Unbeaten Caravaggio May Run In The Everest
The grey colt beat the Godolphin pair Harry Angel (Dark Angel) and Blue Point (Shamardal) by three quarters of a length and a half length to register a time of 1:13.49 on a track rated good to firm.
It is now likely that Caravaggio will travel to Sydney to contest the inaugural running of the $10,000,000 The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on 14 October.
Caravaggio’s Group One success was just one highlight in an amazing week at Royal Ascot for his deceased sire Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), formerly based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky before his death at the age of 11 years in December 2015.
Scat Daddy’s brilliant three-year-old filly, the once beaten Lady Aurelia, started the ball rolling for her sire on the opening day at Royal Ascot with an impressive three length victory in the King’s Stand Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) and she, too, is a possible, if less likely, runner in The Everest.
Other Royal Ascot winners last week for Scat Daddy were two-year-old colt Sioux Nation in the Norfolk Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) and three-year-old filly Con Te Partiro in the Sandringham Handicap (Listed, 1m) while he also had another two stakes placegetters at the meeting.
Lady Aurelia and Con Te Partiro were both sent out by United States-based trainer Wesley Ward whose raids on Royal Ascot have become famous. It was Wesley Ward who put Scat Daddy on the map in Europe by sending his speedy son No Nay Never to Royal Ascot in 2013 to win the Norfolk Stakes in a record time and then, two years later, he prepared two-year-old filly Acapulco to win the 2015 Queen Mary Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) before following up with Lady Aurelia in the same race last year.
No Nay Never, later winner of the Prix Morny (Gr 1, 1200m) at Deauville, shuttled to Coolmore in NSW for the first time in 2016 and is returning this year to stand at a fee of $11,000 (inc GST).
Caravaggio went into the Commonwealth Cup with the very high weekly Timeform rating of 139p based on his two-year-old performances and his first up success this year in the Lacken Stakes (Gr 3, 6f) in Ireland.
Timeform last year assessed Caravaggio as Europe’s best two-year-old male, giving him a rating of 123p, but Lady Aurelia was rated even higher at 127.
During his two-year-old campaign trainer Aidan O’Brien was quoted as describing Caravaggio as “the fastest we have ever had” – a big statement considering the number of high quality horses to go through the Ballydoyle stable in the last decade.
Caravaggio’s juvenile campaign comprised four starts, opening with an easy maiden win over five furlongs on the polytrack at Dundalk, Ireland, before an even more impressive success in the Marble Hill Stakes (Listed, 5f) at Curragh. He then made a cameo appearance at last year’s Royal Ascot meeting, comfortably taking the Coventry Stakes (Gr 2, 6f) before returning to racing in Ireland the following August to capture the Phoenix Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) at Curragh.
Well made and lengthy, the steel grey Caravaggio is the best of five winners to date for his US-bred dam Mekko Hokte (Holy Bull), a Listed winner in her home country whose other notable product is Grade Two winner My Jen (Fusaichi Pegasus). This is a good if not outstanding black type family.
Scat Daddy, Caravaggio’s late sire, was North America’s leading freshman sire of 2011 and has left 83 stakes winners overall from his seasons in Kentucky and shuttling to Chile where he has headed the sires’ list four times and been represented by a number of champions. In 2015 Scat Daddy broke Storm Cat’s (Storm Bird) North American record by having nine juvenile stakes winners for the season.
Himself a member of Storm Cat’s male line, the powerfully built 16.1 hh Scat Daddy was a top class two-year-old, winning the Belmont Park Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 8f) and the Saratoga Sanford Stakes (Gr 2, 6f) while at three years he won the Florida Derby (Gr 1, 9f) and the Fountain Of Youth Stakes (Gr 2, 8.5f). Linebred to both Northern Dancer (Nearctic) and Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native), Scat Daddy’s death in 2015 was a huge loss for international breeding.