The Weekly Wrap: Romance of the Turf

And so, 250 years after the meeting was first staged, Royal Ascot is behind us once more. It is wholly appropriate that the last of the 30 races of the week is the Queen Alexandra, the longest of the entire Flat season and one for which the horses require as much stamina as the racing fans and fashionistas who complete the marathon five-day trip, feet much wearier, wallet a little lighter, belt perhaps a tad tighter.

It is hard to imagine another sport which has such rituals entwined in its annual function. However much one loves or loathes the fashionable frivolity of Ascot, with its archaic doffing of tops hats and bowing and curtseying to the monarchy, there's no denying that its strictly observed customs make it special beyond any other meeting. Leaving aside the real equine stars of the show for one moment, on a personal level Royal Ascot is about meeting the same friendly faces in the same picnicking spot year after year and knowing that, though time may take its toll on our ability to maintain a strong pace throughout the long drawn out carnival, we'll arrive each time at the start with a shared sense of unbridled anticipation.

In Tune With History…

Major dispersals of recent years have included those from the Wildenstein and Ballymacoll breeding empires. There's something terribly poignant about such apparent endings but perhaps they should be viewed in a different light, as a beginning for other breeders, or at least for those remaining breeders content to play the long game.

Long before the Wildenstein stock was dispersed en masse, however, the Bering filly Private Life (Fr) left the fold as a 4-year-old in 2001. The granddaughter of the 1976 dual Oaks and King George winner Pawneese (GB) took her time to settle but eventually ended up in the broodmare band of Bjorn Nielsen, having for a time been owned by German breeder Dr. Christoph Berglar, who sold her in 2006 while carrying to Azamour (Ire). Tom Goff then bought her for 70,000gns for Nielsen, who sent her to Dansili (GB) then Peintre Celebre before Sea The Stars (Ire) for the mating that would provide both her final foal and her greatest triumph—Stradivarius (Ire).

The 4-year-old's victory in the oldest race of Royal Ascot, the Gold Cup, was just reward for an owner-breeder who has stuck resolutely to his aims of racing and breeding top-class middle-distance and staying horses. The South African-born Nielsen, who grew up in Epsom, understandably has the Derby as his main aim but already has one British Classic to his name through the 2011 St Leger victory of Masked Marvel (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}).

And if one should feel for Dr. Berglar in this story, it is worth noting that he reinvested in the same family a year later when buying Patineuse (Ire) (Peintre Celebre), a daughter of Private Life's half-sister Parisienne (Ire) (Distant Relative {GB}). She has since given him Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}), winner of that other rather famous staying contest, the G1 Melbourne Cup.

Heavenly Beginning…

In similar vein, last year's Ballymacoll Stud dispersal is already starting to reap dividends for those who invested in the stock nurtured by the Weinstock family and manager Peter Reynolds.

While most eyes were on Royal Ascot, the juvenile Miss Celestial (Ire) made a winning debut at Lingfield for Sir Mark Prescott, her sire Exceed And Excel (Aus) adding a bit of zip to a family also responsible for the St Leger winner Conduit (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}). Bought from the dispersal by William Huntingdon and Liam Norris for 180,000gns, it's pleasing that the daughter of Liber Nauticus (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}) is now in the hands of John Pearce Racing, the nom de course of Edmond Bush, who inherited the racing and breeding stock of his great uncle, John Pearce. The owner-breeder, who died last year at the age of 98, held, like Bjorn Nielsen, a long-term ambition to win the Derby. This he so nearly achieved with Dragon Dancer (GB) (Sadler's Wells), beaten a short-head by Sir Percy (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}) in 2006.

Bush is continuing in this Classic aim and will eventually add Miss Celestial to a select band of broodmares which board at Lanwades Stud and include last year's purchase Best Friend (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a sister to the treble Group 1 winner Lush Lashes (Ire).

He says, “It was my late uncle's wish that his breeding and racing interests should continue in the form of John Pearce Racing and our ultimate goal remains to breed and race a Derby winner in John's famous blue and while silks. We are keen to preserve the legacy of his longstanding homebred families whilst also rejuvenating the broodmare band.”

“Miss Celestial looks an exciting prospect from a lovely family and we are very pleased with her first outing.”

The Andrew Balding-trained Pivoine (Ire) (Redoute's Choice{Aus}) was another recent winning Ballymacoll graduate, scoring by six lengths at Sandown in the colours of King Power Racing, who bought the 4-year-old gelding for 340,000gns.

Aim Of Artemis (Ire) (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}), who sold for 1 million gns in December, found the step into Group 1 company a little much for her in the Coronation S. following her first victory in the Godolphin blue a fortnight earlier, but she remains an interesting prospect. It's also worth looking out for Floria Tosca (Ire), a 260,000gns purchase at the December Sale by Fittocks Stud, who is entered in a Bath maiden for Luca Cumani on Wednesday. As a daughter of Shamardal and the great Islington (Ire), she will make a lovely addition to the Cumanis' breeding operation in due course, whatever the outcome.

