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Royal Card comes up trumps as first winner for Chapel Royal At Keeneland on Saturday, Grade 2 star CHAPEL ROYAL (Montbrook) recorded his first winner as a freshman sire when his juvenile daughter Royal Card rolled to victory in the 3RD race. Making her career debut, the Todd Pletcher pupil unseated jockey John Velazquez in the post parade and ran off for a furlong, but her pre-race adventures did not compromise her strong effort. The dark bay filly tracked the early pace on the outside, rallied into contention while wide on the far turn, and smoothly drew 1 3/4 lengths clear for her owners, Elite Racing Partners. Royal Card, who was dispatched as the nearly 5-2 second choice in the nine-horse field, completed 4 1/2 Polytrack furlongs in :50 4/5. Chapel Royal, another alumnus of the Pletcher barn, was one of the leading juveniles of 2003. The dark bay romped by 9 1/4 lengths in his career bow at Belmont Park in May, and he quickly followed up with daylight triumphs in the Flash S. (G3) and Sanford S. (G2). Runner-up in the Hopeful S. (G1) and Champagne S. (G1), Chapel Royal concluded his campaign with a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). He ultimately retired with a mark of 8-3-2-1, $495,571. From the male line of the great Buckpasser, Chapel Royal features a pedigree free of Northern Dancer, Raise a Native and Bold Ruler. He was produced by the winning Cutlass mare Cut Class Leanne, who is out of a half-sister to Canadian Horse of the Year and Broodmare of the Year Fanfreluche (Northern Dancer). Among Fanfreluche's notable progeny are L'Enjoleur (Buckpasser), a two-time Canadian Horse of the Year and sire, and fellow Canadian champions La Voyageuse (Tentam) and Medaille d'Or (Secretariat). Chapel Royal's third dam is the multiple Canadian stakes queen and highly influential broodmare Ciboulette (Chop Chop), whose other notable descendants include Flying Spur (Danehill), a multiple Australian Group 1 star and noted sire, and Holy Roman Emperor (Danehill), a French highweight as a juvenile. The seven-year-old Chapel Royal stands at Coolmore's Ashford Stud near Versailles, Kentucky, for $10,000, live foal.
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