Tag Archive for: Diego Velazquez

Monday Musings: Breeding Hope

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The first weekend after the Cheltenham Festival, also a fortnight before the Aintree Grand National meeting, has evolved into a special opportunity for mares (and sometimes four-year-old fillies) at either end of the country, writes Tony Stafford.

Kelso, two, and Newbury, one, offer valuable races exclusively for females, but the biggest individual prize is the £65,000 to the winner Goffs Hundred Grand Bumper, also open to geldings at Newbury. Five females were among 19 runners, all of which were previously offered at auction by Goffs. The outcome was a thrilling finish between two four-year-old fillies, debutant Lady Hope (33/1), trained by Hughie Morrison, and Nicky Henderson’s once-raced and well fancied Madam Speaker.

Both youngsters finished strongly past Irish Goodbye, who seemed to have the race won coming to the closing stages; but close home Lady Hope was drawing away under Jonny Burke, and Sean Bowen on the runner-up could do nothing about it. Irish Goodbye’s effort, conceding 7lb to the first two, suggests there will be much more to come from the Twiston-Davies gelding in the future.

Understandably, Morrison was elated afterwards, regarding the daughter of Nathaniel as a potential staying star over jumps. “Her mother is by Midnight Legend and is out of the great mare Lady Rebecca. She’s only four, so we’ll take our time with her.”

She wasn’t cheap at £55k as a three-year-old, bought for Martin Hughes and Michael Kerr-Dineen. Former trainer Paul Webber was part of the selection panel with Morrison and the would-be owners. Hughes sent Eyed to Morrison when Webber retired from training in the summer of 2024 and he has won three races over fences with him.

It was a great day for Nathaniel as in the previous race at Newbury the BetVictor mares’ limited handicap hurdle, his daughter Charisma Cat came through strongly under Tom Bellamy to win for Alan King and Annabel Waley-Cohen, family and friends.

Grand National time of year always resonates with the Waley-Cohen name, through the exploits over a decade or more of amateur rider son Sam, whose record for completions and wins over the big fences has never been matched by any professional. Winning the big race on his last ride in 2022 on father Robert’s Noble Yeats was an emphatic and fitting final gesture from this modest young man.

Hughie told me there was also a GBB bonus attached to Lady Hope’s race. He wasn’t sure whether it would be 20k or half that amount. “Let’s be positive and say it’s 20k,” he said. “When can you run first time and win 85 grand? My trainer’s share of that will probably pay the staff wages for four days!”

In the spring sunshine, Hughie and wife Mary were heading off to Fonthill Stud where they have a couple of siblings to Secret Squirrel and one to Mary’s home-bred Filanderer, winner of five of his last seven races. One of the Secret Squirrel relatives is by Marmelo, his Melbourne Cup runner-up.

Now 13, Marmelo “has had six days out drag hunting and had his first team chase the other day, when he led the team throughout his round,” said Morrison. Marmelo covers the odd mare and one of his clients with a young horse is Mr Perriss, owner of Cheltenham Festival winner White Noise.

Hughie reckons it costs upwards of 30 grand to keep a horse from birth to their three-year-old days. “Then there’s the stud fee to consider. It makes no sense really. How many prizes like Saturday’s are there to spread around?”

Newsells Park Stud has stood Nathaniel ever since he retired from racing as a dual Group 1 winner of the Eclipse and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. His fee for this year is £17,500 and Gary Coffey, the stud’s racing manager, reckons he will have a similar number of mares to last year’s 115. When all the accounting is sorted, it could be around 120.

Despite the excellent achievements of his progeny over jumps, the vast proportion of mares sent to Nathaniel are for flat racing. That’s hardly surprising as he is the sire of once-in-a-lifetime filly Enable and Derby hero Desert Crown.

Newsells has three other stallions: A’Ali, Without Parole and Isaac Shelby. That last-named horse’s first foals are now on the ground and Sam Sangster has had excellent reports of them. Sam initially bought Isaac Shelby with his trainer Brian Meehan for one of his Manton Thoroughbreds syndicates and they all had a commercial dividend when he was bought in mid-career by Wathnan Racing.

