Seven Days: Over and Out

In the blink of an eye, that's another turf season in the books, which means that this is the final Seven Days column for 2024. Next week Adam Houghton will be starting a new column which aims to keep tabs on those two-year-olds who are rising three and could make more of a name for themselves next year. An eagle-eyed former Timeform employee, Adam guarantees that if the next Notable Speech (GB) is out there, about to make his debut on the all-weather this winter before marching on to Classic glory, then he will spot him. No pressure, then.

Whatever one's view of City Of Troy (Justify) he has certainly kept people talking this season. “There's not a lad left in Tipperary,” commented one friend as we watched his calm procession around the pre-parade ring ahead of the Guineas. 

The palpable buzz from the local and Irish crowd at Newmarket that day quickly turned to abject disappointment, only to be followed by redemption at Epsom, two more top-level wins against his elders, then a great debate surrounding his participation in the Breeders' Cup Classic. We all know how that ended – and I'll always say this – but I would love to have seen him back next year.

That's a moot point, of course, and instead we have the rare, if not unique, scenario of two consecutive Derby winners retiring to the same stud at the same time. We'll have one last shake of the rattle from Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in what will be an intriguing Japan Cup from a European perspective, with the 'King George' winner Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) an intended runner, along with last year's Deutsches Derby winner Fantastic Moon (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}).

Worth the equivalent of $7.7 million, with a $3 million win bonus for any horse who has also won one of 24 qualifying races around the world, the Japan Cup is clearly an enticing target. Last year it was the top-rated race in the world, thanks largely to Equinox (Jpn), who was chased home by four Japanese Classic winners in the next four places. Underestimate the strength of the home challenge at your peril. 

The last overseas winner of this race came almost 20 years ago, when Luca Cumani sent over Alkaased from Newmarket in 2005. Prior to that Sir Michael Stoute had trained back-to-back winners in Singspiel (Ire) and Pilsudski (Ire) in 1996 and 1997.

In his acknowledgement of the retirement of the 10-time champion trainer at the end of this season, Paul Hayward recalled the golden era of Stoute's great rivalry with Henry Cecil in his TDN column this week, and if you missed it, I recommend catching up here via this lovely trip down memory lane.

Acclamation Bows Out

As we creep ever closer to the likelihood of Dark Angel (Ire) being crowned champion sire of Britain and Ireland for the first time on what will be the eve of his official 20th birthday, there was extra poignancy to the announcement last week that his own sire, Acclamation (GB), has been pensioned at the age of 25. 

What a mighty servant he has been to Rathbarry Stud, where Acclamation stood throughout his stud career for 21 consecutive seasons. Thanks to Dark Angel and his fellow Group 1 winner Equiano (GB), Acclamation was the champion first-season sire of 2007. Further top-flight winners were to follow and included the Hong Kong champion Romantic Warrior (Ire), crack sprinter Marsha (GB), who went on to set a new auction record when sold at Tattersalls for 6,000,000gns in 2017 and, most recently, Makarova (GB), who won the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye for her owner-breeders Jeffrey and Phoebe Hobby of Brightwalton Stud. 

It is perhaps Acclamation's Group 2-winning son Mehmas (Ire) who will come closest to rivalling Dark Angel's fantastic stud career in time. His record grows year on year, and was augmented the weekend before last by the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint victory of Magnum Force (Ire).

Mehmas already has five stallion sons of his own in Europe, while Dark Angel's list of sons at stud will be boosted further by Charyn (Ire) next year, who will retire to Sumbe's French roster after this Sunday's G1 Mile Championship at Kyoto. Meanwhile, Rathbarry has a young son of Acclamation in place in Bouttemont (Fr), who covered 81 mares earlier this year in his first season. It's safe to say that this sire-line, which stems from one of the hitherto quieter branches of the Northern Dancer dynasty, through his son Try My Best, has firmly taken root.

Special Agent

A fond farewell was also waved in the last week to Accidental Agent (GB) (Delegator {GB}), who, at the age of 10, has been the star of Eve Johnson Houghton's stable for many a year. The highlight of his career was of course his great victory in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot six years ago. 

Yes, he has been plying his trade in lesser company of late but less than a length separated him from one final victory when he finished third last Wednesday after being sent off at 50/1 for his swansong at Kempton.

Seven wins, 11 places, 59 starts, £755,346 in earnings. So states his record. But what he will have brought in sheer joyful satisfaction to his trainer and her mother Gaie, who bred and raced the old warrior, reaches way beyond numbers. 

Accidental Agent is from a family which the Johnson Houghtons have cultivated for five generations and though he did not join the stallion ranks, his younger relative Mohaather (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), winner of the 2020 G1 Sussex Stakes, has been keeping the family's name in lights on that front this season. 

