The Weekly Wrap

In Newmarket, the baton-switch from late spring to early summer has been completed with the movement of racing from the stark openness of the Rowley Mile to the more bucolic charms of its sun-dappled neighbour. Where better, then, to take in what on paper appeared to be one of the smartest maidens of the season to date?

Saturday's curtain-up at the July Course featured not only siblings to Group 1 winners Arabian Queen (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Cursory Glance (Distorted Humor), but also a recent expensive acquisition for Phoenix Thoroughbred Limited, the $800,000 breeze-up filly Take Me With You (Scat Daddy), and last year's Tattersalls October Book 1 co-topper Glorious Journey (GB), a son of Dubawi and Philippa Cooper's homebred G1 Coronation S. winner Fallen For You (GB) (Dansili {GB}).

Unleashing such a noteworthy colt as Glorious Journey brings its own pressures and, coming at the end of a week which saw the resignation of Sheikh Mohammed's right-hand man John Ferguson, it was hugely important that the 2.6 million-guinea purchase represented the Godolphin blue in a positive light. This he did with aplomb, despite looking physically behind some of his rivals in the paddock–a factor which should be to his benefit as the season unfolds.

Cooper, who returned last year to the sales ring after a lengthy absence, plans to retain Glorious Journey's yearling half-brother by Frankel (GB), but will again be offering a batch of her Normandie Stud yearlings this autumn through Norris Bloodstock, including two close relations to Glorious Journey, both from the first crop of Kingman (GB).

She said, “I didn't go to watch him on Saturday–it's probably best for breeders to stay out of the way once they have sold a horse–but it was very exciting to watch on television. I've never even had a runner over six furlongs. It was a huge ask for him so it was a thrill to see him win. As a young horse we never really knew he was there because we never had a single problem with him.”

Charlie Appleby will be hoping for similarly plain sailing as Glorious Journey continues on a racing quest that will almost certainly see him boosted to Pattern company for his next outing.

“He showed us signs early on that he had ability but about eight weeks ago he went a little backwards on us,” noted the trainer. “We backed off him and in the last few weeks he's come back to us and I decided it was time to allow him to go out there and do it on the track. He's still maybe a bit weak behind and through his neck and we'll wait to see how he goes in the next few weeks before we decide whether or not he will come back here for the July meeting.”

As Appleby may well have expected, he was quizzed about Godolphin's turbulent week, replying with his usual politeness that he is employed by the operation to train horses rather than to comment on personnel changes. Initially thrust into the spotlight on the back of the Mahmood Al Zarooni doping episode, Appleby, who has spent much of his working life with Godolphin, has never shied away from speaking openly to the press from the day he took on what is on one hand a golden opportunity to train a large number of well-credentialed thoroughbreds, and on the other a role that is under constant external scrutiny.

The trainer's likeable level-headedness has no doubt helped him to continue to focus on the positive, and for him that has clearly always been the horses in his care. At a time when plenty are wondering what happens next for Godolphin, Appleby can take deserved pride in the fact that his stable boasts a 30% strike-rate leading into one of the most important weeks of the racing year in Britain. Glorious Journey's opening-race triumph on Saturday was swiftly augmented by wins for another two of his Dubawi colts, the juvenile Folk Tale (Ire) and Culturati (GB), who returned from a lengthy absence to force himself into the reckoning for the Wokingham H. at Royal Ascot. Of course it is the big races that matter most, so perhaps another son of Dubawi, the well-related Frontiersman (GB), can add to Appleby's group-race haul before too long, and maybe as soon as next week in the G2 Hardwicke S.

The Butler Did It…

Sir Mark Prescott taking to tweeting is about as unlikely as Theresa May remaining ensconced in Number 10 until Christmas but, just as the world of politics has continued to astound us for the last 12 months, there appeared on Twitter recently the handle @HeathHouseNkt. Don't be fooled, however. While the loquacious baronet can still be relied upon to recount a stream of side-splitting anecdotes from his vantage point on Warren Hill before most of us have even had breakfast, it is his long-time assistant William Butler who is the driving force behind the stable's recent embracing of social media.

