Asia
Purton's Happy Sunday
Zac Purton returned to Hong Kong to compete at Sunday's Happy Valley meeting after riding Fangirl (Sebring) in Saturday's G1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. Purton quickly returned to the groove of things, riding four winners on the card.
Starting in Race 2, Purton partnered with the P C Ng-trained Turin Mascot (Ire) (Caravaggio) to success before jumping aboard the Douglas Whyte trainee Durham Star, a son of Deep Field who was originally an $80,000 Inglis Premier purchase by A Millard, before Network Bloodstock consigned and sold him at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YOs In Training Sale for $185,000 too Tartan Meadow Bloodstock.
Purton then made it four successive victories following Race 5 by winning Race 6 with Tomodachi Kokoroe (Written Tycoon) from the David Hayes stables and the Jamie Richards-trained Seasons Wit. The 4-year-old gelding by Capitalist was a $340,000 purchase by James Harron Bloodstock from the draft of Northmore Thoroughbreds at the 2021 Inglis Melbourne Yearling Sale.
Expensive son of Sebring breaks through
The 5-year-old gelding Nordic Combined (Sebring) trained by W Y So broke through at Happy Valley on Sunday.
Nordic Combined has had 15 starts since his exportation to Hong Kong and found conditions to suit on Sunday.
The gelding is from the Touch Gold (USA) mare Fleeting Touch (USA), who is closely related to the Group 1 winners Midshipman (USA) and Frosted (USA).
Nordic Combined is a half-brother to the G2 Sires' Produce S. victor Running Tall (Stratum).
The gelding was a $725,000 purchase by Astute Bloodstock (FBAA) from the draft of Widden Stud at the 2020 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
Former Derby runner Waipiro sustains tendon injury in Hong Kong
Waipiro (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who ran sixth in the G1 The Derby at Epsom Downs in the UK earlier this year, sustained a tendon injury to his right foreleg last week and is uncertain to make the Hong Kong Derby in March, trainer John Size told the South China Morning Post.
Bred by Shane Molan, the Siu Pak-Kwan runner won the G3 Hampton Court S. after his Derby effort, leading former trainer Ed Walker to describe him as the "perfect horse for the Hong Kong Derby.”
“I don't have a plan now because he's got a tendon injury,” Size told the paper regarding the now-gelding. “A tendon's a tendon. The recovery time depends on the horse.”
Waipiro's older half-brother Waikuku (Ire) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), a winner of the G1 Stewards' Cup (twice) and G1 Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup, ran second in the Hong Kong Derby in 2019.
United States of America
West Coast's West Sunset skips home in Rags to Riches
West Sunset (USA) (West Coast {USA}) didn't let the Kentucky rain slow her down en route to a stylish coast-to-coast victory in a sloppy rendition of the Rags to Riches S. beneath the Twin Spires.
West Sunset is from the Vindication (USA) mare Vindicated Ghost (USA), who is also the dam of the G3 Ben Ali S. victor Bourbon Resolution (USA) (New Year’s Day {USA}).
Arrogate's Liberal Arts Splashes to Street Sense Victory
Evan and Stephen Ferraro's homebred Liberal Arts (USA) (Arrogate {USA}), relishing the added distance and sloppy conditions, charged to the lead inside the final furlong to win the G3 Street Sense S. by a widening 2.45l at Churchill Downs Sunday.
“This horse really has improved as the distances got longer,” winning rider Cristian Torres said. “Turning for home today, I just had a ton of horse beneath me and I think he really appreciated going two turns. I got him to relax on the backside and he won like a professional today.”
Liberal Arts, who earned 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby series, gave trainer Robert Medina his first graded victory.
“We knew we wouldn't be able to get longer distances until the fall, so we made sure this horse had some experience under his belt, but knew he'd appreciate the stretch out,” said Medina. “Going two turns today I think was the key. He's made five starts this year and talking with the ownership group the plan is now to lay him up until next year and point to some of the big 3-year-old races.”
Bred and campaigned by Stephen Ferraro, the winner's dam, Ismene (USA) (Tribal Rule {USA}) was a two-time stakes winner in California in 2011 and competed in the 2013 GI Breeders' Cup Fillies and Mares Sprint.
Liberal Arts is the 14th stakes winner for the late Arrogate (USA).
Mage out of Breeders' Cup Classic
GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (USA) (Good Magic {USA}) has been ruled out of the GI Breeders' Cup Classic by trainer Gustavo Delgado.
Delgado made the announcement Sunday on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “We are sorry to announce that we have decided to cancel Mage's trip to California. He presented a feverish state this morning and we have noticed symptoms of loss of appetite. Given the proximity to the race, we feel that it is best for the horse to skip the Classic.”
Delgado wrote that prior to this setback, Mage had been doing well while preparing for the Breeders' Cup at the Thoroughbred Center in Lexington.
“We were very enthusiastic about the condition that the horse was going through, and despite how disappointed we feel right now, we are confident in a speedy recovery,” he wrote.
Mage will stand at Airdrie Stud upon his retirement, which will have to wait. In a separate Tweet, co-owner Ramiro Restrepo announced thAt Mage will race next year as a 4-year-old.
“Mage had a slight temp and didn't eat up last night like he normally does,” he wrote. “Timing stinks, but lucky we caught it early. Can't run below 100 per cent; horse comes first. Onwards to the Pegasus and his 4-year-old campaign.”
