Wonderful Tonight

NEWMARKET, UK -- A sister to Alpinista (GB)? How about one to St Mark's Basilica (Fr) or Charyn (Ire), or a brother to Hurricane Lane (Ire)? Then there are the first foals, by Dubawi (Ire) no less, of Lady Bowthorpe (GB) and Glass Slippers (GB), or the first foal from Wonderful Tonight (Fr), by Frankel (GB), with those two top stallions accounting for 10 per cent of Book 1 entries between them.  Camelot (GB) leapfrogged Dubawi on Sunday to be head of the sires' table for Europe when his daughter...

Eric Clapton has already inadvertently provided owner Chris Wright and trainer David Menuisier with one Group 1-winning filly in the form of Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) and now it's up to The Eagles.  Former record company boss Wright has a long history of naming his horses after song titles, and when it came to the half-sister to the multiple group winner, the selection of Heartache Tonight (Fr) (Recorder {GB}) seemed fitting. There may well have been a little heartache involved, too, as at the time she was signed...

Chris Wright's dual Group 1 winner Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) will visit champion sire Frankel (GB) for her first covering this year, trainer David Menuisier reported on Twitter on Monday. The 5-year-old mare has joined Wright's broodmare band at his Stratford Place Stud in the Cotswolds. A winner at two, Wonderful Tonight rose through the ranks at three, winning the G3 Prix Minerve in August of 2020 before winding up the season with a Group 1 double in the Prix de Royallieu and the G1 British Champions Fillies...

Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), whose six victories included wins in last year's G1 Prix de Royallieu and G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. and this year's G2 Hardwicke S. and G2 Lillie Langtry S., has been retired after suffering a condylar fracture of a fetlock on Friday morning. Christopher Wright's 4-year-old filly had been an intended runner in Sunday's G2 Prix Foy at ParisLongchamp as a stepping stone toward the Oct. 3 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, trainer David Menuisier's goal since her Royallieu win. "She...

Having played with a crop of 3-year-old fillies unable to stay within hailing distance of her so far this year, Ballydoyle's fast-ascending starlet Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) has a proper examination awaiting her on York's Knavesmire on Thursday as Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) squares up in the G1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks. Thoroughly scintillating in the June 4 G1 Epsom Oaks and impressive as the widest-margin winner of the G1 Irish Oaks on record at The Curragh July 17, she even has course form having kickstarted her illustrious...

Customarily, when a Ballydoyle VIP attracts the kind of support that Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) has in the lead-up to Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco S. at Ascot, it is more than a subtle pointer to the eventual outcome. Whether the filly who so readily dispatched of her peers in last year's G1 1000 Guineas, G1 Epsom Oaks and G1 Yorkshire Oaks has this inspiringly-crafted renewal "locked down" depends not only on the strength of the opposition but also on the volatile weather. A renowned "daisy-cutter"...

On each day of Royal Ascot, there was at least one result truly to savour, if not more. Moreover, the meeting in its entirety felt at last like a return to some sort of normality. Even the British weather played its typically quirky part: boiling one day, rain of biblical proportions the next. One regrettable absence was the buzz of the crowd. The maximum number of 12,000 attendees per day is of course low by usual standards. With the late announcement that even this number would be permitted, not to...

Christopher Wright's dual Group 1-winning mare Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) is likely to have a later start to her 4-year-old campaign, with all roads leading to the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, according to trainer David Menuisier. Wonderful Tonight won the G3 Prix Minerve last summer before scoring at the top level for the first time in the G1 Prix de Royallieu over 14 furlongs. Rather than supplementing for the Arc, connections opted to take in the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. over the same...

Triumph and disaster. In racing, the two are rarely far from each other. For David Menuisier to cast his mind back to last autumn will doubtless bring mixed emotions. At his local course of Goodwood on Sept. 23 he lost the horse who played an enormous part in the growing success of his stable, Thundering Blue (Exchange Rate). The 7-year-old's fatal injury in the listed Foundation S. was a cruel blow which brought the trainer and his partner Kim Johnstone to tears. But when the racing gods take, they so...

Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), winner of the G1 Prix de Royallieu and the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. this month, will bypass this year's Breeders' Cup with a 4-year-old campaign in mind. "She's not going to the Breeders' Cup--I don't think it would be fair," said trainer David Menuisier. "If the filly was four and it was her last ever race, maybe we would have rolled the dice, but in this instance I think it would be greed. I would be scared to ask too much...