock. But everything else has been great.

“Prosperous Voyage (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) we only ran because it was the right race [G1 Falmouth S.], not because we thought we could win. Lezoo (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}) hid her light under a bushel at home, so to get there [G1 Cheveley Park S.] with her was extraordinary. And Westover [G1 Irish Derby] was hugely satisfying. The King George was obviously a disaster, and there's always a certain pressure when they go west like that, and you have to get them all the way round again, so we were very pleased with his run in the Arc. He's probably going to for the G1 Sheema Classic, that looks a good fit for him and he'll enjoy it, I think. He's a big, tall, long horse, so you would think he might [keep developing] but that's always easy to say and we'll just have to see.”

Westover, of course, had excruciating luck in running at Epsom and that kind of thing will never cease to haunt any red-blooded horseman. But Beckett is gracious in his reflections.

“I mean, of course it was tough on everybody at the time,” he says. “But I don't think any of us thought we'd have beaten winner. It was just not getting the chance to see, that was the crux of it. And, of course, whether it'll ever happen again? It's easy to be blase about these things but horses like that are hard to come by.”

But while one can hardly invite him to comment, a personal reflection is that Beckett is now one of the handful of trainers in Britain whose eligibility for an elite yearling of absolutely any kind is proven beyond doubt. Standing 10th in the trainers' championship, he has had fewer runners than all those above him bar Sir Michael Stoute and Aidan O'Brien. He is now at that optimal stage where, though still much younger than doyens of the previous generation, he has accumulated masses of experience. Far too classy ever to hustle for business, he knows that a certain clientele are inevitably drawn to the tranquillity and independence of his facilities–and, as it happens, these also tend to be just the type of people he likes training for.

Nonetheless it's gratifying for Beckett to have preconceptions so thoroughly corrected. Juddmonte, in sending him yearlings in 2015, made him their first new trainer in a decade: and they have been rewarded for giving him opportunities across the spectrum.

Ironically, given the way Beckett has had to fight to avoid becoming a victim of his own success, the gelding he has brought to the Bluegrass actually conforms to the original brand: he was homebred by one of his most longstanding clients, Julian Richmond-Watson. (And started out in his silks before being transferred to another of the stable's patrons, Marc Chan, at the beginning of last year.)

“I trained the dam, the sisters, the dam's sisters, the whole shooting match,” Beckett remarks. “So to be able to show up here with him is a big deal. It's easy to forget that, if you get too caught up in it. Whatever happens on Saturday, when we look back in years to come I hope we reflect how blessed we were that everything worked out the way it has.”

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Boughey Boost as Hoo Ya Mal Handed Leger Mission Before Shipping to Australia

An exciting career awaits in Australia but, before Derby runner-up Hoo Ya Mal (GB) (Territories {Ire}) joins Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott down under, he will be prepared by George Boughey for an ambitious tilt at the St Leger at Doncaster.

Trained by Andrew Balding to split Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) and Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}) at Epsom, Hoo Ya Mal was subsequently snapped up by his new connections for a whopping £1.2million at the Goffs London Sale.

While races like the Melbourne Cup are what Hoo Ya Mal was bought to run in, his new owners feel there could be unfinished business in Britain, and have entrusted Boughey with training the colt for the final Classic of the year at Doncaster.

Boughey told SBK, “It's very exciting to have a horse like Hoo Ya Mal in the yard. His work has been good and we are looking at the Gordon S. next before a possible tilt at the St Leger, before he heads to Australia with Gai Waterhouse for the Carnival out there.”

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James Doyle Confirmed to Ride Mishriff in King George

James Doyle, who has been enjoying a season to remember, has landed another plum ride after it was announced that he will replace David Egan aboard Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) in Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco S. at Ascot.

Egan recorded the biggest payday of his career when partnering the John and Thady Gosden-trained Mishriff to Saudi Cup glory in 2021, however, the ride aboard the three-time Group 1 winner became available after last week Prince Faisal revealed that he would be using the best available jockey.

That announcement came shortly after Mishriff finished second in the G1 Coral-Eclipse, an effort Doyle said points to the fact the 5-year-old retains all of his old zest for the game.

He told Nick Luck's Daily Podcast, “I couldn't be more thankful to the connections for putting their trust in me and choosing me to ride him.

“He's an incredible horse and what he has achieved is just outstanding. I thought his run in the Eclipse showed he is still right at the top of his game.”

Doyle, who has already won the Qipco 2,000 Guineas aboard Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and the 1,000 Guineas on Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}) this season, added, “I'm going into Mr Gosden's tomorrow morning to pop on him as obviously I've not ridden him before, but I've seen a fair bit of him and it will be nice to jump on board before Saturday.

“He travels into his races really well and I thought he was a shade unlucky in the Eclipse. It was an incredible run really to get stopped the way he did and when he got out he really hit the line hard.”

Mishriff is a general 4-1 chance for Saturday's Group 1. He finished second behind Derby hero Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the mile-and-a-half contest 12 months ago.

Opposition in this year's race is headed by another Derby winner, the Ralph Beckett-trained Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}), last seen storming to glory in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh in June.

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