TUESDAY, 26 JANUARY 2016 ENGELBRECHT-BRESGES HONORED AT ARC PLENTY ON OFFER FOR Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Chairman of the Asian Racing Federation EUROS IN SYDNEY was honored with a special award presented by the Turf Authorities of India during the Asian Racing Conference at Mahalakshmi Racecourse in Mumbai, India Sunday. AThe Organising Committee feels that it cannot allow the occasion of India hosting this ARC to pass without making special acknowledgment of the singular contribution which Mr. Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla and Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges | has and continues to make on HKJC photo behalf of racing in our region,@ said Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman of the 36th Asian Racing Conference Organising Committee, when presenting the award. Cont. p4 Horses quarantining at Newmarket=s Side Hill Stud have access to the town=s famed training grounds | Racing Post By John Berry LAUREL AN INTERNATIONAL TRAILBLAZER Newmarket is known as 'HQ' for the obvious reason that it is In this week=s Pedigree Insights, Andrew Caulfield looks pretty much Britain's centre of everything: training, racing, back at Laurel Park=s history-making Washington D.C. breeding, etc. One of its lesser-known specialities is the International. provision of quarantine facilities. These come into their own Click or tap here to go straight to TDN America. when European horses are set for races in Australia. Newmarket's quarantine station at Side Hill Stud is not Europe's only facility, but its strength is its access to the top-class training facilities on Newmarket Heath. The latest high-profile racehorse passing through Newmarket's quarantine station is Spiritjim (Fr) (Galileo {Ire}) who ranked as a Group 1 winner for a few weeks in the summer of 2014 before being disqualified for testing positive to clenbuterol after his defeat of Frankel's brother Noble Mission (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. At the time, Spiritjim was trained by Pascal Bary for Hspirit. Now he is owned by Ting Kong Cheng and is set to join the stable of Sydney's champion trainer Chris Waller, who has done so well with European middle-distance and staying imports over the past few years. Spiritjim ought to have a good chance in races such as the A$2,250,000 G1 BMW at Rosehill (Mar. 26) and the A$4,000,000 G1 Queen Elizabeth S. at Randwick (Apr. 9) during the forthcoming Sydney Autumn Carnival. Cont. p2 DISCOVER GREATNESS Internationalwith SNITZEL Glory SUN JEWELLERY takes out the Group 1 Hong Kong Classic Mile SNITZEL Redoute’s Choice - Snippets’ Lass, by Snippets www.arrowfield.com.au TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL $ PAGE 2 of 5 $ THETDN.COM TUESDAY, 26 JANUARY 2016 Plenty on Offer for Euros in Sydney Cont. Brittain's CV was even more remarkable. He had landed pioneering big-race victories with Pebbles (GB) (Sharpen Up He will obviously be locally trained by then, but there could be {GB}) in the 1985 GI Breeders' Cup Turf and Jupiter Island (GB) some European-trained contenders at the Carnival as both Gailo (St Paddy {GB}) in the 1986 G1 Japan Cup, and had saddled Bold Chop (Fr) (Deportivo {GB}) and Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) Arrangement (GB) are under consideration for what would for each be a second (Persian Bold {Ire}) to trip Down Under. Both starred during the Melbourne Spring finish second in the Carnival towards the end of last year, the former winning the G1 1986 GI Kentucky Mackinnon S. at Flemington and the later finishing third to Winx Derby. In March 1988, the (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) in the G1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. STC put up a When the principal million-dollar purse race-days of the for the G1 Tancred Sydney Autumn S., thus drawing Carnival were three runners from Pebbles | Racing Post rebranded two years Europe. Bart Cummings, who never liked to miss an opportunity ago as 'The to put Europeans in their place, saddled the champion Championships' and 3-year-old Beau Zam (NZ) (Zamazaan {Fr}) to win by 5 1/2 given a massive lengths, but the Dunlop-trained Highland Chieftain (GB) injection of cash, (Kampala {GB}) finished second, with Vaguely Pleasant (Fr) there was a push to (Fabulous Dancer) third for the French stable of Patrick Highland Reel | Four Footed Fotos attract international Biancone. The Robert Collet-trained Le Glorieux (GB) (Cure The raiders. Two Blues) had won the previous year's GI Washington DC landmark victories ensued: Gordon Lord Byron (Ire) (Byron {GB}) International, but finished out of the money in this race. landing the G1 George Ryder