The One and Only Shamardal Horse of a Lifetime Who Went on Winning One
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The one and only Shamardal Horse of a lifetime who went on winning one. Always in command, and performance, cutting his odds from 16/1 to Prix Jean Luc Lagardere; Montgomery’s indeed the only horse still on the bridle two 10/1 favourite for the 2005 2,000 Guineas. Arch, the Richmond Stakes winner; and to yet more success as a stallion furlongs from home, the colt gradually Shamardal sustained a slight setback, Imperial Applause, successful in pulled clear, winning as he liked by two and didn’t return to the track until the Chantilly’s Prix Eclipse. and a half lengths from Wilko. The worth Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes in October. In Notwithstanding these credentials, of that performance can, to some extent, be that race, he carried the colours of Shamardal treated his opponents with LL at Johnston Racing were before; Mister Baileys won the 1993 Stakes at Royal Ascot, and then third in the gauged by the fact that Wilko went on to Gainsborough Stud. The field of nine contempt. Ridden by Kevin Darley, he saddened to hear last month of renewal of the race when it was a Group 3 Group 3 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket, finish third in the Royal Lodge Stakes contained six pattern winners in addition to simply repeated his Goodwood A the death of the great event, while Lucky Story lifted the race in where he was beaten three-quarters of a before landing the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Shamardal. They were Etlaala, sent off performance. Smartly away, he set out to Shamardal, the horse Mark 2003, on its first running at Group 2 level. length by Dubawi. at Lone Star Park from the subsequent favourite after a win in the Champagne make the running on the stands rail. believes to be the best he has trained. Shamardal’s rivals included Wilko, an Joe Fanning had the utmost confidence Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner, Stakes; Iceman, who had won the Shaken up approaching the two-furlong The news was announced by Godolphin Awesome Again colt trained by Jeremy that Shamardal would stay the extra Afleet Alex. Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot; pole, he cruised to success, running on well Ireland that the Kildangan Stud-based Noseda. Already a Yarmouth winner, furlong and take the race. Once again, he The bookmakers were certainly Perfectperformance, the Royal Lodge in the closing stages to score by two and a stallion had been euthanised at the age of Wilko had finished third in the Chesham asked Shamardal to make every post a impressed by Shamardal’s Vintage Stakes winner; Oratorio, the winner of the half lengths from Oratorio, with 18 due to ‘a range of health issues’. Montgomery’s Arch a neck away in third. By Giant’s Causeway out of the Timeform were very impressed by Machiavellian mare, Helsinki, Shamardal Shamardal’s performance. His timefigure was bought at Tattersalls Houghton of 0.93 fast equated to a timerating of 123, Yearling Sale for 50,000gns by Michael ‘the best put up by a juvenile in 2004’. Goodbody of Gainsborough Stud However, as the essay on the horse in Management. Mark was the underbidder at ‘Racehorses of 2004’ pointed out, the day the sale, and when Goodbody realised that of the Dewhurst Stakes was one of mixed Mark was his rival, he persuaded him to emotions for Mark. In addition to back off, pointing out that the horse would Shamardal’s win, Contact Dancer also won be sent to Mark to train. the Cesarewitch for the yard, but there was It was a remarkable time for the stable; huge sadness when the talented Mister while Shamardal was learning his trade on Monet broke a leg in the Champion Stakes. the gallops in Middleham, Attraction was a At the end of his juvenile season in three-year-old, and in the early months of Middleham, Shamardal was the unbeaten the 2004 season, she notched up a Champion Juvenile in Europe, and the remarkable Group 1 treble in landing the recipient of the Cartier Award for Two- 1,000 Guineas, the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Year-Old Colt. Understandably, he was the Coronation Stakes. transferred to Godolphin, and Saeed bin The colt was originally leased to Suroor, with a view to being aimed at the Abdulla Buhaleeba, in whose colours he Kentucky Derby. made his debut in a six-furlong maiden at Ayr on July 12, 2004. Seven went to post HE UAE Derby at Nad al Sheba for the race which was not without in March 2005 was pencilled in incident. Bryan Smart’s debutant Stretford T as a trial race for Shamardal. End, a Zieten colt, racing in touch on the Although he led to halfway, it