John Ingles looks into the pedigrees of the two-year-olds who advanced their classic claims at Doncaster and in Ireland last weekend.
Last weekend featured a flurry of smart performances from several two-year-olds, making them leading contenders for next year’s classics. It’s therefore a good time to look at the pedigrees at each of those winners, important for assessing their prospects in the months ahead.
Musical Times kept her unbeaten record with an impressive win in the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster, relishing her first try at a mile which was very much in keeping with her pedigree. She’s by Lope de Vega out of a Teofilo mare. Interestingly, that’s the same cross which has produced Lope de Vega’s highest-rated female to date, Dreamloper (Timeform 123), winner of the Prix d’Ispahan and Prix du Moulin for Ed Walker. The free-going Dreamloper proved best at up to nine furlongs despite the stamina on her dam’s side, but Musical Times ought to stay further than that next year if taking after her own dam Dubai Fountain.
She finished second in the May Hill herself before coming fourth in the Fillies’ Mile, a race in which her daughter should take plenty of beating. Dubai Fountain made a successful reappearance at three in the Cheshire Oaks but failed to go on from that, including when sent off at just 4/1 for the Oaks. Dubai Fountain’s half-brother was the high-class Real World, winner of the Hunt Cup who went on to Group 2 success and was runner-up in the Lockinge and the Queen Anne. A bit further back, it’s the family of half-brothers Librettist and Dubai Destination, both Group 1-winning milers for Godolphin.
Stablemate Desert Castle, winner of the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, has only raced at seven furlongs so far and looks like being kept to that trip for the Dewhurst Stakes, but he too should have no problem staying a mile when the time comes. He’s the second Champagne Stakes winner for his sire Frankel after Chaldean who went on to win the 2000 Guineas as well as the Dewhurst. Desert Castle has several winning sibilings, but it’s significant that the two who stand out are also by Frankel.
The first was Dream Castle who was fifth in the 2000 Guineas himself despite being unraced at two and making a winning debut just a month beforehand. At the age of five, he completed a hat-trick at Meydan culminating in a Group 1 win in the Jebel Hatta. Also smart was his sister With The Moonlight who won the Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket on her three-year-old reappearance before disappointing in the Oaks, but she too did well later in Dubai and was twice runner-up in Grade 1 company in North America over a mile and a quarter.
Although by Dubawi, their dam Sand Vixen was speedy and raced only at two. She too was a winner at the St Leger meeting, in the Flying Childers Stakes. It remains to be seen how far Desert Castle will stay next year, but a mile might prove his best trip.
Top two-year-olds needing a stamina test have either had to make do with opportunities at a mile or wait until very late in the season for the Criterium de Saint-Cloud, but the promotion of Leopardstown’s Golden Fleece Stakes to Group 1 level and extending its distance from a mile to nine furlongs makes it more of an attractive proposition for such types than it already was. In its former guise it was won by future Derby winners Australia and Auguste Rodin and last year by Irish Derby winner Benvenuto Cellini.
Aidan O’Brien also won the revamped version with Darkness Falls. As far as his prospects of staying the Derby trip are concerned, he’s relying heavily on his sire Camelot but that may well be enough. Camelot sired the latest Derby winner, Christmas Day, who’s out of a Sea The Stars mare, but not all his runners need stamina on the dam’s side too to stay middle distances. Darkness Falls is the grandson of a classic winner as his grandam Hula Angel won the Irish 1000 Guineas. Oddly enough, she produced the Galway Hurdle winner Tigris River (by stamina influence Montjeu), but her other foals included Darkness Falls’ dam You’resobeautiful (by No Nay Never) who was all speed, being a winner at five furlongs and runner-up in a listed race at Naas over five and a half.
Sun Goddess, who put up the best effort of the season so far by a two-year-old of either sex in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, capped a remarkable few weeks of success for her sire Sioux Nation. Days earlier at Doncaster, he was also responsible for the Flying Childers winner Final Objective, while at Longchamp recently, Sioux Nation has also sired the first two in the five-furlong Prix d’Arenberg, Drazinda and Vollering, and the winner of the Prix d’Aumale over a mile, Rogue Passion. Narrowly beaten over five furlongs on her debut, Sun Goddess had previously excelled over six furlongs, including emulating her sire by winning the Phoenix Stakes, but she saw out the seven furlongs of the Moyglare so well that it’s hard to think she won’t stay the Guineas trip.
By Coolmore standards, Sun Goddess was a relatively cheap buy at £120,000 and won well over twice that just by winning last month’s Goffs sales race at York. Out of an unraced Starspangledbanner mare, there were no other Group 1 winners in the immediate family until recently when Thesecretadversary won the Prix Jean Prat. He’s a great grandson of Sun Goddess’ grandam Holly Blue, the winner of a listed mile handicap at Ascot and the dam of Gibraltar Blue who was fourth in the Rockfel Stakes and went on to do well at up to a mile in South Africa.
Folsom Blues became a second Group 1 winner for his sire Blue Point at the Irish Champions Festival after Blue Bolt’s victory in the Matron Stakes the day before. National Stakes winner Folsom Blues become Blue Point’s sixth Group 1 winner and it’s interesting that he’s one of three of those to be produced by Oasis Dream mares.
As you might expect, the cross has had some speedy results, producing smart five-furlong specialist Big Evs and last month’s Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Samangan. Folsom Blues, who was runner-up to Sun Goddess in the Phoenix Stakes, had already won his maiden over seven furlongs and ran much his best race returned to that trip in the National Stakes, furthering the belief that he’ll stay a mile. His half-brother Atlantic Coast (by another sprinter Kodiac), winner of the Group 3 Killavullan Stakes over seven furlongs at two, faced a stiff task when tried in the Irish 2000 Guineas but showed he stayed the trip when runner-up over a mile with his sights lowered to a listed race.
Their French-trained dam Liwa Palace had useful form at up to around nine furlongs, while going back to Folsom Blues’ great grandam Aqaarid, she was a smart filly who won the Fillies’ Mile and was second in the 1000 Guineas.
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