Timely boost for Justify as juvenile pair impress
Justify is set to return to covering duties at Jerrys Plains in the coming weeks with his Coolmore connections undoubtedly boosted by the fact he appears to be responsible for Europe’s best juvenile colt and filly following the weekend’s action, writes Paul Eacott.
City Of Troy rocketed to the head of the betting for both next year’s English 2,000 Guineas and Derby after he made it two wins from as many starts when posting an eye-catching performance to take out Saturday’s Group 2 Superlative Stakes over seven furlongs at Newmarket.
And, less than 24 hours later across the English Channel, the filly Ramatuelle notched her third win in four starts when she got the better of the colts to take out the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin over 1200 metres at Chantilly. The combined winning distance of the pair? An incredible ten and a half lengths.
In slamming his rivals, City Of Troy became the first Group winner in the UK for high-profile Triple Crown hero Justify, and his 15th individual stakes winner worldwide.
Justify’s only other winner in Britain to date is City Of Troy’s year older brother Bertinelli, who landed Newbury’s London Gold Cup, a handicap over a mile and a quarter earlier this year. The pair are both trained in Ireland by Aidan O’Brien.
They are out of the Group 1-winning juvenile Together Forever, the easily-confused-with sister of Forever Together, winner of the Group 1 Epsom Oaks in 2018.
Together Forever has had three other foals by War Front, all of whom have achieved black type, while she also produced a filly foal by Uncle Mo in Ireland last March before being covered by Dubawi.
City Of Troy was awarded a Racing Post Rating of 116, 6lb better than the next best colt, his stablemate River Tiber, for his six-and-a-half-length demolition job in the Superlative Stakes.
Having run out a decisive winner of the Group 3 Prix du Bois on her previous outing, the Christopher Head-trained Ramatuelle produced an even more impressive display when routing her rivals in the Prix Robert Papin.
“Justify is one of those stallions you want in training because, overall, Ramatuelle has been very sound physically and mentally,” Head told the Racing Post after this latest romp.
“She never sweats up and she has everything you want in a horse. Justify seems like he will be a brilliant stallion for the future.”
Ramatuelle, who carries the colours of former San Antonio Spurs basketball player Tony Parker and also has Kingstar Farm supremo Matthew Sandblom in her ownership group via his Mount Hollymount Stud, was bought for what now looks a bargain €100,000 in Deauville last August as a yearling. She is the first foal out of the Group 2 winner Raven’s Lady (Raven’s Pass) who is from the family of Godolphin’s Group 1 winner-turned stallion Best Of The Bests (Machiavellian).
Justify, whose stakes winners are headed by the US elite-level scorers Aspen Grove and Arabian Lion, will be crowned leading first season sire by earnings in Australia at the end of this month, before resuming southern hemisphere stallion duties at a fee of $77,000 (inc GST).
Just how bad can Classic form get – this bad
The form of this year’s English 2,000 Guineas took yet another blow on Saturday when Little Big Bear bombed out in the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket.
True, last season’s European champion juvenile had a far from ideal preparation for the race – missing six days of cantering after suffering a bruised foot – and, yes, there were excuses for his last-placed finish on the weekend, having been eased right down by Ryan Moore after getting sandwiched between rivals with two furlongs to go. But whichever way you look at it, the form of the Newmarket Classic can only be described as substandard at best.
While Auguste Rodin has come out and done the Derby double at Epsom and the Curragh and the aforementioned Little Big Bear has landed the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes in his reimagined role as a sprinter, the others have done, well, nothing.
Aside from the Aidan O’Brien-trained pair, another 12 runners went to post for opening Classic of the British season on the first Saturday in May, with the other dozen running a combined 20 times between them since, managing precisely zero wins. Indeed the form is so ‘questionable’, 15 of them have subsequently posted unplaced efforts.
The winner Chaldean was put firmly in place by Paddington when the pair clashed in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Hi Royal has gone backwards since his surprise second, although not as alarmingly as Royal Scotsman who finished third. Galeron (fourth) trailed in last behind Paddington at Ascot while Dubai Mile (fifth) hasn’t shown any signs of winning anytime soon in his subsequent two runs.
Noble Style (sixth) and Sakheer (seventh) faded out of contention in the Commonwealth Cup, while Holloway Boy (ninth) and Flight Plan (13th) failed to make the frame in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes.
All of which brings us on to the recent Group 1 Prix Jean Prat at Deauville where the first, second, eighth and tenth from Newmarket turned up and finished seventh, ninth, eighth and fourth respectively.
When O’Brien said in the immediate aftermath of the English Guineas “the whole thing was a bit of a non-event really” he was, it was assumed, talking purely from the point of view of his own runners. In hindsight, it is starting to look like a pretty accurate description of the whole race.
Change of script
When the Churchill colt Scriptwriter went through the Tattersalls sales ring for 62,000gns last July, he was snapped up by connections with a big spring target in mind.
Joining dual purpose trainer Milton Harris, Scriptwriter was gelded, sent over hurdles (winning twice) and was being talked about as a contender for the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
While he failed to make it to Cheltenham, Scriptwriter did, however, line up in Grade 1 company a few weeks later at Aintree’s Grand National meeting, finishing a respectable fifth.
Fast forward a year, another change of ownership, and a spring target is still on the cards – it’s just this one is in a different hemisphere.
The four-year-old remains in the care of Harris but now races in the colours of a syndicate going by the name of The Ashes, described by the trainer as a group of “enthusiastic Australian owners” who just happen to have the Melbourne Cup in mind for Scriptwriter following a narrow second in a Group 3 contest at York over a mile and three-quarters on Saturday.
Among that group of ‘enthusiastic Aussies’ is none other than Richard Pegum who explained how the purchase, shortly before Scriptwriter’s Royal Ascot run behind leading Flemington candidate Vaubam, came about.
“My business partner is Paul Henry and we bought him to run at Royal Ascot for his 50th birthday,” Pegum told Racing.com.
Next on the agenda for Scriptwriter will be a return to York for a tilt next month’s Ebor, a race which just so happens carries win-and-you’re-in status for the Melbourne Cup.
“He’ll go to the Ebor and he’s booked on the plane to come down in September,” Pegum continued.
“There are very few horses that can really win Melbourne Cups and you need them to be able to stay – and this horse has proven that he can.”
Those 50th birthday celebrations could be going on for a while yet.
Name to note – Castle Way
Castle Way, a half-brother to Darley’s five-time Group 1-winning miler Palace Pier, registered a first Group win of his own when coming out on top in a close finish to Thursday’s Group 3 Bahrain Trophy on Newmarket’s July course. The race is widely regarded as a trial for the final English Classic of the season, the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster, and in edging out Tower Of London, one of the leading fancies for the Leger, it was no surprise to see Castle Way given quotes of as short as 7-1 for the September 16 contest. The way he finished the 1m 5f race, the Charlie Appleby-trained son Almanzor looked like he would have no problems in getting the extra furlong. From an Australian perspective, it may well be worth keeping an eye on Castle Way as a potential contender for the Melbourne Cup. Last year, the Bahrain Trophy was won by Deauville Legend, who subsequently finished fourth at Flemington as favourite, while the 2019 winner of the Newmarket race was Spanish Mission, who finished third in the 2021 Cup on his final start for Andrew Balding, before joining Peter Moody. Back in 2014, the Bahrain Trophy went the way of Hartnell, who went on to finish midfield in the Leger on his final start in the UK, prior to his highly successful career in Australia which yielded four Group 1 wins.