Seven Days: Spirited Win Keeps Ballyhimikin in the Spotlight

[Wandering Eyes]

There's no jumping off the merry-go-round now that the yearling sales are in full swing, and this week's action will take the travelling show to Newmarket and Baden-Baden for Tattersalls Somerville and Germany's premier yearling sale at BBAG. The latter should expect a stampede, as the word around the grounds is that Wednesday's Ryanair flight from Stansted to Karlsruhe will be chock-a-block with new visitors to BBAG's sale alongside the racecourse at Iffezheim. 

This year I've been jocked off the Baden-Baden trip by Brian Sheerin, and the current sulk at missing that particularly delightful event may just be abated if the ice-cream lady is at Park Paddocks on Tuesday with a nice Belgian chocolate and strawberry combo.

A Bit Of Spirit, winner of Saturday's G3 Solario Stakes, is the latest to advertise the merits of shopping at the Somerville Sale, and there are plenty of others who will have enjoyed this particular result.

For his owners, Paul and Clare Rooney, the Clive Cox-trained colt was the second exciting juvenile winner at Sandown in two days after the taking debut success of Sticktoyourguns (Without Parole) on Friday. Kevin and Anna Ross bought both colts for the Rooneys – Sticktoyourguns from Book 2 of the October Sale for 80,000gns and A Bit Of Spirit at the Somerville for 75,000gns. 

The latter came out on top in a four-way finish for what is often one of the most informative two-year-old races of the year. Though the margin of victory was slight, there was plenty to like about the gumption shown by A Bit Of Spirit in quite testing conditions to record his third win in five starts. Importantly for the team at Darley, he became the third black-type winner and second group winner for his first-season sire Palace Pier, after Royal Fixation, winner of the G2 Lowther Stakes, and Morris Dancer, who landed the Listed Stonehenge Stakes and was also runner-up in the G2 Vintage Stakes. It is perhaps worth noting that Morris Dancer and A Bit Of Spirit are both out of mares by Dubawi.

These are of course early days in Palace Pier's stud career, but winners of this ilk around sales time will only enhance his standing after what was a rather lukewarm reception to his first yearlings last year. It is fair to say that because of that, Palace Pier has delivered something of a surprise in his results so far, which is a strange position to be in considering he was the best miler of his generation, a five-time Group 1 winner and unbeaten in his two starts at two.

Then there is A Bit Of Spirit's breeder to consider. Wherever you look this season, up pops James Hanly behind another good winner. His name links Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder), Estrange (Night Of Thunder) and now the Solario winner, the three respectively bred in partnerships with Jono Mills, Anthony Stroud and Trevor Stewart, and Stroud and Ed's Stud. There must be something in the water down at Ballyhimikin Stud, whose draft of three at Tattersalls this week is bound to be busy.

Aguiar Switches to Training 

There was interesting news last week from Robson Aguiar that he is to enter a training partnership with Adrian Murray, to whom he is currently officially assistant trainer. The full story is here if you missed it.

It is easy to imagine that Aguiar, who has already proved himself to be both a good judge of a youngster and a proper horseman, will make quite an impact on the training scene in Ireland, handling horses both for Amo Racing, with which he has had a longstanding and successful association, and for other clients. 

Best of luck to him as he completes his training modules. 

Steady Gains for Spain 

Patience has paid off for Roger Varian and the owners of Lady Of Spain (Phoenix Of Spain), whose five runs to date have been spaced out between December 2023 and August 2025 but have resulted in five straight wins. The latest of those came in Saturday's G3 Atalanta Stakes on her first start for 255 days, and Lady Of Spain is now around 10/1 for the G1 Sun Chariot Stakes.

Bred by John Little of Littlejohn Bloodstock and sold through Jenny Norris as a foal for 16,000gns, Lady Of Spain was a successful pinhook for Whatton Manor Stud, who sold her on to her trainer for 40,000gns. Like Haatem, she is a member of the first crop of Phoenix Of Spain, who also has the Group 3 winners Cheshire Dancer and Atsila to his credit. 

This latest group winner hails from a smart family, with her dam Navette (Invincible Spirit) being a half-sister to Godolphin's multiple group winner Real World (Dark Angel), while granddam Nafura (Dubawi) is a daughter of Mysterial (Alleged), whose other offspring include the stallions Dubai Destination and Librettist, while she is herself a half-sister to the July Cup winner Agnes World. 

Sad Demise of Classic Hero

In becoming Godolphin's third 2,000 Guineas winner in the last four years, Ruling Court had also been the poster boy this year for the breeze-up division, having topped last year's Arqana sale at €2.3m when consigned by Norman Williamson's Oak Tree Farm.

The loss of the Justify colt to laminitis last week robs the three-year-old division of one of its star names and, after Coroebus in 2022, means that two of those Guineas winners have died in training before making it to stud.

Notable Speech remains in training, and Native Trail – another Williamson protégé – who was runner-up to Coroebus before landing the Irish 2,000 Guineas, is safely ensconced at Kildangan Stud. 

The Godolphin/Darley operation could however have another champion sire on its hands by the end of this year, with Native Trail's stud-mate Night Of Thunder currently €1m clear of Woottton Bassett in the British and Irish sires' championship. There are plenty of valuable races yet to be run though, and much could change by the end of the year.

Desert Flower, who won the 1,000 Guineas 24 hours after Ruling Court's Classic triumph and played her part in Godolphin's memorable four Classic wins on one weekend in Newmarket and Kentucky, has not been seen since running third in the Oaks, and her trainer Charlie Appleby has suggested that she may not run again. Last year's Irish Champion Stakes winner Economics, too, is unlikely to run this season.

Night Of Thunder does however have Ombudsman, Estrange, More Thunder, Zahraan and Gewan among those in his armoury, and the breadth of his winners, from sprints to middle-distances, is starting to look as impressive as that of his sire Dubawi.

Kentucky All-Stars

The European trainers James Owen and Henk Grewe were both handsomely rewarded for their enterprise in fielding runners at the lucrative Kentucky Downs meeting over the weekend.

Owen and the Gredley family teamed up with their old Newmarket neighbour Frankie Dettori to land the G3 Nashville Derby with Wimbledon Hawkeye (Kameko), who has run consistently all season when placing in the Craven, Dante, Princess of Wales's and Gordon Stakes before netting the equivalent of almost £900,000 for his Stateside victory. 

Earlier on the card, Grewe had won around £220,000 in prize-money when the Zarak six-year-old Flatten The Curve strolled to victory in the Bowling Green Gold Cup over an extended two miles – a rare marathon trip in America. 

Aboard the winner was Germany's reigning champion jockey Thore Hammer Hansen. The former British-based apprentice hasn't looked back since returning to his home country two years ago. He won last year's G1 Deutsches Derby aboard Palladium and recently triumphed in the World All-Stars Jockeys Challenge in Japan. A win on a big day in America won't have harmed the rising profile of the 25-year-old Hammer Hansen either. 

 

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