Qatar Prix du Cadran (Group 1)
EVEN against the background of the French doing a so much better job in defending their big prizes this season, it came as no great surprise that Aidan O’Brien dominated the Saturday of the Arc meeting at Longchamp last weekend.
Given that he is currently £3 million clear in the race for the British trainers’ title, O’Brien was always likely to have the ammunition to do well in Paris too.
Yet, while defeats for either Illinois or Kyprios in the first two thoroughbred races on the card would have been a shock, the Co Tipperary handler must have been delighted by his ability to subsequently both land a €260,000 race with a colt, Mount Kilimanjaro, who was still a maiden, and then grab a Group 1 prize with Grateful, a filly who had been comprehensively outpointed in lesser company in each of her previous two starts.
Top billing
Kyprios deserves top billing for his Group 1 Qatar Prix du Cadran success even though, apart from his ridiculous 20-length verdict in this very contest two years earlier, the race took less winning than any of his seven previous triumphs at this level.
His two-length and a neck defeat of the dual Cadran scorer Trueshan and Coltrane, two old boys who have looked to retain nothing more than Group 3 ability in the past few months, will not rank highly in his list of achievements.
Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the six-year-old son of Galileo began this season without a victory for over 18 months and has now pieced together a campaign that has seen him win all six of his outings without ever really looking like being beaten. This was his eighth Group 1, the record for a Ballydoyle inmate.
Afterwards, O’Brien paid homage to the yard favourite, saying: “He’s such a special horse with a turn of foot that you don’t often find in a stayer. The whole team have done a wonderful job to get him back from his health problems.”
“His temperament is so good, he’s still just like he was as a two-year-old. He could win an Arc, there’s no doubt about that, but we need to be respectful of him and let him do what he enjoys rather than drop him back to a mile and a half, a trip he hasn’t raced over for such a long time.”
“Now the target is to get him back to Ascot for the Gold Cup next June.”
Qatar Prix de Royallieu (Group 1)
THE Ballydoyle contingent among a 15-runner field of fillies and mares for the mile and six-furlong Qatar Prix de Royallieu seemed strong in numbers rather than quality, with none of its trio among the first seven in the betting.
The least fancied of them, Grateful was denied a clear passage on two different occasions in the home straight, yet still managed to swoop down the wide outside under Christophe Soumillon and beat two British raiders, River Of Stars and Mistral Star, by three-quarters of a length and half a length, with Joseph O’Brien’s Thunder Roll another neck back in fourth.
The Henry de Bromhead-trained favourite, Term Of Endearment, pulled too hard early and could manage no better than seventh.
A 103rd individual Group 1 winner for her sire, Galileo, Grateful is also a daughter of the transatlantic supermare Tepin, who won both the Breeders’ Cup Mile and the Queen Anne Stakes.
“This will probably be her last race, as Tepin is sadly no longer with us and, as her first progeny to make the track, she is priceless as a broodmare,” O’Brien revealed. “Thankfully she also has a two-year-old half-brother by Dubawi.”
llinois toughs it out
THE Group 2 Qatar Prix Chaudenay over a mile and seven furlongs looked to be at the mercy of the Queen’s Vase victor and three-time Group 1-placed Illinois beforehand.
That is exactly how it played out, even though this Galileo half-brother to the 2011 Arc heroine Danedream was ill suited by having to make his own running.
Following his straightforward two-length victory over Trafalgar Square, O’Brien said: “I don’t think that Illinois would mind coming back down in trip but this was the perfect opportunity for him after his St Leger second.
“I’m not sure that there is anything else for him this season, but he’s going to be a good four-year-old and we might think about taking him to Dubai.”
Tip top Kilimanjaro
Restricted to horses sold at Arqana, the mile Haras de Bouquetot Criterium d’Automne attracted a field of 12 two-year-olds including O’Brien’s Mount Kilimanjaro and five from British trainers.
A €420,000 purchase who had previously been defeated in maidens at Leopardstown and Newmarket, the Irish hope looked like he might be in for another reverse when coming off the bridle on the final turn.
But, appreciating the soft ground and step up in distance, he kept pulling out a bit more and passed the post almost two lengths in front of his nearest rival.
He could run again this season, in one of the two Group 1 races held on the other side of the River Seine at Saint-Cloud on October 27th.
AIDAN O’Brien graciously stood aside and allowed the others to have a chance, not declaring a runner in either of the two Group 2 races that also took place on Saturday, the Qatar Prix Dollar over just shy of a mile and two furlongs and the mile Qatar Prix Daniel Wildenstein.
Manton trainer Brian Meehan snapped a 38-race losing streak in French pattern races by landing the Dollar with his exciting three-year-old Zoffany colt, Jayarebe.
Despite tackling ground much softer than anything that he had encountered before and tasked with making all the running in a race which goes all the way to the second winning post, so features a very long finishing straight, Jayarebe really stuck his neck out when challenged by his fellow British-trained three-year-old Almaqam late on to cross the line a head in front. The two youngsters pulled four lengths clear of the best older horse in Birr Castle.
The result paid a handsome compliment to the Irish Champion Stakes victor, Economics, who had beaten the first two home when scoring in Group 2 company at Deauville in August.
Afterwards, Meehan announced that Jayarebe may now try to become his third winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, at Del Mar early next month, where he should relish a return to fast ground. The most recent of those two previous scorers, Dangerous Midge in 2010, wore the same Iraj Parvizi orange and white quartered silks that are carried by Jayarebe.
Ramadan makes headlines
Sunday was a hectic day for the Christopher Head-trained Le Havre colt, Ramadan. His initial assignment was in the Wildenstein, where, on the seventh start of a long season that had already brought two Group 3 victories and another at listed level, not to mention an honourable fifth in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, he again demonstrated his toughness to beat Andromede by three-quarters of a length with Alcantor the same distance back in third.
Not resting on his laurels, he was then transported across the Seine to become one of the star lots at that evening’s Arqana Arc Sale, held at Saint-Cloud. He finished first there too, achieving the night’s top price of €1.5 million when sold to Vin Cox, signing on behalf of Lion Rock.
He is now set to continue his career in Hong Kong, but will hopefully be given a well-deserved rest before he is asked to return to action.