Tag Archive for: Ollie Sangster

Shuwari delights Ollie Sangster with ParisLongchamp strike

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Ollie Sangster was thrilled to see Shuwari reward the patience of her connections with victory in the Prix de la Cochere at ParisLongchamp.

The New Bay filly enjoyed an excellent juvenile campaign a couple of years ago, beating the subsequent triple Group One winner Fallen Angel in the Star Stakes at Sandown before filling the runner-up spot in both the Rockfel Stakes and the Fillies’ Mile.

Shuwari missed the entirety of the 2024 season and after finishing sixth on her long-awaited return to action at Kempton in March, she was not seen again until placing third in Haydock’s Dick Hern Stakes three weeks ago.

But ridden confidently at the rear of the field by Mickael Barzalona on her first appearance in France, Sangster’s charge moved menacingly into contention halfway up the home straight and picked up well in the closing stages of the one-mile contest to edge out Zabeel Light in a driving finish.

Sangster said: “She was obviously a high-class two-year-old who has had her issues since then and I’m very happy for my dad Ben and the whole team at Ballylinch (part-owners) as they have been very patient all along and let us keep trying.

“We were happy with her going into Haydock, but we were very much using that as a comeback run and a springboard for the rest of the season. This was on more suitable ground today, we were cautious about the draw (stall 12), but Mickael gave her a nice, cool ride and I think she performed very well in the circumstances.

“I think she’ll improve again for today and we look forward to getting her back and hopefully having a successful autumn. She’s not in a few of those big autumn Group Ones as they close very early in the year and obviously we’ve had our issues so we were reluctant to make many entries.

“We’ll get her back home and see how she comes out of it and try to go back up to Group company, anyway.”

Afjan is in line for a shot at Group One glory on Arc weekend after narrowly denying Irish raider Havana Anna victory in the Group Three Prix d’Arenberg.

Havana Anna was a warm order to complete her hat-trick for Donnacha O’Brien following back-to-back wins at Naas, most recently impressing in the Listed Marwell Stakes in July.

Ridden by Gavin Ryan, the Havana Grey filly took over the lead from Archie Watson’s Shine On Me approaching the last of five furlongs, but Henri Devin’s Afjan also finished off strongly in the hands of Christophe Soumillon.

The pair passed the winning post almost as one, but the judge confirmed the Al Shaqab Racing-owned Afjan the winner by a nose and the juvenile could now take on his elders in the Prix de l’Abbaye.

Rupert Pritchard-Gordon, Al Shaqab’s French racing consultant, said: “That was brilliant, particularly with him being a homebred colt.

“It’s great that he’s confirmed the promise he showed when winning on his debut. Henri Devin has always had a lot of confidence in the horse and after he finished second in the Prix de Cabourg over six furlongs at Deauville the other day, Christophe felt he had so much natural speed that the very obvious race was today’s.

“It’s very possible he’ll run in the Prix de l’Abbaye, I think – we’ll roll the dice. He’s got a lot of speed and he’ll carry 54 kilos.

“We’re not there yet, but that would be the plan I think as we’ve got very little to lose. He’ll have the weight in his favour and he’s now proved his effectiveness over that quick five furlongs, so why not?”

Espoir Avenir claimed a shock victory in the other Group Three on the card, the Prix Gerald de Geoffre.

Hotheaded was a short-priced favourite to claim a third win from four starts for Andre Fabre, but he folded after being rushed to the front following a slow start and it was Christophe Ferland’s Espoir Avenir who picked up the pieces, with Joseph O’Brien’s Emit beating Hotheaded to the runner-up spot.

Celestial Orbit swerves Ascot and will await more rain

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Ollie Sangster is willing to wait for the rain to arrive as Celestial Orbit misses an intended outing at Ascot on account of the ground.

Last year’s Star Stakes scorer, who chased home Zanzoun in the Nell Gwyn on her seasonal return before running in the French 1000 Guineas, held an entry for the Longines Valiant Stakes on Saturday but will now be held back for Goodwood or Haydock in the coming weeks having not been declared.

Sangster said: “I was thinking the ground was going to be a bit fast for her and she’s a filly who wants a bit of ease in the ground. Even though we’ve had a lot of rain around the last week, it’s still looking like it might be a bit quick for her at Ascot.

“She’s a filly who has been on the back-burner a bit since France, where the ground was too fast for her after her good run before that in the Nell Gwyn. We’re just biding our time and hoping she can have a productive autumn.

