THREE European Group 1 races at the weekend were won by the long odds-on City Of Troy (Justify), and two outsiders. The Coolmore/Ballydoyle winner of the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes has been a regular in these columns, so this time I will shine a light on Puchkine and Palladium.
I am sure there have been no end of enquiries about the whereabouts and contact details for Abraheem Mohamed Sultan. Why you might well ask? At last year’s Arqana February Sale, he paid €1,000 for Kovda (Sioux Nation), an unraced three-year-old. While her immediate pedigree was not out of the top drawer, she certainly had a paper value of more than the minimum bid.
At the time of her sale, Kovda’s half-sister Slevka (Shalaa) was a winner and been placed four times in just six starts, her third-place finish in a listed race at Deauville earning her blacktype. Kovda’s year-younger half-brother Puchkine (Starspangledbanner) was something to look forward to, and this trio were among the first four foals out of the unraced Vadyska (So You Think). Vadyska had two winning siblings at sale time, one each in Hungary and the Czech Republic. How that picture has changed!
Vadyska’s half-sister Romina Power (Le Havre) won a listed classic trial in Germany last year, but that doesn’t compare with what has happened to Vadyska’s son Puchkine. On Sunday he won the €400,000 Group 1 Prix Jean Prat at Deauville, his first stakes success. While he was an outsider, he was no forlorn chance either, and this win will have been a huge fillip to his trainer, the hugely popular Jean-Claude Rouget.
Alain Jathière, the owner and breeder of Puchkine, said after the race: “This colt proves that you have to run in races to win them! Of course, I wasn’t sure about supplementing him, but in the Poule d’Essai [French 2000 Guineas], the rain just before the race really worked against him. We’ll run him in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest (at Deauville in August). It’s a great pleasure, especially since I bred him at Haras du Cadran.”
64th running
This was the 64th running of the Prix Jean Prat, a race for three-year-olds over seven furlongs on Deauville’s straight track. Puchkine had won his first four races at two and three before suffering his first defeat, finishing second in the Listed Prix Aymeri de Mauléon at Toulouse. This was followed by an unplaced run in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, and a fourth-paced in the Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac. In the Prix Jean Prat, he won by two and a half lengths from his stablemate Havana Cigar, securing a one-two finish for Jean-Claude Rouget’s stable.
Rouget had purchased Puchkine’s dam Vadyska as a yearling for €100,000, and there is more surely to come from that mare. Her two-year-old is a colt, Zvokokiev (Fas), and she has a yearling colt by Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) and a colt foal by Muhaarar (Oasis Dream).
Puchkine’s grandam Rockatella (Rock Of Gibraltar) improved from being a €7,000 yearling purchase at Goffs by BBA Germany in 2008, to being a €180,000 four-year-old sale at Arqana, thanks to winning the Listed Premio Royal Mares in Milan twice and being group-placed in France and Germany.
She was by some way the best of the six winners out of the unraced Patrimony (Cadeaux Genereux). A 200,000gns yearling, Patrimony was followed in successive years by three more fillies, Suez (Green Desert) who sold for 480,000gns as a yearling, Polish Princess (Polish Precedent) who was a bargain 75,000gns buy, and the unraced Masaafat (Act One), who cost Shadwell 300,000gns as a yearling. All have left an imprint on racing.
Blanket finish
Suez ran three times, successful in a listed race at two before being beaten a neck in a blanket finish to the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, with Damson a neck back in third. Suez has gone on to produce the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner Lyric Of Light (Street Cry).
Polish Princess went to New Zealand where she was a listed winner and placed in a Group 1. She kept hitting the bar as a broodmare as three of her four group-winning offspring were placed in Group 1 races. All three were colts and they were runners-up in the Australian Derby twice and the Doomben Cup.
Keeping to the theme of running close in Group 1 races without winning them, Masaafat’s daughter Zeyaadah (Tamayuz) won a Group 3 race and was second to Lady Bowthorpe in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes three years ago.
Victory in the Prix Jean Prat for Puchkine takes to eight the number of Group/Grade 1 winners for Starspangledbanner (Choisir), and he is one of 31 stakes winners for the Coolmore stallion who has just completed this season at a fee of €45,000, down slightly from last year’s career high of €50,000.
Puchkine joins California Spangle (who has won €9.5 million) and Beauty Eternal (winner of more than €4 million) as one of three Group 1 winners in 2024 for Starspangledbanner.
Gleneagles
Standing with Starspangledbanner at Coolmore is Gleneagles (Galileo), and this year he stood for €17,500, well down from his starting fee in 2016 of €60,000.
Yet, with his sixth crop just two-year-olds, he has already passed the 30 stakes winners mark, and 2024 is proving to be one of his best at stud. His son Palladium won the weekend’s Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby, his Royal Ascot-winning son Calandagan looks to be a Group 1 winner in waiting, Millstream won the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes before finishing third in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, while Ambiente Friendly has been classic-placed twice.
Bred by Gestüt Fährhof, Palladium was sold to Liberty Racing as a yearling for €80,000 at the BBAG September Sale, and his classic win was a first stakes win for the three-year-old.
He is the seventh foal but just the second winner for his dam Path Wind (Anabaa). She was a listed winner in Germany, but on a visit to Italy she was beaten a neck on what proved to be her last start in the Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio.
Stakes winners
While Path Wind has only had two winners, both have been stakes winners. Palladium’s half-brother Panjari (Camelot) is also a winner this year, talking his tally of wins to seven, and he has been victorious in listed races in Italy and Germany. While these recent winners have names beginning with the letter P, this is a family littered with high-class winners starting with W.
Palladium’s third dam Wild Romance (Alkalde) was the champion juvenile filly in Germany three decades ago, and she had three group-winning daughters who all became multiple stakes producers. Win For Us (Surumu) won the Group 2 German St Leger, Wild Side (Sternkoenig) was a Group 2 winner, while White Rose (Platini) was a Group 3 winner in France and runner-up in the Group 1 German Oaks.
Wild Romance’s grandsons and granddaughters include Group 2 Park Hill Stakes winner Wild Coco (Shirocco) who was second in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, and stakes winner Win For Sure (Stravinsky) who was runner-up in a Group 1 in Italy.