The Weekly Wrap: Allez Les Bleus

[Wandering Eyes]

The Derby winner Masar (Ire) (New Approach {GB}) may sadly be out for the season but there were plenty of consolation prizes for Sheikh Mohammed in the week that he celebrated his 69^th birthday. Godolphin is currently the leading owner in both Britain and France, where the blue team’s tallies were extended further by four Group winners over the last seven days—two in each of the countries.

Charlie Appleby currently sits behind only Aidan O’Brien and John Gosden on the table for leading trainers in Britain, but at 30% he boasts a higher winners-to-runners strike-rate than either of those rivals. Seven winners in the week, including the G2 Bet365 Superlative S. with Quorto (GB), who gave his sire Dubawi (Ire) his 101^st Group winner, speaks to the excellent form of Appleby’s Moulton Paddocks team, but Saeed Bin Suroor has also been rallying his troops.

Godolphin’s longest-standing trainer sent out five winners last week and had the rare Kodiac (GB) middle-distancer performer Best Solution (Ire) in tiptop shape to win the G2 Princess Of Wales’s Arqana Racing Club S. The 4-year-old, bred by Cecil and Martin McCracken, now looks likely to join stablemate Benbatl (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) on the plane heading for Melbourne later this year.

The French wing of the operation made sure the good run was upheld with consecutive victories at Maisons-Laffitte on Sunday for Gyllen (Medaglia d’Oro) in the G2 Prix Eugene Adam followed by Inns Of Court (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) in the G3 Prix Ris-Orangis, the racing completed in time for the football fans to watch France record their second victory in the World Cup, 20 years after the first.

Darley’s annual stallion parade is a highlight of Newmarket’s July Week and breeders invited to this year’s event were able to take a closer look at Masar’s Derby trophy while his sire New Approach knocked stablemate Dubawi from his honoured position as the parade closer. The 16-year-old lynchpin of Dalham Hall Stud was the penultimate stallion to take his turn on the lawn, however, while his four-time Group 1-winning son Postponed (Ire) led the parade.

Goddess In The Making
The only thing that could have enhanced the week for Sheikh Mohammed would have been a win for Blue Point (Ire) (Shamardal) in the G1 July Cup, which has been sponsored by his Darley operation for more than 20 years.

The G1 King’s Stand S. winner could manage only seventh and instead the trophy went to Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor for US Navy Flag, by War Front, who also sired the third home, Fleet Review, with both colts being out of Galileo (Ire) mares.

US Navy Flag’s victory over the admirable Brando (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) was the first leg of a cross-Channel Group 1 double for Aidan O’Brien, who hopped on a plane from Newmarket to Paris along with jockey Ryan Moore to win France’s Bastille day feature, the G1 Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris, with Kew Gardens (Ire) (Galileo {GB}).

Arguably one of the most exciting performances by a Ballydoyle runner last week—certainly the most visually stunning—was that posted by Goddess (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in Thursday’s Leopardstown juvenile maiden. Having found trouble in running on debut on June 29, Goddess was sent straight to the head of affairs by Seamie Heffernan this time around and there she stayed, opening up an ever-greater advantage as the race wore on to score by 10 lengths. The full-sister to the previous weekend’s GI Belmont Oaks victrix Athena (Ire) earned not just ‘TDN Rising Star’ status but also a quote of 16/1 for next year’s QIPCO 1000 Guineas.

Daire’s Dream Night
It wasn’t only Goddess who was impressive at Leopardstown on Thursday, which also proved to be a red-letter day for young apprentice Daire Davis. Having had just eight previous race rides, the 17-year-old rode his first winner aboard Signing Off (Ire) for his boss Jim Bolger in the second race on the card before leading up the winner of the feature race, Cimeara (Ire) in the G3 Stanerra S.

The second success brought up a double on the night not just for Bolger but also for his 12-year-old stallion Vocalised (Vindication), who stands at the trainer-breeder’s Redmondstown Stud.

The victory of Signing Off, who won at odds of 25/1, prompted Bolger to comment that it was the “coolest ride of the year”. High praise indeed from the man who has also had such famous names as Aidan O’Brien and Sir AP McCoy among his band of past apprentices.

Champion SItting Pretty
Silvestre de Sousa parted company with Godolphin back in 2014 but bounced back in typically determined fashion to become champion jockey in Britain the following year before regaining that title in 2017. The Brazilian hasn’t taken his foot off the gas this season either—or at least his driver hasn’t. By motoring all over the country, usually to two meetings a day, de Sousa is currently 20 wins ahead of his nearest pursuer Danny Tudhope in the Flat Jockeys’ Championship, which runs in tandem with the QIPCO Champions Series, from Guineas weekend to Champions Day.

