Europe
Minnie Hauk wins the G1 Epsom Oaks
By Tom Frary, TDN Europe
From the start, the stable's number one Minnie Hauk (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) followed stablemate Whirl (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) around and from over two out it was that pair who dominated, coming home in isolation to complete another successful assault by Aidan O’Brien on the fillies' monument. An astonishing 11th in this particular race.
Minnie Hauk engaged that acceleration derived from her Juddmonte dynasty to record a race-settling split of 0:11.41. While Whirl was faster in the final furlong, it may have been the winner idling or paying for her earlier surge or a mixture of both. Godolphin's 1000 Guineas-winning 11-10 favourite Desert Flower (Ire), whose sire Night Of Thunder (Ire) was never going to be a convincing source of stamina, was tiring at the death four lengths away in third.
“She barely made Chester and she made abnormal improvement from there, which we thought she might. That win was all about class rather than stamina or fitness, she just has a lot of class,” said O’Brien.
“I'd say she's still a bit green and she was always going to improve with racing,” he added. “She's a great traveller with a lot of class–Ryan said he was going very easy early on–so she can take on the boys if the lads decide. There's every possibility she will be an Arc filly. She's a big middle-distance filly who was working like a Guineas filly. When that happens it's a little bit different. The Irish Oaks is always close to our hearts and then there's the Yorkshire Oaks and the French trials before the Arc.”
Minnie Hauk's dam Multilingual (GB) (Dansili {GB}) was purchased out of the Juddmonte draft by the Sangsters for US$525,000 (AU$808,000) at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale, is out of Zamindar (USA)'s G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches heroine Zenda (GB) which makes her a half-sister to the brilliant Kingman (GB) and a full-sister to the G3 Tercentenary Stakes winner Remote (GB).
G1 Coronation Cup to Galileo’s Jan Brueghel
By Tom Frary, TDN Europe
Friday's G1 Coronation Cup turned out to be as pure a mile-and-a-half test as it gets and in the moment of truth it was Jan Brueghel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who shed his playboy image to tough it out in an Epsom battle royal with Calandagan (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}). Raw and green despite winning a St Leger during his unbeaten 3-year-old campaign, what could be Galileo's final Classic winner had to show his true mettle here.
Aidan O'Brien, who was making it 10 Coronation Cups just before greeting his 11th Oaks winner, revealed the not-so-subtle plot Team Ballydoyle had hatched beforehand. “Wayne got the fractions perfect. Everybody knew the pace was going to be honest and even and everybody was going to get a clear shot at it, but in that ground you were going to have to get the mile and a half very well,” he said. “We knew that if we were going to expose His Highness's horse it was going to be over this trip if the pace was strong and solid.”
Jan Brueghel travelled to Australia for the G1 Melbourne Cup last year after winning the G1 St. Leger, but was scratched on vet’s advice. This was only his second start since then having run third in the G3 Alleged Stakes in Ireland in mid-April.
Direct comparison can be made with the Oaks, where the front-running Whirl covered the first mile in 110.73 and Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) in 109.26 and while Minnie Hauk closed off the last four furlongs in 48.11, Jan Brueghel who was also faster than Whirl for the first mile stormed home in 46.93. This was the performance of a standout mile-and-a-half performer belonging in the top bracket. His stunning 11.10 sectional between the three and the two was the fastest individual split in the race and a surprising one from a Leger winner, confirming that he has become a faster, slicker model from three to four.
Calandagan closed out the last half a mile in 46.68 and was faster than the winner in each of the last three furlongs, but was a touch below his form from last year's Juddmonte International with the camber of the track taking something crucial away from his potency. Aidan O'Brien described the moment that Calandagan came to Jan Brueghel as “slow motion”, but there was nothing tardy about the way these two middle-distance giants forged a finale to remember.
Jan Brueghel is also one of two Classic winners out of Danehill Dancer (Ire)'s smart Devoted To You (Ire) who was runner-up in the G2 Debutante Stakes as a juvenile. The other is his Irish Derby-winning full-brother Sovereign (Ire), who caught everyone unawares with a front-running powerhouse performance in the 2019 renewal of that Curragh feature, while her other Galileo to make a mark is the Group 3-winning stayer Dawn Rising (Ire) who was third in the Irish St Leger.
