By Alan Carasso
NEW KENT COUNTY, VA — After sending out the beaten favorites in both the GI FanDuel Fourstardave Handicap and GI Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes at Saratoga, the Godolphin's Nations Pride (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) struck for chalk players hundreds of miles to the south as he quickened up beautifully in the stretch to take out Sunday's GI Arlington Million Stakes at Colonial Downs.
Scheduled first post for Sunday's big card was 1 p.m. ET, but satellite issues meant that the race did not jump until 1:52 p.m. A visit from Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin that followed a parachuting demonstration and a airplane flyover further delayed the proceedings, so that when the six horses entered the Million gate around 8 p.m.–fully 80 minutes later than programmed–Colonial Downs better resembled a night game at the minor league baseball stadium up the road in Fredericksburg.
With the lights taking full effect as dusk set in over New Kent County, Nations Pride was ridden towards the back of the pack as longshot Sugoi (Karakontie {Jpn}) went off on a wing and a prayer, opening a long lead despite an opening half-mile that was timed in :50.03.
Still the better part of 10 lengths clear at the midpoint of the second turn, having required just 1:14.27 to complete six furlongs, Sugoi began to toss out some distress signals and the peloton began to quickly close ranks. He proved a sitting duck for a class animal like Nations Pride, who shot right past the spent front-runner, then easily held a mild late bid from 2023 GIII Virginia Derby winner and 6-5 second choice Integration (Quality Road). Ancient Rome (War Front) loomed a threat inside the final furlong, as he dove down inside with a menacing bid, but he ultimately was forced to settle for third.
It was the third Million win for Sheikh Mohammed's operation, who took the first 'post-Arlington' Million with Santin (Medaglia d'Oro) at Churchill Downs in 2022. Sulamani was the outfit's first winner in 2003.
“Look, (Nations Pride) was the best horse in the race and we knew that,” said winning rider William Buick, who had to hotfoot it away from Colonial to try to catch a flight bound for Europe at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. “Actually at Saratoga last Friday, I got to ride him for a breeze on the Oklahoma track so I knew he was coming here in great form and he really impressed me. He's an exciting horse and he's won four Grade Is now. The leader was getting a lot of rope and he was getting it cheap, so I just wanted to have everything covered as well as I could.”
Nations Pride is part of a large Godolphin contingent that has been stabled in this country, but he is no stranger to North American stamps on his passport. Winner of the GI Saratoga Derby and GIII Jockey Club Derby ahead of fifth behind stablemate Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) when favored in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland in 2022, he added elite-level scores in the Bayrisches Zuchtrennen and Canadian International Stakes last season. He was looking for his first win this term, having finished third in the GII Man O'War Stakes in May and second to Rebel's Romance's high-class half-brother Measured Time (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the GI Manhattan Stakes at Saratoga June 8.
Pedigree Notes:
Kildangan Stud stallion Teofilo (Ire), a Group 1 winner in both England and Ireland in 2006, is the sire of Nations Pride and 65 other graded or group winners worldwide. While 115 of his runners have scored in black-type events around the world on most of the continents, Nations Pride is Teofilo's only GISW in North America, although Naval Power (GB) also came close this year when second in both the GI Turf Classic Stakes at Churchill and the GI Maker's Mark Mile Stakes at Keeneland. The son of Galileo (Ire) has had runaway success when mated with Oasis Dream (GB) mares, coming up with Nations Pride, G1 Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment (Ire), G1 Prix Saint Alary winner Tawkeel (GB), Italian GSW Brasilian Man (Ire), and listed Australian winner Aktau (GB). Oasis Dream has 108 stakes winners out of his daughters.
Important Time, dam of the Million winner, is out of 2007 G1 Prix de l'Opera winner Satwa Queen (Fr) (Muhtathir {GB}) and is a half to the dams of 2023 Australian champion 2-year-old colt Militarize (NZ) (Dundeel {NZ}) and 2020 Irish G1SW Lucky Vega (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}). She has an unraced 2-year-old full-sister to Nations Pride named Good Old Days (Ire) and a yearling colt by Ghaiyyath (Ire).
Grade 1 glory for the boys in blue! 🔵 @godolphin
It's job done for @WilliamBuickX and Charlie Appleby at @ColonialDowns as Nations Pride justifies favouritism in the Arlington Million… pic.twitter.com/tYifADJhWf
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) August 12, 2024
Sunday, Colonial Downs
ARLINGTON MILLION S.-GI, $1,000,000, Colonial Downs, 8-11, 3yo/up, 1 1/4mT, 2:01.96, fm.
1–NATIONS PRIDE (IRE), 124, h, 5, by Teofilo (Ire)
1st Dam: Important Time (Ire) (SW-Ger),
by Oasis Dream (GB)
2nd Dam: Satwa Queen (Fr), by Muhtathir (GB)
3rd Dam: Tolga, by Irish River (Fr)
O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Charles Appleby; J-William Buick.
$613,800. Lifetime Record: SW-Eng, GSW & G1SP-UAE,
G1SW-Ger, GISW-Can, 18-10-3-2, $3,445,554. Werk Nick Rating: A+++.
*Triple Plus* Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Integration, 124, c, 4, Quality Road–Harmonize, by Scat
Daddy. ($700,000 Ylg '21 FTSAUG). O-West Point
Thoroughbreds, Woodford Racing, LLC, Pine Racing Stables,
Freeman, William T., Valdes, Michael and Ballantyne, John A.;
B-Larkin Armstrong (KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III. $198,000.
3–Ancient Rome, 124, h, 5, War Front–Gagnoa (Ire), by Sadler's
Wells. O-Mrs. Fitriani Hay; B-Orpendale/Chelston/Wynatt (KY);
T-Charlie Hills. $99,000.
Margins: 1 3/4, HF, 3/4. Odds: 1.00, 1.20, 7.00.
Also Ran: Talk of the Nation, Sugoi, Highland Chief (Ire).
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