WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2019 LATEST STAR SHOWS TURF LATE-BLOOMING RATAJKOWSKI TAKES NEXT STEP IN FALLS CITY LEGEND UNDERVALUED IN By Christie DeBernardis The long-legged Ratajkowski (Drosselmeyer)--appropriately EUROPE TOO named after model and actress Emily Ratajkowski--has been an exercise in patience for her connections, but has proven worth the wait. Winning four of six starts since coming onto the scene this year at age five, the Empire-bred looks to take her career to the next level on Thanksgiving in the GII Falls City H. at Churchill Downs. AShe has been a pleasant surprise,@ said trainer Brian Lynch. AShe is 17-odd hands, so she is a very, very big filly. She was slow to come around and had a couple of little minor hiccups as a two and 3-years-old. She got pushed back a bit further as a 4-year- old, but she always showed that she had a fair share of talent. The guys were patient enough with her and she has been a pleasant surprise as a 5-year-old.@ Cont. p7 Kitten's Joy | Sarah Andrew IN TDN EUROPE TODAY PAT SMULLEN: O’BRIEN ONLY GETTING BETTER by Chris McGrath In this week’s column, famed jockey Pat Smullen reflects on It's hard to know quite what Kitten's Joy has to do in order to the success and early retirement of top rider Donnacha gain a commercial standing commensurate with his O’Brien. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. achievements. As it is, the champion North American sire of 2018 once again proved unable to crack the top 30 sires ranked by the average value of their yearlings in 2019. Not that he should take it personally. We all know that the American industry talks a good game about the growing importance of the turf program, but won't follow through when young stallions as well-bred and accomplished as Flintshire (GB) or Karakontie (Jpn) are imported; or even when Noble Mission (GB) manages to produce GI Runhappy Travers S. winner Code of Honor from his very first crop. Old habits die hard, I guess, despite the American sport's agonized quest for surfaces that are easier on horses' legs. True, there are also dirt stallions whose stock seems to be perennially undervalued at the sales. But what I find barely less culpable than domestic neglect of Kitten's Joy is the failure of so many European prospectors to recognise and exploit the resulting opportunity. So many, but not all. Step forward David Redvers, who showed what Kitten's Joy can do in Europe when picking out a champion for $160,000 at the Keeneland September Sale of 2016. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Wednesday, November 27, 2019 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistant Amie Morosco Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. 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[email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 11 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 27, 2019 Kitten=s Joy cont. from p1 before imposing himself on a smart field by over three lengths, Fortunately for Redvers, and his patron Sheikh Fahad, their in the process becoming one of the more plausible Classic rivals rivals in Europe proved so obtuse in absorbing the example of to champion Pinatubo (Ire) (Shamardal). Roaring Lion that the Tweenhills Actually, whatever he goes on man was able to return to the to achieve next year, the tale of same sale, last year, and find Kameko is already pretty Kameko for barely half that sum, astounding. His dam Sweeter at $90,000. Still (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}) Kameko may not mean a great was bred and initially raced by deal to Americans as yet, his Annemarie O'Brien, whose ascent to the front rank of husband Aidan saddled her for a European juveniles having been promising debut from sealed on the day when Ballydoyle--promising enough attention over here was for a sale to California, where dominated by his she became a Grade III and contemporaries contesting the multiple stakes winner. As such, Friday card at the Breeders' Cup. and also as a half-sister to Nonetheless, he made a little Kingsbarns (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), piece of history, the G1 Vertem Kameko | Racing Post an earlier winner of the Futurity S. having been transferred from its waterlogged home equivalent Group 1 prize won by Kameko, she was sold (with a at Doncaster to the Tapeta surface at Newcastle--and so become cover by the sire of Kingsbarns) for $750,000 at Keeneland the first elite prize contested on synthetics (and under lights) in January in 2014. Britain. And Kameko won in grand style, always travelling best Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 11 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 27, 2019 Kameko cont. Rising 15, she still has a bit of time on her side and it is safe to Sweeter Still's buyer that day was Braxton Lynch of Royal Oak say that she will not be going back to Optimizer any time soon. Farm, on behalf of Phyllis Wyeth's Chadds Ford Stable. The "One can assume that she'll be visiting Kitten's Joy for the rest of young mare was viewed as an ideal partner for Union Rags, who her life," Redvers said wryly, before acknowledging what the had been raced by Wyeth and whose first foals were about to be transaction says about serendipity in bloodstock. "At the end of born. Unfortunately, her produce record became such that she the day, our marketplace needs everybody. He [Thompson] was was sold, in the same ring less than two years later, for just prepared to buy a cheap one. To be fair, he didn't get terribly $35,000 to Calumet--carrying the Kitten's Joy foal we now know well paid when we bought her! But he made a little bit of profit. as Kameko--and then returned to the November Sale last year to And that's how the whole game works, how the wheel turns." be discarded, with an Optimizer cover, for the pittance of Sure enough, others who have proved themselves to be on the $1,500 to T. Lesley Thompson. ball include Mini Bloodstock, who found Catchingsnowflakes- Her freefall from $750,000 to $1,500, within five years, -the daughter of Galileo (Ire) (unraced, naturally) acquired in reflects the fact that not one of her foals had managed a single utero with Sweeter Still--deep into the November Sale earlier start by the time Kameko entered the ring. He was literally a this month, and gave $120,000 for her. sibling to Nobody--which happened to be the name given to one And if bringing Sweeter Still herself back into the sport's of Sweeter Still's two sons by Union Rags. Nobody, in fact, mainstream represents a canny bit of work, then the subsequently became the first of her foals actually to make it opportunity they spotted was no less than Redvers and his team onto the track, albeit only to finish down the field in two maiden deserve. For one thing, they are still grieving the heart-breaking claimers at Delta Downs. loss of Roaring Lion to colic in New Zealand. But they are also Unfortunately for Thompson, Redvers soon became perfectly entitled to prosper for an enterprising fidelity to Kitten's Joy. aware that Kameko had the potential to transform his dam's Redvers, who stresses the contribution of team members value. And, long before the colt's breakout success at Newcastle, Hannah Wall and Peter Molony, first latched onto the stallion Fergus Galvin of Hunter Valley Farm had tracked down the mare in 2014 as underbidder on a $350,000 colt at Keeneland to Tennessee and, acting on behalf of Redvers and Sheikh Fahad, September. Racing instead for Godolphin, Hawkbill proceeded offered Thompson due profit. to win the G1 Eclipse S. and G1 Sheema Classic. Cont.