England
Sun Goddess lowers Newmarket record in G1 Cheveley Park Stakes
By Sean Cronin, TDN Europe
Saturday's G1 Tattersalls Sceptre Sessions Cheveley Park Stakes threatened to deliver a renewal for the ages and the juvenile fillies' feature made good on that promise, and then some, as the dual Group 1-winning TDN Rising Star Sun Goddess (Sioux Nation) completed a rare hat-trick and lowered Newmarket's six-furlong track in a pulsating contest.
“That is a massive run after winning over seven furlongs on soft ground,” said Aidan O'Brien after collecting a record seventh edition. “It was some change today, it was a massive test and she's passed it. She came off the bridle early which meant she would get into her tempo. We were worried she would travel and then come off the bridle and find everything happening too quickly, but once she came off it early she was always going to be really hard to handle.
“She looks a freak to be doing what she is doing and you have to remember she's a two-year-old filly racing at the top level every day,” the trainer added. “It's incredible and I can't remember having one that classy, with that speed and distance range before, she looks really unusual. She's unique and to have the mental capacity and physical (attributes) to match it. She's big and doesn't look like a 2-year-old, she's more like a 3-year-old and a massive big specimen. Even if she didn't change any from now until next year she would be plenty big and would still be considered a big 3-year-old. It's very unusual.”
“She's (Sun Goddess) unique and to have the mental capacity and physical (attributes) to match it. She's big and doesn't look like a 2-year-old, she's more like a 3-year-old and a massive big specimen.” - Aidan O'Brien
Aidan O'Brien | Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
Elaborating on an unorthodox journey to this point, O'Brien continued, “The lads got her in Doncaster and it was great she was able to go back there and win that (Harry's Half Million) race at York earlier in the summer. It's a great initiative and a very big pot. We'll see how she is and the next week or so will tell us how she is and whether this has taken much out of her. She is not blowing very hard and when we were tacking up there was no anxiety. She's as cool as a cucumber and Ryan [Moore] was over the moon with her.”
The 5-6 favourite, already successful in the G1 Phoenix Stakes and G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, was employed patient tactics and tracked the duelling Moonrise (Churchill {Ire}) and Snowing (No Nay Never) in a share of third through the initial fractions.
Bustled along approaching the quarter-mile pole, she answered every one of Ryan Moore's calls when engaging Libertango (No Nay Never) inside the final furlong and found additional gears nearing the line to exact revenge on her G3 Albany conqueress with an impressive one-length verdict.
Janine Byrne's G2 Duchess Of Cambridge third and Listed Firville Stakes victrix Alwaysanangel (Harry Angel) fared best of the remaining quartet and ran on strongly from off the pace to finish 1.5 lengths adrift in third.
Pedigree: Sun Goddess is the third of four foals and lone scorer produced by Etoile Bleu (Ire) (Starspangledbanner) an unraced half-sister to four black-type performers headed by the dual Group 1-placed three-time Group 2 winner Gibraltar Blue (Rock Of Gibraltar) and G3 Phoenix Sprint victrix Scream Blue Murder (Oratorio).
Gibraltar Blue's quartet of black-type performers include the Group-placed duo Battleoftrafalgar (Captain Al) and I'm A Fireball (Vercingetorix), while Scream Blue Murder threw three stakes performers headed by G3 Victor McCalmont Memorial winner Too Soon To Panic (Gleneagles). Too Soon To Panic is the dam of this term's G1 Prix Jean Prat hero Thesecretadversary (St Mark's Basilica).
The winner's yearling half-sister by Blue Point is catalogued in next month's Tattersalls October Book 1 sale.
Orthodox wins Middle Park, Breeders’ Cup next
By Tom Frary, TDN Europe
So impressive at Royal Ascot and disappointing at Deauville, Jason Goddard's Orthodox (Havana Grey) came back in style on Saturday to edge a thriller in Newmarket's G1 Tattersalls Middle Park Stakes.
Sent off the 7-2 second favourite to provide Clive Cox with a third renewal and the owner a second after Supremacy, the Norfolk hero who had been below-par when sixth in the Prix Morny travelled comfortably near the pace under Rossa Ryan before getting to the front a furlong from home. Made to work hard by TDN Rising Star Force Noir (Persian Force) from there, he had what it took to hold that 28-1 outsider by a neck. There was length back to the 33-1 shot Hell Of A Spin (Naval Crown), with the 6-4 favourite Inner City Blues (Blue Point) in fifth.
“He's just figuring it out,” his rider said. “He kept changing leads and was learning as we went, so I don't think we've seen the best of him today. He felt a bigger and stronger horse today and he's turned into a fair unit now–there's nothing at home that can get him anywhere near off the bridle. I've never sat on a 2-year-old as fast as him–he's electric.”
Cox, who had last won at this level with Supremacy in this race in 2020, added, “He's pretty special and has been from the very beginning. He'll be better for coming here, as it's his first time on a downhill track and he has so much potential so there is a lot to look forward to–he's not just a 2-year-old. We always had confidence in him and it was always a question of would he handle the track with the quicker ground a bonus for this time of year.”
