The Weekly Wrap: Goodwood To Galway With A Dash Of Hokkaido

There is more than a hand's difference in height between Deirdre (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}) and Love So Deep (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) but what the diminutive Love So Deep lacks in stature she makes up for in feistiness, while the regal Deirdre studies those around her with her calm, kind eye.

By Monday morning the air of jubilation surrounding the two fillies had still not dissipated at Abington Place where each has been prepared this summer. The stable, once home to Harry Wragg and then his son Geoff and now owned by South African owner-breeder Mary Slack, has long had an international feel to it thanks to it being the base over a number of years for equine visitors from foreign lands. Indeed, Agnes World (Danzig) spent some time there before becoming the first Japanese-trained runner to win a Group 1 race in Britain when lifting the July Cup back in 2000, though the sprinter was bred in America at Calumet Farm.

It was no surprise then that the canny rail-grabbing victory of Deirdre in Goodwood's G1 Qatar Nassau S. straight drew such attention not just in Europe but also in her home country.

“Are you still awake, Japan?” asked assistant trainer Yoshi Hashida to camera straight after roaring Deirdre over the line. You bet they were.

For followers of Japanese racing and breeding it was a week which had begun in sadness with the death of the country's pre-eminent sire Deep Impact (Jpn) at the age of 17. Bred, like Deirdre, by Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm, Deep Impact's own international mission was thwarted when he finished third and was later disqualified in the Arc of 2006. Never mind: he returned home to go out in a blaze of glory from his first career with back-to-back wins in the Japan Cup and Arima Kinen before embarking on a stud career that would ensure his name would be immortalised in the annals of Thoroughbred breeding.

His compatriot Deirdre, a daughter of Deep Impact's fellow Shadai Stallion Station resident, Harbinger, may have failed to fire in June on the Ascot turf where her father posted his emphatic King George win, but better underfoot conditions in Sussex led to her posting her first victory outside Japan. This was in addition to a number of decent overseas runs, notably when second to Glorious Forever (GB) in the G1 Hong Kong Cup and third in the G1 Dubai Turf.

Since May, Deirdre has been prepared from Newmarket by her trainer Mitsuru Hashida's son Yoshi and her daily, adoring rider Yuta Komiyama. She has shared the main yard at Abington Place during that time with Australian mare Houtzen (Aus), Singaporean sprinter Lim's Cruiser (Aus), New Zealand's Enzo's Lad (Aus) and, more recently, her fellow Japanese incomer Cheval Grand (JPN).

Hashida was quick to credit Jane Chapple-Hyam, whose horses are stabled in neighbouring yards at Abington Place, for her help with Deirdre and the trainer got her just reward on her home track on Saturday when firing in a double, including the Listed Chalice S. win of Love So Deep—the first stakes winner for Deep Impact since his sad demise.

Winless in five starts for Richard Hannon at two, Love So Deep was offered for sale by her breeder Lady Bamford at last year's Tattersalls December Mares' Sale, where she was bought by Adam Sangster's Swettenham Stud Australia for 50,000gns. There are a number of ways in which the filly's pedigree would have had extra appeal to Sangster, whose father Robert bred two of her grandparents. Sangster senior was the co-breeder with Barronstown Stud of Wind In Her Hair (Ire) (Alzao), the dam of Deep Impact, while Sadler's Wells, sire of Love So Deep's dam Soinlovewithyou, was arguably Sangster's crowning achievement as a breeder.

There's something a little special still about seeing those Sangster colours in action, rarer now than when their original owner was in his pomp. Witnessing them on John Egan and Love So Deep in Newmarket's winner's enclosure on Saturday added a little extra magic to a rather nice family occasion, for the Australian-born Chapple-Hyam is the step-sister of Adam Sangster.

“It's especially nice to train a good filly for Adam and his partners,” she told TDN on Monday. “The filly was rated 64 when we bought her and when her price got to 50,000gns we asked ourselves if it was too much to pay.”

While her rating was moderate at the time, her pedigree fortunately held sway. Not only is she by one of the world's best sires of the modern era but her maiden-winning dam, though found wanting in Pattern class, is a three-parts-sister to Derby winner Ruler Of The World (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and half to the outstanding Duke Of Marmalade (Ire) (Danehill). Love So Deep won her first two starts for Chapple-Hyam and had shown decent enough form in stakes company since then to be racing off a mark of 100 on Saturday.

“Love So Deep has now been sold to Prince Faisal and she will go to his Denford Stud in November,” confirmed Chapple-Hyam who added that the G3 Princess Royal S. is now her preferred next option.

Deirdre, meanwhile, has France and Ireland in her sights.

“We are considering the Prix Vermeille or the Irish Champion Stakes,” said Yoshi Hashida on Monday. “We have thought about America and the Breeders' Cup but she is so happy here in Newmarket and so are we.”

