Remarquee defies her inexperience to win at Newbury
Guineas trials pedigree analysis: Have we seen a Classic winner in Mammas Girl or Remarquee?
By Laura Joy
14:00 · MON April 24, 2023
Our pedigree expert looks back on the recent Guineas trials, featuring Ralph Beckett's beautifully-bred Fred Darling winner Remarquee.
Click on the horse names for full profiles and to add to My Stable
Fred Darling Stakes
With her ears pricked, Remarquee (Kingman) galloped home with confidence at Newbury on Saturday in the Fred Darling Stakes. Though not the most fancied daughter of 2000 Guineas runner-up Kingman as the week began, she most certainly is as it ends.
Boasting a pedigree that has surely had Classics in mind since the day her dam Regardez visited Kingman in 2019, a well thought out plan appears to be coming to fruition.
Trainer Ralph Beckett knows Remarquee’s family well having trained her dam and granddam as well as numerous progeny and siblings whilst owner-breeder Julian H Richmond-Watson can attest the same having nurtured this family for generations at his small but select Lawn Stud.
Remarquee’s dam Regardez (Champs Elysees) is a half-sister to much-missed G1 winning stayer Scope (Teofilo), a tragically premature loss to the staying ranks for his owner-breeder and trainer combination.
Further back on this filly’s page is unraced third dam Last Look (Rainbow Quest). Though she never made the track, she is responsible for Epsom Oaks heroine Look Here (Hernando), who Remarquee will aim to emulate in winning a Classic on just her third start.
Access to exclusive features all for FREE - No monthly subscription fee
Log in with your existing Sporting Life, Sky Bet, or Sky Games account. If you don't have any of those, it's completely FREE to register!
Remarquee's second dam Look So (Efisio) is therefore not only a Group 1 producing broodmare, but a half-sister to an Epsom Classic winner. Her dam Regardez may not have scaled the heights of her half-brother Scope, but she was by no means lacking ability herself.
She only failed to show three times in twelve career starts, eight of those being in stakes company. Her optimum trip was 10f with a career best in the Listed Hoppings Stakes at Newcastle and Remarquee is her second winner and first stakes winner from five foals of racing age.
Stamina in abundance, it won’t be the Rowley Mile’s testing finish keeping this filly’s connections awake at night. Such a patiently nurtured middle-distance family coupled with Kingman’s blistering speed has delivered what every owner breeder dreams of.
Remarquee has some growing up to do between now and May 7, but she has every right to take a significant step forward from her second career start. Expect a different filly to show up at Newmarket and if she does, she will rank one of the main dangers to those who evaded the trials.
Greenham Stakes
A race that promised so much resulted in early drama and quite the opposite in the finish.
As Frankie Dettori departed out the side door on the favourite Chaldean (Frankel), Sean Levey was left to make every inch of the running on the lightly-raced Isaac Shelby (Night Of Thunder), who sauntered home with ease, undeterred by the loose Chaldean, to give his sire a much needed Classic contender.
Access to exclusive features all for FREE - No monthly subscription fee
Log in with your existing Sporting Life, Sky Bet, or Sky Games account. If you don't have any of those, it's completely FREE to register!
Isaac Shelby has more than earned a shot at the 2000 Guineas, though connections have nominated the French Guineas as his target. Given the distance he put between himself and his rivals, it’s unlikely the beaten Greenham finishers will feature in Newmarket on the first Saturday in May.
Nell Gwyn Stakes
Why Mammas Girl (Havana Grey), a course and distance winner on her only start, was largely ignored in the market probably reflects her regally bred rivals rather than herself.
Against a field of fillies bursting with apparent potential, Mammas Girl burst plenty of bubbles. Perhaps her ‘unproven’ second-crop sire Havana Grey had something to do with it as we wait to see if his sizeable group of winning two-year-olds train on.
Let’s not forget, before last year’s winner Cachet, who completed the Nell Gwyn/Guineas double for her rookie sire Aclaim, the last sire to land a Guineas winner in his first crop was Britain’s most expensive living sire Dubawi, when Makfi took the 2010 renewal.
Access to exclusive features all for FREE - No monthly subscription fee
Log in with your existing Sporting Life, Sky Bet, or Sky Games account. If you don't have any of those, it's completely FREE to register!