“I’ve got a few races in mind depending on when the rain comes, maybe the Oak Tree at Goodwood (July 30) or the Dick Hern over a mile at Haydock (August 9) could be nice options. Alternatively if the rain doesn’t come there’s no rush and there’s plenty of nice races down the line.

“Her first run back will be a case of just getting her back and started really, but she’s not a filly we would want to risk on fast ground.”

Haydock’s Listed Dick Hern Stakes could also be on the cards for Celestial Orbit’s stablemate and fellow Star Stakes scorer Shuwari, who has been absent since running in Kempton’s Snowdrop Stakes earlier in the season.

“She’s had a couple of small setbacks after Kempton but nothing more than that and she’s a filly that also wants a bit of ease in the ground, so we’ve taken plenty of time with her,” added Sangster.

“I provisionally marked the Dick Hern for her at Haydock if there is some ease in the ground. She’s training away nicely and hopefully can have a good second half of the season, it will be nice to get her back to the track anyway.”

Hayynah could be another to Star for Sangster

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Hayynah may be the only runner in the European Bloodstock News EBF Star Stakes yet to register a victory, but is backed to give Ollie Sangster a third straight success in the Sandown Listed event.

The daughter of Showcasing has shown great potential when hitting the crossbar in two outings to date and her handler is optimistic a step up to seven furlongs can see her thrive in a race he has made his own in recent years.

Sangster said: “She’s the only one in there who hasn’t won, but we feel her seconds have been good performances that can be marked up a bit.

“I hope the step up to seven furlongs will bring about some improvement and she’s a home bred of owner Ahmad Ziad Galadari so it would be nice to go there and pick up some black type.”

It was Shuwari who helped advertise Sangster’s ability as a trainer when landing this race in 2023, and after Celestial Orbit repeated the dose 12 months ago, the Manton handler admits the pressure was on to find another suitable candidate for this year’s contest.

He added: “It’s been a lucky race for us so I wanted to find something nice for it. I’m not sure she’s of the calibre of the fillies we’ve run in the race the last two years, but she seems to be progressing.

“There’s only 10 days between this and her last run at Windsor which is perhaps a little soon, but I don’t think she had an overly hard race last time and hopefully the stiff nature of the finish at Sandown might be beneficial for her.

“It’s not a big field but there’s some nice fillies in there who have won good maidens, so no doubt there is a bit of depth to it.”

Hayynah is among a field of eight for the feature event on Thursday’s card, with Richard Hannon’s taking Newmarket scorer Orion’s Belt chief leading the opposition.

John and Thady Gosden won this with Inspiral in 2021 and rely on Albany Stakes seventh Nandita, who steps up in trip while dropping in grade, with Charlie Johnston is another to win this race in recent years and his Jennifer Jane is already proven over the distance after a runaway win at Wetherby on her second start.

Edward Smyth-Osbourne’s Haydock scorer Tavana, Karl Burke’s Hope Queen and James Ferguson’s Electoral College have all raced once and one once, with Eve Johnston Houghton’s Mystic Moment the most experienced in the field and set to make her fifth start after opening her account at Epsom.

Monday Musings: Small Steps

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After Simmering won the Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot on King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes day late last month, Ben Sangster urged caution concerning his son Ollie’s burgeoning training career, writes Tony Stafford.

"Small steps," he maintained, after the filly in which, until just before that day, wife Lucy had been a partner with Justin Casse and Dr J Berk, came from a fair way back to get up close home.

Ryan Moore was on board the filly as she cemented the promise of her second spot behind the Moore-ridden Fairy Godmother in the Albany Stakes at the Royal meeting.

Ryan was otherwise engaged on his day job at the Curragh on Saturday, so Dylan Browne McMonagle sat in and Simmering, up a furlong as her run style had suggested it would, suited her to the extent of a three-length victory in the Group 2 Prix de Calvados at Deauville.

While the French are not always fast out of the blocks with two-year-old racing, perennial leading trainer (if M. Fabre doesn’t intervene) Jean-Claude Rouget isn’t quite so reticent. On the weekend of the big August sale at Arqana in Deauville, Rouget supplied an unbeaten-in-four filly, Fraise Des Bois, running in the colours of Prince Faisal bin Salman’s Denford Stud.

A triple winner at the provincial course at Tarbes in Southwestern France, an entire region where Rouget dominates affairs, the €75k daughter of Zelzal went on to a wide-margin win when stepped up to Listed class at Marseille Borely.

Inevitably on Saturday she shared the market with the UK challenger who, coincidentally, also cost 75k as a yearling, but in real money as we used to call it!

