TWO of the weekend features in the USA were the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks and the Grade 1 Belmont Derby. Both races usually attract a European interest, and this year was no different.

In the past decade, the Oaks has been won three times by Irish-trained runners, Fozzy Stack landing it last year with Aspen Grove, while Aidan O’Brien has won it twice in the same period, with Athena in 2018 and Santa Barbara three years later. The Ballydoyle maestro has also won the Derby on two occasions in the past decade, Deauville being successful in 2016 and Bolshoi Ballet capturing the feature three years ago.

This year’s Oaks attracted runners from England and France, but victory fell to the Godolphin runner, trained by Charlie Appleby, and this was their three-year-old homebred Cinderella’s Dream, a daughter of Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway). Appleby also saddled a challenger for the five-runner Derby at Belmont, but to no avail.

Already a blacktype winner of the Listed UAE 1000 Guineas, Cinderella’s Dream was winning for the fifth time in six starts, her only defeat coming when she was seventh in the Group 1 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. She is from the final crop sired by Shamardal, and is his 29th Group or Grade 1 winning progeny. That final crop also includes the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winner Inisherin, and it is interesting, in terms of the quality of his winners, that Shamardal’s number of pattern winners, currently standing at 86, is just one less than his tally of other stakes winners.

Nine years ago. John Ferguson spent 800,000gns on a filly foal by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) out of the Group 3 St Simon Stakes winner High Heeled (High Chaparral) at the Tattersalls December Sale. She was, not surprisingly, the top lot at the sale that year, and one of four foals to bring half a million guineas or more. Three of that quartet were Dubawi fillies, and the other was a Shamardal colt. The top lot was sold from West Blagdon Stud.

Later named Espadrille, the filly was the fourth offspring of her dam, High Heeled, who was yet to produce a winner, having herself been purchased by James Wigan as a three-year-old at Tattersalls for 600,000gns. A four-time winner, High Heeled also won a listed race at York and had been placed a number of times in group company, notably chasing home Sariska and Midday in a vintage edition of the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom.

George Strawbridge

Wigan purchased High Heeled in partnership with George Strawbridge, and they moved her from Barry Hills to John Gosden, keeping her in training at four. She made her seasonal reappearance in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom where she again finished third, this time to Fame And Glory and the Oaks winner Sariska. However, she failed to add to her winning tally and was sent to stud. There she is the dam of four winners, and a number of high-profile sales horses.

Her best runner has been Pabouche (Dubawi), and she was herself a 450,000gns foal purchase by John Ferguson on behalf of Godolphin. She was well-placed to win a listed race in Germany at three and is the dam of a winner. Last December she sold for 88,000gns to BBA Ireland.

Espadrille did not manage to earn any blacktype, though she had some racing talent. Winner twice in her first three starts, once at two, she was well-beaten on her only other outing in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket.

At stud Espadrille had just three offspring before her death at the age of just eight. All were fillies, and the first of the trio, a daughter of Lope De Vega (Shamardal), was never named. Cinderella’s Dream is her second produce, and she also has a two-year-old filly named Blue Laced (Farhh) who is unraced to date.

Quality winners

This is a female line that has in the past decade or so given up some quality winners. High Heeled’s own-sister Bella Estrella (High Chaparral) was a listed winner at Killarney in 2017 from only five starts, and last year her son Iberian (Lope De Vega) won the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and was beaten a length into second place by Haatem in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes. He and Cinderella’s Dream are bred on a similar cross.

Meanwhile, High Heeled’s twice-raced half-sister Faraday Light (Rainbow Quest) was responsible for the ill-fated Just The Judge (Lawman). A €50,000 Goffs yearling who transformed into a 4,500,000gns four-year-old, she won the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas and the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes, while she placed in top-level events such as the 1000 Guineas where she was runner-up, the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Turf at Santa Anita.

Just The Judge’s daughter Nash Nasha (Dubawi), a €1 million foal, was a stakes winner in Germany, while more recently her granddaughter, Aloa (Cracksman), won the 2022 Group 2 Premio Dormello in Milan, one of four victories she enjoyed as a two-year-old.

Rags-to-riches

The story of Trikari’s Grade 1 Belmont Derby win is a rags-to-riches tale. With four wins and two placings in seven starts, his winnings now total about $3,000 short of a million dollars. He also won the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs, and he is showing all the time what a bargain buy he was. A $9,000 short yearling purchase at Keeneland, he was a profitable resale that autumn at Ocala for $27,500.

A son of Oscar Performance (Kitten’s Joy), Trikari is from his sire’s second crop and he has given the stallion his first Grade 1 winner. Winner himself of the Grade 1 Belmont Derby seven years ago, one of his four wins at the highest level, Oscar Performance stood this year at Mill Ridge Farm in Kentucky for $25,000. He crowned his juvenile season with a win in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, was also successful at three in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes, while at the age of four his biggest win was in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile in Canada. His first two crops contain eight other stakes winners.

Given what Trikari has achieved, it is hard to believe that last October, in a Fasig-Tipton online sale, his dam Dynamic Holiday (Harlan’s Holiday), was sold for just $3,500, in foal to the multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control (Stay Thirsty). That said, Trikari was days away from making his debut, and her five older foals contained just two starters, both of whom were placed.

Successful offspring

This was a long way from the days when Dynamic Holiday raced, her four victories including a Grade 3 at Gulfstream Park and two other stakes wins.

She is one of five stakes winners and two stakes-placed horses among the eight successful offspring of Dynamic Cat (Dynaformer), the biggest of her triumphs coming in a restricted stakes in Philadelphia. The best of those other winners was the Grade 2 Saratoga winner Varenka (Ghostzapper).

It has been some time since there was a previous Grade 1 winner in the family. You have to go back to Trikari’s fourth dam, Creaking Board (Night Shift).

Group-placed at two in France in 1992, she went to race in the USA where she was successful that same year in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes and the Listed Miesque Stakes, both run at Hollywood Park. Her siblings include the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas winner Dakhla Oasis (Night Shift) and the Group 3 winner and sire Dyhim Diamond (Night Shift).