By Emma Berry
The G1 July Cup winner Mill Stream (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) will bid to maintain his unblemished Deauville record when he returns to the Normandy seaside for a crack at the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest on August 4.
“He loves travelling so there are no worries there,” says his trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam, who has once again demonstrated her skills in guiding the four-year-old through the grades to the very top. He is currently the co-highest-rated sprinter in Europe with a Timeform mark of 122, and it was at this time last year that he first came to wider prominence by winning the Listed Prix Moonlight Cloud. On the same card, his half-brother Asymmetric (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) won the Listed Prix du Cercle. For a time the elder of the pair, who had also won the G2 Richmond Stakes, held the bragging rights, but Mill Stream, with his Group 1 credentials, as well as picking up a Group 3 and Group 2 along the way, has now surpassed Asymmetric. In so doing, he has given another major boost to his breeders, the Murphy family of Redpender Stud.
In the Chapple-Hyam stable Mill Stream has filled the void left by the dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), who subsequently sold for 3.6 million gns to Najd Stud at the Tattersalls December Sale.
“We all need that big horse,” says the trainer. “We all know how hard it is to find one, and it's getting harder and harder to hold onto them, too. Anything that's good, the phone's ringing.”
There's little doubt that the stallion farms have been circling for Mill Stream, but Chapple-Hyam is in the fortunate position of already having been told by the colt's owner Peter Harris that his star performer will stay in training at the age of five.
Harris, a former trainer and breeder, whose successes in both spheres notably include the G1 Middle Park Stakes winner Primo Valentino (Ire), held a dispersal of his Pendley Farm stock at Tattersalls in 2010. But he has remained a regular visitor to Park Paddocks and, with the help of bloodstock agent Anthony Stroud, has made significant investment in young stock to race.
“It has been terrific to be able to reward him with a Group 1 winner,” says Chapple-Hyam. “Peter having been a trainer, he understands that there are more lows than highs, and he's a good sounding board and a great support to the yard.
“I'm lucky he knocked on my door. I didn't know him before that; I got a call, and that was that.”
She continues, “It's nice for him to get something back as it's been hard work on his behalf as he walks around Tattersalls and looks at all the yearlings for Book 1 and Book 2, so it's good that his homework has paid dividends.”
Mill Stream's longer-term targets include the Haydock Sprint Cup and the British Champions Sprint at Ascot in October, but in the immediate future a clash with Puchkine (Fr) and co is on the cards at a course where he is two-for-two.
“It's an extended six,” Chapple-Hyam says of the Maurice de Gheest, “but going on how he hit the line in the July Cup I don't think it will be a problem, and he likes the track.
“There wouldn't be a Breeders' Cup on the cards because Peter is happy to keep him in training next year so I don't want to run the risk of sending him there.”
Among the dozen or so horses she has in training for Harris is the two-year-old Echalar (Ire), who is set to make his debut at Ascot on Saturday in the British EBF Crocker Bulteel Maiden. The trainer clearly holds the half-brother to G3 Chester Vase winner Youth Spirit (Ire) and Listed winner Canberra Legend (Ire) in some regard and has also given him a Gimcrack entry.
“He's a lovely Too Darn Hot colt and he has trained well,” she says. “I'll be expecting a big show from him, but we're up against some horses who have already run second. It's going to be a hot little maiden.”
Mill Stream's memorable July Cup victory was made all the sweeter by a double that day at Newmarket being brought up by the filly Asian Daze (Ire). The star of the first crop of Frontiersman (GB) had already won three times for Johnny Murtagh and was bought by Gai Waterhouse at the Goffs London Sale for £200,000.
Asian Daze winning in the colours of Gai Waterhouse | Racingfotos
“It was an honour to get the call from Gai to train her and, thank God, we got the job done,” she says, though the trainer has already had to bid farewell to the three-year-old who will eventually head south for Chapple-Hyam's native country, Australia.
“She's a tough little nugget and her character is like that as well. She left this morning for quarantine. It was nice that they ran her and she won, so she goes down there 104-rated and I'd be surprised if she doesn't get black type in Australia.”
She adds, “I've known Gai over the years but it was a call out of the blue and, like I said, it was an honour. It's such a shame that Gai wasn't here this year, because usually she attends the July Cup, but she had commitments back in Australia.
“You could see how tough the filly is by the way she fought back when she got headed. She got a great ride from Billy Loughnane and he's going to go out [to Australia] in the winter to have six weeks with Gai, which will be a brilliant experience for him. It all worked out well.”
Mill Stream is not the only member of Chapple-Hyam's stable who will be having his passport stamped for France this year, as she is also planning a Deauville raid with the three-year-old Sons And Lovers (GB) (Study Of Man {Ire), who has been both Group 3 and Listed-placed this season.
“I'm going to send him to Deauville on the 11th to the Prix Nureyev,” she says. “I feel he's still progressing and, back in his own age group, let's give it a go. You just never know going over to France, but he has a great attitude and character so I think he'll travel fine. He's not a worrier.
“He'll be bigger and stronger as a four-year-old but the door is being knocked at.”
The trainer is clearly no stranger to success in Deauville, where Saffron Beach also landed the G1 Prix Rothschild two years ago, and it would be no surprise if Sons And Lovers is the next member of her stable to come bursting through that door.
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