Frankel - Stud Career
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Soul Stirring is set to run in the Grade 3 Tulip Sho on Saturday
Soul Stirring is entered for the Grade 3 Tulip Sho at Hanshin on Saturday
1 of 1
By Ollie O'Donoghue 12:35PM, MAR 3 2017
Soul Stirring, who became Frankel's first winner at the highest level in December, continues her preparation for the Oka Sho or Japanese 1,000 Guineas on Saturday.
The filly is entered for the Grade 3 Tulip Sho which serves as a trial for the Oka Sho.
A Shadai homebred, the three-year-old filly has won three races from three starts to date. She won her maiden at Sapporo last July and followed up with successes in the Ivy Stakes in October and the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in December.
Soul Stirring is a half-sister to the maiden winner Southern Stars and is out of the Monsun mare Stacelita.
Stacelita was a top-class mare in her own right winning six Group/Grade 1 contests and found Classic success in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly.
Frankel got off to a flying start with his first crop last year, supplying Group 2 Lowther Stakes winner Queen Kindly and four more stakes winners in Frankuus, Fair Eva, Mi Suerte and Toulifaut.
Perhaps her biggest threat in the field of 12 will come from Lys Gracieux, a Heart's Cry filly Soul Stirring touched off by one and a quarter lengths in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in December.
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Soul Stirring is entered for the Grade 3 Tulip Sho at Hanshin on Saturday
1 of 1
By Ollie O'Donoghue 12:35PM, MAR 3 2017
Soul Stirring, who became Frankel's first winner at the highest level in December, continues her preparation for the Oka Sho or Japanese 1,000 Guineas on Saturday.
The filly is entered for the Grade 3 Tulip Sho which serves as a trial for the Oka Sho.
A Shadai homebred, the three-year-old filly has won three races from three starts to date. She won her maiden at Sapporo last July and followed up with successes in the Ivy Stakes in October and the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in December.
Soul Stirring is a half-sister to the maiden winner Southern Stars and is out of the Monsun mare Stacelita.
Stacelita was a top-class mare in her own right winning six Group/Grade 1 contests and found Classic success in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly.
Frankel got off to a flying start with his first crop last year, supplying Group 2 Lowther Stakes winner Queen Kindly and four more stakes winners in Frankuus, Fair Eva, Mi Suerte and Toulifaut.
Perhaps her biggest threat in the field of 12 will come from Lys Gracieux, a Heart's Cry filly Soul Stirring touched off by one and a quarter lengths in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in December.
The following Frankel's hold their ground for the 2,000 Guineas after the latest forfeit stage:
Cracksman
Dream Castle
Eminent
Frankuus
Seven Heavens
Swiss Storm
1,000 Guineas entrants are:
Extra Mile
Fair Eva
Icespire
La Figlia
Queen Kindly
Cracksman
Dream Castle
Eminent
Frankuus
Seven Heavens
Swiss Storm
1,000 Guineas entrants are:
Extra Mile
Fair Eva
Icespire
La Figlia
Queen Kindly
Interesting article from behind the RP paywall today:
Classic tests fast approaching in Frankel's stallion career
Julian Muscat assesses whether the great racehorse can emulate his great sire
Swiss Storm: son of Frankel was an impressive winner at Newbury in September
Edward Whitaker
1 of 1
6:00PM, MAR 20 2017
It has been a long journey to reach the crossroads. More than four years after Frankel retired to stud, his first crop of three-year-olds will provide the best insight yet into whether his stallion innings might match his exemplary racing career.
Every stallion must pass through this four-year cycle. The first year is the easiest: his racing reputation, coupled with his novelty value, is sufficiently seductive for him to attract mares in abundance. Years two and three are more difficult in the face of competition from new stallion recruits.
Year four is the hardest: the stallion’s first two-year-old runners who will greatly influence breeders’ thinking will be doing the rounds just as the stallion has finished covering his fourth book of mares in June. Why breed a mare to a stallion in year four when his two-year-olds could leave his reputation in ruins?