He appears to be happy to graft away at both major and minor tracks but it remains a woeful scenario that a jockey of his calibre is often not a first call-up for Group races. In the past week, de Sousa has ridden seven winners and has had his mounts in the first three on a further 11 occasions. It was pleasing to see that one of these triumphs was in the G2 Duchess Of Cambridge S. aboard the Michael Bell-trained Pretty Pollyanna (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who now shares top billing in the 1000 Guineas ante-post market with Goddess.

Being in the vanguard certainly helped Bill and Tim Gredley’s homebred in that she wasn’t caught up in the melee that ensued behind her as Angel’s Hideaway (Ire) veered sharply across to the stands’ rail when coming under pressure two furlongs from home, hampering first Chicas Amigas (Ire) then Main Edition (Ire) and La Pelosa (Ire). Even without such a skirmish, Pretty Pollyanna would still surely have been an impressive winner.

Angel’s Hideaway’s jockey Frankie Dettori was handed a 10-day suspension for careless riding, which will rule him out of the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. as well as Glorious Goodwood, meaning he will potentially miss rides on Stradivarius (Ire) in the G1 Qatar Goodwood Cup and Without Parole (GB) in the G1 Qatar Sussex S. unless the appeal he lodged on Monday is successful. Should he remain stood down, owners and trainers could do worse than look to de Sousa as a replacement.

Cup Breeders Recognised By VRC
The Melbourne Cup, which is now sponsored by Lexus, was ‘on tour’ in Britain last week along with VRC Chairman Amanda Elliott and it touched down in Newmarket for Darley July Cup day on Saturday before heading to Overbury Stud in Gloucestershire on Sunday for a photo call with Sheikh Fahad Al Thani’s 2011 winner Dunaden (Fr).

While at Newmarket’s July Course, Elliott made a special presentation to the breeders of the last two winners of the Melbourne Cup—Almandin (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) and Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}).

Peter Stanley accepted the trophy on behalf of Almandin’s breeder, Germany’s oldest Thoroughbred stud, Gestut Schlenderhan, but the entire Pocock family had travelled from Somerset to receive the trophy for Rekindling, whom they bred from the now 20-year-old mare Sitara (GB) (Salse {GB}), a daughter of the Fittocks Stud matriarch Souk (Ire) (Ahonoora {GB}).

“The journey to the Melbourne Cup begins with the breeders and it is important for us to recognise that,” said Elliott as she handed over miniature replicas of the Cup. Young Esme Pocock, daughter of Nick and grand-daughter of Robert, who have made a successful transition from dairy cattle to Thoroughbreds at their family-run Stringston Farm, clutched the trophy on her first visit to the races while her father confirmed that Sitara foaled a three-parts brother to Rekindling this year, by Toronado (Ire).

The Cup tour also stopped in at Ed Dunlop’s La Grange Stables and to the National Stud to visit Trip To Paris (Ire). Dunlop came agonisingly close to Cup glory with his five-time challenger Red Cadeaux (GB) and could be represented in this year’s race by another Ronnie Arculli-owned horse, the 5-year-old G2 Hardwicke S. runner-up Red Verdon (Lemon Drop Kid). Dunlop also trains Almandin’s 2-year-old half-brother by Tertullian for OTI Racing.

From Dubai To Sweden Via Jamaica
The Norwegian-trained and French-bred Nordic Defense landed Sunday’s Swedish Derby at Jagerso and was yet another good 3-year-old winner this season for breeder Ecurie des Monceaux and partners following the likes of Intellogent (Fr) (Intello {Ger}) and Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Niels Petersen had sent the son of Makfi (GB) to Dubai over the winter, where the trainer had previously enjoyed success with Beat Baby (Ire), a winner at the Carnival in 2015. Nordic Defense managed a runner-up finish in listed company at Meydan.

Jagersro’s big day also featured the six-furlong G3 Zawawi Cup, in which I Kirk (Swe) routed his rivals by five lengths. The 4-year-old is a son Eishin Dunkirk (Mr Prospector), who stands at Ivan and Berit Sjoberg’s Ravdansens Stuteri, the subject of a recent TDN feature by Amie Karlsson.

I Kirk—one leg of a treble on the day for trainer Susanne Berneklint and, more remarkably, one of six winners for jockey Carlos Lopez—wasn’t the only success story celebrated by the Sjobergs this week. On Thursday, Jamaica (Swe) became the first runner and first winner for their young stallion Barocci (JPN) (Deep Impact {JPN}). The Wildenstein-bred full-brother to G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner Beauty Parlour (GB) was a listed winner and Group/Graded-placed in France and America, and he has fewer than 20 foals in his first crop.

 

 

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