Isaac Shelby was the easy winner of the Group 3 Greenham Stakes which he followed with a close second in the French 2,000 Guineas. Coffey says Isaac Shelby, who stands for £7,000, is the only son of top 2025 UK/Ireland money-earner Night Of Thunder to stand at stud in the UK.

In overall European earnings, Night Of Thunder fell behind the recently deceased Wootton Bassett and Sea The Stars, whose overall tally of more than £10 million was boosted by the £2.36 million earned when Daryz won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for Francis Graffard last October.

Sam Sangster, trainer Ollie’s near-contemporary and uncle, can point to such as Rashabar and Kathmandu as yearling purchases that went within a whisker of Group 1/Classic success, both with Meehan. Brian’s stable should be more powerful this season as Sam reckons there’s around ten horses rated at 100 or more, reporting that multiple Group 1-placed Rashabar, now four, will be brought back to a mile this year.

The filly Esna, owned by Martin Hughes and partners, is rated 107 after her fourth in the Marcel Boussac at the Arc meeting. She will be aimed at the 1,000 Guineas, while the progressive Bourbon Blues, rated 105, is another Hughes horse. He was just edged out at Group 2 level in France in mid-November and will also have an attacking programme early in the season. Both were Sam Sangster buys as yearlings.

A new arrival is the former Gosden-trained Miss Justice. This five-year-old by Triple Crown winner Justify, won at Listed level at Salisbury and ended her time with the Gosdens with a close second at Group 2 level at Newmarket. She cost 750,000gns at the December sale and has been pleasing her new trainer since then.

Until Sam pounced in midsummer to buy the Aidan O’Brien-trained Diego Velazquez, he had never been able to say: “I bought a Group 1 winner.” Days after the purchase though, Diego Velazquez did just that, and not any old Group 1, but France’s Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville where subsequent Breeders’ Cup winner Notable Speech was the runner-up.

At £17,500 a pop at the National Stud, where he is owned by a consortium, he has been hot property indeed, and Sam says that a total figure north of 120 covers is likely. Also, he is to have a shuttle season to Australia.

“He was a no-brainer really”, says Sam. “By Frankel, even without the Group 1 which was a great bonus for the owners, he was a multiple Group 2 winner and is a fantastic stamp of a horse. He has attracted a smart bunch of mares, notably Lucida, winner of the Rockfel at two for Jim Bolger and then second in the 1,000 Guineas. It gives him a great chance of a fast start.”

Diego Velazquez is a half-brother to Broome and Point Lonsdale, but as that Deauville win shows, he is much the quickest of the trio, with his best performances being at seven furlongs and a mile. Exciting days all round.

- TS

American adventure on the cards for Diego Velazquez

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Diego Velazquez will make the final two starts of his career in America after his poignant Prix Jacques le Marois success in the famous Sangster silks.

Transferred into the ownership of Sam Sangster on behalf of a syndicate he heads in the days prior to the Deauville Group One, Aidan O’Brien’s son of Frankel produced a career best to deliver a nostalgic victory that harked back to the glory days of old at Ballydoyle.

Now the Diego Velazquez team have their sights set on further big-race glory, with first a trip to Keeneland for the Coolmore Turf Mile on October 4, a race that serves as a ‘win and you’re in’ for the colt’s main objective, the Breeders’ Cup Mile in early November.

Reflecting on France and looking ahead to the future, Sangster said: “It was an incredible day and I was filled by confidence by Aidan before the Marois and he ran as he said he would. Aidan said he would give everything on the track and he’s so tough and genuine.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he goes on and wins another one now before the season is out. We’ll absolutely take him to America now and he’s a horse who will really suit the Breeders’ Cup being at Del Mar.

