Seven Days: Nobody Knows Nothing

[Wandering Eyes]

A little trip down Street Cry memory lane last week prompted a call to Dan Pride in Kentucky and one of the best lines anyone in the bloodstock community has ever offered up during an interview.

In discussing the initial market hesitation around Street Cry's European lineage and not-quite-movie-star looks, Pride opined that it was a good early lesson that, in the stallion market in particular, horses can often makes fools of man. “It taught me that nobody knows nothing,” he said. They are words to live by.

When it comes to last week's hot political topic of tariffs being imposed by the American government, we can also say at this stage that nobody knows nothing–certainly not anything concrete until we hear what, if any, retaliatory measures will be taken by the EU and UK. It is not hard to guess, however, that there will be significant consequences for our sector, particularly at the sales.

A document provided by the British government on Friday contained an indicative list of products that may be subject to a future UK tariff response. Items one and three on that list that ran to thousands of items across 417 pages were “pure-bred breeding horses” and “live horses”.

No doubt the various breeders' associations and racing authorities across Europe will be attempting to remind their respective governments of the economic impact of the Thoroughbred business, and of the importance of American participation in this part of the world. But, even with no retaliation from Europe, or a reduction in the tariffs imposed by President Trump, both of which seem unlikely at this early stage, there will still surely be a reduction in the level of spending by American owners who are intending to take home horses bred in Europe. From this Wednesday, for now at least, a 10 per cent tariff will have to be paid on horses with a GB suffix, and 20 per cent on those bred in Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and other EU member states.

Somebody Knows Something

Francis Graffard could not have dreamed of a stronger start to 2025 for his team of horses. It seems almost impossible to tune into a French race meeting at the moment and not find one of this string in the winner's enclosure, and on Sunday he won two of Longchamp's three group races and was a close second in the third, as well as winning the first two maidens of the day at the reopening of France's premier track. For good measure, he also sent out the Aga Khan Studs' Dalakir (GB) (Zarak {Fr}) to win at Lion d'Angers for a Sunday five-timer.

The previous day, stable star Calandagan (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) had posted some impressive closing sectionals when narrowly failing to claw back last year's Japanese Derby winner Danon Decile (Jpn) in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic on his first start since British Champions Day. He'll be a force to be reckoned with in his intended next start in the G1 Coronation Cup at Epsom. Let's hope we see Danon Decile racing in Europe this year, too.

Bateel (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) had already done much for the Graffard stable in winning the G1 Prix Vermeille, G2 Prix de Pomone, G2 Prix Corrida and G3 Pinnacle Stakes during 2017 and 2018, but the now-13-year-old mare is still providing the team with memorable days. Across three of the last four weekends, Bateel's offspring Map Of Stars (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Tajlima (GB) (Kingman {GB}) have won group races, with the former adding Sunday's G2 Prix d'Harcourt to his victory in France's first group race of the turf season, the G3 Prix Exbury. Another step up the ladder is next, to the G1 Prix Ganay on April 27.

The four-year-old Map Of Stars completed a memorable weekend for Wathnan Racing after the victory of Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the G1 Dubai World Cup. Returned at 66/1, the five-year-old was perhaps not even particularly fancied by his trainer Brad Cox, who hadn't made the trip to Meydan to see Hit Show land his £5.5 million share of the night's biggest prize.

Perhaps the potentially most significant winner of Graffard's over the weekend was Mandanaba (Fr), who, in the G3 Prix Vanteaux, became the first group winner for her young sire Ghaiyyath (Ire) and gave her owner-breeder Princess Zahra Aga Khan just cause to dream of Classic glory in the coming months.

In a slightly later start to her own racing career, Mandanaba's dam Mandesha (Fr) (Desert Style {Ire}) missed out on the Classics but soon notched a string of three consecutive Group 1 victories in the Prix d'Astarte, Prix Vermeille and Prix de l'Opera. Mandanaba, now unbeaten in her two starts to date, was her 12th and final foal and is doubtless very special to her breeder, who had herself raced back from Meydan to be present at Longchamp to see Mandanaba become her dam's second stakes winner.

