GROUP/GRADE 1 races in the USA, Britain, Japan and Australia were all centre stage over the weekend, the 149th Preakness Stakes being one of the most important staged.

The second leg of the Triple Crown produced an outcome that was not what the market suggested. The Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan was a hopeful choice to add to his Churchill Downs victory, but he had to settle for second best on this occasion. The winner, Seize The Grey, was cheered to victory, on course and off, by some 2,500 owners.

Winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas may have handed the crown to others since his heyday in the eighties and nineties, but he still has what it takes to land a big race, this time at the age of just 88.

The winner was bred in Kentucky by the late Audrey Otto as Jamm Ltd, and sold for $300,000 as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton through Mill Ridge Sales to MyRacehorse. His second and most important stakes win boosts his earnings to more than $1.8 million.

Seize the Grey posted a front-running two and a quarter-length victory, a seventh for Lukas in the Preakness, and his 15th success in a leg of the Triple Crown. It also heralded a first Grade 1 triumph for the colt’s young rider, Jaime Torres. Lukas is the oldest trainer to ever win a Triple Crown race. Founded by Michael Behrens, MyRacehorse sold 5,000 shares in the colt at $127 each.

This was a second classic win for MyRacehorse, after Authentic captured the 2020 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. A son of Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song), Seize The Grey is out of the Smart Strike (Mr Prospector) mare Smart Shopping, a stakes-placed juvenile winner who has two winners with her first two foals. The other is Shoppingforpharoah (American Pharoah), also a $300,000 yearling, and a stakes-placed winner like her dam.

After the Preakness win, the first three dams of Seize The Grey are now producers of Grade 1 winners. His grandam Shop Again (Wild Again) is responsible for Power Broker (Pulpit), and that Grade 1 Frontrunner Stakes winner went to stud in the USA but was a disappointment, making his way later to Saudi Arabia.

Shop Again won all her four races at the age of four, including a stakes race, and her three stakes-winning siblings are led by Miss Shop (Deputy Minister). Her nine wins included the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.

Twenty-two stakes winners in three crops for the Group 1 Dubai World Cup and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Arrogate also include the champion Arcangelo, and fellow Grade 1 winners And Tell Me Nolies, Cave Rock, Fun To Dream, and Secret Oath.

Pacemaker wins

Audience ran in Saturday’s Group 1 Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes as a pacemaker for Inspiral, but the five-year-old gelded son of Iffraaj (Zafonic) emerged victorious. He held up a family tradition in so doing, given that his grandam, Peeress (Pivotal), also won the Newbury feature in 2016, while he is the second winner of the race for his Darley sire after Ribchester.

Winner of his only start at two, Audience did not build on that at three, placing four times in five starts, and he was gelded. In addition to robbing him of any future stud career, the unkindest cut of all was also the beginning of him showing his true colours, and he won first time back racing at the end of his second season.

Improvement followed last year when Audience won at Group 3 level, and was beaten less than a length in a pair of Group 2 races, behind Kinross and Sandrine. Now, on his first outing of 2024, he has gone and won at the highest level. What lies ahead?

Minor upset

Now Audience is the best of six winners, with her first six foals, from Ladyship (Oasis Dream), and one of her own three wins was in a listed race over seven furlongs at Chester, gained at the age of four. Half of Ladyship’s winners have done so at pattern level, Esquire (Harry Angel) also causing a minor upset last month on just his fourth start when winning the Group 3 Greenham Stakes at Newbury, while Dark Lady (Dark Angel) won a Group 3 at two.

Toughness in the immediate family is clearly demonstrated by Audience’s half-brother Qaaraat (Acclamation). This 200,000gns yearling won six times and placed on no fewer than 47 occasions. He may not have possessed the talent of his siblings, but he was certainly sound.

This is a female line that has been rejuvenated by Chris Richardson and the Cheveley Park owners, and all of this major blacktype descends from Peeress.

In addition to her Lockinge success, she won a second time in Group 1 company, annexing the Sun Chariot Stakes, while her placed efforts included running a short head second to Red Evie in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown, while in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois she was third in a blanket finish to Librettist and Manduro, beaten a neck and a head.

Japanese Oaks

It was classic weekend in Japan, with the Northern Farm-bred Cervinia landing their version of the Oaks, the Group 1 Yushun Himba at Tokyo. This was her third win in five starts and took her winnings to £1.225 million. At two she landed the Group 3 Artemis Stakes.

A daughter of the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Harbinger (Dansili), Cervinia is the second group winner and produce of Cecchino (King Kamehameha).

That mare won a Group 2, and eight years ago was runner-up in the Japanese Oaks. Cecchino’s first foal is Nocking Point (Maurice), a Group 3 winner.

Cecchino’s full-brother Codino (King Kamehameha) was a Group 3 winner in Japan and he too came close to a Group 1 win, finishing runner-up at two in the Asahi Hai Futurity and third in the Japanese 2000 Guineas.

Cervinia is one of seven Group 1 winners sired by Harbinger, and we are most familiar with his daughter Deirdre who won the Nassau Stakes. Another, Normcore, won the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup, and his daughters have outshone his sons, five of the females winning at the highest level.

Final mention on the global Group 1 tour is for the tough Australian six-year-old Bella Nipotina. On what was her 49th start, the Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry) mare won her eighth race, and second Group 1, when landing the A$1.5million BRC Doomben 10,000 over six furlongs on Saturday, beating the favourite I Wish I Win in a thriller.

Unbelievable mare

Second in the Group 1 ATC TJ Stakes in Sydney last month, Bella Nipotina was flown to Perth to run in the A$5 million The Quokka where she finished a close fourth before setting her sights on Queensland.

“She actually hasn’t been in a stable any more than three days over the past two weeks,” winning trainer Ciaron Maher said. “She was in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle and now Brisbane. Unbelievable mare.”

An A$80,000 Inglis Premier yearling purchase for Lindsay Park Racing, Andrew Williams Bloodstock and Mt Hallowell Stud from the Rosemont stud draft, Bella Nipotina was bred by Michael Christian and partners at Longwood Thoroughbred Farm, and they retain a share in her ownership.

The star sprinter Bella Nipotina has an impressive record of eight wins and 21 placings from 49 starts, with earnings topping A$9.8 million.

Bella Nipotina is the best of two winners, her only runners, from Bella Orfana (Star Witness), a placed half-sister to group winners Hallowell Belle (Starcraft) and Fuddle Dee Duddle (Red Ransom), the latter being the dam of Group 3-winning juvenile Brereton (Zoustar). Bella Nipotina’s once-raced grandam Bella Inez (Beautiful Crown) is a full-sister to Group 1 Caulfield Guineas winner In Top Swing.

Standing at a fee of A$22,000, Coolmore’s Pride Of Dubai has sired three Group 1 winners this season, with Bella Nipotina joining Pride Of Jenni and the New Zealand-trained Desert Lightning. He is also responsible for Dubai Honour, winner of the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.