In this respect, however, and in so many others, Frankel is a bit different. His first two-year-old crop was never going to define him, even though it was unanimously lauded by those who expressed an opinion in public. And the bare details speak encouragingly: Frankel had four Group-winning juveniles in Europe last season. Two more in Japan made him uncommonly productive in the Pattern sphere, which is the only meaningful litmus for stallions commanding six-figure covering fees.
Yet those details will dissolve over the next eight months. The Newmarket Classics beckon, and beyond them the spate of Group 1 tests that have made icons of Frankel’s sire, Galileo, and his grandsire, Sadler’s Wells. Needless to say, expectations remain sky-high.
Among trainers, none has seen more of Frankel’s progeny than Andre Fabre, who was originally earmarked to train up to a dozen of them. Fabre reports them to be of all shapes and sizes, as was apparent when Frankel’s first crop went through sales rings as yearlings 18 months ago.
“They are quite different physically,” he says. “Frankel doesn’t really stamp them but that is not good or bad; it’s just the way it is.”
As for their prowess, Fabre was unable to draw too many conclusions last season, when the strings of so many Chantilly-based trainers were laid low during the summer. “Last season was a bit frustrating,” he reflects. “I couldn’t get them to do as well as I expected.
“Many of mine were a bit backward. They ran promisingly, if a little below what people have come to expect from Frankel. It’s not so much a burden to have a reputation like Frankel’s, but of course when they run everybody is expecting them to win.”
Andre Fabre: frustrating 2016 with his Frankels but optimistic about this year's prospects
Ever the realist, Fabre is distinctly aware he was unable to add to Frankel’s win tally last season. “I must learn how to train them as well as everybody else,” he quips, but he is far from despondent.
“I was expecting a bit more from them, especially with their pedigrees and conformation, but at the moment I'm happy,” he says. “Some of them have done well over the winter, so I'm quite optimistic about this season.”
Fabre was true to his word. Within days of his assessment he saddled Lady Frankel, a half-sister to Lope De Vega, to win on her racecourse debut at Saint-Cloud on Sunday. She is one of three by the sire he identified as being of Pattern-race calibre.
The other two are colts. Franked, a half-brother to disqualified Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine and subsequent Grade 1 winner Price Tag, finished third in a Saint-Cloud maiden in September on his sole start last term. And Last Kingdom finished runner-up twice from as many starts. “He showed us a fair bit last season,” the trainer says of a colt whose dam is half-sister to Coolmore’s young sire Requinto.
If these lightly raced horses are to make their mark, it will likely be in the second half of the year. The more immediate focus is on the one-mile Classics. Five of Frankel’s six Pattern winners to date are fillies, among them Fair Eva and Queen Kindly, who had the former back in third place when winning the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at York. Both fillies were subsequently beaten; Queen Kindly in the Cheveley Park Stakes, when she was palpably below her best.
Queen Kindly (right) wins the Lowther with Fair Eva (left), another Frankel filly, in third
Edward Whitaker
Her trainer, Richard Fahey, is only hopeful Queen Kindly will stay well enough to contest the 1,000 Guineas. “We’ll give her a chance by sending her to a trial over seven furlongs,” the trainer says. “It’s a tricky one, because she was so quick last season and she's out of a fast mare [Lowther and Diadem Stakes winner Lady Of The Desert].
“She was quite small last year but I’m pleased to say she has grown over the winter,” Fahey adds. “She also has a good mind on her, which helps, but you always worry whether a horse with her natural speed will stay.”
Of Frankel’s 'established' fillies, the one most likely to make an early impact is Soul Stirring. Blessed sighs of relief will have greeted her emergence in December last year, when computer programmes were all set to crunch Frankel’s first-crop numbers. Soul Stirring’s victory in the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in Japan amounted to the gilding of a lily that had previously smelt enticing but not mind-blowing.