Japan's Big Night – Again

Perhaps the after-effects of their epic tussle in the Saudi Cup were to blame for Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) and Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) not quite being able to live up to huge expectations at Meydan, but neither folded tamely. Mere millimetres separated Romantic Warrior and Soul Rush (Jpn) (Rulership {Jpn}) at the line for the G1 Dubai Turf, while Forever Young, though clearly beaten a long way out in the Dubai World Cup, dug deep to rally to take third behind the American duo of Hit Show and Mixto.

Even without Forever Young, the Japanese still managed to lift three of the races on World Cup night. Along with Soul Rush, Danon Decile (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) took the Dubai Sheema Classic, and in the G2 UAE Derby Admire Daytona (Jpn) narrowly denied a father-daughter victory for Jamie and Saffie Osborne on the afternoon that father and son Willie and Patrick Mullins won the Grand National.

After Crown Pride (Jpn), Derma Sotogake (Jpn) and the aforementioned Forever Young, this was a fourth consecutive win for the Japan in the UAE Derby. The previous trio has gone on to run 13th, sixth and third in the Kentucky Derby, for which the winner in Meydan earned 30 qualifying points. Perhaps Admire Daytona, by the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Drefong and out of a mare by Shackleford, who was fourth in the Kentucky Derby, can continue that upward trajectory.

Props should also go to the 2021 UAE Derby winner Rebel's Romance (Ire), who did not go on to run at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May, but was fourth in this year's Sheema Classic after winning last year and lining up for that race three years running.

Don't Stop Believing

When Believing (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) fetched the third-top price of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale at 3 million gns it would have been easy to assume that we had seen the last of her on the track. After all, she'd done plenty to earn her place in the Coolmore broodmare band, with six wins at that stage, including the G2 Sapphire Stakes and a run of Group 1 placings.

But the decision was swiftly taken to keep her in training at five and hats off to George Boughey, and to her new owners – that familiar Coolmore trio of Magnier, Tabor and Smith having been joined by John Stewart – for they now have a Group 1 winner on their hands following Believing's hard-fought victory in the Al Quoz Sprint.

With his sixth crop of runners now taking to the track, Mehmas continues to grow in stature as a sire of increasing note. Seven Group 1 winners have emanated from those earlier years at stud and it is reasonable to hope that there is plenty more to come as the quality of his books has risen.

Boughey had a handful of his first runners as a trainer the year before Mehmas but he too properly burst onto the scene in 2020 and has done nothing but impress in the intervening years. For the three seasons prior to 2025 he has trained more than 100 winners, including 1,000 Guineas victrix Cachet (Ire) and the mighty Via Sistina (Ire) prior to her departure to Australia.

Thank Goodness for Girls

When is a Derby not a Derby? Perhaps the answer to that is when 15 of the 18 runners are geldings, as was the case for the ATC Australian Derby at Randwick on Saturday.

Preventing a meltdown among bloodstock purists at the idea of a gelding winning a Derby was the gallant heroine Aeliana (NZ) (Castelvecchio {Aus}), the sole filly of the field, who trounced the boys by more than five lengths.

Star Turn

On the subject of trailblazing females, on Saturday the news broke that Hayley Turner has retired from her magnificent career in the saddle.

It's not the first time Turner has retired – she initially announced the end of her race-riding days almost a decade ago, but that was short-lived. She returned, first in France, and then back in her native Britain, to add several more milestones to her notable record of achievements.

The first female champion apprentice in Britain, the first woman to ride 100 winners in a year in the UK, the first of her sex in Europe to ride 1,000 winners and the first female in Britain to win a Group 1 outright: Hayley Turner OBE pushed the door wide open for plenty of women coming along behind her. These days it is no longer remarkable to see females booked to ride in even the biggest races, and that is perhaps Turner's greatest achievement of all.

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