Seven Days: Flying Start for Wathnan Racing

[Wandering Eyes]

We're off. Well, sort of. In a manner reminiscent of the sputtering start to the Flat turf season, Seven Days returns this week but is immediately taking a short break before promising to be back in time for the Lincoln and the Brocklesby. So, for those of you still in a post-Cheltenham/St Patrick's Day slump, here's a little look back on the week that was.

We'll mention Cheltenham only briefly here to reiterate the point that we may well see the 100/1 Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros (GB) back in action on the Flat this summer. Considering that his sire Golden Horn (GB) was responsible for a third of the field in last year's Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, he has every right to be considered a decent staying prospect on the level and one potentially to follow in the footsteps of a number of other Willie Mullins-trained horses in aiming for the Melbourne Cup in November. 

Just after Mullins had finished dominating Cheltenham (again), one of those former inmates, Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {Fr}), himself the winner of the Triumph Hurdle back in 2022, made a successful start to his new life in Australia. That treble Grade 1 winner over hurdles had already won Group 2 and 3 races on the Flat at York and Naas, and he can now add Sydney to his burgeoning CV, having won Saturday's G3 Sky High Stakes on his first start for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott at Rosehill. He has an entry for the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on April 12 during Sydney's Championships.

We'd like to make a plea to Jeremy Scott to bring his hoards of singing supporters up from Dartmoor, along with Ian Gosden's star mare Golden Ace (GB), and follow the examples of Mullins and Nicky Henderson by having a jolly day out at Ascot and aiming for one of the staying options at the Royal meeting. After all, this vintage of Golden Horn winners are generally out of smart Flat mares: Golden Ace's dam, Deuce Again (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), won the Listed Further Flight Stakes for a different Gosden. Her breeder Meon Valley Stud has plenty of form in providing top-class Flat runners, not least the dual Gold Cup winner Kayf Tara (GB). A Champion Hurdle and a Royal Ascot victory in the same year? Now wouldn't that be nice.

Wathnan Preparing the Big Guns

Talking of the Gold Cup, there has been some positive news from Wathnan Racing advisor Richard Brown regarding the 2023 winner Courage Mon Ami (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who has recently returned to training with John and Thady Gosden.

“All of us owe a lot to Courage Mon Ami for what he did so early in our story,” he said. “He hasn't had a major issue, he's had a huge number of niggles, so we pulled stumps early last year and gave him a very long winter of just trotting and going on the treadmill with Lou Collinson. He's been back with the Gosdens for about three weeks in a trotting programme and I believe he's just about to start cantering again. The only plan for him at the moment is just to get him back to the racecourse. Obviously there's one eye on a Gold Cup but whether we could get back in time – he would need a prep run and for everything to go smoothly before Ascot. 

“But he's a lovely, lovely horse and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.”

 

Courage Mon Ami is back in training | Racingfotos

 

The Wathnan Racing team will doubtless be hoping that the result of the first group race of the European turf season augurs well for the year ahead. Wathnan's two runners, Map Of Stars (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and last year's Prix du Jockey Club runner-up First Look (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), finished first and second in the G3 Prix Exbury. The winner is still lightly raced but clearly highly talented. Now four, Map Of Stars is a son of Bateel (Ire) – Dubawi popping up as broodmare sire in this sphere as well as of the Champion Hurdler – who was similarly progressive, first for David Simcock and later for Francis Graffard, for whose stable she won the G1 Prix Vermeille, G2 Prix de Pomone and G3 Pinnacle Stakes.

Wathnan purchased Map Of Stars from his breeder, Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nayhan of Al Asayl Bloodstock last summer and, though he has raced just five times in total, he has won four of those races, including two Listed contests. He looks an exciting prospect for the top middle-distance races this summer.

They have plenty of others to look forward to as well, not least one of the stars of British Champions Day, the James Fanshawe-trained Kind Of Blue (GB) (Blue Point {Ire}), who could be seen next at York in May.

“Kind Of Blue is one of our big hopes for the year,” Brown said. “He's trained by a master of bringing that type of horse along. He's in great nick and has wintered very well. The plan at the moment is to start in the Duke of York [Stakes].”

A busy spring for Wathnan Racing could also include the return of Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) in the G1 Lockinge Stakes.

“She had a good break at Newsells Park and had some time out in the paddock. She's been back with Karl for a couple of months now and is moving well,” Brown reported. 