Both fillies were moving up to seven furlongs for the first time and Simmering duly took the race apart after going ahead before the last 200 metres. McMonagle said afterwards he thought he probably went too soon, but there was no sign of weakness as Simmering strode up to and across the line.

You’d think the Moyglare – where she might renew rivalry with Fairy Godmother - would be an obvious target, but further down the line Ollie has the Breeders’ Cup in mind for this fast-improving filly.

Small steps – from Group 3 to Group 2 – seems to follow dad’s coda, but this win could hardly have been timed better. It came between the first two select evenings of the big August Arqana sale on the track’s doorstep.

Running in the colours of Al Shaqab, Ollie had already pulled one rabbit out of the hat by winning the Ascot race for them - they are closely involved in Qipco, a main sponsor of the Royal track – and now showed his worth again at the perfect moment.

Five horses were knocked down to Al Shaqab at the smallish Saturday night portion of the sale, so who would be the first to enter their thoughts having seen off a highly regarded home runner than the short-stepping Ollie?

Sorry Ben, this is a young man with a long, languid stride who is going all the way to the top. As George Boughey has shown, this sort of momentum can be hard to stop if the clients and the talent are there.

The history does stack up. Grandson of Robert, the man who, with John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien, rewrote racing history in the last quarter of the 20th Century. Since Robert’s death, sons Ben, backed by Guy, and in Australia another brother, Adam who ran the southern hemisphere end of Swettenham Stud, provided the ideal introduction to the family business.

Of course, Ollie’s uncle Sam, another of Robert's sons but not much older than Ollie, has been flourishing with his syndicates with Brian Meehan who, like Ollie, trains at Manton.

Stints working with Wesley Ward, both for a time in the US, but for years as his rep on this side of the Atlantic, could not have been a hindrance to his handling of juveniles. Also, his riding career was not to be discounted either. He won four races just over a decade ago for the late Alan Swinbank.

On Lothair at Carlisle in August 2013, he scored with a very professional ride – it was a race for inexperienced amateurs – but 50 yards after passing the post, he came off his mount. Refusing to drop the rein, he held on for at least another 100 yards, until the horse agreed to stop. While the unwritten rule is to let go, Ollie’s guts, horsemanship, strength and a determination not to give up already characterised him from that early point. No wonder Wesley trusted him to pony his horses to the start at Ascot.

It helped before starting his training career last year that a filly he shared (ten per cent) with mum Lucy and James Wigan, bought as a foal four years earlier for 55k, sold at the 2022 December sale for 3.6million gns. The filly was Saffron Beach, a multiple Group 1 winner trained by his aunt Jane Chapple-Hyam. “I was in her from the start,” Ollie avers.

When speaking to Ben after the Princess Margaret, I referred to what he’d mentioned earlier in the year, his dream that Ollie might one day transfer from the Red Post yard into the historic original main yard around Manton House itself where he grew up. “I’d love that”, said Ben. This could be a case of the irresistible force happening sooner than either of them anticipated.

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When you reach my time of life, you can expect sad news coming around every corner. On Friday, unfortunately, I had a double helping. First my friend Malcolm Caine asked if I’d heard that David Myers had died. I hadn’t. A very clever owner/punter in the 1980’s with the equally clever if rather grumpy Epsom handler Mick Haynes, he’d developed kidney problems at a relatively young age and was on dialysis for many years.

He recently went into hospital for a leg operation and never regained consciousness. Such was his standing within the world of charities that he and his wife were invited to King Charles III’s coronation.

Then later that day an even more awful moment came when I heard from Sir Rupert Mackeson that Howard Wright had died, aged 79. Howard had a deserved tall reputation as a journalist with the Racing Post for many years as the many commendations about him have shown over the past few days.

I must add my own involvement in his story. When I took on a part-time job as Editor of The Racehorse weekly publication in the autumn of 1974, my first headline (unaccredited) was to tip the 25/1 Cesarewitch winner Ocean King, ridden by Tommy Carter and trained by Arthur Pitt, Alan Spence’s first trainer in Epsom.

Peter O’Sullevan was moved to send a letter of congratulation – to Roger Jackson, the greyhound man whose byline was prominently displayed! We did have a laugh about it a few times later as Peter and I knew each other rather better.

Tne Racehorse job involved working early Monday and Tuesday mornings, then off to the Daily Telegraph for late shifts. The need arose as I was paying back a debt to a Mr Lippman and needed the extra. Wednesday was print day, so I had to take my Telegraph day off and also worked Saturdays subbing the sports results for the Sunday Telegraph – thus a full seven-day week, but more like eight days a week really!