Soul Stirring duly reappeared with gusto this month to win the Grade 3 Tulip Sho, a trial for the Japanese 1,000 Guineas. Out of the top-class racemare Stacelita, she has obvious Classic prospects, albeit some way from home.
A close eye should also be kept on Mi Suerte, Frankel’s other Pattern-race winner in Japan. After winning the Grade 3 Kyoto Sho Fantasy Stakes, Mi Suerte finished fourth in a strong field of colts for the Grade 1 Asahi Hai Futurity in December. She has obvious potential – as does Toulifaut, a Group 3 winner in France who encountered extreme traffic problems when only eighth in the Prix Marcel Boussac. A half-sister to the Group-winning stayer Ernest Hemingway, Toulifaut may be seen to even better effect when she races beyond a mile.
Beyond these, Frankel will be represented by up to eight sons and daughters who signed off abbreviated two-year-old campaigns with a victory. In their number is the Luca Cumani-trained Aljezeera, who was well touted before her winning debut at Doncaster in August.
Aljezeera: Luca Cumani plans to run Doncaster maiden winner in an Oaks trial
“She had been working well but she started to grow after Doncaster, which is why she didn’t run again,” Cumani says. “She was quite a big, unfurnished filly but she is definitely stronger now, so we’re hoping she'll show what she's capable of.” There will be no 1,000 Guineas bid from Aljezeera, although her promise is such that Cumani plans to start her off in an Oaks trial.
Icespire, trained by John Gosden, is another filly by Frankel who won her sole start last year, while among the colts Cracksman and Monarchs Glen (both Gosden), Mirage Dancer (Sir Michael Stoute), Eminent (Martyn Meade), Atty Persse (Roger Charlton) and Swiss Storm (David Elsworth) closed their juvenile campaigns on a winning note.
The latter two were subsequently bought (Atty Persse outright, Swiss Storm in part) by Godolphin, who plainly retain the faith. Elsworth has infectious enthusiasm for Swiss Storm, who impressed in winning at Newbury in September.
“We all think we have fast cars resting up in the garage but at this stage we don’t know how fast everyone else’s are,” Elsworth says. “With a rating of 89 I suppose he really ought to run in the Esher Cup, but we’ll likely take him back to Newbury for the Greenham. He's a great grubber, a willing worker who is 16.3 hands and with such great bone that he could easily walk around the paddock at Aintree. He’s a proper horse.”
David Elsworth with highly regarded colt Swiss Storm, who is set to go for the Greenham
Edward Whitaker
Throw in a host of unraced three-year-olds with regal pedigrees and Frankel is not short of ammunition in his quest to replicate his racing excellence. It has been a long game of poker, and with the all-ins due to come thick and fast, we can but wait to see whether Frankel remains at the table for the final hand.
Frankel's second crop equipped to spread his reputation
While you would now do very well to find an agent still prepared to admit to his own contribution to the consensus at the time, the fact is that Frankel’s first crop was given a muted reception at the sales. People muttered that the champion had not given his stock a trademark stamp – as was the case with Northern Dancer, among many other mighty sires – and four of Frankel’s first seven foals through the ring failed to meet their reserve.
Sure enough, there was a significant dip in demand for his services in the next covering window. Weatherbys records Frankel as covering 102 mates, down from 133 and 132 in his first two seasons.
Toulifaut: prowess on the racecourse led to €1.9 million price tag at the Arc sale
Patrick McCann
Fortunately, Frankel’s first two books had been wisely managed by Juddmonte – not just in size and quality, but also in terms of what their clients were trying to achieve.
A large proportion of the first mares sent to Frankel represented owner-breeders, more interested in trying to breed a runner than to make a fast buck (by the same token, of course, this meant that the market was making sweeping judgements about Frankel from a relatively small, unrepresentative sample of commercial stock).
Both the farm and its clients are now getting their reward. Frankel is midway through what is certain to prove much his biggest book to date, while those who stayed loyal will be optimistic that his second crop can build on the extraordinary promise of his first.
