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Graffard Hot Streak Continues As Sea The Stars’ Map Of Stars Takes The Prix d’Harcourt For Wathnan
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Ragtime and Echo Sound—second and sixth, respectively, in the Aug. 2 Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course—meet again Sept. 20 in the Dogwood Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs.View the full article -
Yet they have the money to keep the now G2 Thorndon Mile stake at $500,000! -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Few trainers emerged from the Irish Champions Festival happier than trainer John O'Donoghue who, despite drawing a blank with his only runner across the two-day meeting, walked out of the Curragh racecourse on Sunday in little doubt over the talent his stable star It's A Heartbeat is blessed with. The lightly-raced Too Darn Hot filly could not have been more impressive in swatting away the Johnny Murtagh-trained Shaool by almost four lengths when last seen in a handicap at that track last month. Shaool paid a handsome compliment to It's A Heartbeat by streaking clear of her rivals in the Northfields Handicap at the Irish Champions Festival and now O'Donoghue is rightly dreaming of Group races with a filly he labels as the most talented horse he has had through his hands. “We hold her in pretty high regard,” he explained. “We had her in the Prix Turenne at Saint-Cloud, which turned out to be a pretty hot race with Best Secret and Gethin turning up, and then we decided to sidestep the Irish Champions Festival [where It's A Heartbeat held an entry in the Group 3 CMG Group Stakes]. Looking at her profile, she posted a lovely debut before recording back-to-back wins and I'd love to nail in a Listed win with her now. We're trying to pick our spot and it's likely that we will go for the Group 3 Princess Royal Stakes at Newmarket in two weeks' time.” O'Donoghue added, “I'd love to see her on the Rowley Mile – I think a track like that would bring out the best in her. She'll have some big targets next year. It's all about her four-year-old year as she has a big frame and she is just a bit timely. She's filling out nicely now and is really round and solid. Look, she's just the type of horse that any young trainer like myself would love to have and hopefully she can put us on the map. She's very good and we hold her in the highest of regard. She's certainly the best I have trained.” O'Donoghue and his wife Jodi took over at Currabeg Stables, which will forever be associated with John Oxx and the legendary horses he trained there, back in 2022. The pair enjoyed four winners in that debut season – and came agonisingly close to a dream result in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot when Pearling Path was cruelly denied in the dying strides – but O'Donoghue openly admits to being forced to 'sharpen up' and 'streamline' the operation in recent times. John O'Donoghue: “If we can hit the nail on the head with It's A Heartbeat, it might get us moving up the ladder.” | Tattersalls There has been a shift towards quality runners, which is reflected in the stats given the stable has had just 44 runners domestically this term but has already equaled last year's tally of six wins. O'Donoghue is also operating at an impressive 14% strike rate but, what is more impressive is the fact the stable boasts a 29 per cent winners-to-runners strike-rate. Put simply, O'Donoghue does not rock up to the races for the sake of it. O'Donoghue, who has spent time working with Jamie Osborne, Oxx and David O'Meara, said, “We have three years under our belt and this is season four. Starting off, we said yes to everything and we got in as many as we could and trained absolutely everything, regardless of ability. Over the past two years, we have really streamlined towards the horses that will work in Ireland because there isn't a gap for the middle-to-lower tier horses in this country – A, to run them and B, to make them into a valuable commodity. So we have decided to cut back on numbers and aim higher with regards to quality. We are probably down a bit on runners but our strike-rate is up there in the teens. We've a few that will be dropping into handicaps and we want to push on with those now as well. But the main focus has been on preserving our record with two-year-olds. We've only run four of them and three of those have won. That's the sort of streamlined approach of knowing what we have, placing them right and moving them on when the time is right that we have gravitated towards. We've just sharpened up a bit.” O'Donoghue is a part of the select cohort of trainers who hit the sales hard in search of next year's winners. He has picked up a yearling apiece from the August Sale at Arqana and the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale and says he hopes to be busy at the upcoming Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale and the Goffs Orby Sale as well. He explained, “As you can imagine, most of our orders would be for Tattersalls Ireland or Goffs Orby horses as a lot of Irish buyers would prefer to buy in Euro. In saying that, we have been sent a horse from the Arqana August Sale and we picked up an Ardad yearling from Donny, which has always been a lucky place for us. In our first year training, we had Pearling Path, who was sourced by Oliver St Lawrence on behalf of Fawzi Nass at Donny. He nearly pulled off the miracle result in season one when only narrowly beaten in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot so we have always been fond of that sale with a view towards summer two-year-olds. We hope to buy four or five