Just a bit of housekeeping. Naval College won't be Dartmouth's first runner in the NH sphere as that will actually happen tomorrow at, God's own racecourse, Newton Abbot. Sailing Grace (2.55) goes for Anthony Honeyball in the Junior "National Hunt" Hurdle. Eyecatchingly, Saving Grace's dam was actually trained by forum favourite, Nicky Henderson - she won 3 races.
In the next 6 days five Royal 2yos are entered. Only two of them are debutants, Market Value and Value Added, and surprisingly Hughes already has Buick booked for the latter. Hughes also has Candle of Hope entered on the same card and reunites her with Egan, who won on her FTO. I think this filly was run too often in July/August but there could be empathetic reasons for that. It would be good to see her run in the style of her first two runs (now she's had a 7 week rest). Market Value has entries at Doncaster and Newcastle, the latter being a track that Haggas favours. Juryman is entered to run Friday at Newbury, and this Recorder colt seems to be coming along slowly. He still looked green on his second run but should do better if he does start Friday. The surprising 2yo is Desert Hero. His winning debut created a very favourable impression and it wasn't surprising when he started favourite in the Solario. He was beaten 5 lengths by Silver Knott, who went on to win the Autumn Stakes at Newmarket. Desert Hero seemed to overrace that day and had nothing to offer at the business end of the race. He gets a chance to regain his confidence and composure at Redcar on Monday. Other 2yo news: Garner, the first Royal 2yo winner this year in May, left Beckhampton in early June and is reported to have been gelded in August. Obviously some problems there, but gelding may sort out this promising 2yo. Gosden has yet to run a Royal 2yo this season/year. Other news: Reach for the Moon is entered for Saturday's Prix Perth at St. Cloud.
The Newmarket Mares & Fillies Sale catalogue has been published and 18 are listed for sale by The Royal Stud. At first sight that appears a big number, suggesting that The King has taken the decision to downsize the Royal interest in racing and breeding. That could be the case, but it should be remembered that in the last few seasons the number of Royal horses in training has increased significantly, so there are going to be more available to be sold. There’s also a few points that should be made. The first is that one 3yo filly was owned not by the late Queen but by the then Prince Charles. The second is that 2 of the mares to be sold actually went through the ring last year: one was sold, but for some reason returned to the Royal Stud, and another was unsold. The third point is that 3 of the fillies are unraced 2yos that are probably thought unlikely to be worth keeping in training. So that rapidly reduces the real sale to 12 fillies and mares. If I’m surprised at any mare being sold it is Fiery Sunset, a Galileo yearling in 2012, who is the dam of the useful 2yo Circle of Fire and USA group winner Eastern Sun. There is no daughter of Fiery Sunset in the stud and only a Time Test filly foal in waiting. If there’s a choice lot I think it could be Distant Light. She’s a winning half-sister to Group winner Light Refrain and could be a good mare to breed from. Discretion, a full-sister to Wink of the Eye, could also be a popular filly with buyers. I criticised Muscat’s inaccurate article on the Royal Stud a few posts back. What is being sold here only adds more ammunition. Of the list of 18, Intelligentsia, Fiery Sunset, Imminent, Dusty Dream, Playback, Improvise, Stimulate, Set to Music, Shimmering Light, Loch Glass, Cape Point and Pride of the Pack (so that’s 12) are from ‘new’ families. Hardly an advertisement for a successful wholesale renewal of the Royal Stud. It does look as if only 2 mares will join the stud this Autumn and they are Mellow Yellow (new) and Perfect Alibi. If that seems a small amount it should be remembered that there are eleven 2yo fillies left who could turn into future broodmares (there are also 11 filly foals and 12 yearling fillies). I think the stud needed a slight cull, so I’m not worried by this sale of 18 fillies and mares. The stud still appears to have 28 or so active mares, which seems quite enough. I would be worried if there are not more new broodmares entering the stud next Autumn. A lot can happen between now and the Sale, and some of these may be withdrawn.
Difficult to judge the value of form in this sticky ground especially for debutants. On Friday Market Value made her debut at Doncaster, and despite improving mid-race was eventually well beaten. She's Estimate's latest 2yo and will probably need 10f to show her ability. Estimate ran a similar year-end race as a 2yo, and there was little encouragement in the market. She'll do better. Hughes's Value Added did get some interest from backers at Newbury on Saturday and was picked out as a good-looking filly with plenty of scope. She dwelt at the start but 3f out made what looked a race-winning move on the far side. She was eventually run out of it in the last 50yds by a filly who had the experience of a run. Both fillies pulled well clear of the rest. I'd gauge that as a good first performance and hopefully next year she'll be useful at 7-10f. Candle of Hope ran a poor race in the Radley Stakes, and the Heavy going didn't seem to suit her. Hopefully she'll come back next year, but I do think she's been over-raced. Reach for the Moon was highly disappointing in France. It's back to the drawing board with him.
