Seven Days: Do Not Adjust Your Sets

[Wandering Eyes]

This column is not really supposed to start until the Flat turf season gets underway but we saw the sunshine in Newmarket on Monday morning for pretty much the first time this year so we're jumping the gun a little. After all, there was plenty of top-class Flat action on offer over the weekend in the Middle East and beyond, and following some frenetic race reporting on the spot in Riyadh, here are a few thoughts and breeding angles with the benefit of some time for reflection.

Deep influence 

With Auguste Rodin to come, and Study Of Man and Saxon Warrior already up and running in Europe, it will be interesting to see if one of these sons of Deep Impact will have a lasting influence in this part of the world. (Martinborough, though being marketed more for the National Hunt sector, is also worth having a look at if you're passing Capital Stud in Ireland.)

Certainly, Deep Impact's influence was very much felt in some smart races on Saturday and we'll start first with Deep Monster as he has the closest link, being an eight-year-old son of the late stallion. The father-son connection doesn't end there as Deep Monster is trained by Yasutoshi Ikee, the son of Deep Impact's trainer Yasuo Ikee. 

Deep Monster took the notable scalps of Group 1 winners Goliath (Adlerflug) and Giavellotto (Mastercraftsman) when rattling home to win the G2 HH The Amir Trophy in Doha, having also won last year's G2 Kyoto Daishoten. He's out of the dual Grade III-winning Bellamy Road mare Sisterly Love.

The headline result of the weekend was of course Forever Young's second victory in the G1 Saudi Cup and his third in Riyadh having also won the G3 Saudi Derby in 2024. His owner Susumu Fujita flew in to Saudi Arabia for a few hours and even hinted at the post-race press conference that he may yet have a third stab at the Saudi Cup next year when this valuable stallion prospect will be six. 

Forever Young is by Real Steel, who, like his most celebrated son, was trained by Yoshito Yahagi and bred by Northern Farm. In fact, Saturday was a good day for stallion sons of Deep Impact, with Real Steel and Study Of Man both being represented by Group winners on the Saudi Cup card, while closer to home, Kizuna was responsible for Classic prospect Dream Core, who won the G3 Daily Hai Queen Cup in Tokyo. Interestingly, all three of these Deep Impact stallions are out of mares by Storm Cat.

Real Steel, a full-brother to Yahagi's 2021 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf and Hong Kong Vase winner Loves Only You, is a son of Loves Only Me, who is out of Miesque's daughter Monevassia, a full-sister to Kingmambo. This makes him very closely related to Study Of Man, who has Miesque one generation closer in his pedigree, his dam being Kingmambo and Monevassia's half-sister Second Happiness.

The Study Of Man five-year-old Sons And Lovers won Saturday's G2 Red Sea Turf Handicap for Joseph O'Brien and may be seen next in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup having shown that he stays well. Sons And Lovers was bred by Kirsten Rausing, who was understandably eager to stand the beautifully bred Study Of Man when he was retired by his breeders, the Niarchos family. Rausing rarely races colts but she retained Almeric, a Listed winner last year for the same sire who will be an interesting four-year-old to follow this season. What undoubtedly makes these results extra satisfying for the Lanwades owner, apart from advertising her stallion, is that Sons And Lovers and Almeric represent her two long-established families, with the former having Sushila (Petingo) as his fifth dam, while Alruccaba (Crystal Palace) is the fourth dam of Almeric.

Kizuna has been the reigning champion sire in Japan for the last two years. His dam Catequil was bred by Windfields Farm and raced for Sheikh Mohammed without covering herself in glory but she has excelled at stud, producing two Japanese Classic winners in Kizuna and Phalaenopsis as well as Sunday Break, who was third in the GI Belmont Stakes. The latter was a useful stallion in France with his offspring including the G1 Prix d'Ispahan winner Never On Sunday. 

Kizuna, who was also champion first-season sire, looks to have another Classic prospect to represent him this season in Dream Core. Already the winner of three of her four races for owner-breeder Katsumi Yoshida and trainer Kiyoshi Hagiwara, she boasts a typically strong pedigree. Her dam is the Harbinger mare Normcore, who won the G1 Victoria Mile in Japan before her successful swansong in the G1 Hong Kong Cup. Normcore's dam Chronologist also produced Chrono Genesis (Bago), who won the Arima Kinen among her four Grade 1 victories in Japan. 

