THE final Group 1 of the season in Britain marked a welcome return to success at this level for Charlie Appleby, and he can now look forward to next season with a colt who has made admirable progress since being beaten into third by Rosallion in the Listed Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot in June.
The €2 million sale graduate from Arqana last year (he was the second best price at the sale) won his first two starts at Haydock and Newmarket in 15 days back in June, but was given a break of two and a half months after suffering his sole defeat. Ancient Wisdom’s return to action saw him run out a comfortable winner of the Group 3 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket when stepped up to a mile, and two weeks later he crowned his five-race first season with victory in the Group 1 Kameko Futurity Trophy at Doncaster.
After the race, Appleby said: “We feel that Ancient Wisdom is going to improve from two to three and we will see what we have in the spring in terms of where we start him off. The 2000 Guineas will be spoken about, but he is a horse who looks as though middle distances will take him to another level.”
Winning jockey William Buick added: “Ancient Wisdom put in a good performance at Newmarket only two weeks ago, but Charlie and the team were very happy to supplement him for today. He is just a horse who is very uncomplicated, which goes a long way. He is a beautiful horse to look at and has done nothing but strengthen all year.”
Golden Valentine
Bred by Ecurie des Monceaux and LNJ Foxwoods, Ancient Wisdom is the second winner out of Golden Valentine (Dalakhani) sired by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium). He follows the three-year-old Intricacy, a €750,000 yearling who has won twice and earned back just £29,000 of that investment. Thankfully, Ancient Wisdom’s success is a large recompense for largely disappointing race careers to date for the first two progeny of Golden Valentine.
Successful in the Group 3 Prix Minerve, Golden Valentine bred Shadowfax (Galileo), her first offspring, and he sold to David Redvers for €450,000 as a yearling. Raced once from the Gosden yard early last year, he was sent to the sales where Mick Appleby acquired him for 32,000gns.
A few hours after Ancient Wisdom won his Group 1, Shadowfax, on his ninth outing for Appleby, was runner-up in a handicap at Chelmsford, indicating that a victory might yet be possible.
Intricacy, Golden Valentine’s second offspring, races from Simon and Ed Crisford’s yard. He has won twice and was in the first four on all of his first nine starts, though he recently finished a puzzling last at Leicester on his first run since being gelded, having dwelt at the start.
Golden Valentine’s fourth produce is a yearling son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal), and he was sold at last month’s Arqana October Yearling Sale, an unusual choice of venue for a colt by one of the world’s best stallions, and a half-brother to a €2 million yearling. Alex Elliott spent €170,000 to acquire him, while in the wings is a 2023-born full-brother to Ancient Wisdom.
LNJ Foxwoods
Golden Valentine raced for Breeders’ Cup-winning owners Larry and Nanci Roth and their daughter Jaime, who style themselves as LNJ Foxwoods.
They also bred the filly, whom they purchased in utero when Alex Solis spent €520,000 on the filly’s dam, Group 3 Prix Cleopatre winner Gold Round (Caerleon). Gold Round was 15 at the time, and was the dam of a pair of stakes winners, and she was sold by the Wertheimer brothers.
The best of that pair at the time was Golden Valentine’s own-brother Goldwaki (Dalakhani). Now, Gold Round can boast of producing 13 winners from 16 foals, one of which never ran. That baker’s dozen is made up of four stakes winners on the flat, led by the Grade 3 winner and Grade 1 runner-up Luck (Kitten’s Joy), a further blacktype winner over hurdles in France, and three stakes-placed winners, while one other of her daughters bred the Group 3 winner and Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes-placed Platane (Le Havre).
There is plenty happening in the first two generations of the family of Ancient Wisdom, but it is as nothing to the next remove and beyond. His third dam is the four-year-old winner Born Gold (Blushing Groom), and what a broodmare she turned out to be. A full-sister to the Group 1 Coronation Stakes winner Gold Splash (Blushing Groom), Born Gold had 15 foals, 14 runners and 13 winners, and a pair of them were high-class Group 1 winners.
Overshadowed
As good as her daughter Galikova (Galileo) was, winning five times including the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, that mare’s achievements were overshadowed by those of the Wertheimer’s Goldikova (Anabaa). A three-time European champion, Goldikova was owned and bred by brothers Gérard and Alain Wertheimer of Chanel fame.
Goldikova numbered 14 Group or Grade 1 races among her 17 career victories, all with jockey Olivier Péslier in the saddle, but she is often still remembered best for her forays outside France, and most especially in 2010.
After winning in the previous two years at Santa Anita, Goldikova completed her Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile treble with a near two-length victory over Gio Ponti at Churchill Downs. She bid for a fourth victory in 2011 but failed by a length when third to Court Vision in what was her final race, also at Churchill Downs.
Special year
Goldikova enjoyed a special year in 2010, winning five of her six starts, and a magic spell began with her seasonal debut in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan, followed by the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, both of which she won.
Two runs in a fortnight at Deauville saw her win the Group 1 Prix Rothschild, before Makfi upset her and beat her into second in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois. Normal service was restored with victories in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret and in the USA.
Winner of a pair of Eclipse Awards, and a multiple Cartier Award winner, Goldikova was voted in 2017 into the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. She had 17 victories from 27 starts and earned £4,364,886.
What a season Dubawi is having. He is the sire of 35 stakes winners so far this season, with Ancient Wisdom becoming his eighth at Group/Grade 1 level, one more than in 2022.
That group also includes fellow juvenile Henry Longfellow who landed the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh, Lord North (won the Dubai Turf), Al Husn (winner of the Nassau Stakes), Master Of The Seas (Woodbine Mile) and Modern Games, successful in the Lockinge Stakes.
57 winners
Ancient Wisdom is Group/Grade 1 winner number 57 for the 21-year-old Dubawi who stands at Dalham Hall in Newmarket, and one of five stakes horses he has sired out of mares by Dalakhani (Darshaan). When mated with mares by Darshaan (Shirley Heights), Dubawi has been responsible for three Group 1 winners, Al Kazeem (a Group 1 sire), Sobetsu and Coronet.
While it is early days yet, there must be huge excitement and anticipation in the Godolphin and Darley teams about Ancient Wisdom. He possesses the looks, pedigree and now a high-class juvenile record. Dubawi’s recent juvenile Group 1-winning son, Too Darn Hot, won the Sussex Stakes and Prix Jean Prat at three, and his first runners this year are led by Group 1 winner Fallen Angel, Group 2 winner Darnation and a pair of Group 3 winners. Could Ancient Wisdom follow a similar trajectory?