Well, with 30 odd mares, so possible 25+ foals it's very near equilibrium. My own view is that the Royal Stud has not been as ruthless in its culling of mares and racing stock as it could be. The only problem with culling is that you have to make the right choices. A fair couple of days at the Sales Stoute's clear out was particularly profitable. Stoute Just Fine 300,000gns, Theme Park 200,000gns, Naval College 165,000gns and Kiteflyer 52,000gns. Balding Duty Bound 55,000gns, Juryman 45,000gns Constitution 18,000gns, Tack 4,000 gns and more to come. Bell Spring is Sprung 14,000gns Haggas General Idea 4,500gns General Idea must be a bitter pill to swallow. A Galileo colt out of a purchased Australian Group1 filly, you'd have expected more. Unraced as a 2yo, he was entered for the Derby in the Spring of his 3yo career. After a disappointing debut 3rd he got increasingly worse. He was taken out of training in June and ends up being sold for about 2% of his sire's fee.
3 more on Wednesday Tactical 150,000gns (goes to Julie Comacho) Love Affairs 38,000gns Quiet Life 5,000gns The latter 2 were both from Cox. Love Affairs was the Queen's last winner. Quiet Life was an unraced, 2yo daughter of Humdrum. A useful million (less auction fees) trousered. It's on to the Mares (and Filles) Sale now.
I guess it's going to be a fair few of them rich 6 furlong handicaps at York for Tactical next season. I do rate Julie Camacho and feel they could be a good combo moving forward.
Would have fetched more if it hadn't been gelded prior to sale. I would have been interested. I noticed that often happens with racehorses with good pedigrees, if they don't perform on the racecourse. Pity as that doesn't necessarily mean its progeny won't perform. And it still has years of growing to do so might be useful over hurdles as a 5yo
Do you mean Just Fine, Ron? If so, Just Fine was gelded in the October of his 2yo campaign. PS I wouldn't have interested at that price
Crikey 300K for a gelding. Obviously shown enough on the track to believe he might recoup that over the sticks. Sounds risky to me.
Judging from his achievements so far, it would appear as though there isn't much more to come from him. Interesting
I’ve made a lot of the Royal 2yos that are unraced. Here they are:- From the Royal Stud Keen Melody f by Le Havre out of Set to Music (Bell) Reminder f by Dubawi out of Memory (Balding) Marching Band c by Ribchester out of Medley (Stoute) Gentle Light f by Frankel out of Light Music (Stoute) Clear Thinking f by Dubawi out of Sweet Idea (Haggas) Silver Pageant f by Iffraaj out of Silver Mirage (Bell) Slipofthepen c by Night of Thunder out of Free Verse (Gosden) Calmly f by Dubawi out of Shama (Gosden) Brought-in horses Torchlight f by Invincible Spirit out of Fireglow (Gosden) Persian Gold c by Night of Thunder out of Huma Bird (Gosden) Spanish Serenade c by Lope de Vega out of Pink Rose (Cox) A few of these may run before year end and one shouldn’t forget that this year’s best Royal 3yo filly, Perfect Alibi, was unraced as a 2yo. However, I’d still prefer to have my 2yos run.
Very strange.....I didn't write the PS. If you meant General Idea, well he appears useless. I'd imagine they had him gelded because he was a ++++.
Tomorrow sees the first tranche of Royal fillies and mares going through the ring. Will be interesting to see what prices they obtain. After a hiatus of more than a month some Royal 2yo entries are seen. The most interesting entry is probably the unraced Slipofthepen, who's trained by Gosden. He'a a Night of Thunder colt out of a Danehill Dancer mare called Free Verse. The dam won a couple of times as a 2yo. Surprisingly, entered in the same race there's another newcomer called Strandonthegreen (Swanny will probably know where this is), who has appeared from nowhere and is probably a gift to the King (all I know is that he was bought as a foal for 25,000gns). Another 2yo to be entered is the once-raced Galileo filly Blue Missile. I'm sure Haggas will expect a better showing from this filly. So Wednesday is hopefully a big day for the King's 2yos.
The first 4 go out the door and a £half-million is taken. The mare I had doubts about selling, Fiery Sunset (dam of winning 2yo Circle of Fire) fetched 170,000gns. Next best price was obtained for the brought-in Intelligentsia, who made 150,000gns. Pied Piper's dam, Pure Fantasy, made 72,000gns. The fourth lot was the unraced Imminent, who's a Dubawi full-sister to what the Racing Manager seems to think is the best Royal mare, Diploma, made 85,000gns. Not bad, until one considers how much the covering fee was (if they paid it).
All three 2yos were declared for Wednesday. Buick is on Standonthegreen and J Doyle is on Slipofthepen, but in different divisions. Blue Missile has no jockey at the moment. The second 4 go through the ring and earn 300,000gns+. The most expensive was Dusty Dream (a Dubawi half-brother to Recorder and Call to Mind). She was next to useless on the track but actually sold at this Sale last year, in foal to Showcasing, for 180,000gns. This year she sells for 145,000gns in foal to Victor Ludorum. Second best was the filly I highlighted, Distant Light, who sold for 90,000gns. A surprise was the 50,000gns paid for Playback, a Recorder filly sister to Tactical. She never ran as a 2yo and was only in training for a short while. The fourth horse, Discretion, surprisingly only made 18,000gns. 8 down and 10 to go. I hope the King doesn't get used to this.
