CAMELOT THE FAIRYTALE

Camelot with Joseph O’Brien aboard…
(Photo : Herlad)

INVESTEC DERBY (Group 1)
Epsom Downs, Turf, 2400m
2 June 2012

Geoff Lester - Aidan O’Brien, who has sent out five seconds since he last won the G1 Investec Derby with High Chaparral in 2002, might still have 24 entries for the Blue Riband Classic, the Group 1 Invested Derby at Epsom on June 2, but the record-breaking Ballydoyle trainer had eyes only for G1 2000 Guineas winner Camelot (Ire) (Montjeu) when he unveiled his team of superstars at a press open day Monday morning at the famed training center.

Asked whether he was confident that Camelot, who came from last at Newmarket, would have the stamina for the mile and a half, O’Brien said: “Being by Montjeu, you would have to be optimistic that he will stay, but there are also serious Danehill and Kingmambo traits in Camelot, and he has always been a horse with tremendous speed.”

O’Brien continued, “Epsom is a unique atmosphere and can get to many horses, and, while Camelot is a calm individual and very relaxed, like so many with such an explosive burst of acceleration he has lots of nervous energy, so we have to be careful with him, and he won’t do too much more work before the big day.”

Joseph O’Brien, who will be 19 next week, celebrated his first British Classic success on Camelot at Newmarket, and his father admitted that both he and his wife Anne-Marie will be the proudest parents in the world if he happens to win at Epsom.

“We are enjoying what is a fairytale with Joseph riding these big winners, but I don’t even want to think about how I would feel if the dream became reality at Epsom,” he said. “It could all have ended in disaster in the French Guineas on Sunday when Furner’s Green took a fatal fall passing the winning post.”

“Camelot has been a special horse from day one,” O’Brien said of the likely Derby favourite. “We were very nervous before the Guineas, especially as we knew that Joseph was going to drop him out and ride him like a doubtful stayer. Joseph wanted him to learn at Newmarket, and what I liked was the way that Camelot came through the gaps between horses and put his head down and fought. Camelot has the looks, the pedigree and the presence, and he reminds me of a dressage horse in that his movement is perfection.”

As for his rising star stable jockey, O’Brien offered, “Joseph has never known anything but horses from the moment he could walk. He used to sit in the back of the jeep with me on the gallops in the mornings before he went to school, and then he would ride out every weekend. He has been involved in all the discussions about the horses from an early age, and he has been with us in the good days and the ordinary days. Joseph rides out every morning, and our other three children have also starting riding out, but we all know nothing else. We don’t do holidays - apart from when we go to the Breeders’ Cup!”

“We are all very excited about the Derby, but it is a long time since we have won (39 losers since High Chaparral), and many a year we have come home feeling very humble. We have done everything we can, and now we can, but hope and pray that Camelot is good enough.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

UNBEATEN CAMELOT CONQUERS QIPCO 2000 GUINEAS

Click above to watch Camelot winning the QIPCO 2000 Guineas…
(Image : BBC - Footage : Videos Replay)

QIPCO 2000 GUINEAS (G1)
Newmarket, Turf, 1600m
5 May 2012

Sent off the 15-8 favorite, Derrick Smith’s unbeaten Camelot (GB)(Montjeu) duly delivered to provide his late sire with a first mile Classic win after a pulsating climax to yesterday’s G1 Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Settled off the pace racing among the group towards the stand’s side, the G1 Racing Post Trophy hero sliced between rivals to lead with 150 yards remaining and held off French Fifteen (Fr) (Turtle Bowl) to score by a neck, with another French raider Hermival (Ire) (Dubawi) 2 1/4 lengths back in third.

“He has a lot of class and speed and I was always happy,” commented jockey Joseph O’Brien after showing panache beyond his years when steering his first English Classic winner. “He was nice and relaxed and, although I didn’t get the best of runs through and was very far back, I always felt like I was getting there. He might have got a bit tired in the last 100 yards, but it was his first start of the season, and he will be a lot better going further.”

