2011

GOLDIKOVA received rapturous applause from her thousands of admirers when she strolled into the winners’ enclosure after winning the Prix Rothschild for the fourth time in a row at Deauville.

The daughter of Anabaa was landing her 14th Group/Grade 1 win, one more than the legendary Zenyatta.

Goldikova gave Olivier Peslier the 100th Group 1 success of his career. The winning distance was only a short neck over Sahpresa, who reversed the Falmouth Stakes form with Timepiece who finished two lengths away in third, and well in front of the other English filly.

Calm and collected when parading in the paddock in front of her owners/breeders Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Goldikova walked gracefully into her stall before settling behind her pacemaker Flash Dance in the early stages of the straight mile. Tom Queally and Timepiece were also well in touch as the field of eight made its way up the centre of the track.

Running into the final two furlongs Flash Dance faded, leaving Goldikova in charge to race for the winning post. At the furlong marker Christophe Lemaire and Sahpresa came out of the pack, but they were always being held by the winner who was never put under the slightest pressure.

The public was over the moon and clapped all the major contenders into the winners’ circle. When Goldikova arrived the applause was deafening, unsurprising as she was born just down the road from Deauville. It was a fantastic reception and a rare one, as racing enthusiasts do not often have the chance of following a top flat horse through five seasons.

It is a great credit to the Wertheimer brothers that they let Goldikova stay in training at six.

[Three times the champion older mare in Europe, Goldikova failed to add a fourth Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile to her great race record. Her 14 Group/Grade 1 wins were made up of four Prix Rothschild successes, three Breeders’’ Cup Miles, two editions of the Prix d’Ispahan, and wins in the Falmouth Stakes, Queen Anne Stakes, Prix de la Foret, Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and the Prix Jacques Le Marois.

Three of Goldikova’s first five foals are winners, including Terrakova who is a Group 3 winner and placed in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks]

Mandesha gives Princess Zahra her first group win

2006

CHRISTOPHE Soumillon kept up the good work at Deauville last Sunday when he partnered the Princess Zahra Aga Khan’s Mandesha to victory in the Group 1 Prix d’Astarte. This was just reward for the Desert Style filly as she had been rather harshly disqualified at Maisons-Laffitte earlier in the month.

On Sunday, Soumillon bided his time towards the tail of the field as they ran up the centre of the track. Two furlongs out he switched Mandesha towards the rail, and the pair came to the head of affairs at the furlong marker. They then ran on well to beat Impressionnante by half a length, with Tie Black a further length and a half third in front of In Clover and a rather disappointing Price Tag.

The Aga Khan represented his daughter, although he did have seventh-placed Grand Vadia in the field. Bred also by Princess Zahra, who has six horses in training, Mandesha was running for just the fifth occasion, and she certainly looks a progressive filly.

She is under the care of Alain de Royer-Dupré, and he commented: “Mandesha is a very good filly and I am delighted that the Princess’s first group success has come in a Group 1 race and not a Group 3. Her disqualification after winning the Chloe made no sense. Our long-term plan now is to run her in the Prix de l’Opera on Arc day.”

Soumillon added: “She is a filly with a lot of energy and early speed. Early in her career she pulled a little, but she has now settled well and today she had a special bit which stopped her hanging. I liked having no orders as it enabled me to use my initiative. I think Mandesha has a lot of potential.”

[Mandesha was champion filly at three in France, and champion again the following year. She added victories in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera and the Group 1 Prix Vermeille. Her first three foals are winners, including the stakes winner and group-placed Mandour]

Asmussen checks in at Ballydoyle and Manton

1986

IRELAND is about to acquire another one of France’s top racing assets, now that American-born Cash Asmussen has decided to cross the Channel after five successful seasons in France.

At Deauville last Wednesday afternoon Asmussen finally confirmed: “My first retainer for 1987 will be for Ballydoyle, and my second with Michael Dickinson at Robert Sangster’s Manton establishment”. So, after weeks of rumours concerning the future of Asmussen and Pat Eddery, everything has now been sorted out career-wise for two of the world’s most brilliant jockeys.

“It was the most important decision of my career, and a real watershed. I truly look forward to working side by side with Vincent O’Brien,” said Asmussen. “I’ll be living three days a week at Cashel and three days a week in England. I am looking for a house somewhere between Manton and London. On Sundays I will be back in France as I have come to an arrangement with a large, French-based owner.

“I will sorely miss the French racing public as they have been terrific to me, and there is no better place in the world than France to make a racehorse. At Ballydoyle I will be close to the Coolmore camp, which will fascinate me because of my interest in breeding. I have been to Manton and found Michael Dickinson interesting, energetic and totally open-minded. Manton is a fantastic complex.”

[Cash Asmussen spent just one season at Ballydoyle. The first foreign rider to be champion jockey in France, he was the leading rider every year from 1985 to 1990, apart from the year he spent in Ireland and Britain. He won the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1991 on Suave Dancer and rode over 3,000 winners before he retired in 2001]

Parkinson buys for the Russian Government

1936

ALMOST as important as the Dublin Horse Show are the bloodstock sales, held coincident with it at Ballsbridge, just the width of the road dividing the sales paddock from the RDS showgrounds proper.

The horse show went off splendidly this time, and so did the sales, a feature of the latter being the big attendance of trainers from England who were extensive buyers. On the first day, the aggregate of the sales were almost 1,000gns up on last year’s total – 14,714gns against 13,779gns in 1935. On the second day there was an even greater increase.

The top price on Tuesday was one of 1,000gns paid by Mr J.J. Parkinson, purchasing on behalf of the Russian Government, for Mr T McDonough’s colt by Knight Of The Garter out of Axcida. On the following day Mr Parkinson gave 1,050gns for Lieutenant Colonel Giles Loder’s filly by Apelle out of Polly Flinders, a half-sister to Arabella, winner of over £10,000 in stakes.

On Thursday, the sales showed a slight decrease in the figures obtained on the corresponding day last year, but it was a negligible amount (151gns) and, against that, the aggregate for the three days was higher this year by 2.202gns.

Mr Harry Cottrill, the Lambourn trainer who for many years has been a regular buyer at these sales, achieved the distinction of paying the highest amount ever given for a yearling at Ballsbridge when, on Thursday, he bought the brown colt by Monarch out of Fleche D’Or II, from the Earl of Fingall’s stud, for 2,700gns.

[Harry Cottrill, trainer of Hunt Cup and Portland winner Irish Elegance and classic winners Apple Sammy and Lovely Rosa from his Seven Barrows stables, was father of Humphrey who was largely responsible for igniting Khalid Abdullah’s interest in racing]