Tag Archive for: Via Sistina

Monday Musings: Dirt

/in /by

We all expect there to be a minimal European presence these days in the dirt races on the Breeders’ Cup cards every November as the stark difference between the two forms of the sport in the United States becomes ever more obvious, writes Tony Stafford.

Aidan O’Brien’s attempts to secure dual and enhanced appeal for his potential stallions over the years have come pretty much to naught even if Giant’s Causeway’s honourable second place to Tiznow – when was it? wow, 25 years ago - had been the marker that kept him trying until City Of Troy’s unplaced effort last November.

It can be done, as Romantic Warrior’s near miss in the Saudi Cup and its £8 million first prize showed last weekend. And I think that if it’s going to be any European stable that tries seriously in the future, it will almost certainly be the Simon and Ed Crisford team.

I doubt it will be Charlie Appleby and Godolphin. I had two preconceptions in my mind before settling down to pen these words. First, that the UK stables have been finding the allure (and money) of the Dubai Carnival meeting less and less compelling. And secondly, that Godolphin still like to have their dirt runners on the main Meydan cards.

Yet when I looked more closely there were ten UK-based trainers, not counting Appleby or the Crisfords, who are regarded as locals in action this past weekend on the Super Saturday card in its traditional spot, three weeks ahead of the World Cup.

Pride of place had to go to George Scott, reinvented winner-wise in 2024 and now showing the kind of promise he always exhibited in his younger days. He initially worked with Michael Bell and, after a short time in the US assisting Simon Callaghan, then came back to help Lady Jane Cecil upon Sir Henry’s sad passing.

Scott’s own marital breakdown inevitably caused a slowdown in his career, but he now boasts a yard full of exciting horses and big owners. In West Acre he has charge of a 3yo sprinter that can top the charts in his category in Europe this year.

Life and luck are all about timing. Between West Acre’s second and third runs in his two-year-old season, back in October, West Acre changed from a joint-ownership between Michael Blencowe and Valmont, the latter having in the past couple of seasons become a major ownership force in UK racing, to the outright possession of Mr Blencowe.

He won easily a few days later at Southwell after which he was shipped out for the Carnival. Following an initial second place, he broke the five-furlong course record in a Group 2 last month and then was not far behind time-wise on Saturday.

He was the 4/7 favourite for the £183k to the winner Grade 2 Nad El Sheba Turf Sprint against 14 opponents, among them last year’s winner Frost At Dawn. Her trainer, William Knight, plus Robert Cowell, Dylan Cunha, Archie Watson and the Crisfords were all represented. It was no contest though as Callum Shepherd brought the favourite through for a regulation win in the final furlong.

 

 

Nearest UK connection was Cover Up, no, not the revered (to me) extreme stayer of Sir Michael Stoute’s who extricated me from a hole at Royal Ascot one day almost a quarter-century ago. This Cover Up picked up 30k for Simon and son Ed, while two of Jamie Osborne’s contingent each collected a similar place prize in other turf races.

I began by illustrating the limit of ambition of European horses in dirt races in the US, even where the money is at its most lavish. I wasn’t expecting to find that no Godolphin horse, trained either by Charlie Appleby or Saeed Bin Suroor - the latter having no representation at all on the card - ran in any of the three dirt races.

They were left largely to the home team, with Bhupat Seemar the leading domestic player nowadays, collecting two of the trio. The one European dirt success came from 33/1 shot Fort Payne, handled by French-based Nicolas Caullery. World Cup night will have the customary top US and Japanese involvement, no doubt, especially in the World Cup itself.

Further emphasising the stark disparity, Godolphin had odds-on shots in all the turf races apart from West Acre’s five-furlong contest. Respectively they went off at 1/12, 10/11, 8/13 and 4/9. All those races were won by Appleby, although the 10/11 shot First Conquest and Mickael Barzalona were only third to the other Godolphin runner, Nations Pride ridden by William Buick.

Buick cleaned up on the day with four wins and a share of his horses’ tally of more than half a million quid. Charlie had some not-inconsiderable place money further to boost his earnings on the day. That is assuming that their already platinum-plated winter contracts are assessed financially in the same way as they are back in Newmarket through the summer.

If you aren’t too familiar with the names Nations Pride and later winner Silver Knott it’s unsurprising as both spent all of 2024 and, in the case of Silver Knott, 2023, plundering riches on the other side of the Atlantic. Godolphin’s management knows that the level of older Graded US turf horses is way below similar Group class contests, in the UK particularly.

