At last some direct success for Mark Dixon as his Territories 2yo Trio wins fairly convincingly at Leicester. Not a bad performance as she ran freely all the way round and cornered like a giraffe going round Tattenham Corner. She's the first foal of a full-sister to Talent and looks as if she can do a bit better than this, especially if she learns to settle and run round bends. There's no yearling but there's a Triple Time yearling half-sister and this year the mare, Sibling, visited Vadeni.
The Mark Dixon/Mount Coote bred Laurelin (by Zarak) attempts to win her first Grade 1 race at Keeneland this evening. She was sold as a yearling for €160,000 guineas and has won all her 5 previous races. She is fairly rare for a horse from this family in that she won as a 2yo (in fact twice). Some do, but the victory by Trio earlier this week is Dixon's first runner to win as a 2yo since Talent won a Kempton maiden in 2012. It isn't surprising. Apparently Dixon's uncle Dick Hollingsworth got very worried to receive a telephone call from his trainers before the end of August. He didn't expect his horses to run before late September. If Trio can improve as much as other family members often do she could win races as a 3yo/4yo, just like her relative Dreamloper (who didn't win her first race until the backend of her 3yo season). Mount Coote's owner reported that Bari, Laurelin's dam, will visit Zarak next year. It is to be hoped she gets in foal (missed '24 and '25) and even better if she produces a filly.
Johnson-Houghton and the owners of Trio obviously toyed with the idea of getting some black type in the Montrose listed race on Saturday but have taken an easier challenge in a 9f Nursery. She looked as if she would be suited by Newmarket and the extra distance should not worry her. Olivia Hoare has decided to send her latest yearling out of her mare Livia's Dream (dam of Dreamloper and Santorini Star) to the December yearling sales. As well as the mare she has Dreamrocker (Fastnet Rock) at stud, the 3yo filly Dreamasar (Masar)and the 2yo filly Dream Vega (Lope de Vega) all available to her, so this Sea the Stars filly is probably surplus to requirements. The mare produced a New Bay filly this year and is a very prolific filly producer.
Postscript Olivia Hoare bought Livia's Dream as a yearling in 2010 for 45,000gns. She's by Teofilo out of a Dr Fong mare called Brindisi out of a Zafonic mare called Genoa. She won 4 races as a 3yo, 4yo and 5yo, including one Listed All-Weather race. She's had 8 foals and the 6 that have raced have won. But she's not a one trick pony (horse) as in 2018 she purchased from the same family/stud/owner (Dixon/Ashbrittle partnership) the first produce of a mare called Bari for 55,000gns. Bari is by Cape Cross out of Genoa, so a half-sister to Brindisi. The Intello filly purchased was given the slightly peculiar name of Maud Gonne Spirit. Unlike Livia's Dream and her produce (all trained by Walker) she went into training in Ireland with Mrs Harrington. Like Livia's Dream she did not win as a 2yo but did every year from 3-6 winning 6 races, including a 9f Listed event as a 6yo. She has produced her first foal and surprise surprise it's by Zarak (see Laurelin above). As a colt he's likely to be sold at some point. Other than getting reasonable prices for Bari's produce the Dixon/Ashbrittle partnership haven't had the same luck, as Bari is a shy breeder and so far only produced 5 foals.