Mohaather's first two-year-old runners have included the stakes winners Big Mojo (Ire), Merveilleux Lapin (Ire) and Yah Mo Be There (GB), and he is currently level with Sergei Prokofiev for number of winners this year in Britain and Ireland. With 17 apiece they are at the head of the freshman table. By progeny earnings, Mohaather, who is a half-brother to Accidental Agent's dam Roodle (GB) (Xaar {GB}), is in fourth place. 

And while we are saluting a veteran performer, we must mention in dispatches Accidental Agent's fellow 10-year-old Trais Fluors (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who notched his 11th win from 78 starts on Friday for Linda Perratt. She is his fifth trainer as Trais Fluors started his racing days over the Channel in the colours of his breeder Andreas Putsch, for whom he won Group 3 and Listed contests, as well as finishing runner-up in the G1 Prix Jean Prat when trained by Andre Fabre. He subsequently won for both Mick and Jack Channon before joining Perratt, who has coaxed another three victories from him – and last week's win came on his 15th start of the year. Age shall indeed not weary him.

Flying Again

David Lowe's homebred Sparks Fly (GB) (Muhaarar {GB}) was another to post an 11th career victory this weekend, though she is still only four and has now won on just over 50 per cent of her appearances on a racecourse.

Though trained in Shropshire by David Loughnane, she has a particular liking for Paris – who doesn't? – and three of her four Listed victories have come at Saint-Cloud, including in Sunday's Prix Isola Bella, which she won for the second year running, each time with Laura Pearson in the saddle. 

Sparks Fly did not run as a juvenile but she was busy last year with 15 runs to her credit. A break after her spring appearance earlier this season clearly did her the world of good as the mud-lover has come alive again this autumn with three straight stakes wins to her name. She's a delight. 

Liberty Racing's Astute Purchases 

Assistent (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) brought to a close the Group 1 action in Europe when winning the G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern in Munich on Sunday. The five-year-old's victory, after finishing second in the same race last year, crowns a glorious first season riding in Germany for Thore Hammer-Hansen, who will become champion jockey in the country of his birth after moving home last year. A former apprentice for Richard Hannon, Hammer-Hansen also claimed an initial Classic victory aboard Palladium (Ger) (Gleneagles {Ire}) in the G1 Deutsches Derby.

Both Assistent and Palladium were bought by Lars-Wilhelm Baumgarten's Liberty Racing from the BBAG September Yearling Sale, the former for €58,000 in 2020 and Palladium for €80,000 in 2022. Between these two came the purchase by the same syndicate of last year's Deutsches Derby winner, Fantastic Moon, for €49,000 in 2021. As mentioned above, he is bound for the Japan Cup after winning the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden in early September. 

That's a whole lot of Group 1 success for relatively little money, though none of that trio can claim to be the star bargain from BBAG: that honour goes to the G1 Sun Chariot winner Tamfana (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}), bought in Baden-Baden in 2022 for €20,000 by Jeremy Brummitt. 

While Fantastic Moon remains in the Liberty colours for his finale before retiring to stand at Gestut Ebbesloh, it is somewhat extraordinary to reflect that this year's Derby winner Palladium is now in the care of Nicky Henderson with, presumably, a jumps career ahead of him. The sum of €1.4 million at Arqana's Arc Sale was clearly too good to turn down and, now the most expensive 'National Hunt' horse ever to be sold, will run in the colours of Lady Bamford. Maybe Henderson can be persuaded to take aim at some of the nice staying contests at Royal Ascot, instead of the Triumph Hurdle. 

Imports Play Starring Role in Australia 

We've all rather enjoyed the tale of the vocally talented and Irish-born Robbie Dolan winning the Melbourne Cup on his first ride in the race and can only look forward to the day, hopefully long in the future, when Ryan Moore retires from the saddle and announces his participation in Strictly. 

Dolan is not the only import to have lit up the spring racing in Melbourne. Duke De Sessa (Ire), Deny Knowledge (Ire), Onesmoothoperator and Sea King (GB) have all won group races, but the undisputed star of the show  has been Via Sistina (Ire).

Less than a year ago the daughter of Fastnet Rock (Ire) was bought by Yulong Investments for 2.7 million gns at the Tattersalls December Sale. She was already of course a Group 1 winner, having landed the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh five months earlier and placing in another three top-level races in the interim. If that price seemed punchy at the time, in glorious hindsight it now looks like money well spent. 

Via Sistina has won another five Group 1s and the equivalent of almost £4 million since heading to Chris Waller's stable in Sydney, including her record-margin victory in the Cox Plate, which was followed a fortnight later by another imperious win in Saturday's Champions Stakes. As mentioned last week, she is a credit to her breeder, the Bryce family's Laundry Cottage Stud Farm, which also produced Wootton Bassett (GB). With his newly announced fee of €300,000, he ranks behind only Frankel (GB) and Dubawi (Ire) on covering price after a year in which he has been responsible for four new juvenile Group 1 winners.