By Sean Cronin
Scuderia Sagam's Folgaria (Ire) (Due Diligence–Full Moon Fever {Ire}, by Azamour {Ire}) went undefeated through a five-race juvenile campaign for Stefano Botti last year and, now under the stewardship of that trainer's brother Marco, retained her perfect record with a hard-fought triumph in Saturday's G3 Dubai Duty Free S. (Fred Darling S.) at Newbury.
The February-foaled bay backed up a debut win at Milan's San Siro in May with a brace of Listed contests at Rome's Capanelle and back in Milan. She went on sabbatical after collecting July's G3 Premio Primi Passi by six lengths and concluded last semester with another clear-cut victory in October's G2 Premio Dormello.
Folgaria forfeited ground to all five rivals initially, racing at the tail of the field in sixth through the opening fractions, and began inching closer once past halfway. Stirred into action passing the quarter-mile marker, the 5-1 chance was ridden to launch her challenge approaching the final furlong and came under a late drive to prevail by a neck from Regal Jubilee (GB) (Frankel {GB}), with Elmalka (GB) (Kingman {GB}) another neck back in third.
There could not have been a more poignant winner on the day of Stefano Cherchi's funeral, with the young jockey's loss having a heavy impact on the Botti stable. The trainer's wife Lucie was on hand and commented, “You couldn't write this, Andrea [Atzeni] winning the Sydney Cup with Stefano's parents there and now this filly bringing Italian racing to life again. It is quite special. Marco went to Stefano's funeral and obviously his brother trained this filly in Italy. Everyone is going to be so pleased, especially in the yard. The winter can be so hard for everyone, so it's always so good to have such beautiful horses and those animals just bring us to life. It's very hard to translate the form into English form, but she did nothing wrong in Italy and won all her races fairly easily last year. She's been pleasing us at home since she joined us and is very straightforward. We absolutely love her, hopefully she can do much better things in the future. The immediate plan is likely to be the [May 12 G1] French [1000] Guineas and after that the sky is the limit. She could be an international filly and hopefully not sold too soon for us. She's very talented, she's the champion Italian filly and she has showed now she is good enough everywhere else.”
Reflecting on the performance of Cheveley Park Stud's Listed Montrose Fillies' S. victrix Regal Jubilee, Chris Richardson was far from downcast in defeat and said, “We were thrilled. We were hoping for a bit of cover, but it wasn't going to happen and we were fearful of who would make the running. She was very game, she loved the [good-to-soft] ground and the [seven-furlong] trip was short enough for her. She's finished very promisingly and the plan will be to go to the [May 5 G1 1000] Guineas. I think the extra furlong will suit her and I think she is a very exciting prospect. I know she hasn't got a huge amount of scope and we need to get on and run, but she has run very promisingly there.”
Pedigree Notes
Folgaria is the fourth of five foals and lone scorer out of a dual-winning full-sister to Listed August S. winner Glorious Protector (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}). Her dam Full Moon Fever (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}) is also kin to the dam of G2 Premio Vittorio di Capua victor Amore Hass (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}) and Listed Gran Premio d'Italia scorer Cime Tempestose (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}). Folgaria's second dam Hasaiyda (Ire) (Hector Protector) is a multiple-winning half-sister to the dual stakes-winning dual G3 Give Thanks S. runner-up Hasanka (Ire) (Kalanisi {Ire}), herself the dam of the stakes-placed Hasanour (Giant's Causeway). Full Moon Fever, who hails from the family of G1 Derby Italiano hero Houmayoun (Fr) (Akarad {Fr}), has the unraced 2-year-old colt Highland George (Ire) (Highland Reel {Ire}) to come.
Saturday, Newbury, Britain
DUBAI DUTY FREE S. (FRED DARLING S.)-G3, £85,000, Newbury, 4-20, 3yo, f, 7fT, 1:26.35, g/s.
1–FOLGARIA (IRE), 128, f, 3, by Due Diligence
1st Dam: Full Moon Fever (Ire), by Azamour (Ire)
2nd Dam: Hasaiyda (Ire), by Hector Protector
3rd Dam: Hasainiya (Ire), by Top Ville (Ire)
(€10,000 Ylg '22 TATIRY). O-Scuderia Sagam SRLS B-T Boylan (IRE); T-Marco Botti; J-Hollie Doyle. £48,204. Lifetime Record: MGSW-Ity, 6-6-0-0, $271,703. Werk Nick Rating: B. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Regal Jubilee (GB), 128, f, 3, Frankel (GB)–Regal Realm (GB), by Medicean (GB). 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. O/B-Cheveley Park Stud Ltd (GB); T-John & Thady Gosden. £18,275.
3–Elmalka (GB), 128, f, 3, Kingman (GB)–Nahrain (GB), by Selkirk. 1ST BLACK TYPE; 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. O-Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum; B-Godolphin (GB); T-Roger Varian. £9,146.
Margins: NK, NK, 2 1/4. Odds: 5.00, 3.33, 8.50.
Also Ran: Relief Rally (Ire), Topanga (GB), Star Music (GB).
A very poignant and emotional victory for @MarcoBotti and Folgaria @HollieDoyle1 @NewburyRacing with the funeral of Stefano Cherchi also taking place today. 🙏 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/prhQxwsmyf
— MAGNOLIA BLOODSTOCK (@Tom_MBS) April 20, 2024
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