After winning the Derby, Mage finished third in the GI Preakness S. and second in the GI Haskell S. In his most recent start, he finished seventh, beaten 15 lengths in the GI Travers S.
Ushba Tesoro works in preparation for Breeders’ Cup Classic
The G1 Dubai World Cup winner Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}), prepping for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, breezed four furlongs in a hand-timed 0:49 2/5s Sunday at Santa Anita. The Takagi Noboru trainee left the quarantine barn at 6.15am, walking for 15 minutes until the track opened and then proceeded to the main track.
Allowed to ease into his work at the half-mile pole and around the far turn, he did not begin lengthening stride and quickening until turning for home, impressing onlookers down the lane and into a considerable gallop-out. He was given no official time on the work tab.
“Very good,” an all-smiles exercise rider Masa Fukami said while taking eight laps of the parade ring in a cool down.
Ushba Tesoro has won seven of eight races since moving to the dirt, with his lone blemish coming off a five-month layoff on a sloppy track. The 6-year-old is seeking his seventh consecutive victory in the Classic, with two of those wins coming at the race's 10-furlong distance–the G1 Tokyo Daishoten last December and the World Cup in March.
“Moving to dirt helped him,” Noboru said through a translator. “The timing worked well and he grew up both physically and mentally from it. He was a difficult horse to control, but with dirt racing, everything matched him, I believe.
“The Breeders' Cup Classic is another big race, and we are the challenger in here,” Noboru said. “He won at Kawasaki, which also like Funabashi has tricky tight bends. I don't think Santa Anita's turns will be a problem.”
In other Classic news, GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (USA) (Arrogate {USA}) walked Sunday morning after a rear shoe was taken off Saturday afternoon.
“I pulled a left hind shoe off him,” trainer Jena Antonucci said. “And said, 'Let's just walk tomorrow. It's no sense in going to do that (gallop). We've got lots of time.' Whether he kicked the wall or bruised it or hit it, I don't know. So we just pulled the shoe off and gave him a walk day to assess where we are at. He walked great this morning. I'm very happy with that. We'll assess it as we roll. He may gallop tomorrow. He may walk tomorrow. We'll stay fluid–lots of time. That's a good thing about a 10-day (breeze) schedule, you get lots of time.”
Europe
Royal Oak glory for Daiwa Major's Double Major
There was a chance beforehand that the Wertheimers' 3-year-old Double Major (Ire) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) had an edge over his elders in Sunday's G1 Prix Royal-Oak at Paris Long champ, but few would have imagined how great his advantage was as he outclassed them with a vintage display. Always happy at the head of affairs under Maxime Guyon, the Christophe Ferland-trained homebred started to draw clear from the top of the straight and despite wandering around in the clear was so far in front inside the last 100 metres that he was able to be eased for a 7.50l from Skazino (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}) was next best behind the 100-30 favourite, with Tashkhan (Ire) (Born To Sea {Ire}), further away in third.
“We are very happy and the big question was the ground, because he has never run on that kind of surface,” the owner-breeders' racing manager Pierre-Yves Bureau said of the gelding, who had warmed up for this by winning the track's G2 Prix Chaudenay on Arc weekend. “We knew the horse had that quality, but he was the only 3-year-old facing older horses who have much more experience than him, so what he did was very nice and we are very happy. He is a gelding, so hopefully he can travel as well but we are going to enjoy what happened today because it was a really nice performance.”
Double Major's Listed-placed dam Dancequest (Ire), a daughter of Dansili (GB), is also responsible for the G3 Prix de Guiche winner and G2 Prix Guillaume D'Ornano and G2 Prix Eugene Adam-placed Flop Shot (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}), as well as the Listed-placed Veritas (Ire) (Camelot {GB}).
Europe's top sprinter Shaquille a first for Dullingham Park
The dual Group 1 winner Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) is the first stallion to retire to Steve Parkin's Dullingham Park near Newmarket.
The top-rated sprinter in Europe this year, Shaquille was trained by Julie Camacho to win the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot before defeating his elders in the July Cup at Newmarket.
The 3-year-old was co-bred by his owner Martin Hughes, who paid tribute to the retiring star, saying, “It was an honour to be associated with such a brilliant horse. To breed him and to race him in my colours, and then to see him develop into a superstar on the track was thrilling. Both of his Group 1 wins were spectacular. I now look forward to partnering with Dullingham Park in his future career as a stallion.”
Shaquille is out of the Galileo (Ire) mare Magic (Ire), herself a daughter of Cheveley Park Stud's multiple Group-winning sprinter Danehurst (GB) (Danehill {USA}). He won seven of his nine career starts, including scoring twice at York as a juvenile and landing the Listed Carnarvon S. at Newbury before his twin Group 1 successes.
Steve Parkin, who outlined his plans for Dullingham Park Stud in a TDN interview last month, said, “We are delighted to have been able to secure a horse of Shaquille's ability and potential to stand at our new stallion farm. Julie, Steve and their team have done a terrific job with his racing career, and I know that our team will be working hard to ensure that Shaquille is equally successful in his new career as a stallion.”
Ollie Fowlston, who was appointed earlier this year to manage Dullingham Park Stud, added, “It is a tribute to the commitment Steve Parkin has shown to the British breeding industry in establishing a new stallion operation on an historic stud that we are able to introduce a stallion of Shaquille's calibre. In addition to his obvious speed and ability, he is a tremendously good-looking horse with a wonderful temperament. We can't wait to show him to breeders from around the world during the Tattersalls December Sales.”