“We knew that Camelot had a lot against him statistically, but we always thought he was very special,” trainer Aidan O’Brien said after greeting his sixth winner of the Classic. “He’s out of a Kingmambo mare who is out of a Danehill mare and has strong crosses of both of those in him as well as Montjeu, so that’s why we were worried about the soft ground. I had a view of what Joseph should do on him, as I was worried about him riding a horse for pace like that in that ground, but I’m glad I didn’t say anything now. He said he’d be closer to last than first at halfway and I’m glad I bit my tongue. I felt I destroyed St Nicholas Abbey in this race two years ago, and it’s only now that he’s starting to get his brilliance back, so I learnt a lot from that. The way it always is we go home and the lads will speak about it, but the Derby will be something to talk about. You’d imagine, the Derby would be a very suitable race for him.”

Extracts from Thoroughbred Daily News

THE KING IS DEAD : LONG LIVE VISIONAIRE

Visionaire
(Photo : Greig Muir)

VISIONAIRE (USA)
Grand Slam (USA) - Scarlet Tango (USA)

It’s been a sad old weekend for our friends at Ireland’s Coolmore Stud, the world’s most powerful stallion station. While there were odd shafts of light at a Dubai World Cup meeting where they amassed close to USD$3 million in earnings, courtesy mainly of a win in the UAE Derby and some frustrating seconds in the Sheema Classic and the Godolphin Mile, the big disappointment of the meeting for the Aidan O’Brien’s contingent must’ve been So You Think’s lacklustre 4^th in the World Cup itself. Not that it was the end of the world at all for an operation which bestrides racing’s biggest meetings like a colossus, but that wasn’t all.

The news of the extraordinarily successful sire, Montjeu’s passing on Friday (reported elsewhere in these columns within hours of it happening) was a mortal knock to John Magnier’s outfit at a time when their dominance of world affairs in the stallion department, was at an all-time high. And then, as if someone out there was waiting to administer the sledgehammer blow, Visionaire’s sire, Grand Slam, suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 17. Trained by D. Wayne Lukas and owned by Robert and Christina Baker, William Mack and David Cornstein, the son of fellow Lukas-trained MGSW and MGISP Bright Candles, kicked off his juvenile campaign with a track-record setting 11-length romp going 5 ½ furlongs at Belmont Park.

Later that fall, the bay added victories in the GI Champagne Stakes and GI Futurity Stakes before failing to finish in a problem-laden running of the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. At three, he added a score in the Gr.2 Peter Pan Stakes, finished second in the Gr.2 Swaps Stakes and Gr.3 Jerome Handicap and was also third in the GI Haskell Invitational Handicap. The Overbrook Farm-bred rounded out his sophomore campaign, and his career, with a runner-up finish in the 1998 GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint. At stud, he was the sire of 2003 GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Cajun Beat, and Canadian turf champion Grand Adventure, though his best performer was arguably the Summerhill Stud resident and 2008 GI King’s Bishop Stakes hero, Visionaire. His other standouts, among a highly commendable 73 Stakes winners from 11 crops (an average of almost 7 per crop), include Limehouse and Strong Hope.

Ashford Stud manager Dermot Ryan said, “Grand Slam was a pleasure to have here and he was very popular with breeders, as he sired nearly 800 winners and has progeny earnings of over $64 million.

THE WAR IS OVER, BUT THE WAR IS ON

Click above to watch the 2012 Dubai World Cup TVC..
(Image and Footage : Dubai Media)

DUBAI WORLD CUP
“We’re all in for a helluva night.”

Racing fans around the world must’ve been bewildered when, about eight years ago, Dubai’s Ruler, Sheikh Mohammed announced through his deputies that he and his brothers would no longer be patronising the stallions of their arch rivals, John Magnier’s Coolmore group, nor buying their progeny at the yearling sales. Although no official reasons were given, the grapevine had it (strongly) that the Sheikhs’ noses were out of joint because the Irish seldom, if ever, bought the progeny of their stallions, and especially because they were said to have snubbed (or plainly put, “boycotted”,) the Dubai World Cup meeting by not sending their horses there. And when they did send one, exception was made that it was accompanied only by “the secretary.” If you know Tammy Twoomey, you’d hardly call her “the secretary”.

