The Weekly Wrap: King For A Day

[Wandering Eyes]

The Wrap made a short tour of France last week, starting at the historic sister studs of Mesnil and Maulepaire en route to Deauville for the Arqana breeze-up sale. The walls of the chateau at the heart of Mesnil are festooned with paintings of the famous horses bred and raced by the Couturie family, with pride of place given to Elisabeth Couturie’s Right Royal (Fr), winner of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, Prix Lupin and Prix du Jockey Club in 1961.

Almost sixty years later, it’s fair to say that we witnessed a right royal winner of this year’s Poule d’Essai des Poulains in Persian King (Ire) (Kingman {GB}). Racing in the colours of Godolphin but still 50% owned by his breeder Diane Wildenstein’s Ballymore Thoroughbred Ltd, the colt was every bit as imposing in the parade ring as he is on the racecourse and stems from a Wildenstein family which includes the 1997 Prix du Jockey Club and Arc winner Peintre Celebre (Nureyev), bred and raced by Diane’s grandfather Daniel Wildenstein. It seems likely that the Jockey Club will be the next step on the Classic trail for Persian King, whose manner of victory may have been dampened by the soft ground at Longchamp. Similar conditions had also been a concern for his sire Kingman when he lined up for the final race of his career in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville. His class told that day, just as it did for his son on Sunday.

Behind Kingman in the Jacques le Marois of 2014 was Anodin (Ire), whose first-crop son Anodor (Fr) is the only horse to have beaten Persian King when the pair met on debut last August in the Prix de Crevecoeur. Farther back in fourth in the Jacques le Marois was Rizeena (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}), whose half-sister by none other than Kingman was bought for €800,000 by Anthony Stroud on behalf of Godolphin at the Arqana Breeze-up Sale on Saturday.

Queen of the Castle
While Persian King’s victory was a seventh in the Poulains for Andre Fabre, the win of Castle Lady (Ire) (Shamardal) was a first in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches for Henri-Alex Pantall, who has had a longtime association with Godolphin (and, coincidentally, trained Magna Graecia (Ire), not to be confused with Magna Grecia (Ire), to win the Prix Right Royal in Sheikh Mohammed’s colours back in 2001). Unraced at two, but metronomically consistent this year with three runs and three wins on March 14, April 14 and now May 12, Castle Lady led a good day for Shamardal, who also featured as the sire of Shaman (Ire) and grandsire of San Donato (Ire), second and third respectively behind Persian King, as well as providing the winner of the G3 Amethyst S. at Leopardstown, Hazapour (Ire). Shamardal’s range is highlighted by the fact that he is also broodmare sire of the Oaks favourite Pink Dogwood (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), and after this weekend, he currently leads the European sires’ list.

Twenty-four hours before Castle Lady’s victory in Paris, American-based Frenchman Patrick Biancone had signed for one of her relatives, the sole offering by freshman Summer Front in the Arqana Breeze-up Sale, at €240,000. Like Castle Lady, the colt has Right Word as his third dam, their grandams being the half-sisters Ascutney (Lord At War {Arg}) and Right Spice (Salt Lake) respectively.

Le Havre on a roll
Runner-up in the fillies’ Classic, Commes (Fr), was denied victory by just a nose and had the verdict gone the other way she would have completed a trio of wins in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches for Le Havre (Ire), the sire of Avenir Certain (Fr) and La Cressonniere (Fr). All three fillies were bred and raised at Gerard Augustin-Normand’s Haras de Montfort & Preaux, where the 13-year-old stallion, who also raced for the same owner, has stood his entire career. Le Havre is currently enjoying a fine run in 2019 and lies third on the European table with eight black-type winners—just one behind Shamardal and Galileo (Ire).

Shadwell’s Motamarris (Ire), the eight-length winner of a Chantilly conditions race on Saturday for Freddy Head, looks another progressive Le Havre 3-year-old to follow.

Echoes of Harzand
With a first Classic victor under his belt, Kingman may have been the talking horse of the weekend but the strength in depth of the second-crop sire division was underlined at Leopardstown when Broome (Ire), a son of Australia (GB), and Hamariyna (Ire), by Sea The Moon (Ger), laid down important markers of future intent in Classic trials.

As highlighted previously in this column, Broome is one of a number of exciting Derby prospects for the 2014 winner of the Epsom showpiece, including Bangkok (Ire).

