A TOUGH and consistent performer throughout his five seasons racing, Spirit Dancer (Frankel) was somewhat under the radar until he hit a winning streak this year, the six-year-old landing handicaps at York and Windsor before returning to the Knavesmire for the Group 3 Strensall Stakes.

Delighted with this latter win, his trainer Richard Fahey discovered after the victory that the race gained the gelding an automatic place in the $1 million Bahrain International Trophy.

With one run in the intervening period, on unsuitable ground, Spirit Dancer travelled to Bahrain in hope rather than with huge confidence, given that he was facing three Group 1 winners, and some 13 opponents representing five different countries.

This resounding Group 2 victory boosted Spirit Dancer’s career earnings to almost £750,000, and his shocked and delighted owner-breeder, Sir Alex Ferguson, welcomed his homebred back to the echo of a resounding cheer from the crowd at the Rashid Equestrian and Horseracing Club. This was start number 23 for Spirit Dancer, victory number seven, and connections can now perhaps look forward to more international forays with him. This was the gelding’s first run outside Britain.

Alex Ferguson bred Spirit Dancer in partnership with Niall McLaughlin, and now races him with Ged Mason and Peter Done. He is the best of four winning offspring of the unraced Queen’s Dream, a daughter of Oasis Dream (Green Desert).

Rich vein

Oasis Dream mares, covered by Frankel (Galileo), have proven to be a rich vein when it comes to unearthing quality runners. This autumn it has given up its first Group/Grade 1 winner, Kelina at ParisLongchamp, while Spirit Dancer joins the Group 1-placed Obligate as the second Group 2 winner from the cross. In all, Frankel on Oasis Dream mares has yielded seven stakes winners and three others who have been placed in blacktype races.

Two of the four winners from Queen’s Dream have been successful this year. In addition to Spirit Dancer, Hampden Park (Sea The Moon) is a progressive three-year-old that Ferguson has with Andrew Balding, and he could be a horse to watch for in 2024.

Hampden Park won on his third start this year, at Ascot, and was placed previously. His victory caught many an eye.

Queen’s Dream is an own-sister to two stakes winners, Querari (Oasis Dream) being the best of the pair. He won five times in Germany and Italy, his biggest success being gained when he travelled to Rome for the Group 1 Premio Presidente della Repubblica.

Victory for Spirit Dancer resulted in unprecedented international coverage for the Bahrain International Trophy, and has done no harm to the organiser’s quest to have the race awarded Group 1 status in the shortest possible time.

Molly Bloom proves to be a Guineas Ace

THE Group 1 New Zealand Guineas was won by Molly Bloom, and I was immediately attracted to her pedigrees, given that her sire is a son of High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells), and her first three dams are daughters of Iffraaj (Zafonic), Generous (Caerleon) and Danehill (Danzig).

You might expect, as I did, that this was probably a European female line that had made its way to the southern hemisphere. Wrong. It could not be any more associated with New Zealand than it is, and there were a number of firsts about the classic success.

Second victory

On what was her fifth start, and second victory, Molly Bloom gained her first stakes win, though she missed out on some blacktype when she was fourth previously in the Group 2 Soliloquy Stakes. Both her wins have come at three. She is the only foal to date from the 10-furlong winner Dancilla (Iffraaj), and she is one of five winning progeny of the three-time winner and stakes-placed Nordic Dancer (Generous).

All seven offspring of Nordic Dancer raced, and one of her five winners stands head and shoulders over their siblings. Decorah (Pins) won seven times, over distances ranging from six to 12 furlongs, and twice she was in the winner’s circle after Group 3 races. She was placed many times in pattern company, up to Group 2 level, and she is now a winner producer.

Nordic Dancer’s grandam, the unraced Certain Habit (Ashabit), bred and is grandam of Group 1 winners. Her son Rough Habit (Roughcast) was a leading miler in New Zealand and Australia. He was first past the post in 11 Group 1 contests, many of which he won a couple of times. Meanwhile, Certain Habit’s grandson Addictive Habit (Colombia) was a Group 1 winner in his native New Zealand.

Molly Bloom is from the first crop of Ace High (High Chaparral). He numbered wins in the Group 1 Victoria Derby and Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes among his five successes, and he was runner-up in the Group 1 Australian Derby. Molly Bloom is his first stakes winner, one of six winners he has sired from 21 runners to date. Ace High is the last classic winner by his sire to go to stud, and he stands for NZ$10,000 (€5,500) at Rich Hill Stud, a farm named after a place in Armagh.

Beckett’s juvenile run of success continues

THE Somerset-based Sanctuary Stud is owned by Lynn Turner and Guy Brook, and they bred the Zoustar (Northern Meteor) two-year-old gelding Zoum Zoum, who carries their colours.

Trained by Ralph Beckett, whose juveniles this season in Britain have won 50 races, Zoum Zoum did not race until after he was gelded, and in the space of five weeks he has run and won three times, all over seven furlongs, and followed up an all-weather win at Kempton with a turf success at Newmarket, and now with a listed triumph in France.

The Listed Prix Herod at Saint-Cloud was a just reward for the owner’s and trainer’s bold move to run three times in quick succession, and what a perfect start to her breeding career this is for the gelding’s dam Richenza, a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor (Danehill). She too raced for the holy trinity of Brook, Turner and Beckett.

Blacktype race

Purchased as a yearling at the Tattersalls December Sale by Oliver St Lawrence for 42,000gns, Richenza raced 16 times over three seasons, and the decision to keep her in training so long was justified when her trainer addled her to win for the third time in mid-October 2019, on what was her final outing, but the real significance was this this was a blacktype race, the Listed Boadicea Stakes at Newmarket.

With a stakes-winning son for her first produce, Richenza has a yearling filly, already named Rikissa (Mohaather), and a filly foal by Advertise (Showcasing). She was covered this year by Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact). Richenza is one of just two foals produced by Nantha (King’s Best), the other was placed, and she won at two in Italy and was runner-up to her stablemate in the Group 3 Premio Dormello.

Nantha was the best of the four winners from Nashatara (Nashwan), a stakes winner in Italy. She and the stakes winner and Group 2 Prix Kergorlay second Mad Rush (Lemon Drop Kid) were two of the six successful runners out of the unraced Revonda (Sadler’s Wells).