S. at Rosehill for Ireland and Hana's The traveling clearly did Highland Chieftain no harm, because Goal (Jpn) (Orewa Matteruze {Jpn}) taking the G1 Schweppes All he ran at Newmarket's Craven Meeting in April and then won Aged S. for Japan. the G3 Brigadier Gerard S. at Sandown in May. Later in the The Melbourne Spring Carnival has been firmly on the radar of summer he scored at both Group 2 and 3 level in Frankfurt. Europeans for a couple of decades. It is surely only a matter of In 1989 Clive Brittain nearly landed another coup: Top Class time before Sydney's autumn equivalent becomes a similarly (GB) (High Top {GB}) finished second to Cox Plate winner Our popular goal. In fact, the only surprise is that it is taking so long Poetic Prince (NZ) (Yeats) in the Tancred. In 1990, when the Tancred had been re-named the BMW International, both for European trainers to wake up to the opportunities on offer Brittain and Dunlop were represented. In a race won by in Sydney. Rewind nearly 30 years and one might have predicted subsequent Caulfield Cup winner Sydeston (Aus) (St Briavels that Sydney would soon be a regular destination. Surprisingly, {GB}), Brittain saddled Mountain Kingdom (Exceller) to finish this has not yet come to pass. fourth, with good old Highland Chieftain unplaced. The latter In the 1980s, the Sydney Turf Club set out to attract had contested New Zealand's short-lived million-dollar race, the international runners. Unsurprisingly, two British trainers DB Classic at Ellerslie, in 1989--as had Brittain's Lapierre (GB) grasped the nettle: John Dunlop and Clive Brittain. Each was (Lafontaine)--and had followed that by running in Melbourne already famous for his boldness. John Dunlop could boast a seven days later, finishing fourth to Vo Rogue (Aus) (Ivor Prince) string of international victories, including a trio of Group 1 in the G1 Australian Cup at Flemington. strikes in Italy in 1983 courtesy of Awaasif (Snow Knight {GB}), At this time of year, numerous European horses are heading Jalmood (Blushing Groom {Fr}) and High Hawk (Ire) (Shirley out to Dubai in search of desert gold. John Dunlop and Clive Heights {GB}), victories which rank as three of the first Group 1 Brittain are both retired, but both are still around; and both triumphs for Sheikh Mohammed. High Hawk, incidentally, has a would surely suggest that the big races in Sydney over the next secure place in the annals: not only was she Sheikh three months ought to be on the radars of enterprising Mohammed's first Royal Ascot winner (when taking the G2 European horsemen. Ribblesdale S. in 1983), but she also produced In The Wings (GB) (Sadler's Wells). TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL $ PAGE 3 of 5 $ THETDN.COM TUESDAY, 26 JANUARY 2016 HRI RELEASE INDUSTRY STATISTICS Elsworth knows what it takes to score at the top level and he is aware that Jeff Smith=s homebred will have her work cut out to Horse Racing Ireland has released their annual figures for win another Group 1. 2015, with bloodstock sales increasing for the sixth consecutive Added Elsworth, "She's a year, HRI announced Monday. Racecourse attendance was just 4-year-old now, the below the 2014 level with rough weather decreasing the 3-year-olds get weight number of patrons that turned out for racing by 0.7%. European allowances and there is sure Breeders Fund (EBF) sponsorship rose by 7.8%, while to be some good 3-year-olds commercial sponsorship also increased to 7.5%. Tote Ireland emerging, so we won't get continued to grow in 2015, with overall turnover rising by 29%. over confident but that's the HRI=s Chief Executive Brian Kavanagh commented, A2015 sort of target." Arabian Queen & David Elsworth | represented the sixth consecutive year of growth, with Irish By winning what was Racing Post bloodstock sales of i152.5 million up 3.5% on the 2014 figures. officially the third-best race in The value of Irish-foaled exported the world last year, Arabian Queen has achieved more than horses sold through public auction most and no matter what she does on the track in the future, grew to i267.7 million. This was a she will make a much sought after broodmare for her owner=s 16.7% increase on the previous Littleton Stud. year and Irish horses were exported to 33 different countries.@ HRI will increase prize-money by i3.1 million (5.8%) in 2016 for a total of i56.7 million, with the Monday=s Result: minimum race value in Ireland set 5th-WOL, ,4,500, Mdn, 1-25, 3yo, 9f 103y (AWT), 2:00.98, st. at i9,000. JIVE TIME (GB) (c, 3, Motivator {GB}--Lindy Hop {Ire}, by Added Kavanagh, AWe continue Danehill Dancer {Ire}), sixth on debut over a mile at Kempton Brian Kavanagh | Racing Post to focus on improving the Dec.