Of course, it happened when Coolmore were riding high, and sweeping all before them, and whilst their dominance wasn’t quite at the level it is today, (mainly because, at the time, the Arabs still possessed some competitive Coolmore-sired horses in their own armoury,) it was true that you seldom found a horse in the colours of any one of the Coolmore partners, Susan Magnier or Michael Tabor at the World Cup.

If you spoke to the Irish though, they’d proffer a simple explanation. Their horses were programmed for the European and North American seasons, and they needed a break. The winter was the perfect time. The Dubai World Cup, on the other hand, was something of an imposition on the racing programme, as it came late in the day in the traditional affairs of our sport, and we don’t like change, you know. But to be fair, it filled a great gap for racing fans all over the globe, because March happens to be a quiet time, particularly if you’re not European or North American. Besides, it injected a massive flow of funds into the game, to be welcomed no matter where it slots, and the lure of these riches is evident in the fields for this weekend.

There are five Group Ones and two Group Twos in Saturday’s World Cup extravaganza, and Coolmore have come to the party. Aidan O’Brien’s intent is especially evident in the Sheema Classic (Gr.1) ($5 million over 2410m), where he has engaged his two stars, Treasure Beach and St Nicholas Abbey. In the Duty Free, (also for $5 million over 1800m) he has Giant’s Causeway’s capable son, Await The Dawn, while he’s named his number one horse of last year, So You Think, for the $10 million World Cup itself. O’Brien has obviously decided to make a meal of the day with Wrote in the $2 million UAE Derby, and the team has another ticket in Mike de Kock’s Viscount Nelson in the Godolphin Mile.

What is evident though, is that things have either thawed between these two leviathans of the game, and Coolmore have taken the practical route, or it may be a case of “cash in while there is war and we have the cattle.” Of one thing there’s little doubt: the Irish are there for the dough as much as the sport, and we’re all in for a helluva night.

www.dubaiworldcup.com

SOLSKJAER AND WAY WEST : THE SILENT ASSASSINS

 

Solskjaer (left) and Way West (right)
 (Photos : Greig Muir)

“Two Stealthy Operators”

Some people go about their business with inordinate fanfare, and gather the legions in their wake. The Pied Piper comes to mind, so does Julius Malema. But at Summerhill, we have two stealthy operators, who are quietly carving a name for themselves with a gathering force of quality performers from their two small crops at the races.

Solskjaer’s a man who’s taken his time making his mark, but those with memories will know he debuted in the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (Gr1). While that was some statement of the esteem in which he was held by Coolmore and one of the world’s top trainers, Aidan O’Brien, it was nonetheless well into his three-year-old season that he first set foot on a racecourse.

It was unlikely then, that his progeny would be any different, and the emergence of Ice Axe as a proper contender for the R2million Sansui Summer Cup (Gr1) is a welcome endorsement for what we’d come to expect from a 120-rated son of one of the world’s top sires of his era.

This weekend, two daughters from his second lot, Final Score and I Got You Babe, put up their hands as likely contenders for higher honours in the impressions they made at Turffontein and Scottsville. Both are modestly priced (R50,000 and R7,000 respectively) graduates of the Summerhill Ready To Run programmes, and Final Score’s victory represented a final bold bid for a place in Saturday’s Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup. It seems the “Sollys” like the sound of “R2million”.

Danehill’s other Summerhill-based son Way West, reminded us of his capacity to surprise, when the unbeaten Hot Girl stampeded up to take her story to two from two. The Way Wests have an affinity for “two”, it appears. Two small crops, two Group One fillies to date, two runners in the Cup (both running for R2million) and Hot Girl two from two.

Two good to be two?

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za