 An increasing number of horses in the Godolphin blue are keeping the cash registers flowing and multiplying Appleby and Buick’s transatlantic flights, in the comfort of their private jets of course, through the year. Nations Pride, winner of the Arlington Million last year at its new home of Colonial Downs, will be back in three weeks with the target of the Dubai Turf. I bet Charlie would have preferred not to have to face Romantic Warrior on that day, but the Hong Kong champion is aiming there, realistically so.

What of the day’s opening 1/12 shot? Mountain Breeze, easy winner of the Jumairah 1,000 Guineas, last raced in the UK at Newmarket in August when no match for Lake Victoria. The Aidan O’Brien filly completed her unbeaten five-timer at the Breeders’ Cup in November and it will be interesting to see whether Appleby challenges her and the other strong candidates Ballydoyle have lined up for the first UK Classic of 2025.

A couple of weekends ago, Via Sistina, making her return after a break since her latest success in November, turned out for a 7f Grade 2 contest at Randwick racecourse in Sydney and finished only third, albeit just one length and a nose behind Chris Waller stablemates Fangirl and Lindermann.

The Waller trio were back on parade over one mile of the same track on Saturday for the Grade I Verry Elleegant Stakes and the market bet heavily on Via Sistina. The former George Boughey trainee had already recouped all and more of the 2.7 million gns that Australian interests had paid for her late in 2023 and the success story rolls on.

This time, reunited with regular partner James McDonald (Kerrin McEvoy stood in last time), she got the better of Fangirl by a neck with Lindermann a nose behind in third. The £287k brought her overall earnings to more than £4.8 million, of which only around £100k was accrued in the time she was owned by Becky Hillen, the late David Wintle’s daughter.

Dave was a big pal of Gary Wiltshire, and the larger-than-life bookmaker has a life story out. I’ve no idea what it’s called as the Editor was anxious to save the bother (and cost) of parcelling it up and sending it. I will have to wait until we meet hopefully later this week. When I see it, I’ll let you now, especially how he managed to recover from his wipeout on Frankie Dettori’s seven-out-of-seven day at Ascot all those years ago.

- TS

Monday Musings: Sistina’s Aussie Fortunes

/in /by

 

Who would have believed it? Three hundred and twenty-five days after buying the then five-year-old mare Via Sistina for 2,700,000 guineas at Tattersalls December sales, new owners Yu Long Investments were already in the black, writes Tony Stafford.

On Saturday at Moonee Valley racecourse, Via Sistina tackled the Ladbrokes Cox Plate over ten furlongs. She won, beating the Japanese-trained favourite, the six-year-old entire Prognosis by eight lengths in track record time, taking her earnings in Australia to £2.9 million.

It’s common knowledge that Australian trainers know how to prepare for the Melbourne Cup, Tuesday week’s (November 5) biggest prize and “the race that stops a nation”, but before we get too excited about Via Sistina’s chance in the big one, there is a small hurdle for her to overcome.

Moonee Valley and Flemington may only be 3.1 kilometres apart, so less than the Cup’s distance of two miles (3,200 metres), but the double in the same year of these two highly prestigious races has been only rarely achieved. Phar Lap, the greatest Australian horse of the Inter-War period, did it in 1930, while the dual Melbourne Cup heroine Makybe Diva did the Cups double 19 years ago. Time flies.

She was a six-year-old, and that second Melbourne Cup win proved to be her racing swansong before retiring to stud.

The Cox Plate is acknowledged to be Australia’s premier non-handicap Group 1 race and it carried just over £1.6 million to the winner on Saturday. It was Via Sistina’s fourth Group 1 victory in six starts since travelling down to Australia, to which can be added one second place in another £1.6 million to the winner extravaganza.

Chris Waller, best known for his training of Winx, never asked that great mare to go further than the 1m2f of the Cox Plate. She won the second of her consecutive quartet in the race by eight lengths, mirroring Via Sistina on Saturday, and won 37 of her 43 career starts.

Should Waller decide to go for the Cup. Via Sistina will clearly challenge for favouritism and while like Winx she has never won at beyond 1m2f, she is a staying rather than the speed type of Winx at the trip. If she runs it would add massive excitement and a completely different aspect to an already compelling race.

Two people at least that will be looking on wanly should she run, will be previous owner Becky Hillen, daughter of the late David Wintle, and her initial trainer Joseph Tuite, who handled the five grand yearling as an unraced two-year-old and progressive three/four-year-old.

George Boughey had her in his yard at the latter part of her four-year-old season and then at five, where she began the startling progression, that culminated (so far) in that Cox Plate tour-de-force. Some selling owners cannot bear watching their former horses win for the new connections. Until Saturday, Becky and husband, bloodstock agent Steve, were probably happy enough. After Saturday and maybe next week, it might be a different story.

