Guineas Glory All in the Family for Epaulette

by Kelsey Riley

With Australia’s undefeated 2-year-old Triple Crown champion Pierro lining up for Saturdays G1 Caulfield Guineas at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne, the classic race is sure to provide a memorable result. Many of the Lonhro colt’s rivals have already conceded defeat, and while Pierro is certain to be a short-priced favorite, Epaulette--the colt who will be second in the betting--could make things interesting, especially if he takes after his older half-brother, last year’s Caulfield Guineas winner Helmet.

In winning last year’s edition of this race, Helmet provided one of the most exciting and impressive performances of the year, anywhere in the world. His victory in this Melbourne Guineas was visually similar to what Frankel had achieved in his own Guineas some six months earlier, except Helmet had more to prove. After winning four of five starts as a 2-year-old, including a Group 1 double in the G1 Sires Produce and G1 Champagne S. (as Pierro did this year), Helmet could manage only a pair of thirds in his first two starts of his 3-year-old campaign: the G3 Run to the Rose, and the G1 Golden Rose S., both at Rosehill in Sydney. 

Helmet at trainer Peter Snowden's Crown Lodge
yard in Sydney

The blaze-faced chestnut showed a liking for Caulfield when winning the G3 Guineas Prelude (his younger brother has already emulated him by winning that event two weeks ago), but many called Helmet’s class into question, wondering if he was capable of winning a Group 1 event against top class 3-year-olds. Two weeks later, Helmet silenced his critics in a big way. When the barriers broke, the fastest horse to the lead was Manawanui, who had beaten Helmet in his last Sydney start in the Golden Rose. Kerrin McEvoy, the jockey aboard Helmet, quickly made the decision to confront his rival immediately, and hustled Helmet forward to blow past Manawanui. McEvoy must have truly believed he had the superior horse on the day, because to make a move like that was incredibly gutsy, and was not unlike what Tom Queally pulled off aboard Frankel at Newmarket, slingshotting clear of his rivals to put it all on the line with a risky run to prove once and for all who was the best. While Helmet did not show the sheer exceleration and wide winning margin that Frankel did in his Guineas, he nonetheless turned back the challenge of Manawanui in the straight, and while the margin of victory was only a neck, it is important to realize that Manawanui did not head Helmet, even in the gallop out. Kerrin McEvoy truly knew what he had, and it showed in not only one of the best performances of the year by a horse, but by a jockey, also.

To watch Helmet’s Caulfield Guineas, click here.

The Caulfield Guineas proved to be Helmet’s crowning glory, and his last career victory before retiring to stud. He was given a tall order when facing older horses for the first time next out in the G1 Cox Plate, and put in a good effort to be eighth, beaten 4 ½ lengths. His first run of 2012 resulted in a close finish to grab fourth in the G3 C.S. Hayes S. at Caulfield, but that was the closest he ever got again to finding the finish line first. After a brief career in Dubai and England, Helmet was retired to stud at Darley’s Northwood Farm in Seymour, Victoria, and it was recently announced that he will shuttle to Kildangan Stud in Ireland for the Northern hemisphere season.   

It would be a disgrace to discuss Helmet and Epaulette without mentioning their dam, the superstar producer Accessories. A British-bred daughter of Singspiel, Accessories has produced three Group stakes winners from her first three foals. In addition to Helmet and Epaulette, her first foal was Bullbars, a son of Elusive Quality who won the G3 C.S. Hayes S. as a 3-year-old. Bullbars finished second in the G1 Australian Guineas, just 1.8 lengths away from giving Accessories three Grade 1 winners from three foals to race. Breednet.com.au published this article on Accessories a few weeks ago.

Darley's Woodlands Stud 

 Speaking of the Caulfield Guineas pedigrees, it should also be noted that while Pierro and Epaulette compete for different connections now, they were both bred by Darley, and were raised on the same pastures at the operation’s Woodlands Farm near Denman in the Hunter Valley. While Darley opted to let go of Pierro for A$110,000 as a weanling, his dam, the Irish-bred Miss Right Note, still resides at Woodlands, as does Accessories.