The Racehorse had a great team of writers, such as Roger Mortimer, T E Watson (Diary of a private handicapper) and, from the younger generation, Walter Glynn, Alan Amies and Howard Wright, who was assistant sports editor at the Sheffield Morning Telegraph, where I’m pretty sure as Fortunatus he won the Sporting Life naps table.

I never needed to speak to him. His copy came down each week, perfectly presented and never needing any correction. Then, when in 1979 I was appointed Racing Editor at the DT, I requested as my deputy someone from outside – Howard.

The bosses agreed, and happily, so did he. Some people in authority like to have yes men behind them and Howard was anything but that. When you had a day or a week off, you knew the job would be done properly – in all honesty with less of the flying by the shirttails of his boss.

It was no surprise (if rather annoying) when Howard was offered the chance to join the newly-instituted Racing Post in a senior role – one which he held for many years, specialising on the administration end of racing. His death after a short illness was so unexpected.

Will Lefebve, who started at the Press Association in 1969 one week before I did and remains a regular on the course on the big days, said he was with Howard negotiating the sale of some (by Will) historic racecards to Howard when he said he didn’t feel great.

We weren’t ever close, apart from the period of working together, but another friend Jeffrey Curry remembered a day at Kempton earlier this year when the three of us talked for some time in the owners’ room. Jeffrey (or Curly as he’s better known), said: “You’d have thought you were best mates!”

He took the steadfast accuracy of his working life to his family, with wife Anne and their two daughters. When someone dies, you can express your regrets, sympathise and move on. This one keeps coming back, even as I finish this totally inadequate memoire.

- TS

Monday Musings: Beaten by Sepsis

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It’s funny when you speak regularly with people in racing, especially in my case primarily those I’d known in my previous incarnation, that memories come flooding back, writes Tony Stafford.

For example, before the first at Ascot on Saturday, a two-year-old contest, representing part-owner Jonathan Barnett and his Fire Flame, I stood at the end of the paddock to view it on the big screen. While there, I ran (or rather stumbled) into David Loder and John Garnsey. Many years ago, when Loder started training at Sefton Lodge in Newmarket, he had terrific success, notably with his juveniles, which were always well-schooled and ready to run.

Ricky Bowman was an “enthusiastic” work rider at a time when whip use was less frowned upon and indeed “when whips were whips”.

So, the Loder horses went into action with the equivalent of a race behind them and it was pretty easy to find winning opportunities. Many of the best prospects found their way into my Daily Telegraph tips as I was in contact with David every day.

So much so that when I bumped into legendary punter Harry Findlay at Doncaster sales maybe 15 years later, he said that when I napped one, he had his maximum on. “No commission, Harry?”

David has stopped training for some time. When he left Newmarket for the first time to look after the Sheikh Mohammed horses in Evry, France, on the site of the former racecourse, after Jeremy Noseda declined the offer, the contact finished.

Before he left, we regularly used to suggest that John Gosden didn’t seem to be doing much of a job with the Sheikh Mohammed home-breds in his yard. The first year he returned, I bumped into him as he was about to run his juvenile City On A Hill in the July Stakes. Of course it won, as did Noverre the following year.

As we were about to pass, he stopped me and said:” You know we used to laugh at John Gosden about what a crap job he did with the Sheikh Mo home-breds?” "Of course", I laughed. “Well, I’ve got them now and I think he was a f…… genius to do what he did with them!”, he said.

Now the wheel has turned full circle, David and Anthony Stroud are back buying the sales horses for Godolphin in close concert with the boss and Charlie Appleby, who was with Loder in the yard back in those Evry days.

I was chatting to Charlie a bit later along with Jono Mills, who was the young manager for the Rabbah (Godolphin-lite as I used to call them) horses at the time. Quite a few were in the revised Loder team after the Sheikh ended the Evry project and David took out a licence to train publicly from Egerton stud, next to the National Stud in the town, and the base for David Elsworth until his retirement a couple of seasons ago. Johnny Murtagh, before his Classic-winning time at Coolmore and post-John Oxx, rode the horses and unlike in David’s first go at the job, they tended to finish 2nd. Murtagh couldn’t ride a winner and Dave soon ended the experiment - Jono still remembers the frustration of it all.

