THE name Zhang Yuesheng is becoming more and more familiar around the world and the Chinese owner has certainly made a splash in Ireland. A major buyer at the sales and a successful owner, his green and white colours were twice in the winners’ enclosure at the Curragh on Sunday, notably when Platinum Warrior boosted the Epsom Derby hopes of Hazapour when he won the Group 3 Airlie Stud Gallinule Stakes.
Bred by Triermore Stud and purchased as a yearling for €200,000 at Goffs by Michael Donohue of BBA Ireland and Yulong Investments, the colt was sold as part of The Castlebridge Consignment.
Sunday was his first, and is most unlikely to be his last, piece of blacktype.
Platinum Warrior is a son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), one of the few sires in the world who needs no introduction or elucidation. Many times champion and sire of many champions, he has no equal among living sires. His latest stakes winner Platinum Warrior would look to have been something of a bargain buy at less than his sire’s covering fee.
Platinum Warrior is the first foal out of the Group 2 winner Laugh Out Loud, by Clodovil (Danehill), and she was bought as a potential broodmare at Tattersalls for 700,000gns as a four-year-old. She was in the care of three trainers in her career, Mick Channon, Jean-Claude Rouget and Chad Brown. The first-named did best with her, sending her to France to win the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham and then running third in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket.
The second offspring from Laugh Out Loud is Elisheba (Australia) and she sold to Blandford Bloodstock for 200,000gns as a yearling last year. There is a yearling full-sister to Platinum Warrior too. Laugh Out Loud is the best of nine winners from the Darshaan (Shirley Heights) mare Funny Girl who never won but was placed every year she raced from two to five. The best of the other winners is Suzi’s Decision (Act One) who won a pair of listed races.
Funny Girl had three winning siblings and the best was Rombaldi (Kahyasi) who won 15 races on the flat and over jumps in France, gaining a deserved listed race win over hurdles at Clairefontaine as a seven-year-old. Their Lead On Time (Nureyev) dam Just For Fun was a winning full-sister to Judge Decision and he won a listed race in France and was second in the Group 2 Premio Emilio Turati.
Judge Decision was the best runner for Audition (Dara Monarch) and, by coincidence, she is a half-sister to a mare who was bred by sponsor Airlie Stud’s Sonia Rogers, won the then Group 2 Tattersalls Rogers Gold Cup, and became a Group 1 producer.
That mare was Fair Of The Furze and her three stakes winning progeny are Group 1 Italian Derby winner White Muzzle (Dancing Brave), German Group 2 winner Fair Question (Rainbow Quest) and listed winner Elfaslah (Green Desert).
Elfaslah bred no fewer than 13 winners and Almutawakel (Machiavellian) was the best of these. His biggest win came in the 1999 Group 1 Dubai World Cup. An outsider, he beat Malek, Silver Charm, Daylami and Victory Gallop to land the $3 million first prize. It was the first Dubai World Cup win for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
Prior to winning the Dubai World Cup, Almutawakel won the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly. He also finished runner-up in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris, Grade 1 Woodward Stakes and the Grade 1 Oaklawn Handicap, and third in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news