This season we seem to have received an above average crop of 3 year old horses, as well as some really exciting older horses that have remained in training. It’s as it should be, but things don’t always turn out that way.

France and England swapped Group 1 races this weekend: Saturday was veni, vidi, vici for Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}), who gave France a first victory in the race since 1960, when it was won by the Javelot (Fr) trained by Percy Carter (Fast Fox {Fr}). The prize had also gone to France the year before Javelot when the winner was Saint Crespin (Fr) (Aureole {GB}), trained by Alec Head for Prince Aly Khan, the father of Vadeni owner/breeder HH Aga Khan IV .

Then, in a brilliant comeback performance in the G1 Grand Prix of Saint-Cloud on Sunday, Kirsten Rausing’s beautiful gray mare Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) added another win to her unbroken chain that stretches now at six, including four Group 1.

Hundreds

There’s no better way to celebrate 100 years of breeding the Aga Khan Studs than by providing the sport with the preeminent 3-year-old colt of the season so far, and that’s how we must see Vadeni after his success in the Prix du Jockey Club against his peers and subsequent success at the Eclipse.

When Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) lined up for the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket and then returned to the ladder in tandem after finishing first and second , it was hard to separate them on the looks. Both dark bay colts are big, strong and solid, and Native Trail seems to have come back when he was spotted in the paddock before the Eclipse. As befits a race of its status, it was a fine field, although none of the six riders were brought into the preparation ring, to the disappointment of a significant number of people who had gathered there. to see them. With fewer runners at the gates of racetracks this year, it seems foolish to disappoint loyal and serious racing fans by depriving them of one of the most important aspects of a day at the races: the opportunity to inspect the riders marching past before they are saddled. It’s not just Sandown where this has slipped, as a number of Derby and Oaks runners arrived at the parade ring at Epsom so late that they only took one lap before going to post.

That growl aside, once in the main parade ring, Native Trail, Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}) and Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {Ire}) were the three most imposing colts. It must be said that the smaller and fairly light Vadeni was not up to par with this trio aesthetically, but beautiful is also beautiful, and the whippet of the greyhound pack was offered the perfect wake by Christophe Soumillon, who produced it with a flourish to complete a devastating challenge two furlongs from home to win what is sure to be one of the best races of the year.

Vadeni’s grandmother, G1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Vadawina (Ire) (Unfuwain), was one of 74 horses in training purchased from a batch of 222 horses that formed the whole activity race and breeding of the late Jean-Luc Lagardère in 2005, including his stallion, Linamix (Fr). The merger of the Lagardère bloodlines with the Aga Khan stock, following earlier acquisitions from other influential breeders Marcel Boussac and François Dupré, continued to revitalize the Aga Khan Studs group of broodmares while working in tandem with bloodlines that were nurtured by operation throughout the last century.

Jean-Claude Rouget is no stranger to big-race success in his home country, but Vadeni was his first Group 1 winner in Britain since Almanzor (Fr) clinched the S. Champion in 2016. Vadeni drew favorable comparisons with this former star of the Rouget stable. and it seems likely he will try to emulate him in the S. Irish Champion next September.

Alpinista reaches new heights

As we wait to see if Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) or Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}) can top their elders in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. later this month, two serious challengers for this race announced their fine form this weekend. Alpinista, who has his roots in an Aga Khan family through his fourth mother Alruccaba (Ire) (Crystal Palace {FR}), last met Torquator Tasso (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) beating him close by three lengths in the Grosser Preis von Berlin last August. It was the first of his three Group 1 wins in Germany last season and, as if to silence those who may be wary of German form, Torquator Tasso won the Grosser Preis von Baden followed by the Arc, while that Alpinista has now continued his unstoppable six-game winning streak with a blowout win over fellow countryman Frankel Baratti (GB) at Saint-Cloud.

“She’s in better shape than the coach,” Sir Mark Prescott told the NDT Monday as the dust settled on Alpinista’s first appearance at the racetrack in 238 days. She had originally been signed up for the Coronation Cup, but was pulled from that potential engagement with Prescott, feeling she was not ready for her seasonal resumption. Even before Sunday, he wasn’t sure the 5-year-old was quite there.

“Her coat wasn’t as good as I would have liked and I felt she was still a short canter but I was probably wrong about how she won,” he continued. “I think it’s the first time she’s really impressed. She was very good at winning races, but maybe not at impressing people.

“It’s a real pleasure to have him. With a filly, everything they put on in black type puts them in the spotlight and even if they are beaten it is not a disaster because they are remembered for their best. While a foal is notorious for its worst and if you get it wrong you can reduce its value to astronomical sums. So I think all trainers would agree with me that training a top filly is much less stressful than training a top colt.