The pedigrees of those juveniles entering training this year testify to the enlightened discipline shown by Juddmonte, in requiring outside clients to match the quality of their own mates for Frankel.
As a result, Frankel’s two-year-old colts in 2017 include half-brothers to Kingman (already named, aptly, as First Eleven) and Zoffany (this one in training at Ballydoyle); sons of such top-class runners as Attraction (a colt named Elarqam, and duly stabled with Mark Johnston), Midday (registered as Midi and joining his close relative Midterm at Sir Michael Stoute’s), and Sariska (an unnamed colt with John Gosden); and sons of sisters or half-sisters to Dubawi, Bated Breath and Hasili. The fillies, likewise, go from alpha to omega; or, to be specific, from a daughter of Caressor, who is sister to the American champion sire Tapit, to a daughter of the great Zarkava.
Frankel’s second crop, like his first, is equipped to spread his reputation to Japan as well – notably through sons of two outstanding racemares in Vodka, who won seven Grade 1 races there, and Danedream.
Among those to result from repeat breedings is a sister of Toulifaut, whose story is so typical of Frankel’s rookies. Unable to meet her reserve as a yearling at Tattersalls, she won her first three races last season before changing hands for €1.9 million at Arqana’s Arc sale.
Chris McGrath
Classic tests fast approaching in Frankel's stallion career
Julian Muscat assesses whether the great racehorse can emulate his great sire
You must log in or register to see images
Swiss Storm: son of Frankel was an impressive winner at Newbury in September
Edward Whitaker
1 of 1
6:00PM, MAR 20 2017
It has been a long journey to reach the crossroads. More than four years after Frankel retired to stud, his first crop of three-year-olds will provide the best insight yet into whether his stallion innings might match his exemplary racing career.
Every stallion must pass through this four-year cycle. The first year is the easiest: his racing reputation, coupled with his novelty value, is sufficiently seductive for him to attract mares in abundance. Years two and three are more difficult in the face of competition from new stallion recruits.
Year four is the hardest: the stallion’s first two-year-old runners who will greatly influence breeders’ thinking will be doing the rounds just as the stallion has finished covering his fourth book of mares in June. Why breed a mare to a stallion in year four when his two-year-olds could leave his reputation in ruins?
In this respect, however, and in so many others, Frankel is a bit different. His first two-year-old crop was never going to define him, even though it was unanimously lauded by those who expressed an opinion in public. And the bare details speak encouragingly: Frankel had four Group-winning juveniles in Europe last season. Two more in Japan made him uncommonly productive in the Pattern sphere, which is the only meaningful litmus for stallions commanding six-figure covering fees.
Yet those details will dissolve over the next eight months. The Newmarket Classics beckon, and beyond them the spate of Group 1 tests that have made icons of Frankel’s sire, Galileo, and his grandsire, Sadler’s Wells. Needless to say, expectations remain sky-high.
Among trainers, none has seen more of Frankel’s progeny than Andre Fabre, who was originally earmarked to train up to a dozen of them. Fabre reports them to be of all shapes and sizes, as was apparent when Frankel’s first crop went through sales rings as yearlings 18 months ago.
“They are quite different physically,” he says. “Frankel doesn’t really stamp them but that is not good or bad; it’s just the way it is.”
As for their prowess, Fabre was unable to draw too many conclusions last season, when the strings of so many Chantilly-based trainers were laid low during the summer. “Last season was a bit frustrating,” he reflects. “I couldn’t get them to do as well as I expected.
“Many of mine were a bit backward. They ran promisingly, if a little below what people have come to expect from Frankel. It’s not so much a burden to have a reputation like Frankel’s, but of course when they run everybody is expecting them to win.”
You must log in or register to see images
Andre Fabre: frustrating 2016 with his Frankels but optimistic about this year's prospects
Ever the realist, Fabre is distinctly aware he was unable to add to Frankel’s win tally last season. “I must learn how to train them as well as everybody else,” he quips, but he is far from despondent.