Butler spent last week overseeing a rare runner for the stable in America, where St Michel (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) was a fast-finishing second to the Andreas Wohler-trained Red Cardinal (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) in what was a European-dominated GIII Belmont Gold Cup. The first four home represented Germany, Britain, France and Ireland, with the winner and runner-up now likely to head even farther afield to Australia for the G1 Melbourne Cup in November.

“He was grand after the race and hasn't missed a beat,” reported Butler of the 4-year-old St Michel. “The trip to Belmont was very much a recce to see if he's the type of horse to take to Melbourne. Jeremy Noseda was very kind and gave us plenty of help with the arrangements for Belmont and I imagine we may well be calling on Luca Cumani as we start to plan for Australia.”

As lovingly as Prescott has preserved the historical aspect of Heath House, with commemorative plaques to all 12 previous trainers lining the wall of the entrance, the meticulous planner naturally has an eye on his stable's future. For 18 years now, Butler has been first pupil assistant and then assistant trainer and has been well groomed to take the reins at the central Newmarket yard. When that handover will be only Prescott knows, but loyalty is a quality the trainer values as highly as punctuality and in Butler he has found a worthy successor whose tenure at Heath House is outranked in longevity only by the semi-retired Colin Nutter, Prescott's former head lad of 46 years' service.

A recent TDN visit to the yard underlined the great store Prescott sets by his staff's allegiance and ability to follow orders. He warned, “If I said to Colin, 'Mrs. Berry is arriving at 6.15, take her into box 20 and shoot her', you'd be dead by 6.18 and at lunchtime he'd ask me what I'd like him to do with the body.” Point taken.

Pearce Legacy To Continue…

St Michel's owner-breeder John Pearce died in January at the age of 98, but his blue and white racing silks will still be seen on the racecourse for seasons to come thanks to the endeavours of his great nephew Edmund Bush and advisors Rupert Bentley and William Huntingdon. The trio will oversee John Pearce Racing and Breeding, maintaining four mares and their followers at Lanwades Stud and around 10 horses in training.

“We will carry on with John's aim to breed mile-and-a-half horses,” said his longstanding friend Huntingdon, who, along with Geoffrey Brooke, Doug Smith and Geoff Wragg, previously trained for Pearce.

Though never succeeding in his desire to race a Derby winner, Pearce came agonisingly close with Dragon Dancer (GB) (Sadler's Wells), who was beaten just a short-head at Epsom by Sir Percy (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}) in 2006.

His racing colours have long been synonymous with good stayers, not least the Ascot Gold Cup winner Arcadian Heights (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}), so a crack at one of the world's most famous staying races on the other side of the world with St Michel would be a fitting way to usher in a new era for an owner-breeder operation which is happily continuing for the foreseeable future.

No Silencing Dabirsim…

Dabirism (Fr) (Hat Trick {Jpn}) romped through his juvenile season in 2011 unbeaten, making a name for his young trainer Christophe Ferland when closing out the year with back-to-back Group 1 strikes in the Prix Morny and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere.

Standing his first two seasons at stud at Gestut Karlshof, he was Germany's busiest stallion on his retirement in 2009 and maintained a three-figure book the following year before being returned to the country where he was trained. For the last two seasons he has been based in Normandy at Haras de Grandcamp.

His runaway early success as a racehorse is currently being emulated in his fledgling stallion career, with five of his first seven runners being winners, including Cead Mile Failte (Fr), who has won both his starts for owner Theresa Marnane and trainer Matthieu Palussiere. It's a furious strike-rate to maintain but, judging from some of Dabirsim's yearlings at last year's sales, they won't all be early types, so it's reasonable to hope we will start to see some progressive representatives emerging as the season continues.

The French breeding community has flirted with sons of Sunday Silence in the past, but none broke through to any meaningful degree despite the fact that Divine Light (Jpn) provided Stefan Friborg with the 1000 Guineas heroine Natagora (Fr) before being shipped off to Turkey. Sunday Silence's grandson Dabirsim gives a glimmer of hope that the sireline can at last take root in Europe.

The Weekly Wrap will return after Royal Ascot.