Darley's Woodlands Stud

 The Caulfield Guineas is certainly not a race lacking in pedigree strength. One of the dark horses of the race will be Patinack Farm’s All Too Hard, a half-brother to Australian champion Black Caviar, the world’s highest rated sprinter. While All Too Hard has been disappointing in his placings this season, he has never been beaten far, and one of his co-trainers, Wayne Hawkes, has been outspoken in the fact that he believes his colt could upset Pierro with an equipment change of sorts. Read what he had to say here.

Pierro or no Pierro, this year’s Caulfield Guineas is packed with interesting stories, and should no doubt produce an exciting outcome. For a form guide for the race, click here.

Guest Post: Is 2012 the Year of the Triple Crown?

By Kelsey Riley

The countdown is on for I’ll Have Another and his loyal legion of fans. On June 9, the plucky chestnut will attempt to become American racing’s 12^th Triple Crown winner, and the first since Affirmed in 1978. The press is awash with opinions on whether the son of Flower Alley will complete the elusive hat trick, and while I am not here to throw my speculations into the fire, I would like to point out that the Triple Crown has been trending in racing around the world in 2012.

America isn’t the only nation with Triple Crown fever. England caught a raging case of it when Coolmore’s undefeated colt Camelot ran away with the English 2000 Guineas on May 5. The son of the late great Montjeu has subsequently been installed an overwhelming odds-on choice for this Saturday’s Epsom Derby. He will take on eight other colts over Epsom’s uniquely challenging course while jumping up to a mile-and-a-half for the first time. While this seems a daunting task, a great many European racing pundits have unwavering faith in the star colt. Shortly after Camelot won the Guineas, gossip grew that the Aidan O’Brien charge may make an attempt at the Triple Crown. Believe it or not, England has experienced a longer Triple Crown drought than America. The English Triple Crown (the 2000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby, and the St. Leger) has not been won since Nijinsky swept the series in 1970. In fact, the English Triple Crown has gone rather out of fashion. It is a rare occurrence for a horse to attempt it, and many Guineas winners will bypass the Derby itself in favour of shorter contests. Only two horses have doubled up in the Guineas and Derby since 1970: Nashwan in 1988 and Sea the Stars in 2009. In turn, the St. Leger has lost its lustre, and has not been a significant target for top three-year-olds in a number of years. Although Sea the Stars won the first two legs of the Triple Crown in 2009, his connections opted for a schedule that included the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion Stakes, and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Coolmore has yet to indicate their plans for Camelot, and while there is doubt over whether he will even get his chance at the Triple Crown, we can dream.

The dream has already come true for Australian racing fans this year, as Pierro became the first horse in eight years (sixth in history) to sweep Australia’s two-year-old Triple Crown of the Golden Slipper, Sires’ Produce, and Champagne Stakes. The undefeated son of Lonhro has serious star quality, and while we’re dreaming, who’s to say he won’t go on next year to win that country’s three-year-old Triple Crown, which consists of the Randwick Guineas, Rosehill Guineas, and AJC Australian Derby? That trio has been won by just four horses, but the most recent winner was Pierro’s paternal grandsire, Octagonal. Pierro has the pedigree to go a route of ground and to improve with age, so it's exciting to think of how good he could be.

Pierro winning the Champagne Stakes

Another nation that has tasted the excitement of the Triple Crown this year is Singapore. Super Easy completed the sweep on May 18 when he won the Singapore Guineas, remaining undefeated in 10 starts including the Three-Year-Old Sprint and the Three-Year-Old Classic. If his courageous win in the Guineas wasn’t enough, the New Zealand-bred’s form was justified when Ato, a horse he has beaten twice, got up to win the Krisflyer International Sprint (G1), the fourth race in the Global Sprint Challenge, last weekend.