“I was expecting a bit more from them, especially with their pedigrees and conformation, but at the moment I'm happy,” he says. “Some of them have done well over the winter, so I'm quite optimistic about this season.”
Fabre was true to his word. Within days of his assessment he saddled Lady Frankel, a half-sister to Lope De Vega, to win on her racecourse debut at Saint-Cloud on Sunday. She is one of three by the sire he identified as being of Pattern-race calibre.
The other two are colts. Franked, a half-brother to disqualified Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine and subsequent Grade 1 winner Price Tag, finished third in a Saint-Cloud maiden in September on his sole start last term. And Last Kingdom finished runner-up twice from as many starts. “He showed us a fair bit last season,” the trainer says of a colt whose dam is half-sister to Coolmore’s young sire Requinto.
If these lightly raced horses are to make their mark, it will likely be in the second half of the year. The more immediate focus is on the one-mile Classics. Five of Frankel’s six Pattern winners to date are fillies, among them Fair Eva and Queen Kindly, who had the former back in third place when winning the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at York. Both fillies were subsequently beaten; Queen Kindly in the Cheveley Park Stakes, when she was palpably below her best.
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Queen Kindly (right) wins the Lowther with Fair Eva (left), another Frankel filly, in third
Edward Whitaker
Her trainer, Richard Fahey, is only hopeful Queen Kindly will stay well enough to contest the 1,000 Guineas. “We’ll give her a chance by sending her to a trial over seven furlongs,” the trainer says. “It’s a tricky one, because she was so quick last season and she's out of a fast mare [Lowther and Diadem Stakes winner Lady Of The Desert].
“She was quite small last year but I’m pleased to say she has grown over the winter,” Fahey adds. “She also has a good mind on her, which helps, but you always worry whether a horse with her natural speed will stay.”
Of Frankel’s 'established' fillies, the one most likely to make an early impact is Soul Stirring. Blessed sighs of relief will have greeted her emergence in December last year, when computer programmes were all set to crunch Frankel’s first-crop numbers. Soul Stirring’s victory in the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in Japan amounted to the gilding of a lily that had previously smelt enticing but not mind-blowing.
Soul Stirring duly reappeared with gusto this month to win the Grade 3 Tulip Sho, a trial for the Japanese 1,000 Guineas. Out of the top-class racemare Stacelita, she has obvious Classic prospects, albeit some way from home.
A close eye should also be kept on Mi Suerte, Frankel’s other Pattern-race winner in Japan. After winning the Grade 3 Kyoto Sho Fantasy Stakes, Mi Suerte finished fourth in a strong field of colts for the Grade 1 Asahi Hai Futurity in December. She has obvious potential – as does Toulifaut, a Group 3 winner in France who encountered extreme traffic problems when only eighth in the Prix Marcel Boussac. A half-sister to the Group-winning stayer Ernest Hemingway, Toulifaut may be seen to even better effect when she races beyond a mile.
Beyond these, Frankel will be represented by up to eight sons and daughters who signed off abbreviated two-year-old campaigns with a victory. In their number is the Luca Cumani-trained Aljezeera, who was well touted before her winning debut at Doncaster in August.
You must log in or register to see images
Aljezeera: Luca Cumani plans to run Doncaster maiden winner in an Oaks trial
“She had been working well but she started to grow after Doncaster, which is why she didn’t run again,” Cumani says. “She was quite a big, unfurnished filly but she is definitely stronger now, so we’re hoping she'll show what she's capable of.” There will be no 1,000 Guineas bid from Aljezeera, although her promise is such that Cumani plans to start her off in an Oaks trial.
Icespire, trained by John Gosden, is another filly by Frankel who won her sole start last year, while among the colts Cracksman and Monarchs Glen (both Gosden), Mirage Dancer (Sir Michael Stoute), Eminent (Martyn Meade), Atty Persse (Roger Charlton) and Swiss Storm (David Elsworth) closed their juvenile campaigns on a winning note.