horses between Tattersalls Ireland and the Orby. I'm not sure how the orders will stack up come the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale at Newmarket but we will be there fighting for the good horses.” He added, “We're traders as well. We hold onto plenty of equity in these horses in order to get horses and owners into the yard. Putting it bluntly, we can get fairly exposed around this time of year but look, we're young, and we need to fill the yard here. But to be honest, sourcing the horses is every bit as important as it is training them.” Next week's sale at Tattersalls Ireland represents the first yearling sale in Ireland this autumn. It comes hot on the heels of what was red-hot trade at the Goffs Premier Yearling Sale and the Somerville Sale at Tattersalls and, even on an international front, Keeneland has been ablaze this past fortnight with telephone numbers being paid for the big-ticket lots. It is something of an oddity that, while the yearling market has apparently never been in a healthier position, the private market for form horses has slowed up to a certain degree in recent times. O'Donoghue has navigated that private market as well as anyone in his short time as a trainer in Ireland, highlighted by the job he did with Zaphod (Zarak), who was sold to continue his career in Australia following a fine third in the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes at Leopardstown. However, he admitted that the private sale market has become more select, and even shared that recent juvenile scorer L L Koulsty (Coulsty) remains on the market following her Cork success. Jodi O'Donoghue | Tattersalls He commented, “I can remember a time when nearly the first four from a maiden from somewhere like Dundalk would nearly be traded. Not so much anymore. There are cases where horses win maidens and even winners' races and they still don't get moved on. There is such a criteria that needs to be filled and it's not just performance on the track. For example, you have to be big enough, heavy enough and obviously sound enough to get traded on now. And sometimes you can tick all of those boxes but you don't get a good Timeform rating or the form of the maiden takes a knock. So it's become very, very tricky. Everything seems to have become tighter and harder to push through compared to years gone by anyway.” Fortunately for O'Donoghue, stable star It's A Heartbeat is not in the shop window, which means he can dream not only about Newmarket but what may also be in store for the lightly-raced filly next year as well. It's A Heartbeat is owned by Sven Hanson, who has enjoyed considerable success in the bloodstock world and even supplied Sir Michael Stoute with a breakthrough Oaks victory courtesy of 1978 scorer Fair Salinia. The breeder of Reliable Man among other high-class performers, Hanson took notice of O'Donoghue after Pearling Path, a horse he bred under the Fair Salinia Ltd banner, went so close to that Chesham Stakes success in the young trainer's debut season at Currabeg Stables. It has proved a good fit for the owner given he used to have horses with Oxx, who remains a mentor to O'Donoghue at a stable made famous by horses like Sea The Stars, Sinndar, Ridgewood Pearl and more. “He [Hanson] knew the stable and was thinking of having a few more horses in training than he usually does so thankfully he picked a young trainer. It has given us the little injection of quality that, hopefully if we can hit the nail on the head with It's A Heartbeat, it might get us moving up the ladder.” The post O’Donoghue Plotting Breakthrough Group Win With ‘Best I’ve Trained’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
They don't even have enough money to fix the electronic timing. No doubt the soil structure is stuffed as well. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Fresh off a game effort to win the G2 Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster, Santorini Star (Golden Horn) will target the G1 Prix de Royallieu on Arc weekend, revealed co-owner Tony Bloom's racing manager Sean Graham. The Bloom and Ian McAleavy runner is searching for a first Group 1 triumph and will be routed accordingly. A consistent sort with six wins from 10 lifetime starts, the William Haggas trainee won a Goodwood handicap in May before running fourth in the Listed Pontefract Castle Fillies' Stakes in June and she filled that spot again in the G3 Stanerra Stakes at Fairyhouse a month later. Back on track over a 2m 1/2f handicap at York in August, she withstood the prolonged challenge of Consent (Lope De Vega) in the Park Hill. “Her next race will be the Prix de Royallieu, which is a mile and six on the Saturday of Arc weekend,” Graham said. “I'd say that is probably her last run this year as well. “I suppose she will be brought back next year with the view of trying to win a Group 1. The Prix de Royallieu is a Group 1, but even if she wins that, she'll still be back next year. That's because she didn't run until the October of her three-year-old career, so she's pretty lightly raced and she's open to plenty of improvement. The programme for staying fillies is quite good and there's plenty of opportunity to pick up more black type.” Regarding next year's campaign, he added, “Even races like the Irish St Leger might be on the radar as that's a mile and six. I don't think we will pigeon hole her and just run her at a mile and six because there's probably not enough races at that distance, so she will have races at two miles as well.” The post Park Hill Star Bound For The Royallieu appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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