Across the map in Japan, three-year-old filly Gentildonna continued her dominance of the female sophomore division when she took the May 20 Japanese Oaks by an easy five lengths. The Sunday Racing colour-bearer was following up on her win in the Japanese 1000 Guineas on April 8, and she looked to be the real deal while stepping from 1600 metres to 2400 metres. The Japanese fillies Triple Crown consists of the Oka Sho (1000 Guineas), Yushun Himba (Oaks), and the Shuka Sho in October. The series was won in 2010 by Apapane. If any horse has the genetics to complete the sweep it is Gentildonna. Her sire Deep Impact took the colts’ version in 2005.

Gentildonna winning the Japanese Oaks.
Courtesy Japan Racing Association

Whether or not it influences anyone’s opinion on I’ll Have Another’s Triple Crown chances, the topic is clearly trending in racing around the world this year. It is interesting to observe how the various Triple Crowns are perceived in different countries, and it is important to note that some of these series have been altered over the years, or have otherwise become insignificant. Regardless, it is exciting to see so many equine stars around the world. If anyone knows of any current Triple Crown stories that I haven’t listed, please share them.       

-- Kelsey Riley is a second year trainee on the Darley Flying Start program. She will join the TDN staff in July.

Guest Post: Why I Love Australian Racing

This Saturday, Australian two-year-old superstar Pierro will attempt to make history when he starts in the G1 Champagne Stakes at Royal Randwick in Sydney. The Champagne is the third leg of Australia’s two-year-old Triple Crown, and Pierro enters the 1600 metre contest off decisive wins in the first two races: the Golden Slipper on April 7, and the Sires Produce Stakes a week later.

Pierro represents everything I love about Australian racing. Trained by celebrity conditioner Gai Waterhouse, Pierro has danced every dance and dismantled all challengers this campaign. Declared “the 2012 Slipper winner” by Waterhouse after his debut victory last October, Pierro was put away for a few months to rest up for a bold autumn campaign in Sydney. The Darley-bred son of Australian champion sire and first-season American shuttler Lonhro opened 2012 with a win in the G2 Silver Slipper Stakes over 1100m at Rosehill. His next task was the G2 Todman Stakes over 1200m again at Rosehill, an important prep for the $4 million Golden Slipper, the world’s richest two-year-old race at the same venue and distance two weeks later. Pierro dug deep to take both contests, beating favoured Samaready, the leading Victoria-based two-year-old, in the Golden Slipper. Wheeling back off a week’s rest, Pierro toyed with the fresher All Too Hard, the previously unbeaten half-brother to Black Caviar, in the Sires Produce.

Pierro wins the Golden Slipper

In short, Pierro’s campaign has been defined by fierce contests off short periods of rest. While this may seem remarkable to foreign audiences, in Australia it is the norm in premier racing: the country’s leading group one performers will routinely race once every week or two weeks during the country’s top spring and autumn carnivals. In America, we yearn for the times when horses competed more than once a month, with the best going head-to-head race after race. In Australia, this is still happening, usually every Saturday in Sydney or Melbourne.

This realization would lead one to think that Australian horses are tougher than others. Maybe this is true. I personally believe it’s the way they’re managed that leads to their resilience. During a four-month stint in Australia last fall (their spring), I was very fortunate to spend a month working in the stables of one of the perennial leading trainers in Melbourne, Victoria. Aside from the lack of race day medication (which everyone already knows about) in Australia, there were a few things that stood out to me in this particular yard: first of all, no horses wore stable bandages unless they had a significant problem (and in my time there, none did).

In addition to their morning exercise, every horse was taken out in the afternoon to walk and swim 

(swimming is a big part of the Australian training climate in general). I believe this contributed greatly to mental soundness as well as physical soundness. There was not one horse of about 40 in the yard that I could not lead without a bit or nose chain, or leave standing quietly in cross ties during grooming. This included colts, geldings and fillies of all ages. In addition, there was not one horse in the yard that would lay back its ears or bite when a human passed the stall.