The latter two were subsequently bought (Atty Persse outright, Swiss Storm in part) by Godolphin, who plainly retain the faith. Elsworth has infectious enthusiasm for Swiss Storm, who impressed in winning at Newbury in September.
“We all think we have fast cars resting up in the garage but at this stage we don’t know how fast everyone else’s are,” Elsworth says. “With a rating of 89 I suppose he really ought to run in the Esher Cup, but we’ll likely take him back to Newbury for the Greenham. He's a great grubber, a willing worker who is 16.3 hands and with such great bone that he could easily walk around the paddock at Aintree. He’s a proper horse.”
You must log in or register to see images
David Elsworth with highly regarded colt Swiss Storm, who is set to go for the Greenham
Edward Whitaker
Throw in a host of unraced three-year-olds with regal pedigrees and Frankel is not short of ammunition in his quest to replicate his racing excellence. It has been a long game of poker, and with the all-ins due to come thick and fast, we can but wait to see whether Frankel remains at the table for the final hand.
Frankel's second crop equipped to spread his reputation
While you would now do very well to find an agent still prepared to admit to his own contribution to the consensus at the time, the fact is that Frankel’s first crop was given a muted reception at the sales. People muttered that the champion had not given his stock a trademark stamp – as was the case with Northern Dancer, among many other mighty sires – and four of Frankel’s first seven foals through the ring failed to meet their reserve.
Sure enough, there was a significant dip in demand for his services in the next covering window. Weatherbys records Frankel as covering 102 mates, down from 133 and 132 in his first two seasons.
You must log in or register to see images
Toulifaut: prowess on the racecourse led to €1.9 million price tag at the Arc sale
Patrick McCann
Fortunately, Frankel’s first two books had been wisely managed by Juddmonte – not just in size and quality, but also in terms of what their clients were trying to achieve.
A large proportion of the first mares sent to Frankel represented owner-breeders, more interested in trying to breed a runner than to make a fast buck (by the same token, of course, this meant that the market was making sweeping judgements about Frankel from a relatively small, unrepresentative sample of commercial stock).
Both the farm and its clients are now getting their reward. Frankel is midway through what is certain to prove much his biggest book to date, while those who stayed loyal will be optimistic that his second crop can build on the extraordinary promise of his first.
The pedigrees of those juveniles entering training this year testify to the enlightened discipline shown by Juddmonte, in requiring outside clients to match the quality of their own mates for Frankel.
As a result, Frankel’s two-year-old colts in 2017 include half-brothers to Kingman (already named, aptly, as First Eleven) and Zoffany (this one in training at Ballydoyle); sons of such top-class runners as Attraction (a colt named Elarqam, and duly stabled with Mark Johnston), Midday (registered as Midi and joining his close relative Midterm at Sir Michael Stoute’s), and Sariska (an unnamed colt with John Gosden); and sons of sisters or half-sisters to Dubawi, Bated Breath and Hasili. The fillies, likewise, go from alpha to omega; or, to be specific, from a daughter of Caressor, who is sister to the American champion sire Tapit, to a daughter of the great Zarkava.
Frankel’s second crop, like his first, is equipped to spread his reputation to Japan as well – notably through sons of two outstanding racemares in Vodka, who won seven Grade 1 races there, and Danedream.
Among those to result from repeat breedings is a sister of Toulifaut, whose story is so typical of Frankel’s rookies. Unable to meet her reserve as a yearling at Tattersalls, she won her first three races last season before changing hands for €1.9 million at Arqana’s Arc sale.
Chris McGrath
I ought to add that there is a little more to the drop in Frankel's mare numbers last year than simple "lack of interest"/"uncertainty". From what I am told a boarding stud near Newmarket had an outbreak of the abortion strain of EHV last spring which meant the whole stud was put under quarantine. Apparently they were boarding at least a dozen mares for outside clients who were all booked to go to Frankel but because of the quarantine they were not allowed to leave the premises until the all clear had been given, by which time it was too late in the season to cover them.
