Seven Days: Classic Double to Triple Crown?

[Wandering Eyes]

We've seen a Classic double double, but could we now see a double Triple Crown bid for Godolphin?

The quest for the Triple Crown is usually more of 'a thing' in America, though its compact five-week challenge draws consternation from some quarters, and Bill Mott is biding his time before committing Sovereignty to a run in the Preakness Stakes on May 17. 

Though the American Triple Crown is a more marketable concept than the sprawling near-five-month challenge that has remained unfulfilled in Britain for 55 years, certainly the Derby had been the longer-term aim for Ruling Court. His trainer Charlie Appleby said nothing to contradict that in the aftermath of the Justify colt's 2,000 Guineas win on Saturday. 

In the Newmarket press room on Saturday, bookmakers' slips were scattered around the desks offering 12/1 about Ruling Court for the Triple Crown. While that's not necessarily a tempting bet, it is a tantalising notion, and one made even more poetic in its appeal for the fact that the colt is by the most recent winner of the American Triple Crown, Justify. 

Now 10, Justify is honours even in his split of Group/Grade 1 winners in Europe and America – four apiece – including being responsible for last year's Derby winner City Of Troy.

Derby history echoes down those bloodlines with a nice bit of symmetry in City Of Troy and Ruling Court as the former is out of a mare by the 2001 Derby winner Galileo, and Ruling Court's dam is by the horse who succeeded him at Epsom, High Chaparral. If you like nicks, it is worth noting that another of Justify's European Group 1 winners, Opera Singer, is out of a mare by that pair's sire, Sadler's Wells, but then, considering where all of those stallions stood, it is perhaps not that noteworthy at all.

We shouldn't just be thinking about the colts though. Appleby was quick to check with sponsor Betfred whether or not the £2 million Triple Crown bonus applies to fillies as well. It does. The rangey 1,000 Guineas winner Desert Flower certainly looks like a middle-distance filly and, even if some of the closer-up influences in her pedigree don't suggest that she would stay the Derby or St Leger trip, we can grasp a few straws and note that her fifth dam Swansea (Turn-To) is a half-sister to the great US Triple Crown winner Secretariat and a full-sister to Sir Gaylord, the sire of Derby winner Sir Ivor.

Desert Flower's first Classic success capped a terrific day for her sire Night Of Thunder on Sunday. Over at Longchamp, another of his three-year-old fillies, Sunly (GB), remained unbeaten for Juddmonte in the Listed Prix de la Seine, while at Belmont at the Big A, the Croom House Stud graduate Dynamic Pricing (Ire) landed the GIII Beauty Stakes for Chad Brown and Klaravich Stables. 

In fact, the influence of Dubawi was prevalent, particularly at Newmarket on Sunday, where another of his sons, New Bay, was the sire of the impressive Pretty Polly Stakes winner Falakeyah, a homebred for Shadwell and fifth-generation descendant of Height Of Fashion. The G2 Dahlia Stakes winner Cinderella's Dream is by Shamardal but she is out of a Dubawi mare, and then in the big race itself, Dubawi and sons were responsible for three of the first four home.

Desert Flower's dam, the Hard Spun mare Promising Run, has been mated exclusively with either Dubawi or his sons Night Of Thunder and Ghaiyyath, and she has a colt foal by the latter this year – her first offspring since Desert Flower. 

Family Sprinting Double Act at HQ

The opening race of 2,000 Guineas day at Newmarket saw Tiger Bay became the latest black-type winner for her sire Harry Angel (Ire), who is steadily compiling a useful portfolio. His results are arguably better in Australia, where he has been represented by the Group 1 winners Tom Kitten and Private Harry. Promisingly, he is in seventh place in Australia's general sires' table with only three crops of racing age to represent him there. 

Tiger Bay races in the colours of her trainer Henry Candy, who owns her in partnership with Clive Brandon, and she is just the type of progressive sprinter with which Candy has excelled over the years. This seems to run in the family as an hour or so later, the G3 Palace House Stakes was won by Rumstar, trained by Candy's nephew Jonny Portman. 

 

Jonny Portman is heading to Royal Ascot with Rumstar | Racingfotos

 

Rumstar, a five-year-old son of Havana Grey, appears to relish the straight five furlongs of the Rowley Mile, as he claimed his first Group 3 win there at two in the Beacon Stakes. It was good to see him back, and his famously pessimistic trainer has taken the optimistic decision to enter him in the G1 King Charles III Stakes (formerly the King's Stand) at Royal Ascot.

Tally-Ho's Star Pupil

As detailed elsewhere in this edition, the July Cup winner Starman, who was first off the mark among this year's first-season sires when Lady Iman won at Dundalk on March 28, is now the first of that group to sire a stakes winner, courtesy of that same filly.

Lady Iman races in the colours of her breeder Tony O'Callaghan whose Tally-Ho Stud has played such a dominant role in the freshman sire ranks in recent years, with Mehmas becoming the champion in that division in 2020, followed by Cotai Glory in 2021. It is early days for Starman, of course, but he will certainly have plenty of representatives on the track this season, having been the busiest stallion in the year he retired to Mullingar, with a first book of 259 – the largest number ever covered by first-season sire in Europe.

The Mehmas phenomenon rolls on. At this season's breeze-up sales, his stock have been among the hottest on offer. At Tattersalls, he had seven sold in the Craven Sale for an average price of 177,143gns, and another two sold at the Guineas Sale last week at an average of 87,500gns. But it was at the Goffs UK Breeze-up which he truly ruled, with the three most expensive juveniles of the sale all being by Mehmas, including the record-breaking £1 million colt. His 14 to sell in Doncaster returned an average of £262,500.

NZ Black Type for Hello Youmzain and Circus Maximus

For European eyes, much of the focus was on the Rowley Mile over the last weekend but way over yonder in New Zealand there were two stakes winners for young stallions who both raced in this part of the world. Hello Youmzain (Fr) has been shuttling from Haras d'Etreham to Cambridge Stud and the latter has been rewarded as the owner-breeder of Lucy In The Sky, winner of the Listed Berkley Stud Champagne Stakes at Riccarton Park. From the stallion's first New Zealand crop, she is also his first stakes winner in the southern hemisphere. 

At Te Rapa on the same day, the former Coolmore resident Circus Maximus also notched his first stakes winner with Towering Vision in the Listed Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre Stakes. The two-year-old gelding's pedigree has a proper European feel to it as he is out of a mare by Iffraaj. Circus Maximus stood three seasons in Ireland but has remained in situ at his shuttling base of Windsor Park Stud for the last two years, and he will soon be joined there by the shuttlers Auguste Rodin and Paddington. 

A Name in Lights

If you're not already getting confused between the Haras d'Etreham stallion City Light and Lane's End Farm's City Of Light, let's throw into the mix City Of Lights. This one's a mare though, and the Australian-bred daughter of Deep Impact is a half-sister to none other than Winx. The five-year-old races for her breeder John Camilleri's Fairway Thoroughbreds Syndicate and won the G3 Hawkesbury Crown on Saturday in Australia.

 

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