“We wouldn’t be waiting for Del Mar so the obvious step would be Keeneland for the race there. He’s a horse that travels and it’s a ‘win and you’re in’ for the Breeders’ Cup Mile so it ticks a lot of boxes for his programme.”

Diego Velazquez’s Stateside adventure will bring the curtain down on his on-track career. He is set to join the National Stud for stallion duties in November and there is plenty of excitement building around the next stage of his journey.

Sam Sangster enjoyed a day to remember at Deauville
Sam Sangster enjoyed a day to remember at Deauville (Mike Egerton/PA)

“One chapter closes and the next one will start and hopefully this is a story of many chapters,” continued Sangster.

“Already talking to breeders from the UK and Ireland there has been a hugely positive response to the horse and he is going to qualify for some very nice mares.

“The guys who have bought into him are also very keen to support him with some proper mares, as will I myself.

“So the end of the racing career is just the icing on the cake for a project with the wheels already in motion to make sure we do everything we can to ensure the horse makes it as a stallion, and hopefully it all pays off.

“It was a dream day at Deauville and the world is his oyster now. He’s going to be a stallion to suit many people and as one door closes the next chapter will open at the National Stud in November.”

Monday Musings: Sam’s Masterstroke

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We’ve all read them, writes Tony Stafford. Streams of platitudes when somebody gets a new appointment. But last year, when Sam Sangster became one of three new youthful directors at the National Stud, his words were to prove so prophetic.

“I hope to bring added value to an already well-established team… I am excited to be part of the path they are heading towards – it promises to be a very exciting journey.”, he said.

With four solid stallions, heroic multiple Group 1-winning staying champion Stradivarius and ace sprinter Bradsell (from this year) among them, they were sure to keep the tills of the Jockey Club, which owns the National Stud, ticking over.

Then twice within a few days, Sam outdid what anyone could have thought possible for an operation which, by its own admission, is nowhere near the top table as far as owners of mares are concerned.

First, last week, there came the announcement that in a deal brokered by Sangster and put together with “several investors”, Diego Velazquez had been purchased out of the Aidan O’Brien stable. He will stand at the National Stud next year and, while remaining with O’Brien, will carry the famed colours of his late father Robert for the rest of the season.

To show just what a shrewd acquisition this is, look at the breeding. Diego Velazquez is by the unbeaten Frankel (by Galileo) out of a mare that bred Group 1 winner Broome and dual Group 2 victor Point Lonsdale. He cost just the 2.4 million gns as a yearling.

As a racehorse he had compiled a record of five wins, three at Group level, in a career of only ten races. Two wins at age two are always manna from heaven for a stallion owner and that overall record could have been even better had the realisation that he had speed in excess of stamina kicked in earlier. He was unplaced over 1m4f at Royal Ascot last year.

This season only started at the Royal meeting, when he was 8th to surprise winner Docklands in the Queen Anne Stakes. He dropped back another furlong for a Group 2 at the Irish Derby fixture, winning very easily, and Sam’s deal was brokered just in time to run in his colours in yesterday’s Prix Jacques Le Marois.

With Ryan Moore otherwise engaged on the disappointing favourite, Lion In Winter for the Coolmore owners, Christophe Soumillon stepped in for the ride. Always in the first three close to the outside, Diego’s big white blaze and four white legs were always easily visible in the first three.

Having taken over inside the last furlong from Roger Teal’s back-to-form Dancing Gemini, he had enough in hand to stay ahead of the fast-finishing Notable Speech, the 2024 2000 Guineas winner, in his case also showing he’s back to his best. The winner handsomely turned around the Ascot form with Docklands who finished fourth just behind Dancing Gemini.

 

 

What a difference those few centimetres have made. Diego Velazquez is now a Group 1 winner, and not a Mickey Mouse one either – this race is the acknowledged midsummer mile championship in France.

As such, it carried a first prize of £472,231, the head verdict making more than £280k difference to the detriment of the Charlie Appleby, William Buick and Godolphin-connected colt.

