The Weekly Wrap

[Wandering Eyes]

Though it could be described as a deliberately soft launch, the reopening of France’s premier racecourse after two years under dust covers gave the Flat season a much-needed boost during what is continuing to be one of dreariest springs in recent memory.

The going was even softer than the launch itself but some welcome sunshine in the Bois de Boulogne set the rechristened ParisLongchamp on her way to a hotly anticipated grand opening on Apr. 29, which will also hopefully see the return of Cracksman (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the G1 Prix Ganay, which has had its value doubled to €600,000.

Last weekend they were galloping across the much faster turf and dirt of the Meydan circuit, but jockeys Oisin Murphy and Christophe Soumillon appeared not to mind the squelch of Longchamp and respectively claimed the first two Group races on the fresh Paris turf aboard Chilean (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) and Air Pilot (GB) (Zamindar).

Chilean’s change of ownership is in name only. Last season he raced for Sefton Lodge Thoroughbred Racing, advertising the name of Martyn Meade’s Newmarket stable, but the trainer has now relocated to an even more prestigious base, having bought a significant chunk of the Manton Estate over the winter. Thus, Chilean now runs for Manton Estate Racing and, appropriately, became Meade’s first winner from his new yard, in the G3 Prix La Force.

One senses that it was a labour of love for Lady Cobham to get her homebred Air Pilot back to the track after a two-year convalescence from an injury sustained during his 3-year-old season with Rupert Pritchard-Gordon. Her perseverance paid off and, now nine, Air Pilot has rarely been out of the frame in his 22 subsequent starts for Ralph Beckett, with Sunday’s victory in the G2 Prix d’Harcourt being the most prestigious of his eight wins, following his snow-topped success in the G3 Prix Exbury in mid-March.

Double Delight For Bryce
The Manton syndicate and Lady Cobham weren’t the only British owners in the ParisLongchamp winner’s enclosure on Sunday. Colin Bryce, who with wife Melba owns Laundry Cottage Stud in Hertfordshire, drew first blood with Do Re Mi Fa Sol (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and returned later in the afternoon with Borderforce (Fr) (American Post {GB}), the pair bringing up the first two legs of a memorable treble for trainer Francis Graffard.

The Bryces didn’t breed listed winner Do Re Mi Fa Sol but they can enjoy some reflected glory in her existence as they bred her sire, Wootton Bassett, who enjoyed his finest hour at Longchamp when winning the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in 2010, also in rather testing conditions.

“Francis actually rang me when Do Re Mi Fa Sol was going through the yearling sales and said I ought to buy her,” explained Bryce. “But I was away at the time and we let her go. So when I eventually bought her at Arqana last December as a broodmare prospect for a lot more money than she cost as a yearling, I rang Francis and said, ‘You’d better take her and we’ll see if we can win a Group 3 before she goes to stud’.”

The 5-year-old, from the further family of Montjeu (Ire), effectively already has one foot in the paddocks as she is in foal to Le Havre (Ire). Owner and trainer are aiming for one last run in Group company at Saint-Cloud at the beginning of May before retirement beckons for Do Re Mi Fa Sol.

Barkaa’s Timely Boost
Barkaa (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) ensured that one of Longchamp’s three Group races stayed at home and bolstered the Classic hopes of her trainer Fabrice Vermeulen and owners Gerard Augustin-Normand and Jose Bruneau de la Salle with her victory in the G3 Prix Vanteaux.

She also gave a timely boost to two lots in the Osarus Breeze-up Sale at La Teste de Buch on Apr. 25. Lot 57 is Barkaa’s half-brother from the first crop of Haras du Quesnay’s Anodin (Ire), while four lots later (61), also from the draft of Haras de Saint Arnoult, comes a Siyouni colt from a half-sister to Barkaa’s dam, Dentelle (Fr) (Apeldoorn {Fr}).

Previously, the best of Dentelle’s seven winners had been the treble listed scorer My Old Husband (Fr) (Gentlewave {Ire}), whose 11 victories have been spread across France, Italy, Switzerland and Slovakia. Dentelle was herself a three-time winner in the provinces and has a rather intriguing pedigree, being inbred 2×3 to R B Chesne (GB), the Henry Cecil-trained G2 Champagne S. winner of 1978 who was by Brigadier Gerard (GB) out of a full-sister to the Arc winner Vaguely Noble (Ire).

It was a good weekend for Osarus, which also saw its September Yearling Sale graduate Fatale Bere (Fr) become the first Group/Graded winner for her young sire Pedro The Great when landing the GIII Providencia S. at Santa Anita. The 3-year-old filly—who was bought for €14,000 as a yearling—also has a tenuous link to France’s other sales company, however, as she is trained by Leonard Powell, the brother of Arqana’s Head of Bloodstock, Freddy Powell.