I'm told he is "fully booked" for this year, but Juddmonte are always pretty conservative with their covering numbers (I've never known any of their horses to cover more than 140) so who knows what that means. Other studs are certainly more relaxed on numbers with Darley allowing up to 160-ish and Coolmore going as high as 200 with their Flat stallions (their Jumps stallions have been known to get to the 280 mark!).
I'm told he is "fully booked" for this year, but Juddmonte are always pretty conservative with their covering numbers (I've never known any of their horses to cover more than 140) so who knows what that means. Other studs are certainly more relaxed on numbers with Darley allowing up to 160-ish and Coolmore going as high as 200 with their Flat stallions (their Jumps stallions have been known to get to the 280 mark!).
Standard procedure is to cover no more than 4 a day, though some might manage 5. It's usual stud practice, where I have worked, to cover at 7am, 12pm, 7pm and, if needed, midnight. Midnight coverings are a total pain in the backside but thankfully they don't happen every day.
You also have to take into account that some mares won't get in foal at the first attempt as well so will need covering multiple times.
You also have to take into account that some mares won't get in foal at the first attempt as well so will need covering multiple times.
Yup, MUSIKEL, a gelded half-brother to Finsceal Beo, got off the mark at the second time of asking at Newcastle this evening.
I'm trying to keep up on the runners and results, but for obvious reasons things are starting to slip! I'm due in 3 weeks, so if I disappear for a bit you'll know why!
I'm trying to keep up on the runners and results, but for obvious reasons things are starting to slip! I'm due in 3 weeks, so if I disappear for a bit you'll know why!
If Frankel is to have a ‘first’ season Classic winner in this part of the world, I am currently only looking at two candidates:
With a view to the 2000 Guineas, I will be keeping a keen eye on Swiss Storm if he makes his reappearance in the Greenham at Newbury for David Elsworth. He must be hoping that the horse does not get transferred to one of the Godolphin trainers at the first sign of Classic potential but the piece that Princess posted suggests that Elsworth is happy with the horse’s progress over the winter and top-draw two-year-old form is sufficiently thin on the ground to suggest that it could be open at the start of the campaign in May.
When last seen, 1000 Guineas candidate Fair Eva was hugely disappointing at Newmarket but I share trainer Richard Fahey’s pessimism about Queen Kindly staying a mile so I can see Richard Charlton’s filly finding the necessary improvement over the winter to be a real candidate on May 7th.
Everything looks to be going swimmingly for Stacelita’s daughter Soul Stirring over in Japan, having won her trial. Knowing virtually nothing about Japanese horses in Japan, I would not be rushing to back her for Classic success but hope she succeeds.
Will Andre Fabre pitch Lady Frankel into the Classic fray across The Channel? Only he can judge the calibre of the local opposition.
With a view to the 2000 Guineas, I will be keeping a keen eye on Swiss Storm if he makes his reappearance in the Greenham at Newbury for David Elsworth. He must be hoping that the horse does not get transferred to one of the Godolphin trainers at the first sign of Classic potential but the piece that Princess posted suggests that Elsworth is happy with the horse’s progress over the winter and top-draw two-year-old form is sufficiently thin on the ground to suggest that it could be open at the start of the campaign in May.
When last seen, 1000 Guineas candidate Fair Eva was hugely disappointing at Newmarket but I share trainer Richard Fahey’s pessimism about Queen Kindly staying a mile so I can see Richard Charlton’s filly finding the necessary improvement over the winter to be a real candidate on May 7th.
Everything looks to be going swimmingly for Stacelita’s daughter Soul Stirring over in Japan, having won her trial. Knowing virtually nothing about Japanese horses in Japan, I would not be rushing to back her for Classic success but hope she succeeds.
Will Andre Fabre pitch Lady Frankel into the Classic fray across The Channel? Only he can judge the calibre of the local opposition.