The Aga Khan’s Hamariyna, winner of the G3 Derrinstown Stud 1000 Guineas Trial, shares not just her third dam Hazaradjat (Ire) with the 2016 Derby winner Harzand (Ire), who has her as his grandam, but also her grandsire Sea The Stars (Ire), who is Harzand’s sire. Could this similar pattern of breeding lead to Classic success for Sea The Stars’s promising young son Sea The Moon?

Sponsorship rewarded
Luke Comer’s Comer Group International sponsored not just Sunday’s Amethyst S. at Leopardstown but also the G2 Oleander-Rennen at beautiful Hoppegarten and his support of these Pattern races was repaid by success in the latter as both owner and trainer.

Comer bought the winner Raa Atoll (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) for 30,000gns from John Gosden’s Clarehaven Stables draft at last year’s Tattersalls Horses-in-Training Sale and he has now recouped almost double his purchase price in winning on his first start for Comer. Moreover, the former China Horse Club representative is now qualified for the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million and has the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in his sights, where he is likely to take on his former stable-mate and inaugural Million winner, Stradivarius (Ire), another son of Sea The Stars.

Earlier this spring, Weatherbys Hamilton announced four further international qualifying races for its lucrative staying challenge, the Oleander-Rennen being joined by the Dubai Gold Cup, the Vintage Crop S. at Navan and the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier at Longchamp at the end of this month.

Meon Valley on a mountain high
Amid an exciting week of Classic Trials, Lingfield’s turf track was in use on Saturday, where Anapurna (GB) (Frankel {GB}) continued an excellent start to the season for her owner-breeder Meon Valley Stud. The sixth-length winner of Lingfield’s listed Oaks Trial only made her debut between Christmas and New Year and progressed from that ninth-place opener to win her maiden at the end of January. Her first run on a turf course which fairly closely resembles Epsom was therefore quite the eye-opener and the daughter of G1 Yorkshire Oaks runner-up Dash To The Top (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}) now leads a potentially strong Oaks team for John Gosden. The trainer may have joked that he is surrounded by Aidan O’Brien-trained prospects when it comes to the Derby but Gosden is not lacking in filly power and could field another daughter of Frankel, the Cheshire Oaks winner Mehdaayih (GB), as well as Sparkle Roll (Fr) (Kingman {GB}) and Enable’s half-sister Entitle (GB) (Dansili {GB}), both of whom are declared for the G3 Musidora S. tomorrow.

The previous evening, the Weinfelds had the satisfaction of watching another homebred filly win her maiden extremely impressively when Twist ‘N’ Shake (GB) (Kingman {GB}) romped to a seven-length success at Nottingham. Previously second by a short-head in a Newmarket maiden during the Craven meeting, Twist ‘N’ Shake’s form had been franked by the winner that day, Maqsad (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), going on to win the listed Pretty Polly S. by five lengths.

The Meon Valley Stud breeding will feature in another tantalising Classic trial this week when Telecaster (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) lines up in Thursday’s G2 Dante S. The son of the Weinfelds’ Oaks and Irish Oaks runner-up Shirocco Star (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}) races in the colours of Castle Down Racing and is trained, like his mother, by Hughie Morrison.

Furthermore, Value Proposition (GB) (Dansili {GB}), bred by Meon Valley and sold to Klaravich Stables as a yearling for 400,000gns, earned TDN Rising Star status last month when scoring impressively on debut at Belmont Park for Chad Brown.

Fifteen to follow
French Fifteen (Fr) was only a neck behind Camelot (GB) when second in the 2000 Guineas and the son of Turtle Bowl (Ire) enjoyed a good spell via G3 Prix de Saint-Georges winner Sestilio Jet (Fr) following the previous Sunday’s win for French King (GB) in the G2 Gerling-Preis in Cologne.

Along with Lucayan (Fr), the Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner of 2012, French Fifteen, who won five races at two culminating in the G1 Criterium International, was a member of Turtle Bowl’s first crop and was bred by Gilles and Aliette Forien of Haras de Montaigu, where his sire stood. Such was the impression made by this pair in particular that the imposing son of Dyhim Diamond (Ire) was sold to Japan in 2013, and stood for four seasons at Shadai Stallion Station until his premature death in 2017.

Turtle Bowl’s influence remains in France through French Fifteen, who stands at Haras du Logis St Germain, and Lucayan, who started his stud career at Spain’s Yeguada Torreduero but is now at Haras de Saint Vincent and will have his first crop of French-bred 2-year-olds to race this year from a book of 47 mares.

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