CAPE BLANCO : FREQUENT FLYER

Click above to watch Cape Blanco winning the Arlington Million (G1)…
(Image : ESPN - Footage : Arlington)

ECLIPSE AWARDS
16 January 2012

The piece we penned on America’s Eclipse Awards earlier this week missed an important point. We pointed to the fact that two of the award winners had Summerhill connections, Champion Three-Year-Old Colt, Animal Kingdom, and the Champion Breeders, Adena Springs. The ink was scarcely dry, and we were reminded of the connection of our long-time supporters, Dr. Jim and Fitri Hay, who were major stakeholders in Cape Blanco, without question, the most extraordinary of those that stepped up to the podium Tuesday evening.

This son of Galileo did what no other thoroughbred has ever done: he crossed the Atlantic three times for three Group One victories, landing the July 9^th Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont, a month later he took the Arlington Million on August 13^th, then followed up as the 3-5 favourite in the Joe Hirsch Classic: Quite extraordinary and some tribute to the toughness this man, and to this fellow, let’s not forget, of Galileo, sire of our own Horse Of The Year, Igugu, a graduate of the Summerhill Ready To Run consignment in 2009.

GALILEO GLUT

Dr Jim Hay and Fitri Hay
(Photo : Summerhill Archives)

…we’ve attracted a bit of “flak”…

We’ve been sounding like a stuck record for some years now, and we’ve attracted a bit of “flak” for our assertions that Galileo might be as good, and maybe better than his own remarkable sire, Sadler’s Wells, but events at the weekend have only served to reinforce this view. For the record, Galileo is already head and shoulders ahead of his nearest pursuer with some 8 Group One winners this season (against the 3 of his closest pursuer, Montjeu), and on Saturday he showed his versatility with a Grade One double at Arlington Park in the United States.

In the older brigade, Cape Blanco gave one of America’s leading grass horses, Gio Ponti (Tale Of The Cat) a 2,5 length beating for Summerhill clients Jim and Fitri Hay, among the usual crew at Coolmore, while Treasure Beach, the Irish Derby hero of this year, took the three-year-old event, the Secretariat Stakes (Gr1) from the Aga Khan’s Ziyarid. Both Galileos were trained by the Irish phenomenon, Aidan O’Brien.

The third feature of the day, the Group 1 Beverley D. Stakes for fillies and mares, carried South African hopes in the form of the seven-year-old mare, River Jetez, who came on strongly from the rear to be beaten just a short head for the consolation 2^nd money, 2,5 lengths adrift of the triple Group One winner, Stacelita, a European-bred daughter of the German-based stallion Monsun, a storied sire in his own right.

For the record, Summerhill’s been quietly accumulating daughters of Galileo for its broodmare contingent, and there are five on the farm as we write. Of course, it’s well known that we let the “Legend”, Igugu go, but as Zulu farmers dependant only on horses for a living, that was a matter of economic good sense!

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE SIRES
(By Group 1 Stakes Winners YTD)

Sire	G1 Stakes Winners
GALILEO (IRE)	8
MONTJEU (IRE)	3
DANEHILL DANCER (IRE)	2
DEEP IMPACT (JPN)	2
DUBAWI (IRE)	2
DYNAFORMER (USA)	2

CAPE BLANCO SWOOPS TO ARLINGTON MILLION VICTORY

Click above to watch Cape Blanco winning the Arlington Million (G1)…
(Image : ESPN - Footage : Arlington)

ARLINGTON MILLION STAKES (Grade 1)
Arlington Park, Turf, 2000m
13 August 2011

It was a great day for the Irish Saturday at Arlington Park, particularly if you were an Aidan O’Brien-trained Irish Derby-winning son of Galileo (Ire). First 2011 Derby winner Treasure Beach (GB) (Galileo) won the GI Secretariat Stakes and then, an hour or so later, 2010 Classic winner Cape Blanco (Ire) (Galileo) swept to a 2 1/2-length victory in the GI Arlington Million Stakes. Cape Blanco, favored at 2-1, settled in a stalking fourth as Mission Approved (With Approval) took the field along through pedestrian fractions over the rain-soakened Arlington turf course. The Irish raider was asked for run turning for home, made a bold move to put his head in front in upper stretch and surged clear. Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat) closed late for second, matching his finish in last year’s Million. “He’s a good tough horse and he’s brilliantly trained,” jockey Jamie Spencer said of the winner. “All I did was was do the steering. Aidan gave me my instructions and I rode accordingly.”

Cape Blanco, a two-time group winner during his undefeated juvenile campaign, parlayed a win in last year’s G1 Irish Derby into a strong runner-up effort behind Harbinger in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes before storming home by 5 1/2 lengths in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes. This term, the chestnut colt took to the synthetics for a fourth-place effort in the G1 Dubai World Cup in March and was fourth again in the G1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp in April. He set sail for America after a sixth-place effort in the June 14 G1 Queen Anne Stakes and made a quick impact on these shores, defeating Gio Ponti by 2 1/4 lengths in the July 9 G1 Man O’War Stakes at Belmont Park. “I’m very pleased just to be able to ride the horse,” Spencer continued. “There are very few horses that have the will to win like he has. The more you ask from him, the more you get from him. He had loads left in the end.”

