Sumbe Prix Morny (Group 1)

DEAUVILLE’S busiest weekend of the year witnessed not just the start of the European Yearling Sale season but also a hectic 48 hours on the track with six valuable pattern races staged: two Group 1s and four Group 2s.

Continuing the theme of the season to date, the French managed to successfully defend all but one of the sextet. Unfortunately for the home team, the one to escape their clutches was the most prestigious, the Group 1 Sumbe Prix Morny, after everything had looked to be going swimmingly for the domestically-trained favourite, Ramatuelle, when she moved into the lead at the furlong marker.

It was at this point that jockey Aurelien Lemaitre asked the Christopher Head-trained daughter of Justify to quicken and that is exactly what she did but her burst of speed was not enough to shake off the attentions of one of the five British raiders, the Group 2 Richmond Stakes hero Vandeek, who outbattled the filly in the closing stages to score by a short neck.

It was a momentous result for a number of reasons. The winning pilot, Andrea Atzeni, was registering his first top level triumph for almost two years just days before he transfers his tack to a new jurisdiction and begins a new episode of his career in Hong Kong.

It was a first Group 1 success for the Newmarket-based father and son training team of Simon and Ed Crisford, Simon having initially taken out a licence in 2015 having previously been Godolphin’s racing manager and, before that, the Newmarket correspondent of the Racing Post.

It was also an inaugural success at the highest level for the outstanding young stallion, Havana Grey, who has just two crops of racing age and was himself runner-up in this event in 2017.

And it was a magnificent result for Roderic Kavanagh, of Glending Stables in Co Kildare, who bought the winner for 42,000 guineas last November and sold him on to his current owners, Bahrain’s KHK Racing, for 625,000 guineas less than five months later after he had clocked comfortably the fastest time out of the 190 lots on offer at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale.

Fairytale

Most of all, it was a fairytale and potentially life-changing success for a tiny family-run Maywood Stud, which is located not far from Swansea deep in the Welsh countryside. Vandeek is a second generation progeny of that nursery’s foundation mare, Baldemosa, out of her daughter Mosa Mine, who failed to win a race and was bought back at the horses-in-training sales by Maywood’s Kelly Thomas for a mere £800.

Somewhat forgotten in all this euphoria was the performance of the Aidan O’Brien-trained Irish raider, River Tiber, in third place. Mindful that the son of Wootton Bassett was not long back from a pulled muscle in his hind quarters and that the ground, though drying out all the time, was still testing following a prolonged thunderstorm early on Friday morning, his jockey Ryan Moore handled him with care throughout the event’s six furlongs, especially when he was detached in last place in the early stages. Yet he kept on well enough to take the minor place berth, two lengths behind Ramatuelle and two and a half lengths in front of the other six runners.

Crisford senior said: “Once Ramatuelle kicked for home it was going to take a serious horse to run her down but that’s just what Vandeek did. He handles the ground, will stay further and has a bombproof temperament.”

Former Newmarket trainer Chris Wall, who now acts as KHK’s racing manager, added: “You’ve got to remember that this horse only made his debut six weeks ago and overcame trouble in running to win today. He’s very tough, with an enormous stride, so you’d have to hope that he’d continue to progress.

Aidan O’Brien was far from downcast at River Tiber’s first defeat. “We took a chance running him and Ryan had to give him the chance to loosen up,” he said. “He lacked some drive early on and that’s why he got so far back.”

Sumbe Prix Jean Romanet (Group 1)

THE Morny featured a tight finish but Sunday’s other Group 1, the Sumbe Prix Jean Romanet for older fillies and mares over a mile and a quarter, was even closer, with the lead changing hands late in the day.

After Jessica Harrington’s Trevaunance had relinquished the lead with over a furlong to run, the George Boughey-trained Pretty Polly Stakes heroine Via Sistina went more than a length clear and looked set for another big victory. But jockey Alexis Pouchin had smuggled Mqse de Sevigne into the race from the rear and, only asking for maximum effort in the last 100 yards, she stayed on just well enough to snatch the prize right on the line by a nose.

There was a two-length gap back to the ultra-consistent Above The Curve, who Joseph O’Brien has now guided to four Group 1 placings to go with her Prix Saint-Alary victory of last May, in third. Trevaunance held on for fourth, another two lengths adrift, while Ann Marshall’s Frankel filly, One For Bobby, backed out of it tamely to finish sixth having looked a big threat with a furlong and a half to run.

A home-bred daughter of Siyouni who runs in the colours of French racing’s supremo, Baron Edouard de Rothschild, Mqse De Sevigne was winning just three weeks after having broken her Group 1 duck over a mile at the same venue in the Prix Rothschild. Her trainer, Andre Fabre, believes that she is better suited by that shorter trip and nominated the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot as a likely future target.

SUNDAY’S card got under way with the inaugural running of the Group 2 Sumbe Prix Alec Head, the new name for the Prix de la Nonette, and this 10-furlong affair for three-year-old fillies produced a most fitting winner in the shape of this year’s Saint-Alary heroine, Jannah Rose, whose trainer, Carlos Laffon-Parias, is married to the late Alec Head’s granddaughter, Patricia.

Joesph O’Brien went even closer this time, his Ribblesdale second and Irish Oaks fourth Lumiere Rock coming up short by a head having attempted to make all the running. The winner was bred in Co Tipperary by John Hayes, who sold the daughter of Frankel for €650,000 at the Orby Sale two years ago.

Only a matter of hours after she was part of a deal that saw one great French racing dynasty absorb what remains of another as the Wertheimer brothers purchased the remaining bloodstock interests of the Wildenstein family, Pensee Du Jour ran a strange race, toddling along a detached last of five off a very slow pace and only really making ground after her rider had already given up, to be beaten by less than four lengths in fourth. She can do better.

The Wertheimers enjoyed better luck with one of their home-breds later on the card, with Fabre’s Sober bringing the 2023 score between him and third-placed The Good Man to 2-2 with victory in the one-mile-seven-furlong Group 2 Sumbe Prix Kergorlay, the pair divided by the Charlie Fellowes-trained British raider Grand Alliance.

Saturday

Saturday was a day to remember for trainer Francis Graffard, who brought to an end a lean patch by landing his first two pattern races of the season, with Les Pavotslifting in the Group 2 Prix du Calvados and then Melo Meloand Baiykara pulling off a 1-2 for the yard in the Group 2 Prix de Pomone.