But for Joe Tuite it can only have been two years of turmoil and what might-have-been after he relinquished his licence in late August 2022. Clearly, studying Via Sistina’s career from the comfort of my office, Tuite had a major part in developing a late-maturing filly into the colossus she now is.

Unraced at two, Via Sistina won second time out as a three-year-old, by five-and-a-half lengths in a Goodwood maiden fillies’ race. She added a Newmarket handicap off 89 by four lengths in October of that year. Such was her obvious potential at that stage, that when Tuite targeted a fillies’ Listed race at Doncaster the following month, she went off as the 11/4 favourite, but finished in the ruck, only 13th of 18.

Clearly at the start of her four-year-old season, her training hadn’t gone smoothly, and it wasn’t until August 27 that Via Sistina made her debut. She appeared in the Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor, a Group 3 race open to colts and geldings as well as fillies. She was a 33/1 shot and in finishing fourth she probably exceeded expectations.

By now though, the die was cast and Joe had already made up his mind to give up the unequal fight of trying to keep himself financially afloat. A report in the Racing Post the day after the filly’s promising return to action tells how it was almost with a measure of relief that he was finishing. The story went thus:-

Joe Tuite felt a mix of sadness and nerves as he saddled the final runner of his 11-year training career on Saturday, yet he stands by a decision to retire due to financial difficulties. Via Sistina outran her 33/1 odds to finish fourth in the Sytner Sunningdale & Maidenhead BMW Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor.

Tuite revealed he'd had a "few offers" for a future job in racing but no decision had been made.

Tuite said on Saturday morning: "It's a bit of a weird feeling – I can't really describe it. It's a bit of sadness I suppose.

"There are a lot of times where you go racing and there's not much of a worry but today I'm on tenterhooks about it all."

The trainer said a difficult season, with just two winners, and financial issues heightened by escalating costs were behind his reasons to retire.

He added: "It's definitely the right thing to do. I was down on numbers, and it was putting square pegs into round holes. I'd be worried looking down the road what the future would be like for the lower-tier of racing, that's for sure.

"It's tough but business is tough for everyone, not just racing, it's in all walks of life.

"I know my decision surprised a few people, but a few people that were closer to me weren't, as they could see the way things were going."

Within not much more than a month, Via Sistina was already showing Joe that maybe if he had held on for a short while, things might have sorted themselves out for him. Transferred to George Boughey, Via Sistina was quickly off the mark for him, running 2nd in the Group 3 Pride Stakes at Newmarket at the beginning of that October and then going across to Toulouse and picking up a provincial Group 3 in November.

She ran five times for Boughey last year as a five-year-old, starting off with a six-length win in the Group 3 Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket in May, before going across to the Curragh for the Group 1 Pretty Polly on July 1 where she beat Hughie Morrison’s slightly unlucky in running Stay Alert by two lengths.

She didn’t win again in this hemisphere, but third as the even-money favourite in the Group 1 Falmouth at Newmarket 13 days later when dropping back to a mile probably wasn’t her ideal task. Then it was 2nd, beaten a nose in the Prix Jean Romanet (ten furlongs) at Deauville before that sale-exploding run behind King Of Steel in the Champion Stakes at Ascot a year ago.

The luck was certainly just as much with Becky Hillen in terms of the timing with the December sales and all that Aussie money, barely a month ahead. Just as the luck had been notoriously absent when Joe Tuite had to make the awful decision to cut his losses and hand in his licence even as the filly he nurtured so carefully was about to come into full bloom as a late-developing racehorse.

For each of her 121 seconds of action around Moonee Valley on Saturday, Via Sistina earned her new (ish) owners £13,000.

In 11 years as a trainer in the UK, Joe Tuite had a best tally of 30, but usually picked up between 15 and 20 or so wins each year. From 1,881 runs over those 11 seasons, on the flat he won 173 races and total earnings of £1,552,585. Put another way, it represented a return of £825 per runner.

It must be salutary to think that his former inmate, the one that he brought to a position where she was equipped to make the giant strides she later managed as she had not been rushed or abused, won more in those 121 track-record-breaking seconds than he did in all those 11 years.

We keep saying it. Something’s rotten about English racing that we can afford to lose people with the skills of a Joe Tuite because he can’t manage to make it pay. Our only point in world racing seems to be to provide the proven material that can then go back to countries with many times more prize money to spread around and clean up – like Via Sistina!

One footnote. Cheltenham’s winter season proper started on Friday and Saturday and, as usual, it proved a bonanza for the Irish. They had six winners over the two days, including the first four races on Saturday. Henry De Bromhead had the 1-2 in the £100,000 featured chase, his pair mopping up £75k as they careered well clear of the rest up the Cheltenham run-in. Here we go again!

- TS