Prescott knows a lot about top fillies, and in particular about this very successful Lanwades family. In the courtyard of his Heath House stand the statues of the grandmother of Alpinista Albanova (GB) (Alzao) and his own sister Alborada (GB), who between them won five Group 1 races for the stable. Like her granddaughter, Albanova’s trio of premier victories have been recorded in Germany, while Alborada has won back-to-back Champion S races at her original (and rightful) home of Newmarket. She also won the 1998 G2 Nassau S. and G2 Pretty Polly S., both of which were promoted to Group 1 status.

Prescott also trained Alpinista’s mother, Alwilda (GB) (Hernando {Fr}). He recalls: “His mother was small but very tough and direct, very authentic. She earned her Listed more by application than by ability. This one [Alpinista] has many abilities. When she shot flawlessly, I think all of her fans cheered her on.

What we have done. And now we can hope to see her at Ascot for the King George, with the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe her longer-term target. Last year’s Arc winner Torquator Tasso clearly needs a bit of a warm-up after his winter break, as he finished sixth on his last two season starts before stepping up to speed. superior. Saturday in Hamburg, he put his late start behind him with a mixed victory in the G2 Grosser Hansa-Preis.

Peter Michael Endres, representing owner Karl-Dieter Ellerbracke’s Gestut Auenquelle, has mapped out a clear post-race plan that takes on King George, followed by comeback raids on Baden-Baden and ParisLongchamp for his final two starts before a career stud.

Sammarco: “The dream of my life”

When Torquator Tasso eventually retires to Gestut Auenquelle, he has big shoes to fill if he wants to follow the example of the resident stud stud Soldier Hollow, who has been champion stallion and champion broodmare in Germany on several occasions. .

It was in the latter role that he featured in the pedigree of Sunday’s G1 Deutsches Derby winner Sammarco (Ire) (Camelot{GB}), who is owned and bred by Helmut von Finck of Gestut Park Wiedingen, who also ran and still owns Soldier Hollow.

Von Finck, who has 15 brood mares on his farm in northern Germany, spoke on Monday of a classic victory that was the culmination of decades of breeding.

“He’s such a good horse, very relaxed at home, but such a fighter on the track,” he said of Sammarco, trained by Peter Schiergen. “I have dreamed of winning the Derby for 35 years and now I have done it as an owner and breeder with a horse from my own stud who is out of a mare from my stallion. This is the dream of my life. It is the culmination of 35 years of work.

He continues: “Sammarco is doing really well this morning and only lost a few pounds in the race. He is happy and very relaxed in the paddock. He had four starts for three wins and a second, and now he has won the Derby on his fourth start. Everything is perfect.”

The breeder, who will offer Sammarco’s half-brother by Areion (G) at the BBAG yearling sale in early September, has spoken of a possible clash with Torquator Tasso in Baden-Baden the weekend immediately following the sale.

He continued: “I would like to give him an eight week break and then go to the Grosser Preis von Baden. I don’t want him to overdo it at 3 years old because my plan is to race him at 4 years old.

Von Finck currently has five mares in foal to his three-time champion Soldier Hollow, whose sons Pastorius (Ger) and Weltstar (Ger) are both German Derby winners. Now 22 years old, he currently leads the German breeding table ahead of another former resident of Auenquelle, the late Big Shuffle.

He added: “Soldier Hollow is also the broodmare sire of Schnell Meister, a Grade I winner in Japan. I am very proud that he is heading for his third championship as a broodmare sire. He covered 45 mares last year and I’m happy to have five mares in foal to him. He’s not the youngest but he’s very good and still able to cover that number.

Hollie in Hamburg

The progeny of mare Gestut Rottgen Wellenspiel (Ger) (Sternkoenig {Ire}) played leading roles in the German Derby weekend from the start, with her first two foals, Windstoss (Ger) (Shirocco {Ger}) and Weltstar (Ger}) (Soldier Hollow {GB}), winning the Derby in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Their younger half-sister Well Disposed (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) has now added more kudos to the family by picking up the G3 Mehl-Mulhens trophy on the Derby undercard.

Her victory marked the first in the country for jockey Hollie Doyle, who also raced for Gestut Rottgen in the Derby aboard the filly Wagnis (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}). She fared less well in this Classic, which was delayed nearly 30 minutes as the rails were realigned with the riders at the post, and Doyle was lucky to stay in the saddle when Wagnis stumbled badly in the turn. Winner of the G3 Diana Trial by five lengths in her previous start, the filly regained her composure and finished 11th out of 20 starters.