“I have a super guy called Kevin Harris, whose been involved with all the good ones I've had and when you have people like him minding them it's very special,” he added. “The Breeders' Cup has been talked about and I'd be disappointed if he wasn't fast enough, but we'll give it a few days and speak to Jason. It's exciting and a real privilege to be thinking about those sort of things. I have a wonderful team of owners and Jason has been very supportive, so I couldn't be more pleased.”
“The Breeders' Cup has been talked about and I'd be disappointed if he (Orthodox) wasn't fast enough, but we'll give it a few days and speak to Jason. It's exciting and a real privilege to be thinking about those sort of things.” - Clive Cox
This is the first top-level success enjoyed by the Cox-Ryan partnership and the trainer was quick to pay tribute to the rider. “Rossa was amazing the way he nursed him through the dip–I thought it was a supreme ride,” he said. “He puts the hours in and has his eyes on everything. He knows exactly what he's riding, is a supreme professional and that is born out in how he rides.”
Pedigree: Orthodox's dam Heartwarming (Showcasing), who was second in the St Hugh's Stakes at two, is a daughter of the Listed scorer and Prix de Saint-Georges-placed Place In My Heart (Compton Place) who produced the stable's Queen Mary and Flying Childers Stakes winner Heartache (Kyllachy). She is in turn the dam of Ballydoyle's Killavullan Stakes scorer and triple Group 1-placed Exactly and dual Group-placed Signora both by Frankel. Heartwarming's full-sister Unbreak My Heart was another fast and precocious juvenile, finishing third in the Cornwallis Stakes.
Also connected to the Sapphire Stakes and Flying Five winner Stepper Point (Kyllachy) and the Listed winner and Temple Stakes-placed Lady In France by Heartwarming's sire Showcasing, the dam's colt foal is by Too Darn Hot.
America
Forged Steel becomes first Grade 1 winner for Vekoma
By Alan Carasso, TDN
A romping winner of the GII Hollywood Gold Cup earlier this year when bet into 3-1, 4-year-old entire Forged Steel (Vekoma) was no better than a 12-1 chance in Saturday's Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' GI Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita and struck from close range to punch his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31. His stablemate Caldera (Liam's Map) completed a 1-2 finish for the Saffie Joseph, Jr. barn.
Making his third trip to the Golden State and exiting a distant seventh to 'TDN Rising Star' Knightsbridge (Nyquist) in the GI Pacific Classic down the road at Del Mar Aug. 22, the US$80,000 (AU$114,000) Fasig-Tipton July yearling turned US$190,000 (AU$270,000) OBS March breezer broke alertly from an outside alley and sat up right on the pace, as longshot Taif (Arrogate) made the running from the inside gate through fractions of :22.97 and :47.32.
Asked to take the race to the front-runner midway on the turn with the six furlongs posted in 1:11.20 , Forged Steel took command and began to get away some just as Caldera was finding his best stride. Forged Steel was still firmly in front at the furlong marker and he had enough in the tank to secure a maiden Grade I success, the first for his sire and the first for jockey Edwin Gonzalez. Defending champion Nevada Beach (Omaha Beach), favored at 6-5, was sluggishly into stride, covered ground throughout and plugged on late to be a non-threatening third.
Coming into the Goodwood, Forged Steel had run an equal number of races on turf and dirt, earning a couple of stakes placings on the grass, but in the last six months or so, he had affirmed his preference for the main track.
An allowance winner at Tampa in February, the gray colt was a good third to 'TDN Rising Star' Parchment Party (Constitution) in the 12-furlong Temperence Hill Stakes on March 28 before dropping back to a mile to score in Hot Springs allowance company May 2. That preceded his romp in the Gold Cup, but he was well-beaten in the GII Suburban Stakes at Saratoga on July 4 before dropping away tamely at the seaside last time. His connections kept the faith nevertheless and Forged Steel repaid them for their confidence.
“I talked to Saffie before the race and he called me and didn't give me much instruction,” Gonzalez said. “He said to just see where you are at after the start. If they let me, then go to the lead. When I passed the three-eighths (pole), I passed the leader and then was waiting for the other horses to come from behind while giving him a little breather. When I turned for home and when I asked him, it was one ask and he kept going.”
Pedigree: A son of Pacific Classic winner Candy Ride and himself a top-level winner at seven (Carter H.), eight (Met Mile) and nine (Toyota Blue Grass) furlongs, Vekoma has made a spectacular start to his stud career, with 27 stakes winners and 12 graded scorers from his first three crops to race, but he reaches a new level with his first Grade I winner here.
The cross over Storm Cat line mares has been a wildly successful one and is the most prolific one for Candy Ride himself, accounting for 47 individual winners, nine of which have come at stakes level, but–remarkably–Forged Steel is the only one of Vekoma's graded winners descending from that line. He has also been represented by stakes winners out of mares by Creative Cause, Wildcat Heir and Stormy Atlantic.
Out of Scorecard (Tale Of The Cat), a half-sister to Canadian stakes winner Star Contender (Henny Hughes) and from the family of Sovereign Award winner Irish Mission (Giant's Causeway), Forged Steel has a juvenile half-sister named Eat Your Food Tina (Moretti, by Medaglia d'Oro), the last-listed produce for Scorecard.