So now, having probably been aiming at a nice first-season figure for their colt, Sam and whoever else will be making the decisions from this point on, will no doubt have a higher figure in mind than they originally did. Then again, there is sure to be a flurry in interest in him, and a sensible initial amount would pull the numbers in. He will assuredly, whatever happens in the pricing of his services, give the staff at the National Stud a massive boost.

Through much of the late 20th Century the names of O’Brien and Sangster were irrevocably bound at the same Ballydoyle complex that houses the present Aidan O’Brien team. But it was Robert Sangster, Sam’s father, and Vincent (I must stress once more, no relation) O’Brien, as with his successor, the pre-eminent trainer of his generation on this side of the Atlantic. The present-day link of course is John Magnier, Vincent’s son-in-law and foremost among the Coolmore partners.

It’s been a while since a horse ran in the famed green, blue sleeves, white cap from Ballydoyle and I did suggest to Sam (tongue in cheek, of course) when the news of the deal broke that maybe he would need to take a set of silks with him to Deauville.

“We already have them there,” he said, referring to the fact that several of the Brian Meehan stable challengers had been involved running under Sam’s Manton Thoroughbreds banner over the past few days. Those syndicates have helped sustain the highly talented Meehan going through some testing times, and while they kept hitting the crossbar, more than 120k in placed earnings made this a lucrative venture.

Even when the numbers have been more limited, Meehan always has some nice two-year-olds; while the successes last week of the unexposed three-year-olds, the filly Lodge at Chepstow and the gelding Release The Storm, making it two from two at Doncaster on Saturday, promise an exciting finish to the season.

Release The Storm has a fast-ground action and had no trouble making all under his penalty in a novice race up the testing Doncaster 7f. There certainly ought to be overseas buyer interest in this gelding who carries the trainer’s colours.

One facet of his training this year has been that none of the ten individual two-year-old runners (five winners) he has sent out from his Manton base has raced on all-weather, from 30 collective starts. I’m not sure whether that’s just a coincidence, as I know he uses Lingfield’s Polytrack when he sends unraced horses for barrier trials.

The best part of the Meehan-Sangster partnership has been their two-way loyalty. Sam has had a horse or two most years lately with Nicolas Clement in France. He also had a winning filly with Tom Ward a couple of years ago but, as they choose all the young horses together, it’s great that they sink or swim together also.

You might have thought that, seeing as they were both in situ all over the weekend, Sam Sangster Bloodstock might have been among the purchasers over the first two days of the Arqana August Yearling sale which began on Saturday. Unless he is operating through proxies, which I doubt, he simply hasn’t bought any. He never overpays for the yearlings he buys and as a result leaves the first stages here, and mostly of Newmarket Book 1 and Goffs’ top sale, to the people with bulging chequebooks.

Whatever else happens to this highly personable (as with all the family) young man, now he will always go down as the man who single-handedly (with Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore partners’ help of course) brought the National Stud of Great Britain right back into the horse breeding limelight.

From Deauville, all the big players will be sorting the private jets for four days at York. I’ll be going there much more prosaically, but Jim and Mary Cannon do have one comfortable room free, so that’s going to be my holiday for 2025. The weather apparently is taking mercy on those of us who don’t relish too much heat, so all we need is a winner or two. Got anything running, Brian? Doesn’t have to be there!

- TS

Diego Velazquez strikes Group One gold for new owners

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Diego Velazquez held off a late charge from Notable Speech to come out on top in the Aga Khan Studs Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained colt was recently purchased by Sam Sangster and was running for the first time in the family’s famous silks under Christophe Soumillon.

The bay was running alongside stablemate The Lion In Winter in the Group One, who was joined by Roger Teal’s Dancing Gemini in making much of the running throughout the one-mile trip.

Diego Velazquez was always travelling well on the outside, however, and threw down his challenge in the final stages to see off a rapid finish on the inner rail from Charlie Appleby’s Notable Speech, who was beaten just a head. Dancing Gemini was a further three-quarters of a length back in third.