Mammas Girl is out of the Shadwell-bred mare Mamma Morton (Elnadim). Sold by Derrinstown Stud as a yearling for €30,000 at Goffs, she placed in three maidens from five starts before being reoffered at Tattersalls December sale out of training where she brought 40,000gns. Her second foal Master Of War (Compton Place) was as precocious as he was fast winning the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes for juveniles.
Subsequent matings with Dutch Art, Dark Angel, Iffraaj and Showcasing produced winners but it is rookie Havana Grey who has really clicked. Whilst it is not Shadwell’s most distinguished family, it is a family that has enjoyed regular updates of late including Cheveley Park runner-up Flotus (Starspangledbanner).
Undoubtedly a distaff pedigree with more speed than stamina, the extra furlong of the 1000 Guineas poses a legitimate concern. Havana Grey’s biggest day came over five furlongs in the G1 Flying Five at the Curragh and if this filly stays a mile it will surely be her limit.
The last filly before Cachet to follow up in the 1000 Guineas was 2006 winner Speciosa (Danehill Dancer). Now Mammas Girl has emulated Cachet in providing her second-season sire with a genuine Classic hope, Amo Racing and connections will be hoping their unbeaten filly shares more in common with last year’s heroine by the time the first Sunday in May rolls in.
Craven Stakes
In what has been a week to remember for Amo Racing, Indestructible (Kodiac) provided them with a Classic trial double at the Craven meeting and did so in similarly dominating style to Mammas Girl.
Furrowing his own path on the near side, the son of prolific two-year-old sire Kodiac looked caught for stamina when The Foxes (Churchill) breezed past him.
With that rival electing to roll around and hang to the rail, the path was clear and stamina suddenly kicked in as he stayed on powerfully, hitting the line hard.
Access to exclusive features all for FREE - No monthly subscription fee
Log in with your existing Sporting Life, Sky Bet, or Sky Games account. If you don't have any of those, it's completely FREE to register!
Indestructible is the first foal out of Shareva whose best efforts on the track amounted to placing in three maidens - a factor that surely came into play when the Aga Khan sold her as a maiden to Tally-Ho in February 2019 for €62,000. A daughter of Sussex Stakes winner Rip Van Winkle, Shareva is from a deep middle distance Aga Khan family that gives Indestructible a very real chance of changing his sire’s luck in the Classics.
Whilst Shareva lacked talent on the track, she has evidently inherited her parent’s genes. Her dam is the 9.5f G3 winner Shareen by dual G1 winning miler Bahri. Shareen is already responsible for two Group winners, one of those being G2 Blandford Stakes winner Shamreen (Dubawi) who boasts G2 Railway Stakes winner Shartash (Invincible Spirit) from just two foals to race so far.
With much sought after middle distance Aga Khan blood on his dam’s side, Indestructible is more than entitled to take his place in the 2000 Guineas. Whilst Kodiac has struggled in the domestic Classics being deservedly synonymous with sharp two-year-olds and hardy sprinters, Indestructible is not his first stakes winner to stay a mile or further. Globe trotting three-time 12f G1 winner Best Solution took the G3 Autumn Stakes over a mile on the Rowley Mile in 2016 whilst El Bodegon lost nothing in defeat when second to Champion Three Year Old Vadeni (Churchill) in last year’s Prix du Jockey Club following his G1 10f Criterium de Saint-Cloud win as a juvenile.
Of course these should be regarded as exceptions rather than the rule but on all evidence so far, Indestructible has a live opportunity to add his name to the group. Given the late drama that unfolded in the Greenham Stakes, we’ll have to wait to analyse the value of the Indestructible/Chaldean form on the day.
With the four key British trials now concluded, have we seen a Classic winner? Devoted pedigree fans will be looking at Remarquee as the key contender to emerge whilst fans of the underdog will cheer Mammas Girl who was bred off a lowly fee of £8000 keeping so many breeders’ dreams alive.
Are the trial evaders sweating at home? Time will tell but for me it’s Remarquee in the hope that her 1000 Guineas prize money will cover the cost of supplementing her to the Oaks.
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
We are committed to Safer Gambling and have a number of self-help tools to help you manage your gambling. We also work with a number of independent charitable organisations who can offer help and answers any questions you may have.
