The Weekly Wrap: In Praise Of The Old Guard

The focus for the week ahead, with returning hot weather in the UK and Ireland, will be the glorious sport on offer at both Goodwood and Galway. But really this month in Europe is stolen by the delights of Deauville.

You can see a sneak preview of all the town has to offer via Zuzanna Lupa's wonderful photographs in this month's TDN Weekend but culinary and coastal interests aside, the racing is really what it's all about and the action last weekend offered the perfect hors d'oeuvres to the courses to come over the next few weeks.

It's wrong to think of a Group 1 as anything other than a main event but the result of the Prix Rothschild, which brought about another top-level victory for an owner-breeder whose understated success is always a source of pleasure, sets up the prospect of the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois being the most thrilling mile clash of the season.

George Strawbridge's With You (GB) (Dansili {GB}), a sister to the hormonally challenged We Are (Ire)—who was disqualified after winning the G1 Prix Saint-Alary but later gained compensation in the G1 Prix de l'Opera—could now lock horns with Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) on Aug. 12. The latter would be not only likely to start favourite but would also be an appropriate winner in the race sponsored since 1986 by her owner-breeder's Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard. Since then the Niarchos family has won the race on eight occasions with Hector Protector, Exit To Nowhere, Spinning World (twice), Six Perfections (Fr) and, most notably, Alpha Centauri's celebrated great grandam Miesque won it twice in 1987-88, and grandam East Of The Moon followed her mother's example six years later.

Among the colts the two fillies could encounter in Deauville are the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Romanised (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), G1 Prix Jean Prat winner Intellogent (Ire) (Intello {Ger}) and Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}), the Gunthers' G1 St James's Place S. winner who will bid to solidify his claim to be leading 3-year-old colt of the season in tomorrow's G1 Qatar Sussex S.

Favourable Exchange
In the week after his breeder Philip Freedman was honoured with the TBA's Andrew Devonshire Bronze for his outstanding contribution to the bloodstock industry, it was fitting to see the late Exchange Rate as the sire of notable Group winners in Britain and France.

Homerique, bred in America by the French- and Irish-based Drion brothers, has raced just four times so far in her career but is another feather in the cap of her young trainer Francis Graffard. In that brief career to date, Graffard has coaxed a debut victory, a third-place finish in the G1 Prix de Diane at the shoulder of winner Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) and ahead of With You, as well as Saturday's win the G3 Prix de Psyche.

At York on Saturday, the improving 5-year-old Thundering Blue provided a first Group success for his Sussex-based, French-born trainer David Menuisier in the G2 Sky Bet York S.

Grey, like Homerique and their sire, Thundering Blue was an eye-catcher for several reasons last season as he hauled his way through the handicap ranks and it was pleasing to see him rewarded with a black-type victory in the colours of his fantastically eccentric owner Clive Washbourn.

The former Three Chimneys Farm resident Exchange Rate is of course best remembered in Europe as the sire of the brilliant Reckless Abandon (GB), an unbeaten juvenile for Clive Cox whose subsequent stud career was abbreviated by poor fertility. He has, however, been represented by 11 runners and four winners from that solitary small crop foaled in 2015, the year their sire was gelded following a lacklustre return to the training ranks which saw him record two listed-placed efforts for Charlie Appleby.

Of Exchange Rate's final batch of juveniles this year, his €400,000 Arqana breeze-up purchase East Coast Swing is currently in training with George Scott for owners George Bolton, Bill Jenkins and Kerri Radcliffe and, unraced to date, she holds an entry for the G2 Sky Bet Lowther S. next month.

Sweet On Sugar
Back on Sept. 6, 2014, Burnt Sugar (Ire) became the first Group winner for this then freshman sire Lope De Vega (Ire). He was as good an advertisement at the time as he is now.

Sure, plenty of owners want early 2-year-old success and this he gave his initial syndicate De La Warr Racing, having been bought by Lord De La Warr's son, bloodstock agent Ed Sackville, for 60,000gns. Burnt Sugar was second on his first two starts, as early as May 31, then won his maiden, followed by the G3 Sirenia S. and a fourth-place finish in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on European racing's biggest weekend, all while trained by Richard Hannon. The night before his outing in Paris, he was sold again, this time for €350,0000 to the China Horse Club. The Lagardere remained his best run in the red and yellow silks and by July 2016 he was back in the ring at Tattersalls where he was knocked down for 72,000gns to Abdullah Meshrif Al Kahthani.

Despite being bound for export, Burnt Sugar never left the UK, having failed a post-sale wind test. Tim Palin of the 6-year-old's current owning syndicate Middleham Park Racing takes up the story.

“We'd bid on him at the July Sale but he went past our limit and we forgot about him and moved on. Then [agent] Ross Doyle rang me and explained the situation and that Richard wanted to keep him and asked if we'd be interested in buying him privately,” he recalled.