Cape Blanco won the Irish Derby and Irish Champion Stakes last term for owners Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor. Dubai socialite Fitri Hay joined the ownership group in March when she purchased a significant interest in the colt. Hay and her husband, Jim, own the UAE-based holding company JMH Group.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

A PLAY WITHOUT PUNCH

River Jetez
(Photo : Stable Life)

THE BEVERLEY D AND THE ARLINGTON MILLION

Tonight marks the annual Equus Awards, a celebration of South Africa’s racing champions. One of our biggest winners, the world renowned trainer Mike de Kock, will be absent, away in Chicago for the running of the Beverly D. Stakes (Gr1), on the same card as the Arlington Million. Engaged for the de Kock stable is the evergreen mare, River Jetez, where the daughter of Jet Master is priced up as the 4-1 second favourite to Stacelita. There’s no knowing what shape a seven-year-old mare will be in, but if River Jetez is at her best, she’ll certainly frighten the likes of the favourite, and her other two principal opponents, Cheetah (9-2) and Fantasia (6-1).

In the Million field, the Aidan O’Brien-trained Cape Blanco (part owned by Summerhill clients, Jim and Fitri Hay) is the 9-5 chalk ahead of the outstanding American guard horse Gio Ponti. Riveting stuff, and two races right at the top of America’s best turf event.

GALILEO : WORLD NUMBER ONE

Click above to watch Golden Lilac winning the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Gr1)
(Image : RP - Footage : France 3)

GALILEO (IRE)
Sadler’s Wells (USA) - Urban Sea (USA)

Golden Lilac’s impressive win in Sunday’s G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches marked Galileo’s 18th Northern Hemisphere-bred individual Group 1/Grade I winner from six crops of 3-year-olds and up - an average of three G1/GI winners per crop. They consist of 12 G1/GI-winning colts, an average of two per crop, and six G1/GI-winning fillies, an average of one per crop. They have won a total of 33 top-level races among them. They include seven winners of English, Irish, or French 3-year-old Classics (not including the G1 Irish St. Leger and G1 Prix Royal-Oak, of which he has had one 4-year-old winner each), including 2011 one-mile Guineas winners Frankel and Golden Lilac - both, as has been noted extensively, out of Danehill mares.

It’s hard to remember now, but at the beginning of 2004 - just seven short years ago – Sadler’s Wells’ stature as a sire of sires looked problematic. In the Wings, Barathea, the surprising North American success El Prado, and maybe Fort Wood in South Africa represented his best form to that time as a sire of sires. It wasn’t certain that Sadler’s Wells was even going to survive as a significant sire line. Montjeu was about to have his first 2-year-olds race (as were, in what turned out to be a critical positive turning point in Coolmore’s fortunes, Giant’s Causeway and Fusaichi Pegasus (two out of three ain’t bad) and, though the Montjeus had created a positive impression from the time they first sold as foals in late 2002, pretty is as pretty does, as we know. Nobody was climbing out on much of a limb.

By the end of 2005, things were looking up considerably for Sadler’s Wells as a sire of sires, thanks to Montjeu’s first crop which included three Classic winners: Motivator, Hurricane Run, and Scorpion. However, Galileo hadn’t yet made much noise; he didn’t have a black-type winner with his first two-year-olds in 2005, and entered 2006 well down in the second five among 2005 freshman sires by progeny earnings.

That was the last time there were any doubts about him, or the Sadler’s Wells sire line. Nightime won the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas in May 2006 and, by the end of the year, he had added two more 3-year-old G1/GI winners - Sixties Icon in the G1 English St. Leger and Red Rocks in the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf - and had the unbeaten champion 2-year-old in Europe, Teofilo, from his second crop.

Galileo’s stud fee quadrupled, from its low point of €37,500 in 2005 and 2006 to €150,000 for 2007. It’s been “private” ever since, though estimates consistently put the price of buying a season to breed to him as safely over $200,000 every year since 2008. He’s been leading sire in GB/Ire twice (2008 and 2010), and leading sire of 2-year-olds twice (2007 and 2010). Galileo’s six crops include three European champion juveniles: Teofilo (2006), New Approach (2007), and Frankel (2010). New Approach went on to win the 2008 G1 Epsom Derby, and Galileo has sired two winners of the G1 Irish Derby: Soldier of Fortune (2007) and Cape Blanco (2010). Those three Derby winners, along with Nightime and Sixties Icon from his first crop, and Frankel and Golden Lilac from his current (sixth) crop of sophomores, constitute his seven 3-year-old Classic winners. Besides BC Turf winner Red Rocks, his other top horses include two triple Group 1 winners, the colt Rip Van Winkle and the filly Lush Lashes. He already has four Group 1 winners so far among his current crop of 3-year-olds: besides Frankel and Golden Lilac, this crop also includes 2010 2-year-old Group 1 winners Roderic O’Connor and Misty for Me.

When all is said and done - in spite of all the sire analysis and statistics the likes of myself and many others come up with – it’s the horses we can identify as “household names” that set stud fees and sell seasons. Galileo has sired a string of them: unbeaten champion 2-year-olds Teofilo, New Approach (Derby winner), and Frankel (Guineas winner); Rip Van Winkle, Red Rocks, Cape Blanco, Soldier of Fortune, now Golden Lilac, maybe Roderic O’Connor, plus other 2011 Classic contenders, including Seville (2nd G2 Dante, to G1 Derby favorite Carlton House), Together (2nd G1 English 1000 Guineas), and Galikova (half-sister to Goldikova, won G3 Prix Cleopatre, will meet Golden Lilac next month in the G1 Prix de Diane). Voila: that’s why Galileo is the world’s number one sire.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News