inside of the field, hit the rail and fell after was to prove the lowest point of a couple of furlongs. Joe Fanning asked Shamardal’s career and his only defeat. Shamardal to make the running, and when Some felt he hated the dirt surface, and he he pushed the button a furlong and a half trailed home ninth of the 12 runners. from home, the colt stretched clear of his A decision was taken to follow the field to score by eight lengths from No French classic route. Shamardal lined up at Commission, himself the winner of a Longchamp in mid-May as one of 15 Hamilton maiden four days later. runners in the French Guineas, the Poule Such was the impression made by d’Essai des Poulains. Ridden by Frankie Shamardal at Ayr, he started odds-on to Dettori, he again made all the running, this win his second race, even although it time hanging on well to defeat Indesatchel involved a major step up in class to Group by a head, with Gharir a neck away in 2 company. Mark had tasted success in the Shamardal wins the Dewhurst Stakes under Kevin Darley Vintage Stakes at Glorious Goodwood Continued on p.16 14 15 Continued from p.15 achieved since Right Royal V won both making all the running before quickening races in 1961. clear, and eased in the closing stages, to HE WENT FROM ‘WOBBLER’ TO WINNER Again, it’s a measure of Shamardal’s score by three lengths from Ad Valorem, in third. Jockey-Club success that this was what Timeform regarded as his career-best A tilt at the French Derby, the Prix du Hurricane Run’s only defeat in 2005. The performance. HAMARDAL enjoyed a fantastic career as a top-class racehorse informed as a grade 3 affliction can often lead to a horse being Jockey-Club at Chantilly, followed in June. son of Montjeu went on to land the Irish Alas, an eagerly awaited clash between and as an influencial sire, but his achievements are all the more euthanised. Shamardal’s 16 rivals included the 6/5 Derby, the Prix Niel and the Prix de l’Arc Shamardal and Derby winner Motivator in S remarkable when you consider the story of his very early days. Additional tests at Ohio State University confirmed the horse was favourite, the hitherto unbeaten Hurricane de Triomphe in a stellar campaign, but the the Eclipse failed to materialise. Noted as The story begins with the sale of Shamardal’s dam, Helsinki. Thanks suffering from a compression of the C5 and C6 vertebrae. The Run, impressive winner of the Prix fact remains he was no match for lame two days before the race, Shamardal to the exploits of her younger full-brother Street Cry, Helsinki came to insurance claim was settled, and the breeders signed the horse over to Hocquart a month earlier. Dettori followed Shamardal at Chantilly. was found to have sustained an ‘ankle’ the attention of Kentucky-based vet Phillip McCarthy and his the insurers, expecting that the colt would be humanely destroyed. At the formula on Shamardal; sent into the The decision was then taken to drop chip and was promptly retired to stud, his colleague Fred Hertrich, a Delaware car dealer. At the time, Helsinki, this point, Richard Ketch enters the story. lead from the outset (despite being drawn Shamardal back in trip to a mile for the St wonderful racing career having been a minor Stakes winner herself but the daughter of the Irish Oaks A former show horse trainer then employed as a ‘mortality adjuster’ 13), the colt was kicked clear a furlong and James’s Palace Stakes, held in 2005 at brought to an end by this injury. He was winner, Helen Street, was boarding at Coolmore in advance of a in the equine insurance industry, Ketch had a particular interest in a half from home, and comfortably held York. Among his seven opponents were the winner of six of his seven career starts, mating with the ‘iron horse’, Giant’s Causeway. horses afflicted by this problem. His wife suffered from multiple the late challenge of Hurricane Run by a old rivals Oratorio and Indesatchel. With four of them at Group 1 level and one at At the beginning of November, Street Cry ran third in the Grade 1 sclerosis. Standard treatments for multiple sclerosis weren’t working neck. This was the first time the Kerrin McEvoy replacing the suspended Group 2. His career earnings amounted to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs. McCarthy and Hertrich well for Mrs Ketch, and at her request, Ketch made contact with a Poulains/Jockey-Club double had been Dettori, Shamardal simply did it again, £1,099,290. were impressed, and as Helsinki was the only full-sister to Street Cry German-born ‘energy healer’ named Herwig Schoen, from Santa Fe, on the market, they pressed ahead with the purchase, enlisting the help who had gained some notoriety with his ‘reconnective therapy’.