The winning trainer said: “This is a breeding operation that produces very good two- and three-year-olds. He’s a superb model, a willing horse, his last run was very good and he really came to himself last week.”

Diego Velazquez’s last run was in the Minstrel Stakes, named in honour of the late Robert Sangster’s dual Derby winner who ran in the same colours carried to success at Deauville on behalf of his son.

Of that synchronicity, O’Brien added: “The Minstrel Stakes has often proved an excellent stepping stone – it’s a sharp 1,400 metres, and you need to be sharp.

“If you think about Ballydoyle’s history, and the history of these colours with horses like The Minstrel, who could have imagined that we would have a horse running in Mr Sangster’s silks? It’s just incredible, and I’m so delighted for Sam – truly thrilled.

“We thought he might be a horse for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Keeneland and then possibly the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He loves fast ground and he’s quick.

“A lot of money has been spent this week on his stallion career. But sometimes money isn’t what matters. What they achieved today – you can’t buy that, those are memories.”

An emotional Sangster was thrilled at his new acquisition’s success, telling Sky Sports Racing: “It means a lot, we’re so lucky.

“MV (Magnier, former co-owner) is one of my oldest and greatest friends and when I came to him with the presentation of buying the horse to stand at the National Stud, he was fully supportive.

“We were lucky to buy him and we’re even luckier now, that’s for sure!

“He’s an absolutely gorgeous horse, he’s so tough, so genuine. He’s a phenomenal mover and to be honest, when he came out of his box you could already see him at the stallion barn at the National Stud.

“I’m a little lost for words to be honest, but I’m so delighted. He deserved to get that Group One today and I’m just so delighted to be involved with him.”

Notable Speech posted his best effort so far this year
Notable Speech posted his best effort so far this year (Joe Giddens/PA)

Despite defeat Charlie Appleby was still pleased with Notable Speech, who returned to form to an extent having failed to hit the heights of his three-year-old career so far this term.

He said: “We’re delighted with how the horse ran. Of course it’s frustrating to be beaten by so little, but the most important thing is to see him back to his best. The mile is his optimum trip. We tried dropping him back last time – sometimes you need to experiment.

“We’ll probably go to Canada for the Woodbine Mile, and then head to the Breeders’ Cup.”

Roger Teal, trainer of Dancing Gemini, said: “He really ran exceptionally well. The ground was probably a bit too quick, and perhaps he didn’t fully settle in the last 100 metres. It was still a top-class performance.

“Once again he showed huge ability, and a Group One win will come soon. He’s also entered at Ascot but first we’ll go to ParisLongchamp for the Prix du Moulin.

“We’re hoping to find slightly easier going, that’s the next target. He doesn’t need it heavy but just ground with a bit more give.”

Diego Velazquez sold ahead of Jacques le Marois start

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Diego Velazquez will sport new colours when he runs in the Prix Jacques le Marois on Sunday, after Sam Sangster Bloodstock announced the acquisition of the Frankel colt.

He will remain in training with Aidan O’Brien for the remainder of the 2025 season, with a view to retiring to the National Stud in Newmarket at the end of the year. He will wear the famous silks of the late Robert Sangster in the Marois.

A Group-race winner at two, three and four, most recently in the Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh, Diego Velazquez will bid for a first Group One success at Deauville this weekend, where he will be ridden by Christophe Soumillon.

Purchasing the horse for a “high-profile” syndicate, Sangster said: “He is a horse that leaves little to the imagination, he is the stamp of his father and a top-class racehorse to match.

“He’s done it at Group Two level across three seasons and was Classic-placed (fourth in the French 2000 Guineas), which gives him a rare depth of form and longevity.

“The Jacques le Marois is the immediate target, and from there we have a number of exciting Group One races to consider, we are in world-class hands in that respect.

“With the strength of the ownership group and the National Stud behind him, this horse has every chance of being a major success both on the track and at stud we believe he will be very well received by European breeders.”