Back In The Summer Of '69…

An obsession for horses who won major races in the year I was born means that I have a dog named Blakeney after the first of Arthur Budgett's homebred Derby-winning half-brothers. Park Top is right up beside Blakeney on that pedestal.

The Duke of Devonshire's great filly is best remembered for her glorious summer of '69 and her triumphs in the Coronation Cup and King George. Her owner's passion is well documented in one of the most charming racehorse biographies of all time, A Romance Of The Turf, which is matched only by Lord Oaksey's story of Mill Reef. A Romance of the Turf is written by the owner himself, however, and in an epilogue some 30 years after Park Top retired from racing, the duke reminisced, “Although to non-racing people this may seem trivial, owning Park Top was one of the great emotional experiences of my life.”

For all her brilliance on the racecourse, Park Top was consistently beset by misfortune throughout her breeding career. Her first foal, Willow Song, arrived two months early with a twisted hind leg. In this more commercial age she might well not have been persisted with but, as she grew a little and the leg improved, she was sent, like her mother before her, to be trained by Bernard van Cutsem. Her breeder never lost faith in the filly who grew only to 14.3 hands and was placed once in four races. He remarked of her record, “She showed immense courage and gave all she had.”

How fitting then that almost 50 years after Park Top made Ascot her own with victories in the Hardwicke S., followed up by the King George, her descendant Shang Shang Shang (Shanghai Bobby)—who bears the diminutive Willow Song as her fifth dam—should fly home in the G2 Norfolk S. As in all good love stories, the romance never dies.

Arthurian Legend…

There are echoes of the Park Top story in the more modern tale of triumph and adversity told after the Chesham S. win of Arthur Kitt (GB) (Camelot {GB}).

As a homebred Royal Ascot winner, it had been hoped that the colt's dam Ceiling Kitty (GB) (Red Clubs {Ire}) would become a lynchpin of Andrew Black's Chasemore Farm operation. Her death during foaling was thus a cruel blow for the Betfair founder-turned-breeder who would doubtless relate to the Duke of Devonshire's “emotional experience”.

After that cold February night as the newborn Camelot colt gasped for his own life so soon after his mother's had ended, any breeder would have been permitted to dream a little, seeking hope in an otherwise grim situation. Less than two and a half years later, racing's pendulum swung back in favour of Black when the unbeaten Arthur Kitt won the race that had been in his breeder's mind since before he was even conceived.

“People have criticised me and said that I was a bit arrogant for saying that I was trying to do this and trying to do that,” said Black on Sunday morning. “But I don't think it's arrogant to try to do something and with Arthur Kitt, when I was thinking about the mating, I was thinking about the Chesham, and that was in my mind when I sent the mare to Camelot. It's amazing to have that kind of long-term plan play out. It's good for your self-belief and it's good for all the team at Chasemore Farm. It helps everyone to believe in what we're doing.”

Arthur Kitt is trained alongside his year-older winning half-sister Formidable Kitt (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) at Tom Dascombe's Manor House Stables, which is part-owned by Black with Michael Owen, while Ceiling Kitty's listed-winning daughter Eartha Kitt (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) is at Chasemore Farm carrying her first foal by Frankel (GB).

Maher's Hair-Raising Adventure…

One of the more extraordinary sights of the Royal meeting was seeing Ciaron Maher's gloriously long curly locks making a desperate bid for freedom from beneath his top hat. The Australian played a part in Aidan O'Brien again being crowned leading trainer at the meeting as he was the former trainer of Merchant Navy (Aus), having bought him at the Inglis Easter Sale for A$350,000.

“It is a credit to the team and the staff, he has come right through our system,” said Maher after the son of Fastnet Rock (Aus) held off City Light (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) by a nose in the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. “We bought him as a yearling, we broke him in and he has developed all the way, he is just a phenomenal horse.”

He added, “I had never been here before to Royal Ascot, everyone said that it is a testing six furlongs and I really thought that would suit him because he has got an unbelievable lung capacity. I thought it would be an ideal race for him and to see it all come to fruition and come off, it is unbelievable. It doesn't get any bigger than here, really.”

Maher also worked his way into the unsaddling enclosure for the final race of the day with the Joseph O'Brien-trained Light Pillar (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who finished fourth behind Pallasator (GB) (Motivator {GB}) in the Queen Alexandra. While the winner is scheduled to make an appearance in the Tattersalls July Sale as lot 864, Light Pillar has recently been bought by Maher for the Rafferty's Rules Syndicate and it would be no surprise to see the 4-year-old among his string in Australia.

The trainer himself has a different challenge on his plate in the meantime, however, as he will be lining up for the fiendishly difficult Mongol Derby on Aug. 3. He faces stiff competition, not just from fellow Aussie Rob Archibald, the husband of Francesca Cumani who is now assistant trainer to David Simcock, but also TDN's own Kelsey Riley, who is raising funds for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's Second Chances Program. We wish them all godspeed.