Haatem (Ire) (Phoenix Of Spain {Ire}), who was beaten only a head by stable-mate Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) in the Irish 2,000 Guineas before giving Wathnan another Royal Ascot winner in the G3 Jersey Stakes, has not been seen in public since being scratched at the start of the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois, but he too is on the comeback trail.

“He's great,” Brown said. “He had a niggle after the Jacques le Marois and we've given him a very long rehab, just giving him time as there was no point rushing him back. He's now back with Richard Hannon and the plan will probably be to start off in the Sandown Mile.”

A Head Start on the French Classics 

As ever, France has a headstart on its neighbouring nations in getting its turf action up and running and we've now been treated to several weeks of enticing hints regarding the forthcoming Classics. The biggest hint so far is that we should be paying close attention to runners from Victoria Head's stable this season. We spoke to Head last spring as she was continuing to assemble a steadily growing stable which at the time numbered 25. Eleven months later, her team has doubled in size and now includes 12 horses listed for Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals's Yeguada Centurion, which parted ways with her elder brother Christopher Head last year after enjoying notable success with the likes of homebreds Big Rock (Ire) and Blue Rose Cen (Ire). 

 

Victoria Head, left, with Darius Cen | Scoop Dyga

 

Yeguada Centurion also bred Christopher's stable star of last season, Ramatuelle (Justify), who had been sold as a yearling, and her half-brother Tito Mo Cen (Ire) (Uncle Mo) now looks a genuine Classic prospect for Victoria after winning both his starts this year, including the Listed Prix Maurice Caillault on March 9. A week later, the 29-year-old trainer was back in the winner's enclosure with another Yeguada Centurion homebred, Darius Cen (Fr), who became the first black-type winner for Persian King (Ire) in Sunday's Listed Prix Omnium II on his seasonal debut. The colt had ended last season with an 11-length win on heavy ground at Clairefontaine on only his second start and is one of five that Head has entered for the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, all for the same owner. She also has two fillies in the Pouliches reckoning at the moment, one for Yeguada Centurion and another for Gestut Schlenderhan, for whom she has eight horses in training. 

We can expect to hear plenty more about this latest member of the great French training dynasty as the year progresses. 

Juveniles Power Into Action 

For those of you champing at the bit for two-year-old action, you only have to wait until the first race at Marseille on Wednesday in which Goken (Fr) may double his tally of juvenile winners for the year after the taking victory of Minotor (Fr) at Lyon Parilly on Sunday. 

It's an act of folly to get too carried away by such youngsters at this fledgling stage of their careers but Sunday's Curragh maiden does boast spectacularly good recent form. Its four previous winners all subsequently earned black type, with Bucanero Fuerte (GB) scaling the heights to a Group 1 victory and both Ocean Quest (Ire) and Arizona Blaze (Ire) having won Group 3s. The latter, who ended last season by finishing second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, returned triumphant at Dundalk on Friday and has a 2,000 Guineas entry.

What then will become of this year's winner Power Blue (Ire)? If nothing else, he will always hold the accolade of being the first winner for his young Darley sire Space Blues (Ire), who didn't make his own winning debut until the November of his juvenile season before progressing to the highest level at four and five. 

Power Blue certainly looked professional and well made, and it's not hard to imagine seeing him in stakes class in the first half of the season. In becoming the third consecutive winner of this race for the Adrian Murray stable, which has plenty of assistance from gifted horseman Robson Aguiar, he was also the first winner for the Aguiar-run LNA Racing Syndicate. 

Davis's Double Delight

Congratulations are due to Sean Davis, who has trained his first and second winner on the same day in two different countries. The first came at Dundalk on Friday when Porsche Lad (Ire) got off the mark on his handicap debut for owner David Fowler in the hands of Rory Cleary. Some two hours later Venetian (Ire), also owned by Fowler, struck at Wolverhampton, with the cherry on top being that his trainer was also in the saddle for this victory.

Davis was runner-up to Cieren Fallon in the British apprentices' championship of 2019 with 56 winners but returned home to Ireland as the pandemic set in and his riding opportunities became more scarce after riding out his claim. 

As well as training and riding, he is also involved in the breeze-up sector and consigns under the banner of GS Bloodstock in partnership with his weighing-room colleague Gary Halpin. The duo offers a filly from the first crop of Starman (GB) at the forthcoming Craven Sale at Tattersalls. 

 

 

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