Equinties - hot sires

Gm Equinauts

Anyone who loves horse racing, loves Sir Mark Prescott.

From his horses improving for a huge step up in trip, to his fascinating insights in interviews, his hilarious story telling through cigar smoke, to his unmistakable car, he’s quite simply a legend of the sport,

so it’s lovely to see him with another nice one.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

SIR MARK’S PLAN

When SMP won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2022, it felt like racing had won the Arc, and the outpouring of love for the result was clear to see.

In recent years, ALPINISTA and handicap wins are the two things we have closely associated with Prescott, so when a nice one of his comes about, it is a welcome surprise.

In this case, the young improver that Prescott has coming through the ranks is MOON TARGET, Cheveley Park’s daughter of CRACKSMAN out of a half-sister to the six-time Group 1 winner INSPIRAL.

On debut at Newmarket last month, she was sent off as favourite to win, and win she did, by a winding five-and-a-half lengths to be exact. After that, she pitched up to York on the weekend and gave a heap of weight to her rivals to win by seven-and-a-half lengths.

Prescott won the 1996 Group 3 Prestige Stakes with RED CAMELLIA for Cheveley Park, and she went on to finish fourth in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile and place in the French 1000 Guineas, and it looks like the Newmarket-based trainer is looking to head back to Goodwood with this juvenile.

He said: “She won so nicely. She seems extraordinarily relaxed and doesn’t do much work at home and she’s always gone very well.

“It was always a total surprise. All trainers often say they’ve got a couple better at home, well I haven’t. She was just immediately the best of them and she has always done it.

“Everyone was surprised, including Mr (Chris) Richardson (managing director of Cheveley Park) who has a very close finger on the pulse, I think even he was surprised when I said she can go.

“She will run in the Prestige and we’ve won it before for Cheveley Park with this type of filly, so I would like to try and do the same.”

To the eye, she looks like a horse that will get further in time. INSPIRAL is obviously in the family, and while she was best at a mile, she did win over 1m2f at the Breeders’ Cup. Just with the way that MOON TARGET races, she looks like a horse who will get at least a mile, which is fun.

So, it begs the question, could this be a potential Classic horse for Sir Mark Prescott? He has won a French Classic, but a British Classic is still not on the CV. MOON TARGET has potential, and if she wins the Prestige well, we could start getting giddy.

HOT SIRES

As many of you will know, we love us a bit of STARMAN. We’re not the only ones, of course, but what he’s doing this season is quite brilliant.

This hasn’t come as a surprise, however. Literally his first runner of the season was LADY IMAN, and she has now won the Molecomb and is being lined up for the Nunthorpe, which seems to be against Ger Lyons’ wishes.

NORTH COAST has also won a Group 3 for Joseph O’Brien, GREEN SENSE has won a Group 2 for the same trainer, and VENETIAN SUN is a Group 2 winner for Karl Burke.

Of course, they don’t all win. The market latched on to a STARMAN of George Boughey at Windsor last night and he ran., well, backwards!

But still, he’s a pretty hot sire currently, and while we have mentioned him a lot already, he deserves it.

He’s not the only sire who’s hitting it big at the moment, and in a fleet of déjà vu from the other week, it’s TOO DARN HOT that we’re talking about because he’s had another great weekend.

TOO DARN HOT’s FALLEN ANGEL returned to the Group 1 winners’ circle on Sunday thanks to the Prix Rothschild.

She promised plenty behind CRIMSON ADVOCATE and CINDERELLA’S DREAM at Royal Ascot having had a slow start to the year, and she improved nicely in her work at home in the meantime to get her head back in front. She’s now a Group 1 winner at two, three , and four, which is a dream for Wathnan Racing.

Where next for her?

Well, Karl Burke offered up a potential target, as he said: "I would imagine the Matron Stakes is the next port of call and hopefully we’ll have some nice ground at that time of year. There is the mile and a quarter Prix Jean Romanet, but we’ll enjoy today, get her home and see how she is, and then I’ll speak to connections. But the way she’s won that I’d be happy to stick at a mile.”

