The Weekly Wrap: A Pivotal Moment

[Wandering Eyes]

Another Guineas double was delivered for Aidan O’Brien by the filly who truly lives up to her name. In the paddock before the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas, Hermosa (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) looked to have thrived since her first Classic win at Newmarket and gave her followers little room for doubt with a dominant performance at the Curragh. Nothing came from off the pace in the race, and it was the fillies who challenged her gamely from the off, Pretty Pollyanna (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and Foxtrot Liv (GB) (Foxwedge {Aus}), who claimed the places while doing their level best to peg her back, but Hermosa was imperious in victory and will be a delight to watch as she steps up in trip.

In Ireland on Sunday, daughters of Pivotal (GB) shone as matrons in both Group 1 races, helped in no small part by that heady blend with Galileo blood. But while His Highness the Aga Khan was in Ireland to assist Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to open the stand named in honour of his contribution to the redevelopment of the Curragh, over in Paris, his homebred daughter of Pivotal, Siyarifina (Fr), continued her unbeaten progress through the ranks to the top level in just three short leaps with victory in the G1 Saxon Warrior Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary. A tussle with Hermosa in the Prix de Diane beckons.

Fillies’ showdown at Ascot
There have been plenty of tantalising hints towards the juvenile contests for Royal Ascot over the past few weeks but the race that is gearing up to be the thriller of the royal meeting is the Prince of Wales’s S.

We’ve all been looking farther down the line at the Arc as the race of the season, and it usually is, especially in terms of its international pull, but a tantalising prequel could well take place at Ascot in three weeks’ time. Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) won’t make Friday’s Investec Coronation Cup and she currently shares top billing for her Ascot target with last year’s Arc runner-up, Sea Of Class (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). While Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) has sailed through her three races so far this season and is set for a summer break before Irish Champions Weekend and the Arc, her trainer Aidan O’Brien did not rule out a possible Royal Ascot run after her seven-length triumph in Sunday’s G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup. Other 4-year-old fillies in the mix are Veracious (GB) (Frankel {GB}) for the in-form Sir Michael Stoute stable and recent G2 Middleton S. winner Lah Ti Dar (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). Some international flavour will be provided by trainer Mitsuru Hashida’s globetrotting Deidre (Jpn) (Harbinger{GB}), who is currently looking the picture of contentment on her solo morning strolls around Newmarket.

Of course, it won’t be all about the girls: Crystal Ocean (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Old Persian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Ghaiyyath (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Waldgeist (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) and Sunday’s Prix d’Ispahan winner Zabeel Prince (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) are among those set to offer a robust male challenge. And with the return of last year’s Derby hero Masar (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) providing another potential layer of intrigue, Wednesday’s feature at Royal Ascot must not be missed.

More McCartan magic
Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) completed a memorable day for Charlie Hills with his victory in the G2 Temple S. less than half an hour after Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) landed the Irish 2000 Guineas on his seasonal debut. But Battaash also ensured that his breeders Paul and Marie McCartan ended the week on a high after another of their Ballyphilip Stud graduates, Pierre Lapin (Ire) (Cappella Sansevero {GB}), also struck at Haydock in a novice race 24 hours earlier. His three-and-a-half length debut victory earned him not just TDN Rising Star status but also a little slice of history as the first winner for his freshman sire, who stands at Bridge House Stud in Ireland.

The well-named Pierre Lapin is out of the Cadeaux Genereux (GB) mare Beatrix Potter (Ire), making him a half-brother to another famous Dark Angel sprinter to have emerged from the Ballyphilip paddocks, Harry Angel (Ire). Beatrix Potter is herself a half-sister to the dual Group 1-winning Hong Kong miler Xtension (Ire) (Xaar {GB}).

Pierre Lapin, trained by Roger Varian, sparked a juvenile double at the meeting for owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, who was represented later on the card by another first-time-out winner, Rhea (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}), from the Kevin Ryan stable. While Varian has trained for the sheikh for a number of years, Ryan was the recipient of yearlings for the owner for the first time last year and appears to have a decent bunch of 2-year-olds to campaign for him this season, including impressive York maiden winner Repartee (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).

Princely rewards for Roundhill
Just 20 minutes from the McCartans’ Ballyphilip Stud in Co. Limerick is Roundhill Stud, home to the successful breeding operation of Bobby Donworth and Honora Corridan. Plenty of group-winning graduates have emanated from their paddocks over the years and one family—that of Princess Serena—has served them particularly well.

An outlay of $150,000 back in 2003 for the 4-year-old daughter of Unbridled’s Song out of a sister to the champion filly Serena’s Song (Rahy) has been handsomely rewarded in the intervening years. Though she lost the Thunder Gulch foal she was carrying at the time of her purchase, her next foal was Serena’s Storm (Ire) (Statue Of Libery), who would go on to produce the dual Group 1 winner Rizeena (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}), and Group 2 winner Puissance De Lune (Ire) (Shamardal), now a stallion at Swettenham Stud in Australia, was to follow.

