Midday stays hot in Vermeille; Sariska retired after second
refusal
Prince Khalid Abdullah’s homebred MIDDAY (GB) (Oasis Dream [GB]) extended her
Once the rest of the field left Sariska behind,
Plumania wrested control from a dogged Ashiyla in the straight, but Midday
Cecil is not tempted to pitch Midday into the October 3 Prix de l’Arc de
“What a lovely filly she is and has won
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“She needed the race today, as it would have been too long to
wait from
the Yorkshire Oaks to Churchill Downs, so that will set her up perfectly.
“I love the Arc,” Cecil told PA Sport, “but the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare
Turf is her race.”
“She ticks more boxes this year,” Queally said, “and if she turns up in
America like this, I think she can win again.”
Plumania held second by a half-length from a fast-finishing Sarafina, who
just edged out Ashiyla and Sarah Lynx (Montjeu [Ire]). Another 2 1/2 lengths
back came Dariole (Highest Honor [Fr]) in sixth, followed by Peinture Rare
(Sadler’s Wells), High Heeled (High Chaparral [Ire]), Never Forget (Westerner),
Lady’s Purse, Enora and the non-participating Sariska.
Both Plumania and
Sarafina are headed to the Arc.
Pierre-Yves Bureau, racing manager for Plumania’s
owner-breeder Wertheimer et Frere, was pleased with her first start back since
taking the June 27 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Fr-G1).
“She ran an
excellent race there
and we are very happy, so she will take her chance in the Arc,” Bureau said.
Sarafina, last seen capturing the June 13 Prix de Diane (French Oaks)
(Fr-G1), is also eligible to move forward off this Arc prep.
“We had slowed down a lot with her after the Diane and she really needed
the race there,” trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre said. “Also, in the false straight about four out she seems to have come
onto the bit a
little too early and maybe paid for that effort in the end. She should improve a
lot and seems to stay, so we will stick to our original plan and come back for
the Arc.”
Trainer Michael Bell promptly told PA Sport that Sariska was retired.
“It has been a great journey, but that is the end of the road,” Bell said.
“We’ve done everything we could and she didn’t come out, so enough is enough.”
Last year’s champion three-year-old filly in Europe, Sariska also captured
the Musidora S. (Eng-G3) and placed in last year’s Yorkshire Oaks and Champion
S. (Eng-G1). Her first two outings this season were promising — a victory over
Midday in the May 13 Middleton S. (Eng-G2) and a runner-up effort to Fame and
Glory (Montjeu [Ire]) in the June 4 Coronation Cup (Eng-G1). That was the last
time she consented to race. Sariska retires with a record of 5-2-1 from 11 races
(including her two refusals) and £728,724 in
earnings.
Midday now brandishes a mark of 15-7-3-3,
£1,548,362. An impressive winner of the 2009 Lingfield Oaks Trial, she just
missed to Sariska in the Oaks at Epsom and finished a well-beaten third to the
same rival in the Irish Oaks on heavy ground. Midday broke through with
her first top-level coup in last summer’s Nassau S. (Eng-G1), and prepped for
her first Breeders’ Cup tilt with a creditable third in the Prix de l’Opera
(Fr-G1).
Opening her four-year-old campaign in the
Middleton at York, Midday stayed on for runner-up honors behind Sariska, whom she was spotting five pounds. Midday exited the race jarred up by
the firm ground, and Cecil didn’t return her to action until midsummer.
She rewarded his patience by winning the July 31 Nassau for the second straight
year, and followed up with a commanding victory in the aforementioned Yorkshire
Oaks.
Bred in Great Britain, Midday is out of the English stakes-placed Midsummer (Kingmambo),
who is herself a half-sister to eight stakes performers — chief among them Oaks
heroine and English highweight Reams of Verse (Nureyev), as well as multiple
Group 1 victor and Irish highweight Elmaamul (Diesis [GB]). This is also the
family of Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1) hero and multiple highweight Zafonic
(Gone West) and Group 3 winner Zamindar (Gone West), the sire of unbeaten
champion Zarkava.
In other Sunday action at Longchamp, the Aga Khan’s homebred BEHKABAD (Cape
Cross [Ire]) shored up his position as the antepost favorite for the Arc by
getting up in time in the €130,000 Prix Niel
(Fr-G2) for sophomores. Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget and ridden by Christophe-Patrice
Lemaire, Behkabad outdueled his archrival Planteur (Danehill Dancer) by a head
in a final time of 2:30 4/5, fastest of the three Arc trials on the day. The
pair drew four lengths clear of Kidnapping (Intikhab) in third, with Japanese
shipper Victoire Pisa (Neo Universe) the same margin away in fourth in the
seven-horse field.
The top two were dispatched as 9-5 co-favorites
in the wake of their domination of the July 14 Grand Prix de Paris (Fr-G1),
where Behkabad defeated Planteur by three-quarters of a length. Behkabad, who
capped an unbeaten juvenile season with a victory in the Prix des Chenes
(Fr-G3), also landed the Prix de Guiche (Fr-G3) this spring. His lone unplaced
effort was a fourth in the June 6 Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) (Fr-G1).
“He is a brave horse and has never run a bad race,” Rouget said. “A mile and a half is his best trip and when you go back to the Prix du
Jockey Club, you will see he is the only horse finishing well. He didn’t have a
hard race today,
as this wasn’t the target and we’ll bring him back for the Arc.”
“My
horse (Planteur) has run very well again,” trainer Elie
Lellouche said, “and the last time he was a bit further behind Behkabad and was
not 100 percent. We will being him back for the Arc and, as he’s
still a
lightly-raced horse, I think there is more improvement to come, so we’ll hope for
the best.”
In the €130,000 Prix Foy (Fr-G2), the Arc trial
for older horses, Normandie Stud’s homebred DUNCAN (Dalakhani) claimed another
notable victory for trainer John Gosden and rider William Buick. One day after
the yard captured the St Leger (Eng-G1) with the Breeders’ Cup-bound Arctic
Cosmos (North Light [Ire]), Duncan made the most of a canny front-running ride.
The 12-1 shot was headed in the stretch, but came again to fend off the Japanese colt Nakayama Festa
(Stay Gold) and Timos (Sholokhov) and prevail by three-quarters of a
length. Duncan took 2:35 4/5 to finish the 1 1/2-mile test, earning his biggest
career victory.
None of the late runners got involved in a race
dominated by the leader and stalkers. Following Nakayama Festa and Timos under
the line was even-money favorite Byword (Peintre Celebre), who was stretching
out to this distance for the first time. Next came Daryakana (Selkirk) and
United Nations S. (G1) winner Chinchon (Ire) (Marju).
“We expected a typical French race with not much pace and so it was the
English
horse who made it,” Gosden said. “Even though he was caught for speed
turning for home,
he stayed on nicely and it was a satisfactory performance. We’d love to come
back for the first Sunday in October, but we’ll have to see if the owner wants
to supplement him.”
Duncan, who was exiting a fourth in the July 30
Glorious S. (Eng-G3) at Goodwood, had previously finished runner-up to the
world’s superstar Harbinger in the June 19 Hardwicke S. (Eng-G2) at Royal
Ascot. His only prior stakes coup had come in the 2009 Buckhounds S. at Ascot.