The Mighty Quinault

We must also toast the twelfth win for Quinault, the one-time bad boy whose tearaway tendencies have been beautifully channelled by trainer Stuart Williams to make this six-year-old son of Oasis Dream into a consistent and classy sprinter. His latest victory came in the Dukhan Sprint Cup, a local Group 3 in Doha worth a not insignificant £168,888 to the winner. Bred by Gestut Fahrhof, Quinault was originally sold to Johnny Collins at the BBAG September Yearling Sale for €58,000. He was later picked up by owner Tom Morley for 25,000gns as a two-year-old at the Horses-in-Training Sale, having earlier that year cost 310,000gns at the Craven Breeze-up Sale. He now looks well bought indeed by Morley, with earnings north of £660,000, plus the G3 Criterion Stakes and three Listed victories to his credit. 

Wathnan Racing's Make Me King (Dark Angel) landed the Listed Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup on Saturday, adding to a good day for the older geldings as he too is six and was winning for the seventh time. It was a pattern repeated in Saudi, where Shamardal eight-year-old Royal Champion took the G1 Howden Neom Turf Cup, and was backed up by the five-year-old winners Forever Young, Imagination, Reef Runner and Sons And Lovers (though Forever Young and Imagination are both entires). 

If the expansion of the racing programme across the Middle East means that we see more horses remaining in training to target these races then this can only be a positive factor for racing. Admittedly there are concerns over losing too many decent horses from these shores to overseas owners with deep pockets, but there are plenty of examples of horses remaining in training in Europe and travelling abroad to plunder some of the valuable prizes on offer. One only needs to see the improvement in Royal Champion in the last year for Karl Burke to agree that he has been a horse well worth persisting with as he now reaches the peak of his powers at eight. 

A multiple winner at multiple prices 

Michael Scofield (Tiz The Law), winner of the Listed Tuwaiq Cup on the Saudi Cup undercard, also won the unofficial award for having the most exotic sales history of any of the wekeend's runners. Twice offered as a yearling in America, in July then October, he was unsold initially at $170,000 then bought by Tom Whitehead at Fasig-Tipton for $60,000. Whitehead breezed him at Arqana in Deauville through his Powerstown Stud and he was again unsold at $90,000 before being offered at the Tattersalls Online Sale of January 2025 in which he was bought for 3,400gns by Niall Scully. Five months later, having won twice for Michael O'Callaghan in March, he fetched £350,000 at the Goffs London Sale, bought by Michael Donohoe to head to Saudi, where he now races for King Abdullah Bin Abdullaziz and his sons. Saturday marked his third victory in the kingdom for trainer Saad Aljenade, those wins including the King Naif Bin Abdulaziz Cup, a local Group 2.

It was a good couple of days in Saudi for Donohoe of BBA Ireland as he had also bought for the same connections the Juddmonte-bred Gran Descans (Frankel), who won Friday's $500,000 Saudi International Handicap.

Iffraaj still in the mix at 25

It is somehow easy to overlook Iffraaj but we shouldn't. After all, he gave the breeding world Wootton Bassett, and for that alone his name will linger on, but he does also have another 12 Group 1 winners to his name across both hemispheres. These include Ribchester, whose son Facteur Cheval posted another game effort when chasing home Royal Champion in the Neom Turf Cup to give trainer Jerome Reynier his second runner-up of the day in Saudi after Lazzat in the 1351 Turf Sprint.

Better still was to see Iffraaj represented by a new group performer in the G3 Saudi Derby winner Al Haram. The colt was bred by Seamus Phelan, who sold him for £150,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale to owner Sheikh Abdullah Almalek Alsabah, for whom he is now unbeaten in four starts. 

As a local winner, the Abdullah Alsidrani-trained Al Haram was given an electric reception when returning to the winner's enclosure, and the colt looks likely to head next to the UAE Derby in an attempt to earn more points towards the Kentucky Derby.

Now 25, Iffraaj is about to embark on his twelfth covering season at Dalham Hall Stud, having stood for eight years prior to that in Ireland at Kildangan Stud. Wouldn't it be something for him to be represented by an Irish-bred, British-sold, Saudi Arabian-owned and -trained runner at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May?

 

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