Seven Days: Hooked on Hukum

It's Goodwood, it's Galway, but this week's column comes to you from Glorious Golspie, 170 miles north of Britain's most northerly racecourse, and roughly the same distance across Scotland from the country's most recent retiree from the training ranks. Keith Dalgleish has packed up his stable at Carluke and moved to Oban in the western Highlands to pursue, at his own choosing, a life outside racing. A successful jockey in his days working for fellow Scot Mark Johnston, and later Scotland's most prolific trainer, Dalgleish will be missed both north and south of the border. We wish him well.

Life in the Highlands certainly has its appeal. Over the last week there have been peregrine falcons, seals, sheep and cattle, not to mention my faithful lurcher, to fan my love of fur and feather, but I miss the horses. I missed being at Ascot, too, for a proper humdinger of a 'King George'.

With August now upon us, the Arc is just two months away. It may still feel like we've only just dried out from a horribly wet Guineas weekend but the season, and life, gallops on. It appears that it will be at Longchamp that we next see Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in public, and thank goodness that he was allowed to gallop on, eventually, after the injury he sustained when winning the Coronation Cup last season. 

The Classics are, of course, important tests by which we measure Thoroughbreds and, with such a premium on precocity, some budding young stars are never allowed to perform beyond even their juvenile season. The later-maturing types, however, may not even be ready to show their mettle in a Classic. Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}), beaten only a head by Hukum in the King George, is clearly still improving, despite having been a brilliant three-year-old who was third in the Derby before winning the Irish Derby. Hukum, whose Classic year was the Covid-delayed season of 2020, was given a Derby entry but didn't run at Epsom after winning the King George V H. and being struck into during that race. (Royal Ascot, in that strange season, was run before the Derby meeting.) It is impossible to say how much that may have been a blessing in disguise, and Hukum did run fifth in the St Leger, but the initial softly-softly approach of his trainer Owen Burrows, perhaps as much by necessity as by design, is certainly paying dividends now. Hukum's progression has been immense: from solid multiple Group 3 winner in the shadow of his celebrated younger brother Baaeed (GB) to star status himself.

Baaeed was the top-rated turf horse in the world last year. Hukum would have to win the Arc in sensational fashion to overturn Equinox (Jpn) or his fellow Shadwell colour-bearer Mostahdaf (Ire), but he is bearing down on them and, as we saw on Saturday, he doesn't shirk a battle. 

It is not the first time, either, that siblings from this family, passed on from the late Queen to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum through the sale of Height Of Fashion (Fr) (Bustino {GB}), have excelled. In 1989, Height Of Fashion's son Nashwan (Blushing Groom {Fr}) added the King George to his victories in the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, and Eclipse. That same year, his half-brother Unfuwain (Northern Dancer) won the G2 Jockey Club S. after landing the previous year's G2 Princess of Wales's S. Later, another half-brother, Nayef (Gulch), piled extra glory on the family with four Group 1 victories, including the Prince of Wales's and Champion S. Previously, for the Queen, both Height Of Fashion and her half-brother Milford (GB) (Mill Reef) won the the G2 Princess of Wales's S.

However long Burrows holds a training licence, it is unlikely any horse will ever surpass Hukum in his regard. The trainer's first Royal Ascot winner, first winner in Dubai at a crucial and emotional time for the Shadwell operation, and his first Group 1 winner, the six-year-old has been the most wonderful advertisement for the talents of Burrows, who spent many a year learning from Sir Michael Stoute, himself a master at handling progressive, middle-distance horses of this ilk.

Following a banner weekend for his stable, when Alfaila (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) also won the G2 York S. for his major patron, it is worth reflecting that Burrows has but a fraction of the equine ammunition gifted to some of the country's biggest stables. Of the top 20 trainers in Britain, he has been represented by the fewest number of runs (62 for 29 horses) with the next lowest in that group having been 142 runs for Julie Camacho's 53 runners. How wonderful, too, to have seen her stable shine through with a serious horse this year in the dual Group 1 winner Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}).

It is, of course, each owner's prerogative to send their horse wherever they like to be trained, and to run them where and when they like, even if the braying mob on Twitter (yes, I'm still calling it that) may think otherwise. But at a time when the trainer numbers are falling in Britain and Ireland, and racing could do with extra diversity in its stories, it would be refreshing to see some of the major owners consider their options more widely. 

With so many of the better horses in increasingly fewer hands, one can't help wondering about the knock-on effect this has, not just on field sizes, but on that key tier of horses just below the top level who appear to be missing from our racecourses. Admittedly, a number of them are sold to race on abroad for more lucrative prize-money. But how many perhaps do not contest as many big races as they might do in other hands when situations might arise in which a trainer could have several realistic chances for a Pattern race but only wishes to run one, or maybe two, in it? A more even spread among a wider range of trainers would surely increase the competitiveness of a good number of Pattern races. 

What next for Epsom heroes?

It was not a good week for Derby winners. Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), who also won the 2021 King George, was officially retired after being well beaten into second in the G2 Princess of Wales's S. at Newmarket, having added the rescheduled G3 Gordon Richards S. to his wins' tally on his seasonal resumption. 

Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) was again stood down, this time with a leg infection, while Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who started favourite for the King George, continued his 'all duck or no dinner' season when being eased down a long way out and cantering over the line in last place.

It is fervently hoped that both Desert Crown and Auguste Rodin will return to the fray and to the level of form that it took to win at Epsom in the first place. Racing careers for colts at this level are of course always conducted with a weather eye on a future stallion career. Losses can be costly, but the level of interest in Saturday's big race and those major weight-for-age contests to come show just how much giving such horses a chance to race beyond their Classic season enhances the level of engagement with the racing public. 

It is worth considering, too, how much the World Pool is boosted by a decent double-figure field. For the King George card on Saturday, World Pool turnover reached a new high of HK$287.3m (£28.8m), up from HK$253.4m last year, albeit the number of races on the day increased from seven to eight. Of that, HK$49.4m (£4.9m), the highest turnover for any race on the day, was bet on the King George, which was up from HK$29.9m (£3.2m) in 2022 when there were only six runners.

The Rothschild for Rothschild

While Sea The Stars had bragging rights through Hukum at Ascot, it was his fellow Aga Khan Studs stallion Siyouni (Fr) who had a major say in events during Deauville's opening meeting on Sunday.

While being responsible for a new TDN Rising Star in the juvenile Elbaz (Fr), from the family of Siyouni's first Classic winner Ervedya (Fr), most notably he was represented by a new Group 1 winner, Mqse de Sevgine (Fr). The four-year-old's win was extra special for her owner/breeder Baron Edouard de Rothschild, whose family gave the race its name.

Rothschild, who under more normal circumstances would have been presenting the trophy, instead accepted it from his son Louis, and he admitted that his thoughts were very much with his father. The latter, Baron Guy de Rothschild, who died in 2007, not only bred the winner's dam, Penne (Fr), but also her sire, Sevres Rose (Fr), granddam Une Pensee (Fr), and that mare's sire, Kenmare (Fr).

The name Sevres Rose won't be jumping off too many pedigree pages. The son of Caerleon was unraced but, as a son of Rothschild's homebred G1 Prix Vermeille winner Indian Rose (Fr) (General Holme) and grandson of the classy stayer and top producer Lady Berry (Fr) (Violin d'Ingres {Fr}), he was afforded a place at stud, standing for several years at Haras du Quesnay and later at the Rothschild family's Haras de Meautry.

As a Listed place-getter and dual winner, Penne, one of six foals by her sire born in 2003, was certainly to the forefront of Sevres Rose's runners, though his best is arguably the G3 Prix de la Nonette winner Viane Rose (Fr), who was later bought as a broodmare prospect by Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm. Her group success in 2005 may well have helped Sevres Rose to his record number of foals in his 14 years of covering. From a total of 127 foals born through those years, 42 of them arrived in 2007.

Although Viane Rose has a pair of Listed winners among her seven winning offspring in Japan, she has been far outdone by Penne at stud. Mqse De Sevigne is the latter's second Group 1 winner following Meandre (Fr) (Slickly {Fr}), whose four wins at the highest level included the Grand Prix de Paris. A top-class winning filly ensures the line of succession for the equine family as much as it will encourage the humans involved to continue in their successful endeavours which have seen the Haras de Meautry remain in the family's ownership since its inception in 1875.

Renaissance

Hardly anyone will have been more delighted with the French resurgence on the track this season than Edouard de Rothschild, who combines his breeding activities with being president of France Galop.

All four French Classics run in 2023 have been won by French-trained horses, as well as five other Group 1s. Only Ralph Beckett and Owen Burrows have so far made off with a French Group 1 trophy, courtesy of Westover and Anmaat (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}). In Ace Impact (Fr) (Cracksman {GB}), Blue Rose Cen (Fr), and Feed The Flame (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), the French also look to have three of the best three-year-olds in Europe.

Sangster's Winning Combination 

A chestnut filly by New Bay (GB), bred at Ballylinch Stud, winning a stakes race in the silks of Lucy Sangster? One could be forgiven for thinking that this was Saffron Beach (Ire) all over again, but there is one key difference for the young filly following in her considerable wake.

While Ollie Sangster was the co-owner, with his mother and James Wigan, of the dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach, he is the trainer of Shuwari (Ire), the latest black-type winner for New Bay and the first to score at stakes level for Sangster, who is in his first season training at Manton. With seven winners from 29 starts to date, he has made a promising start to his career with his 27 horses on the books. 

Shuwari, who is co-owned by her breeder Ballylinch Stud, added the Listed EBF Star S. to her maiden success at Newbury a month earlier, and is the stand-out of the string so far. The young trainer also now has one of the rising forces of the ownership ranks in his stable following the private sale of Per Contra (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {Ire}) to Wathnan Racing after his winning debut at Chepstow. Ruled out of a start in the G2 Vintage S. this week, the colt holds an entry for the G2 Champagne S. next month.