On A Roll
Mark Johnston is so prolific in saddling winners that these days he often has to resort to breaking his own records, as he did when notching a half-century in July alone. If only such a score could have been recorded by one or more of England's batsmen on Monday as they folded tamely against the Aussies in the Ashes! Johnston may have been resident in the famous cricketing county of Yorkshire for many a year but it's doubtful that the proud Scot could ever be coerced into donning an England shirt.

Johnston has won four stakes races in the last fortnight but it's likely that the success of King's Advice (GB) (Frankel {GB}) will have tasted sweetest of all. The 5-year-old is a son of the G1 Cheveley Park S. winner Queen's Logic (Ire) (Grand Lodge) but has shown a real penchant for staying races. He has also shown a penchant for winning. Having started out in Germany, where he won three races for Andreas Wohler, King's Advice had a short stay in France before his move to Yorkshire. The moorland clearly agrees with him as he has now won eight of his nine races this season, improving his rating from 71 to 108—and counting.

His prolific strike-rate is perhaps beaten only by One Cool Poet (Ire) (Urban Poet), who swiftly joined the pantheon of Galway legends by winning at the Irish festival three times in a week—on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Hats off to trainer Matthew J Smith and jockey Billy Lee for a remarkable treble.

Another Good Choice
Also rather remarkably, Sheikh Hamdan has two fillies named Enbihaar both foaled in 2015, but one bearing an Irish suffix and the other born in Australia. Naturally, it was Enbihaar (Ire) who continued her excellent season with a highly impressive victory in the G2 Qatar Lillie Langtry S. at Goodwood. The Haras du Mezeray-bred filly continued a posthumous rattle for the second of two northern hemisphere crops of Redoute's Choice (Aus). Despite his considerable prowess in Australia, it's fair to say that he did not set the European scene alight following his two seasons spent at Haras de Bonneval, but Enbihaar's third stakes win of the year, following on from Danceteria (Fr)'s Group 1 win the previous weekend in Germany, serves to enhance the worldwide legacy of Redoute's Choice, who died in March.

The late Arrowfield resident also featured as broodmare sire of an interesting Galway maiden winner Emperor Of The Sun (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). The Coolmore-bred juvenile is a brother to At Last (Ire), who recently became the most expensive filly ever to sell at the Tattersalls July Sale when bought by Mick Flanagan for 420,000gns. The two are half-siblings to Zoustar (Aus), one of the hottest stallions in Australia who recently spent his first season at Tweenhills Stud.

It will have been a wretched week for the team at Tweenhills as they have had to endure the worry of their exciting young sire Roaring Lion being operated on twice in New Zealand for colic. We extend our sincere wishes for a positive outcome.

Hills Alive
Enbihaar helped to set the seal on an excellent Glorious Goodwood for Sheikh Hamdan, who was also represented by the G2 King George Qatar S. winner Battaash (Ire), who landed the race for the third year in a row, and Unibet Stewards' Cup hero Khaadem (Ire). Those two sons of Dark Angel (Ire) combined to give their trainer Charlie Hills a good week despite the disappointing performance of Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) in the G1 Qatar Sussex S.

Hills struck four times at Goodwood, with maiden winners Persuasion (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) and Vividly (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) completing the set.

Wicklow Trumps Galway
The Weekly Wrap has long had a bit of a soft spot for Wicklow Brave (GB) (Beat Hollow {GB}) and we make no apology for singing his praises again. The 9-year-old won his first race at Galway six years ago when striking in the bumper in the hands of Patrick Mullins. He won again last year in a proper Flat race but this time was back to post a Grade 3 victory over fences. Along with his Galway successes, Wicklow Brave has run at Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood, Cheltenham, Flemington, Punchestown, York, Belmont Park, Caulfield, and Champions Days in both Britain and Ireland. He's a Classic winner on the Flat and a Grade 1 winner over hurdles and to these misty old eyes he's never run better than when coming agonisingly close to pulling off a shock in the Coral Cup in March with his last-to-almost-first storm up the Cheltenham hill. He is, quite simply, the type of horse we should all long to own and breed.

Here To Stay
It's been quite a week for the stayers. The marvellous Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) now seems sure to strip Weatherbys Hamilton of yet another £1 million bonus following his jaunt in the G1 Qatar Goodwood Cup.

And longevity of a different kind was on display at Goodwood in the form of the equally marvellous Peter Maugham. Back in 2009, after 56 years in the racing game, Maugham was named Employee of the Year at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards. He is now officially retired as David Elsworth's travelling head lad but he is almost as stubborn as the trainer himself and, at the age of 82, still makes regular appearances at the races. Last week, he proudly walked back in alongside Elsworth's Sir Dancealot (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}) after he won his second G2 Qatar Lennox S. Fifty years earlier he had performed a similar duty for the Derby winner Blakeney (GB), and then four years after that with his half-brother Morston (GB), when he accompanied them to Epsom for his former boss Arthur Budgett.

“I've only ever worked for two trainers,” he told TDN this week, “and I've loved every minute of it.”