Euro Breeders’ Cup hopefuls spotlighted this weekend
British sprinter FLEETING SPIRIT (Ire) (Invincible Spirit) is primed for
action in Sunday’s Prix de l’Abbaye (Fr-G1) at Longchamp, with a view to
stepping out in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on
November 7.
France’s premier sprint race, the Prix de l’Abbaye is one of three Breeders’
Cup Challenge races remaining of the 11 allocated in Europe this year and
victory will earn the winner a qualifying berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf
Sprint. The other two European races still to come in the Breeders’ Cup
Challenge are the Diamond S. (Ire-G3) at Dundalk on Friday, with the winner
earning a place in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon, and the Champion S. (Eng-G1) at
Newmarket on October 17, for which the victor is guaranteed a spot in the $3
million Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1).
Jeremy Noseda trains Fleeting Spirit for The Searchers partnership that
includes well-known British owner Andy Stewart, and the filly will be bidding to
better her fourth-place finish behind Desert Code (E Dubai) in last year’s
Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Desert Code has finished off-the-board in three of
his four 2009 starts, including Wednesday’s Morvich H. (G3), but Fleeting Spirit
has already enjoyed top-level success this season with a victory over an
international field in the July Cup (Eng-G1) at Newmarket, her home track.
That triumph was sandwiched between narrow reversals in the King’s Stand S.
(Eng-G1) at Royal Ascot, when second to Australian powerhouse Scenic Blast
(Scenic [Ire]), and the Sprint Cup (Eng-G1) at Haydock.
“We’ll be aiming Fleeting Spirit at the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint again,”
said Stewart, speaking from the Caribbean. “I think the six and a half furlongs
is well within her scope. I’d sooner it was five and a half or six furlongs but
on the Santa Anita surface, I don’t think the extra half-furlong will trouble
her too much. Jeremy feels the same, as do (jockey) Tom Queally and her work
rider, so we will give it a go.
“She was beaten at Haydock by Regal Parade (Pivotal) but who knows what might
have happened if the ground had been on the faster side. The six furlongs at
Haydock came up like a mile and she coped with it.”
Fleeting Spirit relishes a sound surface, something she was denied at Haydock
when the going was good to soft, and Stewart is hoping the filly gets her
favored conditions in both France and California.
“Fleeting Spirit will run on Sunday; she’s favourite for the Prix de l’Abbaye
and we just hope there is no rain,” he said. “I’m told by Jeremy Noseda that
there might be some rain in Paris but that the ground will be on the fast side
of good.”
“I’m absolutely delighted with her this season,” Stewart added. “She began
well in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot when she was second to Scenic
Blast who, at one point, everyone thought would dominate, and we turned him over
quite substantially at Newmarket in the July Cup. We are not disappointed with
her latest run, given the ground conditions.
“We are hoping to be drawn reasonably low for the Prix de l’Abbaye and after
Longchamp we’ll then focus on the Breeders’ Cup, but we’re quite relaxed at the
moment.”
Another Breeders’ Cup hopeful heading to Longchamp this weekend is Lord and
Lady Lloyd-Webber’s DAR RE MI (Singspiel [Ire]), who will contest the Prix de
l’Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1) on Sunday.
The four-year-old filly won the Pretty Polly S. (Ire-G1) at the Curragh in
June, one of the 11 Breeders’ Cup Challenge races, to qualify for the $2 million
Filly & Mare Turf (G1) on November 6, but her connections are also considering
taking on the males in the Turf the following day.
Dar Re Mi was controversially disqualified from first place in the Prix
Vermeille (Fr-G1) at Longchamp on September 13, having seen off French Oaks
(Fr-G1) heroine Stacelita (Monsun). The bay lass had previously beaten this
year’s Epsom (Eng-G1) and Irish Oaks (Ire-G1) heroine Sariska (Pivotal) in the
Yorkshire Oaks (Eng-G1) and had 2008 Epsom Oaks winner Look Here (Hernando [Fr])
back in third when taking the Pretty Polly.
Dar Re Mi runs in the pink colors of Lord Lloyd-Webber, better known for his
Broadway and West End hits such as “Evita,” “Cats” and “The Phantom of the
Opera.”
“Dar Re Mi is qualified for the Filly & Mare Turf but we will see how things
go in the Arc before deciding where she goes — she could yet run in the
Breeders’ Cup Turf,” Simon Marsh, the Lloyd-Webbers’ racing manager, revealed
Thursday. “We entered her for the Arc back in May with an autumn campaign in
mind and she has delighted us. She has only run four times this season and has
finished first in three Group 1s, beating two English Oaks winners and a French
Oaks winner, so she really is a great filly and a pleasure to be involved with.”
Muhannak (Ire) (Chester House) won the Diamond at Dundalk en route to
Breeders’ Cup Marathon success last year and this season’s renewal of the
extended 10-furlong contest, staged on Polytrack, sees trainer Joe Murphy hoping
one of his stable stars can tread the same path as Ralph Beckett’s charge.
The County Tipperary handler will saddle NORTHGATE (Mujadil) in Friday’s Diamond, with
a view to challenging for Breeders’ Cup honors in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup
Marathon at Santa Anita on November 6. Northgate, fourth to Muhannak at Dundalk
12 months ago, is a regular at the track and warmed up for the Diamond on
October 2 with a course and distance victory over the Aidan O’Brien-trained
Augustusthestrong (A.P. Indy) on September 25.
“Northgate won well last week at the track and is likely to go across to
Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup Marathon after Friday’s race,” Murphy said.
“He would be ideal for America, he loves the artificial surface, the lights,
everything. He has a higher rating on the Polytrack than on grass so Santa Anita
would suit him.”
There are 12 declarations for the Diamond S., with the likely hot favorite
trained just a short distance from Murphy’s Fethard stable. MASTERCRAFTSMAN
(Danehill Dancer), winner of this year’s Irish Two Thousand Guineas (Ire-G1) and
St James’s Palace S. (Eng-G1) at Royal Ascot for O’Brien, is having his
prep for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) in the Dundalk race.