Hurrah For Hunaina
A good start to the season for Derrinstown Stud’s Tamayuz (GB) continued with the victory of Hunaina (Ire) in Saturday’s listed Snowdrop Fillies’ S. For those who read the recent TDN feature with Trevor Stewart, there was a good pointer towards the winner. The 4-year-old continued the purple patch for French trainers on Britain’s all-weather tracks, becoming the first winner in the UK for Chantilly-based Henri-Francois Devin, who has recently bought Criquette Head-Maarek’s yard to house his burgeoning string.

Hunaina runs in Stewart’s colours made famous by Cassandra Go (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) but is co-owned with James Hanly and Anthony Stroud, having been bought by the trio from the Aga Khan Studs draft at Goffs last November.

Twenty-four hours later, there was more success for Hanly, who bred the winner of the first European Classic of the season, the Gran Premio Valderas (Spanish 1,000 Guineas), in Madrid. Kodiak West (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) was sold by Hanly’s Ballyhimikin Stud to owner Jose Maria Maldonado for 60,000gns at Book 3 of Tattersalls’ October Sale before joining the Chantilly stable of Spanish expat Mauricio Delcher Sanchez.

Having enjoyed a successful return to his homeland on Sunday, Delcher Sanchez then saddled the winner of one of Monday’s Classic trials at Deauville, the G3 Prix Imprudence, when Coeur De Beaute (Fr), a first-crop daughter of Dabirism (Fr), built on her first stakes victory last year in the listed Prix Zeddaan.

Moisson Precoce (GB) (Lawman {Fr}), who had beaten Kodiak West by 2½ lengths in a Deauville maiden last month, was a close-up fourth behind Coeur De Beaute.

Daddy Dearest
After a less than auspicious start to the European breeze-up season at Ascot last week, round two gets underway today at Doncaster with no small amount of trepidation among some consignors as to what is in store from a notoriously selective market in which catalogue numbers have risen significantly.

The sector received another boost on Saturday, however, with a conditions race one-two at Kempton for Craven Sale graduates. Last year’s top lot Kings Shield and One Cool Daddy are both sons of the late Scat Daddy, bought for 675,000gns and 95,000gns respectively. Kings Shield, a Gaybrook Lodge Stud graduate now unbeaten in two starts for Qatar Racing, is being aimed at the G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains by trainer John Gosden.

Kings Shield’s dam Gender Dance, a winning daughter of Miesque’s Son, holds the distinction of her offspring having twice topped Tattersalls’ premier breeze-up sale. Subsequent Group 3 winner Great White Eagle (Elusive Quality) was sold by Lynn Lodge Stud to the Coolmore partners for 760,000gns in 2013.

With Scat Daddy’s reputation greater than ever more than two years after his death, thanks to recent stellar performances by Kentucky Derby hopefuls Mendelssohn and Justify, Tattersalls will be delighted to have nine members of his final crop catalogued for sale next week.

National and International Frosts
We may be slap-bang in the middle of the Classic trials but British jump racing’s biggest day is upon us this Saturday with the £1 million Randox Health Grand National. This year’s maximum field of 40 looks set to feature three female jockeys hoping to make Aintree history by becoming the first woman to win steeplechasing’s most famous prize. Katie Walsh, who will ride Zorka Wentworth’s mud-loving mare Baie Des Iles (Fr) (Barastright {GB}), is a dab hand around the unique fences and finished third in 2012 on Seabass (Ire) (Turtle Island {Ire}), trained by her father Ted.

Rachael Blackmore and Bryony Frost are both set to have their first rides in the race.

Frost, a conditional jockey with champion trainer Paul Nicholls, has gained plenty of recognition this season with some high-profile Saturday wins and she aims to follow in the footsteps of her father Jimmy, who rode Little Polveir (GB) (Cantab {GB}) to victory in the 1989 Grand National. Frost’s brother Hadden, a former Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey, has retired from the scene in Britain but took to the saddle again last year in America where he won twice at the My Lady’s Manor meet in Maryland before going on to be beaten just half a length in the Maryland Hunt Cup on Drift Society (Ire) (Jackson’s Drift).

The 27-year-old has found that the lure of race-riding is still strong and is currently back in the States for six weeks. Frost will renew his partnership with last year’s runner-up—a former Irish point-to-point winner now trained by Jack Fisher—in a bid to go one better and add an international aspect to his family’s chapter in the history of steeplechasing. The $100,000 Maryland Hunt Cup takes place on Apr. 28.

 

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