Diego Velazquez will join the stallion roster at the National Stud for the 2026 breeding season, with further details to be announced in due course, and Sangster said: “We’ve been on the hunt for a horse like this for some time, and I’d like to thank the team at Coolmore for giving us the opportunity to get involved with a colt of his calibre.”

Soumillon’s mount is one of 10 left in the Marois, with O’Brien also responsible for former Derby favourite The Lion In Winter and Rosallion (Richard Hannon), Notable Speech (Charlie Appleby) and Dancing Gemini (Roger Teal) representing British interests.

Sangster added: “He’ll be running in the Sangster family colours, which will be one for the old romantics and it is very exciting, that is for sure.

“It will be a very exciting weekend for us with Rashabar running in the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano on Saturday and Christophe Soumillon is booked to ride both.”

The Lion In Winter has raced over a variety of distances this season, finishing sixth on his belated reappearance in the Dante Stakes at York over a mile and a quarter before coming home 14th of 18 over a mile and a half in the Derby.

He performed far better when a close-up third in the Prix Jean Prat over seven furlongs last time and O’Brien is looking forward to seeing him tackle what he feels could be his optimum trip.

“Everything seems good with The Lion In Winter. Obviously he started back this year late, we just tried to get a run into him for the Derby and he ran in the Dante and looked pacey,” he told Sky Sports Racing.

“You’re never sure and he obviously went to the Derby and it was very apparent very quickly that he was probably a miler the way he went through the race.

“We had our eye on this race, but we felt we had to get a run into him over a shorter distance before he went and the Deauville race was perfect. It was three-year-olds only, we knew he wouldn’t be fully primed up for it as it was first run back after going back a mile and a half over seven furlongs, so we were delighted with the run.

“He ran a lovely race, we’ve been very happy with him since and we’re looking forward to running him over the mile as it’s a distance that’s going to really suit him we think.

“We weren’t expecting him to run that well on his first run back at a shorter distance, but we felt to go to the race on Sunday he had to have a run like that.”

Of Diego Velazquez, he added: “He hasn’t really had the rub of the green, little things have held him up.

“We always felt that he was a miler, we were very happy with his run the last day over seven furlongs which we thought was tight enough for him.

“He’s very well and has made great progress since his last run. We’re looking forward to seeing what he can do as the track and the trip and ground should suit him.”

Diego Velazquez prevails in Minstrel Stakes

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Diego Velazquez showed his versatility in pulling out all the stops to land the Romanised Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh.

Aidan O’Brien’s son of Frankel was winning for the fifth time in his 10-race career, but was tackling the shortest distance he has encountered since making a winning debut over the same course and distance as a two-year-old.

The 11-8 favourite for the Group Two event in the hands of Ryan Moore, he was well away and always in a handy position alongside Adrian Murray’s Irish 1,000 Guineas runner-up California Dreamer.

Moore may have been low in the saddle inside the final quarter-mile but he had a willing ally and although the challengers were queuing up a furlong from home, it was only David Marnane’s 25-1 shot East Hampton who emerged from the pack to lay down a stern challenge in the closing stages.

Diego Velazquez, however, was never headed and even though East Hampton was within a neck at the winning post, the class of the Ballydoyle colt was always keeping him on top.

O’Brien said: “A mile is probably his trip. We were preparing him for Ascot and we had him in the stalls at Leopardstown, but he got upset and had to be withdrawn (from the Amethyst Stakes) and that upset his Ascot plan.

“I wasn’t confident enough to tell Ryan to ride him as forward as he would have liked (in the Queen Anne Stakes) because he hadn’t had a run. They only walked the first half of the race, so it was a non event really.

“We knew he would come forward a lot from then to today and he did well to win today over seven. He’s a brave horse and Ryan gave him a good ride.

“He’s a very well-made horse – powerful, strong, a great walker. Physically as a specimen he’s a tank really.

“We’ll go back up to a mile now for the Sussex or the Jacques le Marois, something like that.

“He’ll have no problem getting back up to nine furlongs or a mile and a quarter at the end of the season.”