Now, tall and lean and looking like some distinguished film producer, Loder can lay claim to Thursday’s wide-margin Sandown debut winner Ruling Court, a €2.3 million buy from Arqana. “Maybe he beat trees, but he looked good,” he said. A son of Justify so maybe another City Of Troy would be the hope

John Garnsey was and is an almost exact (but slightly younger) contemporary of mine, him at the Daily Express. Quiet and amusingly laconic whenever we meet, he usually says something like: “Well at least we’re still here!”

We had all agreed as the horses milled around behind the stalls that one of the runners, Letsbeatsepsis, had a most unfortunate name. Trained by Gary and Josh Moore, obviously there was a story behind it. Loder was there to watch another of his discoveries, the 1.5million gns Al Misbah, the 11/10 favourite.

A slow start didn’t help the favourite and he could only keep on for fourth, just ahead of a tubby-looking Fire Flame, with both beaten for third by Letsbeatsepsis, an 80/1 shot.

I thought I’d better investigate and indeed there is a story. I called Jayne Moore, wife of Gary, mum to joint-trainer Josh, recently-retired jump jockey Jamie and TV star Hayley. Oh, there’s also Ryan, who won that race on Richard Hannon’s Our Terms and went on to take the next, the Princess Margaret Stakes (Group 3) for Ollie Sangster.

Jayne explained that Letsbeatsepsis’ owner-breeder Patrick Moorhead had fallen ill with sepsis a few years back and hadn’t heard of it until he caught the disease. He was in ITU for months, but when he recovered, thought it would be an appropriate name to make people aware of it.

Saturday’s runner, a first foal, shows enough talent to do just that. I did some research and discovered that sepsis in the UK claims 48,000 deaths annually. The much more publicised breast cancer (11,500) and prostate cancer (12,000) claim together less than a half as many victims. To illustrate the full horror of sepsis, it is estimated that 11 million, one-fifth the world’s annual death toll, succumb to it.

Gary had only half a dozen two-two-year old wins in the past five years but now with Josh on the licence you can expect the younger end of the team to press for more flat horses and if possible of a precocious nature.

One young man on the fast track to success is Ollie Sangster, and not the least of his skill in only his second season as a trainer has been to judge the time when allowing big-name owners to buy out the existing owners.

Judging by the smiles of parents Ben and Lucy before the Princess Margaret, the price paid for the twice-raced maiden Simmering by Al Shaqab Racing was substantial enough for original partner Lucy to enjoy the day whatever happened.

Just as at Royal Ascot where Simmering flew home in the shadow of highly rated Fairy Godmother, showing similar finishing speed in the Albany Stakes to the winner, Simmering again got a fair way behind. Then Ryan, switched from her Royal meeting nemesis, found himself a fair way back but came through the middle of the field and was well on top at the finish. A 70,000gns daughter of Too Darn Hot, Simmering will have enhanced her value still further, but that sure touch Ollie showed when lining up a Group 3 to break a maiden will have impressed the international set.

Later, Ben Sangster, still with a full-on smile, was anxious not to put too much expectation on the young man’s shoulders. Ollie, obviously grandson to Robert Sangster, should according to Ben, “take small steps. The dream is still there though that one day he can move into the main yard at Manton House.”

One final point about King George day and the main event. Before the race Aidan O’Brien, having walked the course earlier, and Ryan Moore told Michael Tabor of their misgivings after 3mm of water were added overnight. Also, near the inside they had put down a fair amount of sand. Michael, realistic as ever, said: “It’s what it is!” almost resigned to another down to the 2023 Derby winner’s in-out career.

One thing I’m pretty sure of: the winner, the Francis-Henri Graffard-trained gelding Goliath will have been the first winner of the race with such a pronounced case of stringhalt. As he went past us in the pre-parade, I was dying to ask him: “Can you do it as well with your right hind leg?" Bet he can’t! Decent performance though.

**

Yesterday featured the last day’s UK jump racing for around three weeks. While the top jockeys will be able to afford to go on exotic trips, their lesser-earning counterparts will be ruing the fact of reduced earning possibilities. Nicky Richards told me that he thought the stop was an opportunity missed. In Ireland they have races for jockeys that have won fewer than 20 races in the previous season and he reckons that should have been copied here.

Meanwhile, on another contentious issue, Dylan Cunha, who won a Racing League contest at Yarmouth last Thursday, goes further, believing that the top 20 trainers could be excluded to no harm for themselves, leaving the better prize money in these races to the remainder. Hughie Morrison, one of the Team Scotland trainers in the Racing League, believes that the bigger than usual for the grade money available has merely been “stolen” from the rest of the UK’s races in their respective grade. Three men with plenty to say and all with feasible opinions.

- TS