Sunday Racing Co.’s Gentildonna, runner-up to the ill-fated St Nicholas Abbey
in last year’s Group 1, $5 million Dubai Sheema Classic, overcame a checkered
passage in the stretch to go one better on Saturday. Short of room when hemmed
in by 2012 Sheema hero Cirrus des Aigles, jockey Ryan Moore managed to extricate
her from the dicey situation, and the Deep Impact mare had the turn of foot to
turn a luckless defeat into a cozy victory.
The race was marred early by the tragedy that befell Mars. Once a
highly-regarded member of the Ballydoyle team, the well-bred son of Galileo was
making his third start for Mike de Kock, but things went horribly wrong. Mars
swerved out abruptly on the first turn, hampering a couple of rivals. He
ultimately crashed through the far outside rail and
collapsed, throwing Richard Hughes. The promising four-year-old
colt reportedly died of a suspected cardiac event.
Hughes was momentarily winded after landing on his back, and apparently
escaped with cuts and bruises. He was taken to the hospital for precautionary
X-rays.
Meanwhile, the Sheema field continued on, led in a surprising turn of events
by the filly Denim and Ruby, best known as a closer in Japan. Festive Cheer,
stablemate of 5-2 favorite Magician from the Aidan O’Brien yard, and American
hope Twilight Eclipse kept tabs on the leader. Ambivalent, the third distaffer
in the field, also took up a forward spot. Gentildonna, the second choice at
3-1, settled just about midpack, until creeping up behind the front rank
approaching the homestretch.
But Cirrus des Aigles was pinning her in under a nifty bit of race-riding by
Christophe Soumillon. The French gelding thereby launched his bid first, going
after Ambivalent, who had briefly gained the lead from the weakening Denim and
Ruby.
As Cirrus des Aigles punched clear, Gentildonna appeared to have suffered
costly trouble. Yet the mare wasn’t done yet. Altering course around Cirrus des
Aigles, Moore conjured up her best effort, and she rallied in deep stretch to
defeat Cirrus des Aigles by 1 1/2 lengths. She negotiated about 1 1/2 miles on
good turf in a course-record 2:27.25, vindicating trainer Sei Ishizaka’s belief that she was
indeed better than in her last trip to Dubai.
“She’s getting even better,” Ishizaka reiterated. “It was a tough race. Her
main target will be a third attempt at the Japan Cup. This was her second time
and she’s really getting used to being here and I thought she would make it when
Ryan shifted her to the outside. I am impressed with her gutsy performance.”
“It’s hard to know just how good she is because when she gets to the front
she doesn’t do a lot,” Moore said, “but she’s very tough, and a hard horse to
get to the bottom of.”
Soumillon praised the eight-year-old Cirrus des Aigles.
“He ran a fabulous race,” the rider said. “I thought that he was going to
win. Even when I saw Gentildonna, I thought she would find it difficult to catch
us. When my horse quickened, he did it really well but (Gentildonna) is an
outstanding champion and she beat us easily today. But I’m happy that he is once
again on the top of his game.”
Ambivalent ran the race of her life for third, only a half-length astern of
Cirrus des Aigles. Empoli garnered fourth in a blanket finish with Dominant,
Magician, Meandre, Mount Athos, Dunaden, Denim and Ruby, Excellent Result,
Twilight Eclipse and the distanced Festive Cheer and Dubday.
Adrie de Vries, who rode Empoli, regretted the interference he suffered from
Mars.
“When the horse ran off at the first bend, he wiped me out,” de Vries said.
“He did very well to run on into fourth — unlucky.”
Dubday was another compromised by the stricken Mars.
“I was lucky to stay on when Mars broke down (sic) and carried us out,”
jockey Frankie Dettori said. “I was looking at the turf where I was about to
fall, but he managed to find a leg and stayed upright. I gave him a chance to
get back in the race, but he really had no chance, so I let him come home in his
own time up the straight. There’ll be another day for him.”
Suguru Hamanaka, the jockey aboard Denim and Ruby, explained her reversal of
tactics.
“The start was quicker than expected which is why we took the front
position,” Hamanaka said. “She was exciting during the trip and couldn’t save
for the late run. This is not her racing style, so she didn’t run well today.”
In contrast, Twilight Eclipse got his usual trip, but couldn’t deliver.
“My horse was on his race (near the front),” jockey Jose Lezcano said. “I was
in the position I wanted to be, but when I asked him he didn’t go.”
Gentildonna boasts a line of 15-9-3-1, reflecting six Group 1 triumphs.
During her Japanese Horse of the Year season in 2012, she swept the Fillies’
Triple Crown — the Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas), Yushun Himba
(Japanese Oaks) and Shuka Sho — and prevailed in an all-out brawl with Orfevre
in the Japan Cup. She also scored in a pair of classic trials, the Nikkan Sports
Sho Shinzan Kinen over males and the Sho Rose.
After settling for second in the 2013 Sheema, Gentildonna finished third in
the Takarazuka Kinen. She returned from her summer vacation in the Tenno Sho
Autumn, where she ran into a buzzsaw named Just a Way. The Tenno Sho produced
two winners on World Cup night, for Just a Way scorched to a course
record-setting romp in the Duty Free.
Gentildonna got a rider switch to Moore for the November 24 Japan Cup, and
the two immediately hit it off. Under a well-timed ride, she beat Denim and Ruby
by a nose to become the first horse in history to win two Japan Cups.
Gentildonna resurfaced with a sixth in the February 16 Kyoto Kinen, but improved
from that tightener to earn glory in the desert.
Bred by Northern Racing in Japan, Gentildonna is a full sister to multiple
Grade 3 vixen Donau Blue, a multiple Group 1-placed performer who was most
recently second in the January 25 Kyoto Himba. They are out of the Group
1-winning Bertolini mare Donna Blini, victorious in the Cheveley Park and Cherry
Hinton in 2005.
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