It is the cross with Shamardal and his son Lope De Vega (Ire) which has proved particularly successful for the mare, highlighted by the victory on Sunday of Princess Serena’s 6-year-old son by the latter, Zabeel Prince (Ire), in the G1 Prix d’Ispahan, bringing up a Group 1 double for Lope De Vega at the weekend after Phoenix Of Spain’s Classic win on Saturday. This also continued a purple patch for Princess Serena’s family after her 3-year-old daughter Queen Power (Ire) (Shamardal) won the listed Haras de Bouquetot Fillies’ Trial for Sir Michael Stoute and King Power Racing the previous weekend. She holds Royal Ascot entries for the Ribblesdale S. and Coronation S., while Zabeel Prince could go for either the Queen Anne S. or the Prince of Wales’s S.

“I’ve always said that the strength of Princess Serena is Unbridled’s Song, and you hit that with Storm Cat and you’re away,” said Honora Corridan. “She has given us so much.”

She added, “We’ve used Lope De Vega from €15,000 all the way up and I really believe that he’s an elite stallion. The mare produced a very good full-brother to Zabeel Prince this year. We also have a yearling filly by Gleneagles from her.”

Meanwhile Serena’s Storm, now 14 and one of three daughters and three grand-daughters of Princess Serena at the farm, has a yearling full-sister to Iffraaj with a Dark Angel (Ire) filly at foot and has been scanned in foal to Dubawi (Ire). Her 2-year-old daughter by Kingman (GB) was recently one of the stars of the show at the Arqana Breeze-up Sale when sold for €800,000 to Godolphin, having been sold as a yearling by her breeder for 300,000gns.

Another of Princess Serena’s Shamardal daughters, the Newbury maiden winner Princess De Lune (Ire), is now in foal to Kingman having produced an Oasis Dream (GB) filly this year.

“What made Sunday even better is that Tim was there to see Zabeel Prince win and even helped to saddle him and later collected the breeder’s prize on the podium,” said Corridan of her son Tim Donworth, who is currently assistant trainer to Nicolas Clement in Chantilly.

A Stoute defence
Charles Hills is flying high with a 25% winning strike-rate over the last fortnight, his Classic victor Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) being backed up by dependable 5-year-old sprinter Battaash and exciting youngster Flippa The Strippa (Ire), who provided Outstrip (GB) with a first black-type winner in the listed National S. on Thursday.

But keeping his younger counterparts firmly in their place with a red-hot streak of late is Sir Michael Stoute. Since Mustrashry (GB) (Tamayuz {GB}) became the trainer’s sixth winner of the G1 Lockinge S. a little over a week ago, another seven of his 10 stable-mates to have headed to the races have returned winners, including G3 Brigadier Gerard S. victor Regal Reality (GB) (Intello {Ger}), and a trio of listed winners in Queen Power (Ire) (Shamardal), Dream Of Dreams (Ire) (Dream Ahead) and Mirage Dancer (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

A tip of the cap should also go to Michael Bell, who pulled off a remarkable five-timer the Monday before last, with his sixth runner of the day being beaten only a short-head for second. The trainer also went close to emulating Hills’s feat of winning a Classic with a horse making a seasonal debut when last season’s champion 2-year-old filly Pretty Pollyanna returned in fine style to finish second to Hermosa in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. She will head next to Ascot for either the Coronation S. or the Commonwealth Cup.

Shout out for Wave
War Front’s major winners out of Galileo (Ire) mares include Roly Poly, U S Navy Flag and Fog Of War, while daughters of Galileo’s sire Sadler’s Wells have been responsible for War Front’s Group/Grade 1-winning offspring War Of Will, Brave Anna and her brother Hit It A Bomb, as well as recent G3 Juvenile Sprint S. winner Etoile.

It would be no surprise to see Saturday’s maiden winner Silent Wave (GB) end up with black type before too long. The War Front juvenile was bought in utero by Godolphin when John Ferguson bid $3.5 million at Keeneland for her dam, Secret Gesture (Galileo {Ire}), who won the G2 Middleton S. and was runner-up in the Oaks among her list of decent performances for Qatar Racing and breeder Newsells Park Stud.

Despite signs of greenness, the Charlie Appleby-trained Silent Wave looked impressive on her early debut, drawing away from her four rivals to win by almost three lengths and give her mother the perfect start as a broodmare.

Swedish delight in Paris
The final qualifying leg for the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million was run on Sunday with the three-length winner of the G2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier, Called To The Bar (Ire) (Henrythenavigator), completing a double on the day at ParisLongchamp for his Swedish breeders Sven and Carina Hanson of Fair Salinia and their compatriot, trainer Pia Brandt. Earlier on the card, Astonished (Fr), a 3-year-old daughter of the Hansons’ homebred stallion Reliable Man (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}) won her maiden in determined fashion under Maxime Guyon.

Called To The Bar will now be called to Ascot for the Gold Cup where he will have to take on last year’s winner Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Melbourne Cup hero Cross Counter (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) among an increasingly strong bunch of stayers in training.

Another of Sunday’s group winners at ParisLongchamp, Quest The Moon (Ger), will next be asked to try to emulate his sire Sea The Moon (Ger) in the G1 Deutsches Derby on July 7 after his last-to-first victory in the G3 Prix du Lys. His Lanwades-based father was one of the most eye-catching winners of the German Classic in recent years when coming across to the stands’ rail to win by 11 lengths for his owner-breeder Gestut Gorlsdorf in 2014.

“If he wins the German Derby, we can dream about the Arc. He’s a horse who keeps getting better,” said trainer Sarah Steinberg of Quest The Moon, who is now favourite for his home Derby.

 

 

 

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