Coolmore Still Has Sense of Adventure Cont
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THURSDAY, 3 MAY, 2018 ALMANZOR TO SHUTTLE TO CAMBRIDGE COOLMORE STILL HAS New Zealand=s Cambridge Stud has purchased the Southern SENSE OF ADVENTURE Hemisphere breeding rights to Almanzor (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), and the 2016 European champion 3-year-old is set to shuttle there later this year. Almanzor is based at Haras d=Etreham in France and is currently standing his first season for i35,000. Almanzor will be syndicated in New Zealand and will stand for NZ$30,000. Brendan Lindsay, who with his wife Jo recently purchased Cambridge Stud from the legendary studmaster Sir Patrick Hogan, said, "Our purchase of Almanzor is a further vote of confidence in the New Zealand industry. He will be the first European champion 3-year-old since Montjeu (Ire) to stand in New Zealand, so having access to a horse with his credentials is hugely significant. We will be throwing our full support behind him." John and MV Magnier. Coolmore continues to be rewarded for Cont. p5 tapping into international bloodlines. | racingfotos.com IN TDN AMERICA TODAY By Tom Frary WEDNESDAY’S TRACKSIDE DERBY REPORT Just as it should be, this year=s Guineas is a pedigree war of the Steve Sherack reports from Churchill Downs on the Wednesday biggest and boldest and most successful bloodstock manoeuvres before the GI Kentucky Deryb. Click or tap here to go straight of recent times and it is no surprise that Coolmore are at the to TDN America. forefront. The race=s most intriguing horse is without question Saxon Warrior (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who represents a brand new Japanese experiment by one of racing=s biggest thinkers, John Magnier. Deep Impact has always been considered a monster in terms of his racing career and at stud, but he needed a wider international stamp of approval to truly launch and that is beginning to happen now. Saxon Warrior=s dam, Maybe (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), represents a genuine European pedigree, with Derby and Oaks winners Dr Devious and Dancing Rain in there, but there is a hint of outside enterprise involved too as the former went for the Kentucky Derby en route to Epsom. That sense of adventure and pushing the limits is what lies behind most of the scene-changing moments of European racing since D.r Vincent O=Brien opted to place his faith in Northern Dancer in the late sixties. Along came Nijinsky and the momentum shifted entirely. It is nearly 50 years since that great and last Triple Crown winner set foot on Newmarket=s Rowley Mile to justify 4-7 favouritism before heading to Epsom and Doncaster to complete British racing=s holy trinity of monuments. Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 2 OF 16 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • 3 MAY, 2018 Coolmore Still Has Sense Of Adventure Cont. from p1 Saxon Warrior will be more around 5-1 on Saturday, so it is impossible to say whether he will tread down that kind of path but there is a sense of the unknown where he is concerned at present. He was not expected to do what he did on debut at The Curragh in August, when his biggest advocate, Donnacha O=Brien, enjoyed as fun a joyride as is possible from a racehorse in the final two furlongs. It was Ryan Moore on board for the G2 Beresford S. and G1 Racing Post Trophy, where he had bigger fish to fry but managed it in a manner suggesting he was just doing what was necessary. The latter race used to be all about stamina, but since Doncaster switched it to a straight mile and drastically altered their drainage system it is no longer a hotbed of died-in-the-wool Derby types. In 2011 Camelot (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}) became the first since High Top in 1972 to win that and the Guineas the following year and Saxon Warrior showed miler speed as well as determination in the most recent renewal. His dam Maybe, who was sent off the 13-8 favourite for the 1000 Guineas in 2012 only to be left trailing by stablemate Homecoming Queen, was one of the Afast Galileos@ that Aidan O=Brien and Jim Bolger first exploited with her debut success coming over six furlongs. That said, she got a mile and a half well when fifth in the following year=s Oaks and represents a pedigree that is a perfect blend of speed and stamina which is also true of the freakish Deep Impact. Has Shadai Stallion O=Brien admits to being in the dark as to what will come Station=s heir to Sunday Silence created another in his own forward on Saturday, where it will be all about natural ability. image? Ballydoyle=s helmsman is not ruling out the thought. Saxon Warrior has been allowed to come forward in his own AWe=ve probably never had a horse to change so much over a time at Rosegreen and although that may not be enough for a winter as he has--he=s turned into a monster of a horse--big, win against some race-fit and possibly harder-trained peers, it powerful and strong,@ O=Brien said. AHe=s going to run a long way will provide a jumping-off point for what could be a momentous off his 2-year-old weight, but his work is very nice and we are 3-year-old campaign. AWe think he will get further than a mile. It very happy with him.