History Awaits Golden Boy Vazirabad Cont
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FRIDAY, 30 MARCH, 2018 THINK SUCCESS A CREDIT TO CUMMINGS HISTORY AWAITS By John Berry GOLDEN BOY VAZIRABAD No figure in Australasian racing history is more synonymous with the promotion of high-class stamina than the late, great J. B. 'Bart' Cummings, who passed away in August 2015 at the age of 87. Included among the winners of his 12 Melbourne Cups were some horses who will forever occupy a place in the highest pantheon of the sport. The last great stayer whom he trained, though, didn't win a Melbourne Cup, and ultimately brought the great trainer perhaps as much frustration as joy. However, the burgeoning stud career of the magnificent So You Think (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) will surely now have the great man looking down with pride. The magnificent near-black stallion is showing all the signs of being able to breath fresh life into the local middle-distance and staying scene at a time when the imports (those banes of Bart's life) are threatening to overwhelm the home-grown stock. Cont. p4 Vazirabad and work rider Eric Alloix | Emma Berry IN TDN AMERICA TODAY LEBHERZ LOOKING FOR PREMIER RESULTS AT BARRETTS By Emma Berry Phil Lebherz, who has had plenty of success as a horse owner, will DUBAI, UAE--A 6-year-old gelding with 11 group wins to his try to make his mark when he offers three horses at the Barretts name and 13 wins in total has very little left to prove, but when Spring sale Apr. 4. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN America. Vazirabad (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) lines up for Saturday's G2 Dubai Gold Cup he has history to make. No horse in the 22-year span of the Dubai World Cup meeting has ever won in three consecutive years but the Aga Khan's homebred is currently a very short-priced favourite to do just that. This year, however, it could be harder than ever, with a high-class field assembled to take him on at Meydan, including the G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Big Orange (GB) (Duke Of Marmalade {Ire}). The Godolphin flagbearer Rare Rhythm (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who got the better of Vazirabad on his first run for 130 days back on Mar. 1 in the G3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy, is another of the six of the first seven home in that race, run over two furlongs shorter than the two-mile Gold Cup, who will meet again on Saturday. "What happens in the race, the tactics of the race, will be very important for him," says trainer Alain de Royer Dupre as the sun rises over the main track at Meydan and Vazirabad completes an easy canter behind his lead horse Canndera (Fr) with just over two days to go until his date with destiny. Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 2 OF 14 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • 30 MARCH, 2018 History Awaits Golden Boy Vazirabad cont. from p1 "The second time he raced he was second but after that he "I think we have three big opponents: Big Orange, Torcedor-- won seven races--bang, bang, bang," de Royer-Dupre recalls. he looks very good--and Charlie Appleby's horse [Rare Rhythm]. That septet of wins included his Dubai Gold Cup debut when He beat him very easily but the distance is longer this time and making his first start after winning the G1 Prix Royal-Oak the there wasn't enough pace for Vazirabad that day. But it's always previous October. The following season, he preceded his Gold difficult to win the same race three times." Cup appearance with a second to a Godolphin runner, Beautiful Romance (GB). Omen-seekers will take comfort in the fact that HE KNOWS THE JOB AND HE’S VERY he subsequently overhauled the filly in the Gold Cup, with Sheikhzayedroad (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Big Orange back in the INTELLIGENT. IF YOU CHANGE HIS minor places. ROUTINE HE IS NOT HAPPY. HE LIKES TO On the track in the mornings, Vazirabad, though gelded and now a grown-up, still doesn't look the most straightforward of HAVE A SAY IN WHAT’S HAPPENING. rides, often carrying his head askew and cocking his jaw. His Alain de Royer Dupre on Vazirabad trainer heaps praise on the horse's regular rider Eric Alloix, who helps keep at bay his wayward tendencies of old. De Royer-Dupre says, "He's not difficult to train. In fact, he's very amusing. When he's with his normal rider he does the In Vazirabad's early days, it was perhaps difficult for the minimum and is relaxed. If you put another rider on him he's trainer to imagine that he would win even one race, let alone a completely different. It's incredible. He knows the job and he's prestigious contest on the other side of the world. Unraced at very intelligent. If you change his routine he is not happy. He two, Vazirabad was reluctant to participate initially. A gelding likes to have a say in what's happening." operation helped slowly to change his mind, though when he eventually consented to race he finished an unpromising sixth of nine on debut in the May of his 3-year-old season. Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 3 OF 14 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • 30 MARCH, 2018 Vazirabad cont. There's a twinkle in the trainer's eye as he speaks and, despite a list of major race victories around the world, de Royer-Dupre clearly has a fondness for the equine rascal. He adds, "It's so different to train a horse for a long time because we know everything about him. It's very easy to understand what he likes and what he is capable of doing. We are like a couple." Indeed, having a horse in training through to the age of six for his principal owner the Aga Khan is unusual. Dolniya (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}) stayed in training at four to give de Royer-Dupre Vice President, International Operations the first of three consecutive wins at Dubai's biggest meeting Gary King when winning the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic in 2015. Since then, Twitter: @garykingTDN the trainer, the Aga Khan Studs' French manager Georges [email protected] Rimaud and racing manager Nemone Routh have been regular + 1.732.320.0975 visitors to the UAE in March. International Editor "In quiet times it keeps the flag up there and it gives us the Kelsey Riley opportunity to travel a bit," says Rimaud. "From the breeding Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN perspective this is not necessarily what we look for but for [email protected] racing it's really nice to have a horse like Vazirabad who carries on. Generally in racing we are so quick to take them out of European Editor training at three." Emma Berry Twitter: @collingsberry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen Twitter: @AlaynaCullen [email protected] Contributing Editor Alan Carasso Twitter: @EquinealTDN Alain de Royer Dupre | Emma Berry Cafe Racing Sean Cronin For Visorama (Ire), the Jean-Luc Lagardere-bred dam of Tom Frary Vazirabad who has inherited his grey coat from his paternal sire [email protected] Linamix (Fr), there have been lean times since producing her Irish Correspondent most talented son. However, on the way through she has a Daithi Harvey 2-year-old colt by the pensioned Sinndar (Ire) and a yearling colt by Charm Spirit (Ire). Her loyalty to the home team at Haras de Regular Columnists Bonneval continues with her covering sire for 2017, the G1 Prix Andrew Caulfield Ganay winner Dariyan (Fr), another graduate of de John Berry Royer-Dupre's training establishment. Kevin Blake While his young half-brothers wait in the wings, Vazirabad Tom Peacock should continue to provide some high-class outings for his entourage. Cont. p4 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 4 OF 14 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • 30 MARCH, 2018 Vazirabad cont. Think Success A Credit To Cummings cont. from p1 "I think it could be good timing to go to Ascot for the Gold Cup The foundations of Bart Cummings's Melbourne Cup this year but only if the weather is not too hot," says his trainer. challenges were generally laid on his trips to New Zealand to "It's such a demanding track and I don't want to injure the horse buy the yearlings whom he would mould into champions. The because he's very generous and I don't want to ask too much. template was simple: buy imposing yearlings whose pedigrees And now that the Goodwood Cup is a Group 1 that could be a entitled them to be high-class gallopers at 2000m or farther. good one for him as you have to be malleable to race at Ideally the animal would be handsome, but that is not to say Goodwood and you have a long straight for the finish." that the great man was not prepared to overlook deficiencies of De Royer-Dupre will not be asking his old friend, consistent conformation. In his memoirs 'Bart, My life', Bart recalled an though he is, to take a shot at winning the inaugural Weatherbys exchange at the Trentham Yearling Sale in 1964 when he had Hamilton Stayers' Million, which was launched on Monday. He just paid 3,500 guineas for a colt by the imported stallion says, "It's impossible because we have to go for the preparation Alcimedes (GB) (Alycidon {GB}) out of Galston (NZ) (Balloch race in England and then come back.