USA
G1 Just A Game won by Night Of Thunder’s Dynamic Pricing
By Alan Carasso, TDN
Klaravich Stables' Dynamic Pricing (Ire) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) beat Excellent Truth (Ire) (Cotai Glory {Ire}) to a spot at a crucial stage in Friday's G1 Just A Game Stakes at a very soggy Saratoga and outstprinted the 8-5 chalk to the wire to give trainer Chad Brown his eighth victory in the one-mile contest in its last nine renewals and a fourth in succession.
The Just A Game may not have been Plan A for Brown, but the conditioner admitted that the filly talked him into it. “Seth (Klarman) and I kicked it around and it was sort of a last minute entry that I had marked and I was kind of in and out,” Brown said.
“Last year, you could tell if you looked at her (at the end of the season), she just was burnt out mentally and just didn't look good. I think she was just a bit over the whole season and needed a freshening and I have wonderful owners in Seth and Beth Klarman who allowed me to run the show.”
Dynamic Pricing is the seventh elite-level scorer for Darley Europe's Night of Thunder. Dynamic Pricing's dam, Shemda (Ire) (Dutch Art {GB}), was bred and raced by the late His Highness The Aga Khan, winning her maiden at career start number three at Vichy for trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre. Unplaced in three subsequent appearances, Shemda was knocked down to Badgers Bloodstock for €100,000 (AU$176,000) at the 2017 Arqana December Mixed Sale, was put in foal to Showcasing (GB) and was purchased by Denis Brosnan's Epona Bloodstock for 110,000gns (AU$240,000) at Tattersalls December in late 2018.
Dynamic Pricing is the third foal from her dam, whose half-brother Shamida (Ire) (Australia {GB}) was a treble Group 3 winner in Ireland at three and four for trainer Dermot Weld at distances from 12 to 14 furlongs, but sadly passed away in 2024.
She Feels Pretty wins G1 New York Stakes
By Stefanie Grimm, TDN
She had to work for this one but She Feels Pretty (USA) (Karakontie {Jpn}) added yet another Grade 1 win to her resume (her fourth overall) with a gutsy victory over 17-1 longshot Beach Bomb (SAf) (Lancaster Bomber {USA}) in the G1 New York Stakes on Friday.
Drawn widest of the eight-horse field and facing a turf course labeled as yielding for the first time in her career, She Feels Pretty had enough tactical early speed to get herself into a nice, stalking position third on the run into the clubhouse turn. Coming with a strong run but still wide, She Feels Pretty lost out on the first jump as Beach Bomb was also gearing up to take on Edict (Arg) (Il Campione {Chi}) with a quarter-mile left to run. Three wide at the top of the stretch, the favourite was clearly going to have to work to put Beach Bomb away to her inside and just managed to do so inside the final sixteenth to win in her tightest finish since last summer.
“Just kind of overwhelmed,” said trainer Cherie DeVaux. “Having a filly like that is super special. I think of all things this is what she would least be wanting to do. I don't think she likes the (soft grass) course. (Jockey) Johnny (Velazquez) commented that the first time around she didn't really tug him around there, but she's such a professional. She just did it.”
One of 17 stakes winner for Gainesway stallion Karakontie (Jpn), She Feels Pretty is out of a winning mare in Summer Sweet (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}) who sold to Payson Stud for US$550,000 (AU$847,000) as a 2-year-old at Keeneland January in 2016. The mare is herself a half to several successful runners including stakes winners Summer Breezing (USA) (Langfuhr {USA}), Adirondack Summer (USA) (Thunder Gulch {USA}) and Grade 1-placed Summer Solo (USA) (Arch {USA}), the dam of Graded winner Solo Album (USA) (Curlin {USA}) and stakes winner Maedean (USA) (Tapit {USA}).
Godolphin’s Good Cheer beaten in G1 Acorn Stakes
By Steve Sherack, TDN
The graveyard of champions strikes again. Tracy Farmer homebred La Cara (USA) (Street Sense {USA}) shot out to the front and never looked back, splashing home a three-length, wire-to-wire winner in Friday's G1 DK Horse Acorn S. at rainy Saratoga.