The final major contributing factor to the constitution of the Australian race horse is, I believe, their spelling regime. “Spelling” refers to the routine of putting the horses out to paddock for up to a few weeks as a break from training. So while the horses are raced hard, they are also spelled frequently. Depending on the mindset of the horse, it may be every few starts, or every few months. Generally, when a horse seems to be falling off form or developing a sour attitude, the trainer will send it out for a spell. This means up to a few weeks in a paddock on a farm, just “being a horse”.

It is important to note that, unlike in Europe where horses train on vast countryside gallops on a program that values stamina over speed, the Australian training program is more similar to America than anywhere else. Like in America, Australian’s train at racetracks in big cities, and they value fast times and precocity in their racehorses. Although Australia seems a world away, their training and racing environment are actually quite similar to those in America.

In addition to this time at the racetrack, I also spent a few weeks working on Darley's Woodlands Farm, where Pierro was born. In Australia, mares are foaled outside (their tepid climate gives them that luxury), and if both are healthy, it is possible that the foal will never see a stable until it is a weanling or yearling. While this can have both positive and negative implications, the upside is that all that time spent outside in its natural environment must be healthy for the foal.

When he lines up for the Champagne on Saturday, Pierro will attempt to become the sixth horse to win the Triple Crown. He has history on his side. It was last won by the Waterhouse-trained Dance Hero in 2004, and that conditioner nearly won it again in 2008 with Sebring before a narrow loss in the Champagne. The other winners are Baguette (1970), Luskin Star (1977), Tierce (1991), and Burst (1992).

For me, the best thing about Pierro is that there may be no limit to how good he is. It is important to note that the dark bay has already outrun his pedigree. As previously stated he is by Lonhro, a multiple G1 winner at up to 2000 metres at 3,4,5, and 6, whose progeny usually don’t get going until their later years. Pierro is out of a mare by Daylami, a stallion who performed well as a two-year-old but excelled later in life at longer distances, and typically sires horses in that mould. It would seem that Pierro was never meant to win, let alone become a champion, over sprint distances at two. If he follows his pedigree pattern and become better with age and distance, who knows how good he could be.

Lonhro's late run earns him a legendary renewal of

the Australia Cup in 2004.

Pierro’s Champagne Stakes is one of four G1 races scheduled for Saturday at the Royal Randwick meeting. The feature race is the 3200m Sydney Cup. Trainer Chris Waller saddles three, including the favoured Permit and last year’s winner, Stand to Gain. Waterhouse will saddle the mare Older Than Time, a stalwart route horse on the Sydney and Melbourne circuits.

The most intriguing race on the card to me is the 2000m Queen Elizabeth Stakes, where top mares More Joyous and Secret Admirer take on Melbourne Cup winner Americain and other top older horses Manighar, Jimmy Choux, and Rangirangdoo. More Joyous has won all three starts this year since March 24, and Manighar is four for five this year, including two wins over Americain. In the G1 All Aged Stakes, star three-year-old filly Atlantic Jewel will take on older males over 1400m.

Add Black Caviar going for her 20^th consecutive win across the country in Adelaide in the G1 Sportingbet Classic at Morphetteville, and you have quite the day’s racing in the land down under. But Australian racing breathes excitement, so what more could you expect?

**

This weekend will be an exciting one for international racing, with additional group ones taking place in Hong Kong, South Africa, and France. In Hong Kong on Sunday, local favourites including California Memory, Irian, Pure Champion, Fay Fay, and Sweet Orange will line up against international contenders like Ireland’s Treasure Beach, France’s Chinchon, and the Mike de Kock trained Viscount Nelson. Across the globe in South Africa, superstar sprinters will take centre stage on a card of four G1 races at Turffontein, highlighted by What a Winter, Val de Ra, and JJ the Jet Plane in the Computerform Sprint. In France, last out Dubai Sheema Classic winner Cirrus des Aigles highlights the G1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp. Those looking to take down his colours could include So You Think, Wigmore Hall, and Reliable Man.

-- Kelsey Riley is a second year trainee on the Darley Flying Start program. She will join the TDN staff in July.