A bit early to start this but Mark Dixon almost got off the mark with his first runner of the year at Wolverhampton. Pink Petunia, despite running very freely, went down by just 3/4length to the Godolphin 4/5 favourite. She was 80-1 so this must have exceeded the expectations of her connections. Apparently trainer Hughes likes her and that she will improve on this. She's by Without Parole (by Frankel) out of the three times winnning Punting. This mare is the sole mare Dixon has who does not trace back to Yawl. Pink Petunia is her first foal, the 2yo was sold as a foal while the current yearling is a colt by Ardad. The Felsetta website currently shows the intention to have 5 2yo fillies in training this year. Early days and it may not work out that way but they are:- Territories out of Sibling (mare is a full sister to Oaks winner Talent); Ashbrittle partnership, New Bay out of Forte (mare is a full sister to Talent); Asbrittle partnership, Ghaiyyath out of Fiesty (mare is a Siyouni daughter of Forte); Ashbrittle partnership, Cracksman out of La Spezia (half sister to Thomas Hobson); Mount Coote partnership, Gleneagles out of Lara (first living foal of unraced Camelot half sister to Thomas Hobson); Mount Coote partnership. This is a family who generally bloom as 3yos (Bireme, Talent etc.) and often as 4yos/5yos (Buoy, Dreamloper etc.) so don't expect to see any of these this side of September 2025 at the earliest. Hopefully there'll be some names soon. More on the 3yos and 4yos later. Same for the De Walden horses and Cliveden Stud.
In the past two weeks Lady Howard de Walden's two 3yos have run and both came 2nd. First up was Gemmari who on his fourth start made his handicap debut at Kempton. He appeared to have no chance entering the straight but came through to be beaten by a fast diminishing head. If he'd had a clearer run he'd probably have won and definitely showed he had some ability. He's out of a very useful Galileo mare called Gravitation. Yesterday Gennadius (whose dam is a half-sister to Gemmari) made his debut on the same course and was unfortunate to come up against a very hot Godolphin horse in Opera Ballo. He slaughtered Gennadius but De Walden's colt was the only one to give Opera Ballo a race. It was also significant that after being left by Opera Ballo he didn't shrivel up but came away from the rest of the field. The curious thing is that both these colts are entered for sale at Tattersalls on Friday. It would be late in the day to withdraw them but if they are not then Lady Howard de Walden will have only one unraced 2yo Geodasia (a Time Test half-sister to Gemmari) to represent her. Am I yet again cataloguing the demise of a once powerful stud?
Curious. Gemmari went for 39,000gns and Gennadius went for 32,000gns as Richard Hannon's East Everleigh lots went through the ring. They were both bought by Peter & Ross Doyle. Who buy a lot of horses for ..........Richard Hannon. Curiouser and curiouser.
Both still registered with Hannon but Gennadius now owned by Middleham Park. Meanwhile Mark Dixon's Harpers Ferry is entered for the Lincoln and currently 3rd favourite. Uncle Dick would be amused.
Gemmari gets off the mark with a win at Wolverhampton. He too is no longer owned by Lady de Walden but is trained by Hannon for the Richard Hannon Racing Syndicate. He'll go up at least 5lb for this performance but looks as if he can win again. This leaves De Walden with only one horse in training and that is the 2yo Geodasia, who's a Time Test half-sister to Gemmari. Mark Dixon's mares have delivered him 2 foals so far. The first was a Loye Y Fernandez son of Sea Sparkle (an unraced maiden mare by Sea the Stars out of Forte, who's a full sister to Oaks winner Talent). The second was a Ghaiyyath filly out of Fiesty (a Siyouni half sister to Sea Sparkle). Both foals are part of the Ashbrittle partnership.