Look Forward (USA) (Bolt d'Oro {USA}) chased her around the track in second, finishing a neck better than third-place finisher Scottish Lassie (USA) (McKinzie {USA}). Previously unbeaten G1 Kentucky Oaks heroine and 1-4 favourite Good Cheer (USA) (Medaglia d'Oro {USA}) suffered her first career defeat finishing fifth.
“She likes it on the lead,” winning trainer Mark Casse said. “She loves it here. She won her maiden at Saratoga last year. In the paddock, Dylan (Davis) said she could handle this kind of mud and was going to be just fine. I was just watching the splits and I thought when he got away with a half in 0:47 that was pretty good. I never get too excited until they go under the wire. The Oaks was disappointing, but we never lost faith in her.”
La Cara is one of 13 Grade 1 winners for Street Sense. Cara Caterina (USA) (Bernardini {USA}), a full-sister to Grade 1 winners To Honor and Serve (USA) and Angela Renee (USA), brought US$500,000 (AU$770,000) from Farmer as a Keeneland September yearling, but never got her picture taken in eight career attempts for Casse. La Cara is her first foal. She produced a full brother to La Cara in 2024.
“I bred her, I've seen her and been with her every day of her life,” Farmer said. “You dream about this. I've won the Whitney twice here, so I've won several Grade 1 races here. But this is the best, and today is the best.”
Dorth Vader heads to Breeders’ Cup after G1 Ogden Phipps win
By Stefanie Grimm, TDN
Maybe it was the sloppy sealed track. Or the 1 1/8 mile distance. Or maybe, just maybe, the force was with her Friday. Rail-drawn Florida-bred Dorth Vader (USA) (Girvin {USA}) stepped up against the highly-touted Chad Brown-trained duo of Raging Sea (USA) (Curlin {USA}) and Randomized (USA) (Nyquist {USA}) to conquer the “Win and You're In” GI Ogden Phipps Stakes, stamping a ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar this November.
“I still wasn't sure she wanted to go that far,” said trainer George Weaver. “When I first got her, I was like, 'Man, this filly does not need blinkers.' I thought that from the beginning. I never took them off until this year, and it's paying dividends. She's really getting into a nice, comfortable groove early in the race and I think it's helping her get the two turns. She's a high-strung filly, but she's like fine wine. She's getting better with age.”
Dorth Vader is the second top-level winner for Airdrie Stud's Girvin, joining G1 Starlet Stakes victress Faiza (USA). Stakes-placed first dam Hardcore Candy (USA) (Yonaguska {USA}), a half to stakes winner Chestnut Lady (USA) (Horse Chestnut {SAf}), is responsible for five winners from eight to race with Dorth Vader clearly the class of her crop. Last through the ring unsold on a final bid of just US$5500 (AU$8470) at the OBS Winter Mixed Sale in 2020, Hardcore Candy has a pair of full sisters to this new Grade 1 winner in 2024's appropriately-named Revenge of the Sis (USA) joining her 2025 filly.
Melbourne Cup entry for Parchment Party, unlikely to accept
By J.N. Campbell, TDN
Parchment Party (USA) (Constitution {USA}) slid on his duck boots and ran on nicely after making the G2 Belmont Gold Cup as a 'main track only' entrant. With significant rainfall in the offing during the afternoon, the race was reduced one level when it was taken off the grass and cutback from two miles to one and three-quarters.
Still, entries were prepared to chase the 'Golden Ticket' which offered the victor an automatic berth in the November 4 running of the G1 Lexus Melbourne Cup worth more than $8 million. The Gold Cup represents a continuation of the partnership between NYRA and the Victoria Racing Club.
“At 1 o'clock in the afternoon it looked like we were not going to run,” said trainer Bill Mott. “We gave the horses their regular lunch and put some water in for them, and all of a sudden I looked up and said we'd better change course here and get these horses ready to run. So we cleaned them up, put the bridles on them and brought them over.”
On a potential start in the Melbourne Cup, Mott said: “I'm happy to have won but I don't know if I'll be able to accept the invitation. I'd love to go to a race like the Melbourne Cup, but when I do I want to go with the right horse.”