Burnt Sugar stayed with Hannon for the remainder of the 2016 season before switching to the Yorkshire stable of Roger Fell.

Palin said, “We gave him a proper winter off and gelded him but he's had no wind surgery. Roger bought a leg and we kept the rest of the shares. Roger has a very interesting set-up at his stable which seems to suit a lot of older horses. We're very grateful to Ross and Richard for pointing the horse in our direction.”

On his fourth start for Fell and back down to a mark of 85 from a high point of 112, Burnt Sugar returned to the winner's enclosure last June and again in September in a valuable handicap at Leopardstown. To that tally he has added this season's Bunbury Cup, followed by Saturday's plundering of the Gigaset International S. at Ascot off a mark of 100.

With more than £250,000 added to his prize-money haul since he started racing in Middleham Park's silks, the gelding could yet return to Group company in Paris on Arc weekend.

“We'll see what the handicapper does but he's going to go up to around 105 and then you're not far off Group class. We're considering the Prix de la Foret for him as he was bought as a seven-furlong specialist, but obviously that's a way off so we'll see what there is for him before that,” Palin added.

A Group-winning juvenile is one thing, but a horse who shows that class coupled with durability and enthusiasm season after season is even better.

Glory, Honour, Empire
And while we're on the subject of hardy old-timers, it's worth noting the first black-type win for the well travelled 7-year-old Glorious Empire (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), who dead-heated with Channel Maker (English Channel) in Saturday's GII Bowling Green S. at Saratoga. It could be argued that a dead-heat only counts as half a win but it's noteworthy all the same for a horse who was claimed for $62,500 at Belmont just over a year ago and has twice been pulled up in races when bleeding.

Originally sold as a foal for €20,000 at Goffs by his breeder Patrick Grogan, Glorious Empire provided a decent pinhooking return for Ed Player of Whatton Manor Stud, who sold him on at Tattersalls October Book 2 for 90,000gns. Like Burnt Sugar, he was bought as a yearling by SackvilleDonald, though this time by the other half of the partnership, Alastair Donald.

Having won four of his six starts in the UK when trained by Ed Walker, he left England with a mark of 97 and joined the Hong Kong stable of Caspar Fownes but only for two starts and one win before returning to Walker. His sole start back in England in the Bunbury Cup saw him pulled up within the last quarter of the race after bursting a blood vessel.

This episode led to his owner P K Siu giving him a try in America, where he joined Tom Morley's string for six starts before being claimed by owner Matthew Schera when finishing last of 12 at Belmont Park having bled again. He won his next start for trainer Carlos Martin last July and was last seen racing in 2017 when he walked off the track bleeding from the nose after failing to see out the GII Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup S. at Laurel Park.

Moving on to his fifth trainer, James Lawrence, Glorious Empire has made three starts this year, the last two being back-to-back wins, and he finally had his big day in the sun at the Spa, albeit sharing the spoils with Channel Maker.

Glorious Empire was the first foal of the unraced Humble And Proud (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}), a half-sister to the Gerald Leigh-bred listed winner Delsarte (Theatrical {Ire}). Their dam Delauncy (GB) (Machiavellian) was sold when carrying Humble And Proud for 410,000gns at Tattersalls in 2005. The further family also includes John Deer's G1 Prix de l'Abbaye-winning half-brothers Patavellian (Ire) (Machiavellian) and Avonbridge (GB) (Averti {GB}).

Time For Agent To Pony Up
Plenty has been written about Sir Michael Stoute's sixth win in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II S. on Saturday, with Poet's Word (GB) (Poet's Voice {GB}) and James Doyle timing their run to perfection to throw the equally admirable Crystal Ocean (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) temporarily into the shadows at the post.

One concern about the rise of the super stable is the idea that the best horses in each yard might not end up being pitched against each other. There was no such fear here, and with the trainer unable to split them at home, nor the punters on the day, the sight of the two older stablemates joining each other at the furlong marker and drawing farther and farther clear of their opponents gave the race that should be Britain's midsummer highlight a greater gleam than has been the case in some recent renewals.

Sighted only once at two, and not a Group winner until this time last year when landing the G3 Glorious S. at Goodwood, Poet's Word is a wonderful reminder that good things can indeed come to those who wait, and there are few trainers with greater reserves of patience when he knows he has a decent prospect in his stable than Stoute.

The one fly in the ointment is for Charlie Gordon-Watson, who selected the winner as a yearling for his long-term patron Saeed Suhail, for whom he also bought the Derby winner Kris Kin and 2000 Guineas winner King's Best. A rash breakfast-table promise on Saturday morning means that the agent now has to buy his young daughter a pony. Hopefully he'll be able to find one for a little less than the 300,000gns he bid for Poet's Word, though, with the 5-year-old having earned more than £2.7 million in prize-money, that now looks like money very well spent.