The Weekly Wrap

[Chief Stipe]

It’s hard to find fault with Thunder Snow (Ire), who, despite being a Group 1 winner at two, three and now so early in his 4-year-old season, seems never to have captured the public imagination as some other horses have. It would be a travesty if he becomes remembered best for his buckaroo routine at the start of the GI Kentucky Derby. That high-profile blot on his copybook aside, he has done little wrong and managed to pick up two Meydan Classics last season before his eventful trip to Churchill Downs, which was later absolved when he finished second to Churchill (Ire) in the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and won the G1 Prix Jean Prat.

Thunder Snow is the stand-out performer for his sire Helmet (Aus), though an equal amount of his talent must be attributed to his Darley-bred dam Eastern Joy (GB). The daughter of Dubai Destination has turned out to be prophetically named as three of her first five foals have won Classics in Dubai, including this year’s UAE 1000 Guineas winner Winter Lightning (Ire) (Shamardal), and all five are stakes winners. What’s more, they are all by Darley stallions, with her first foal Ihtimal (Ire) also being by Shamardal, and Always Smile (Ire) and First Victory (Ire) by Cape Cross (Ire) and Teofilo (Ire), respectively.

Eastern Joy has twice subsequently visited Dubawi (Ire), who by a wide margin was the most ubiquitous stallion at Meydan on Saturday, which is perhaps only fitting for the best son of the horse who presumably remains Sheikh Mohammed’s favourite World Cup winner, Dubai Millennium (GB) (Seeking the Gold).

Dubawi’s sole winner of the night was Benbatl (GB) in the G1 Dubai Turf, but he provided the runner-up in the G2 Godolphin Mile, the second, third and fourth in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup, in which he was the sire of six of the 16 runners, and the third home in the World Cup, Mubtaahij (Ire), another former G2 UAE Derby winner.

If World Cup night was a Godolphin rout, the same was true for the Darley stallions, with Helmet’s sire Exceed And Excel (Aus), Manduro (Ger), and Iffraaj (GB) also providing a major winner each. And with the very juicy cherry on top being a homebred Dubai World Cup hero from a homebred sire and dam, no wonder Sheikh Mohammed was dancing on the podium on Saturday night.

Mendelssohn Calls The Tune…

By far the most visually stunning performance of World Cup night–and perhaps the most arresting we’ll see all year–belonged to Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy). It’s unlikely that he’ll have the run of Churchill Downs the way he did Meydan for his UAE Derby tour de force, but he is now an intriguing contender for the Run for the Roses. The only downside for his connections will be the headache he will give Ryan Moore in trying to decide between whether he should side with Mendelssohn in America or Saxon Warrior (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the G1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Mendelssohn’s win is likely to have made for uncomfortable viewing for the team from Phoenix Thoroughbreds, whose Gronkowski (Lonhro {Aus}) had staked his own Kentucky Derby claim a day earlier at Newcastle. The latter is unbeaten in his last four starts but remains untried on dirt. Though there will be 18 other horses in the field that he’ll also have to beat, the Phoenix hearts will have sunk lower with every lengthening stride Mendelssohn took along the Meydan home straight.

Gronkowski came about as a result of the shuttling stints to Jonabell of former Australian Horse of the Year and champion sire Lonhro (Aus), whose sire Octagonal (NZ) was also Horse of the Year, father and son winning 10 and 11 Group 1 races, respectively. The family of Octagonal, a son of Zabeel (NZ) and the outstanding broodmare Eight Carat (GB), was to the fore in Group 1 company again on Saturday when Eight Carat’s great grand-daughter Hiyaam (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) won the Vinery Stud S., but more importantly for the sireline was the G2 Tulloch S. victory of Levendi (Aus), by Lonhro’s young son Pierro (Aus). The colt’s triumph sparked mid-morning celebrations at Meydan from trainers Peter and Manny Gelagotis, who later that day saddled their first overseas runner Illustrious Lad (Aus) to finish fifth in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint. Levendi is now one of the leading fancies for Saturday’s G1 AJC Australian Derby.

Rathasker’s Rampant Start…

Maurice and Madeline Burns of Rathasker Stud will be hoping that the Flat season can continue in the way it has begun. Their young stallion Bungle Inthejungle (GB) has already been represented by seven runners and the first winner by a freshman sire in Europe, Jungle Jane (Ire), who struck at Dundalk last Wednesday for Willie McCreery.

Rathasker is also the breeder of the leading 2-year-old of the very young season to date in Izzer (Ire), who added to his Brocklesby victory by becoming one of four winners ridden by Franny Norton at Bath on Friday. With continuing wet conditions in Britain meaning that only Bath’s sprint track could be used, the Good Friday meeting was reduced to four races and Norton followed Gordon Richards, Alec Russell and Frankie Dettori on the short list of jockeys to have gone through the card. He landed a double each for Izzer’s trainer Mick Channon and Ron Harris.

Izzer’s sire Clodovil (Ire) has stood at Rathasker since retiring to stud in 2004, and he has been joined there by his son Es Que Love (Ire), who also has first 2-year-old runners this season.

Good Friday For French…

French trainers had to suffer many of their country’s big prizes being plundered by their British counterparts last season, and Ralph Beckett has already landed the first turf group race of 2018 in Paris, the G3 Prix Exbury, with Air Pilot (GB) (Zamindar), while Ed Walker sent out Stormy Antarctic (Stormy Atlantic) to win yesterday’s G3 Prix Edmond Blanc. But a successful cross-Channel raiding party gained some revenge on Good Friday after being dispatched to Lingfield’s All-Weather Championships.

Four French trainers had runners at the seasonal finale and three had winners, with Christophe Ferland’s Funny Kid (Lemon Drop Kid), Stephane Wattel’s City Light (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) and the Joel Boisnard-trained Lucky Team (Fr) (Namid {GB}) collectively taking home just over €300,000.

City Light and Lucky Team, the winners of the sprint and mile races on the card, had met in their last race prior to Lingfield, finishing first and third in the Prix Anabaa at Chantilly on Mar. 6. The horse who separated them that day was the Andre Fabre’s filly Rosa Imperial (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}), who was also in action at the weekend, finishing a decent fifth in the G2 Godolphin Mile at Meydan.

Walking With God…

As a Lent pilgrimage, the Bishops of Dunwich and St Edmundsbury conducted a walking tour of the diocese, within which Newmarket falls. Racing Welfare’s excellent chaplain Simon Bailey was on hand to guide them around the parish along with Newmarket trainer and former town mayor John Berry, who, the bishops would have been disappointed to hear, gave up his place to read theology at Oxford in order to pursue a somewhat less spiritual life in horseracing.

During the tour, the group called in at Bedford House Stables where the first horse introduced to the men of the cloth by the quick-witted Luca Cumani was the Group 3 winner God Given (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}).

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