@ will be a nice place to start him and we look forward to him for the rest of the year. He looks a very unusual horse at the moment in how much he has changed from two to three, but we have to start somewhere.@ Whereas Saxon Warrior=s pedigree is a step into a new frontier, Gustav Klimt (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) embodies a THAT SENSE OF ADVENTURE AND time-honoured approach to breeding a true Guineas type. PUSHING THE LIMITS IS WHAT LIES Descending from Prince Faisal=s Prix de Diane heroine Rafha (GB) (Kris {GB}), he is also a mix of sprint and staying class but BEHIND MOST OF THE SCENE- his family is proven time and again on the main stage of Europe. CHANGING MOMENTS OF Invincible Spirit (Ire) is in there taking a prominent role and it is his half-sister Massarra (GB) (Danehill) who is responsible for EUROPEAN RACING. this year=s likely favourite. A speedy and precocious sort for John Dunlop, she generally gets milers at the most but with the influence of Galileo it is highly probable that Gustav Klimt has the ideal blend for victory in this Classic. Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 3 OF 16 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • 3 MAY, 2018 Coolmore Still Has Sense Of Adventure Cont. Interestingly, his full-brother Mars (Ire) was a real talking horse in Co. Tipperary in his time and lined up in the 2013 edition of this on only his second racecourse start at just 9-1. He was sixth and well-beaten, but was third in the St James=s Palace S. a month later. Gustav Klimt was prepped in the newly-remodelled Leopardstown 2000 Guineas Trial last month and showed a great deal more than any of his stable=s other runners to have been seen so far this term by beating the smart, race-fit Imaging (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) despite the testing Vice President, International Operations ground and run of the race being against him. He is all class on Gary King that showing and he demonstrated there and in the Twitter: @garykingTDN G2 Superlative S. when things got tough that he has that [email protected] will-to-win his sire is so effective at stamping on his progeny. It is + 1.732.320.0975 something that Aidan O=Brien talks about a lot and has decided International Editor the outcome of so many tight finishes in the top events of Kelsey Riley recent years. He is the sole colt in the line-up by Galileo, whose Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN 10 representatives since 2008 have yielded three wins and three [email protected] places with the successful triumvirate of Frankel (GB), Gleneagles (Ire) and Churchill (Ire) interestingly all out of fast European Editor mares. With normal improvement from Leopardstown, Gustav Emma Berry Klimt will be a tough nut to crack and his trainer is full of hope. Twitter: @collingsberry AWe were anxious to get a run into him, as he had not run [email protected] since Newmarket in the middle of the summer,@ he explained. Associate International Editor AWe would have liked to have run him in the Dewhurst to find Heather Anderson out a little bit more about him, so were a little bit in the dark. It Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN was soft ground, very heavy really, and probably not ideal but we felt we needed to run him. We always thought he would Marketing Manager prefer better ground and he did well to quicken in the ground. Alayna Cullen Ryan [Moore] rode him in the July meeting last year and was Twitter: @AlaynaCullen very, very full of him. You are never sure, but we were delighted [email protected] with his run in Leopardstown. We think and hope he=s in good Contributing Editor form.@ Alan Carasso Cont. p4 Twitter: @EquinealTDN Cafe Racing Sean Cronin Tom Frary [email protected] Irish Correspondent Daithi Harvey Regular Columnists Andrew Caulfield John Berry Kevin Blake Tom Peacock Aidan O=Brien | Racing Post TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 4 OF 16 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • 3 MAY, 2018 Coolmore Still Has Sense Of Adventure Cont.