Harper's Ferry makes his seasonal debut at Newmarket today in an 8f Class 2 handicap. Very much Mark Dixon's flagbearer this year he looks as if he will start favourite. He finished off last year with a promising victory at Doncaster and looked at if he was at last realising his promise. With Marquand not available Walker has called up Oisin Murphy while giving this Lope de Vega colt a good write up in The Weekender. Hopefully he'll win this before going on to better things. He now has a third foal, this one a colt by Space Blues out of La Superba from the Mount Coote partnership. There could be 3 more foals to come. Dixon appears to have an unraced 3yo going into training and that's Orange Mousse (though named Mouse on the website).. She's by Masar out of La Marchesa, so a half-sister to the useful Marquisat. Intriguingly she is also listed as visiting new French sire Onesto. While it's not unknown for 3yo fillies to be covered, it is fairly rare. The usual reason for such a move is that the filly keeps being 'in season' so difficult to train. Getting them in foal obviously stops that. None of the 6 2yosare yet to be placed with trainers on the website though it looks as if Glenena (Gleneagles filly out of Lara: first foal) will go to Beckett and Trio ( Territories filly out of Sibling) will go to Eve Johnson-Houghton: but nothing confirmed. The very interesting 2yo filly is Newhaven, who is by New Bay out of Talent's full-sister Forte. The fact that nothing is announced on trainers tends to suggest we'll be lucky to see any of them before the Autumn.
Poor seasonal debut by Harper's Ferry. Marquand ran on his own on the far rails and won fairly easily on Bullet Point..
Not much happening on the racecourse for the horses in training of my 3 owners but some action for their breeding interests. In 2023 the Mark Dixon Mount Coote partnership sold a yearling filly Zarak out of Bari. This mare had just produced a Listed winner in the shape of Maud Gonne Spirit in Ireland (Maud Gonne Spirit's had been by Olivia Hoare in 2018), but was/is a shy breeder. She had produced another small winner in the shape of Just Jacob. Surprisingly the Zarak filly went for 160,000guineas and was shipped off to America. She's run 3 times and won all 3 and has even been entered for the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Given that, the Partnership must be even more disappointed with the 32,000gns they received for Bari's Space Blues yearling colt last year. Bari was sent to New Bay this year but has no yearling or foal. At the same time Olivia Hoare's other Dixon mare (bought in 2010 and named Livia's Dream) has been making hay with a Golden Horn daughter of Livia's Dream that she sold as a yearling in 2021 for 280,000gns called Santorini's Star. Like many of her family she was unraced as a 2yo, but she won twice on the All-Weather as a 3yo and has now won twice as a 4yo. Like many of the family she is improving with age (her half-sister Dreamloper won two Group 1s as a 5yo). She now has an OR of 94 and a search for Black Type must be underway. Meanwhile there's an unraced 3yo filly, Dreamasar (by Masar), in training with Walker and a 2yo filly Dream Vaga, who's a full sister to Dreamloper. This has been a terrific mare and she has a yearling filly by Sea the Stars and is due to foal to New Bay. This is while Dixon's one runner on the turf flat (so far), Harper's Ferry, has returned to his madcap days. They can't geld him because they've already done that. Walker seems to have lost patience. A 2yo filly, Trio has gone into training with Eve Johnson Houghton. Lady Howard de Walden sold her 3yos earlier in the year and has just one 2yo filly, Geodasia (by Time Test) in training. She sent her mare Gemina to Study of Man and has been rewarded with a filly foal. Cliveden Stud were beginning to look as if they were gone but thankfully Return of Mares shows that their Group 2 winner Horseplay has produced a Baaeed colt foal for the stud. The yearling filly by Frankel is already shown to be in the ownership of Juddmonte.
Dreamasar makes her debut this week. She's a 3yo and it's perfectly in keeping with other members of her family that she didn't run as a 2yo (as didn't Dreamloper, Dreamrocker and Santorini Star). She starts at Newbury over 8f on Wednesday in what looks a reasonably competitive Novice event. She could easily stay much further. Mark Dixon is at least getting some foals coming through. He currently has 2 colts and 4 fillies. Sires are Space Blues and Lope Y Fernandez (colts) and Mutasabeq, Triple Time, Showcasing and Ghaiyyath (fillies). The one mare who hasn't foaled (and so there may be no produce) is La Marchesa. She was covered by Lope de Vega last year, which should have given a three-parts sister to Dreamloper.
A competent debut by Dreamasar finishing 3rd (unfancied 25-1) in a pretty useful 8f Novice race at Newbury. The winner, Blue Bolt, looked very useful and had the race won a long way out (the 2nd should be followed too). However 2f out Dreamasar looked to have a chance as Shoemark made his move but ran on just one pace in the final furlong. Probably as good a debut as her illustrious half-sister Dreamloper, who went on to win two Group 1s. Being by Masar she should stay 10f-12f. Her next start eagerly awaited.
