All About Arklow’s Sister

[Wandering Eyes]

As the maid, Birdie Coonan, says in the film from which this filly takes her name: “What a story! Everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end.”

For Eve Harrington (Flatter), however, a tale of many twists and turns could yet straighten out into a final scene where they all live happily ever after–both the breeder who buys her at Keeneland next week, with her pedigree newly decorated by Grade I success for her half-brother, and the English trainer who found himself with rather more at stake in her career than he had anticipated.

Sir Mark Prescott was sufficiently confident in the tastes of one of his clients to spend $200,000 on a yearling by Flatter at the Keeneland September Sale of 2017. After all, there was plenty of grass distinction in her family, to give her traction in Europe; and the dam, an Empire Maker half-sister to two Grade I winners, already had a Grade II winner to her name.

Even when the patron he had in mind proved to be unexpectedly reluctant, Prescott still felt that others at his Newmarket stable would surely take an interest.

A month later, after the filly had served her quarantine, Prescott was at Ascot races when his assistant William Butler telephoned.

“Bad news,” Butler said. “The plane’s landed from America, but the filly’s fought her way out of the crate, jumped off the ramp, and is galloping around the airport.”

It did not sound as though she could possibly survive her escapade, but Prescott’s horror was tempered by a degree of relief that he had at least taken the precaution of insuring the filly. As it was, however, she somehow avoided the bleak necessity of his making a claim.

“Instead they finally retrieve her, and of course she’s cut to smithereens,” Prescott recalls. “The vet bills came to £11,000.”

Patched up, in February the filly finally entered the historic Heath House yard–where the great Victorian jockey Fred Archer was apprenticed–to be broken in.

“But at that time of winter you haven’t the ghost of a chance of selling her to anybody,” Prescott says. “So the meter’s now at £230,000. Anyhow I get her broken, and she goes quite well.”

What to do? A brainwave. Call in Willie Browne. The doyen of the breeze-up consignors. Over the years, Prescott had long been an admirer of the Mocklershill maestro.

Prescott picked up the phone. “Now then, Willie,” he said. “Can I send you this filly? The clock’s stopped at £240,000. Whatever you can get on top is yours. She works quite well here, I think she should bring it all right.”

So off goes the filly to Ireland, and Browne is soon encouraged by what he sees. Because he hasn’t had much time with her, however, they elect to sit out the Craven Sale and wait for Arqana in May.

“Willie’s saying that if all goes well you’ve got a chance of getting your money back,” Prescott says. “Very good. She goes to France, that’s another five grand. And… she gets a temperature of 104! I said: ‘Never mind, Willie, these things happen in the best-run homes.’ So she comes back here and the meter is still running.”

Time for Plan C: try and sell her off the track. Prescott, a film buff, names her for the eponymous anti-heroine of All About Eve, the brightly helpful young female who–the longer she sticks around–gradually reveals the peril of her true agenda.

“In the autumn, she’s ready to run,” Prescott continues. “Now, for America, if she can win at two, that makes a big difference. And she just comes to hand in time. So off she goes to Southwell in the middle of December, and runs well, but finishes fourth. So she’s just missed out, and instead wins a few weeks later, early in the New Year, I might say under a titanic ride from Luke Morris.

“Anyhow, thank God. Only now she’s got to win again. Win two from three starts, you will sell in America. And by now the family’s starting to kick in. One half-brother [Maraud (Blame)] has won a Grade III and then a Grade II; and another [Arklow (Arch)] has run fourth at the Breeders’ Cup. All we need is another win to complete the parcel.”

To ensure no mishaps, Prescott supervises Eve Harrington’s next run in person–despite the long drive north to Newcastle in appalling winter weather. On arrival, he is greeted by Jedd O’Keeffe, skilful trainer of a relatively small string on the northern circuit. A very nice man, Prescott stresses. But O’Keeffe has a rather apologetic look.

“I see that your filly runs in your colours,” he said. “I feel I should tell you, Sir Mark, mine’s not bad.”

“Mr. O’Keeffe,” Prescott replied. “I just love you having winners, any time. But this is not the moment!”

O’Keeffe shrugged and, sure enough, Eve Harrington finished second.

“So I’m beginning to feel like a man who’s swimming in the dark, and every time the rescue boat comes into view, as I’m just climbing aboard, it shoots off and I fall back in,” Prescott says. “And now I’m swimming again.”

He tried her once on turf. No rescue boat. A radical ploy, next: he sent her to Brendan Walsh to put her in the shop window, on dirt. Another ten grand, the meter ticking over wildly. He should only run her if she looked likely to throw a lifeline, naturally, but the news was positive. She clocked some encouraging breezes, and a couple of weeks ago Walsh started her in a race at Keeneland.

Alas, again, no rescue boat. Though Prescott only discovered as much, having tried to stay up until the middle of the night, after falling asleep as they went into the gate. A vexing search for an unrewarding replay completed one of the longest days in his long career, his two fancied runners in the Cesarewitch–which historic prize he has been trying to win for years–having trailed in 27th and 28th of 30.

“But…..!” exclaims Prescott. “But…..! Just a little chink of light has meanwhile come into my life.”

In fact, that chink of light has every possibility of becoming a wide open door. When Prescott bought Eve Harrington, Arklow had appeared on the page as a 3-year-old sibling by Arch who had not progressed after winning a Grade II race that spring. This year, however, he has really begun to thrive. In May he flew in the stretch to go down by just a neck in the GI Man o’ War S. and, having meanwhile continued to knock the door in graded stakes, last month he made his breakthrough winning the GI Turf Classic at Belmont. He returns to the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Saturday with every right to improve on his fourth last year.

Arklow galloping over the horizon has enabled Prescott to supplement Eve Harrington to the November Sale as Hip 274F. She is being prepared by Adrian Regan of Hunter Valley Farm, who used to work for Prescott.

“Arklow has been my Custer,” says Prescott. “Now the pedigree really is quite decent. We’ve Regan on board now, and have had the whole team at various times! November 6. Is this finally going to be the day I clamber aboard that rescue boat?”

The post All About Arklow’s Sister appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article