This success added to what TORONADO ALERT did for TOO DARN HOT last weekend as he took out the Group 1 Grosser Dallmyr Preis in Munich. It should also be noted that HOTAZHELL ran a gallant race in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby coming 4th, and he got into a bit of trouble in the home stretch before motoring and running out of real estate.

So, with him in a nice bit of form, here’s a bit more on him. TOO DARN HOT is currently in Australia preparing to start the southern hemisphere breeding season where he will command a fee of $275,000, a serious hike in fee after he stood the 2023 season at $44,000 (didn’t travel last year).

This figure has been justified by being crowned champion Australian first season sire last year and now leading second season sire, in all categories. He has had 10 Stakes winners, headed by Gr1 winner and now Darley stallion stablemate BROADSIDING.

That haul was four more ahead of the second highest among the second season sires and amazingly put him 5th among all sires in Australia. What is so noteworthy is that he has done it with vastly lower number of runners to his rivals - 98, while the four above him averaged 337. He will benefit from a big jump in quality of mares this year down under after his progeny’s exploits and one mare of note on his dance card this year is the multiple champion and darling of Australian racing, WINX.

UNLUCKY HANNON

Whether it’s Richard Hannon’s dubious optimism about any of his horses or our eyes telling us so, is ROSALLION one of the unluckiest horses in recent seasons?

He had a fine Group 1-winning juvenile season, and yes, he won the Irish Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes last year, so on paper, it would suggest that he’s had a pretty decent career already, no matter what he does next.

And yet, cast your mind back to Glorious Goodwood 2024. We were all excited to see ROSALLION back in the Sussex Stakes, but on the morning of the race, he was ruled out
We thought he would come back, but he didn’t. This horse that looked like a world-beater was suddenly on the sidelines with something to prove.

As for this season, he placed in the Lockinge when he needed the run, he finished a head away from winning the Queen Anne, and he was then a fast-finishing second in the Sussex to the 150/1-shot QIRAT.

So, just like that, having looked like this horse who could easily get five or six Group 1s next to his name, he now only has three, and multiple ‘unlucky losses’.

Can he get another one on the board before the season is out?

Most definitely, but which one? The Prix Jacaues Le Marois looks like his number one target, but a drop down to seven furlongs for the City Of York isn’t out of the question, and the Moulin is there as an option.

Hannon said: “Arguably, he put up the best performance of his career in that race. [the Sussex]. He’s done the second- and third-last furlongs in something like 21 seconds and I thought he was coming there to win.

“The horse thinks he won at Ascot and there were factors at Goodwood that showed that while he was the best horse in the race it wasn’t enough for him to be able to win this time around.”

“He’s in the Moulin too [on September 7]. The only thing we would think about is the ground and if that wasn’t right then he’s in at York and he’d have no problem dropping back to seven if he needed to. That’s just about keeping our options open if needed.”

His Queen Anne and Sussex runs have shown how consistent he is at Group 1 level. Surely isn’t only a matter of time until he gets his fourth Group 1 success?

STATS OF THE DAY

Owen Burrows delivered us a nice winner for this section on Saturday in WAARDAH at 5/1. He hasn’t had a runner since then but debuts TOULEEN today in Newbury’s fillies maiden race at 17.30. He is 4 from 7 in Newbury non-handicaps.

RISK ON

A mixed day yesterday as two bets went down including JEL PEPPER who blew up having done too much work early. ROGUE MESSIAH was nice though and never looked in doubt:

Today is a pretty bad days racing and even Newbury’s card looks sad enough to put us off even 10 minute journey from newsletter HQ. That said, we will play a small bet on a massive price:

15.00 DESERT DREAM

An old boy now at 11yo but he likes Catterick this time of year and we feel if he’s ever to get his head in front again, it could be today. 16/1 is worth a small ew at the price - best of luck to connections who’ll be looking to bad one last big W from him before a well earned retirement - whenever that is.