The Aidan O’Brien-trained Whistlejacket saw off every challenge in Sunday’s 154th Prix Morny (G1) at Deauville, a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1).
Wheeling back just eight days after his runner-up effort in the Phoenix (G1) at the Curragh, the speedy colt appreciated a less demanding track here. Two starts ago at Newmarket, Whistlejacket wired the July (G2), and he found Deauville similarly conducive to his style.
The 2.70-1 favorite showed his trademark early dash along the stands’ side trail. Arabie, Estepona, and Arabian Dusk attended, but Whistlejacket gradually got away from his early pursuers.
The main threat came from off the pace, as British shipper Rashabar stayed on strongly on the far outside. Last seen shocking Royal Ascot’s Coventry (G2) at 80-1, Rashabar was still viewed rather skeptically as a 12-1 shot in the Morny. But the Brian Meehan pupil backed up his Coventry score by pushing Whistlejacket all the way to the line.
Whistlejacket held off Rashabar by three-quarters of a length. Under Ryan Moore, who was reportedly notching his 200th career Group 1 victory, the chestnut negotiated about six furlongs down the good-to-soft straightway in 1:11.02.
French filly Daylight fared best of the home team in third, another three-quarters of a length adrift. The daughter of freshman sire Earthlight was a tad unlucky as she didn’t have a clear passage in traffic. Next came Arabie, Epson Blue Cen, Polyvega, Arabian Dusk, Estepona, and Shareholder, the disappointment of the race.
Shareholder had won the previous Breeders’ Cup Challenge event in this division, the Norfolk (G2) at Royal Ascot, leaving Whistlejacket behind in fourth. But in their Sunday rematch, Shareholder was already beaten by the halfway mark in a surprisingly lackluster display.
By 2013 Morny hero No Nay Never, Whistlejacket was handing O’Brien his fifth victory in Deauville’s marquee race for two-year-olds. The master of Ballydoyle was also responsible for Orpen (1998), Fasliyev (1999), Johannesburg (2001), and Blackbeard (2022), himself a son of No Nay Never.
Blackbeard and Johannesburg both went on to win the Middle Park (G1), and O’Brien indicated that Sept. 28 feature at Newmarket is next for Whistlejacket.
Campaigned by Peter Brant and the Coolmore partners, Whistlejacket shares his name with the 18th-century Thoroughbred immortalized in the painting by George Stubbs. The chestnut is out of the Group 3-placed stakes victress Adventure Seeker, a Bering mare who is a granddaughter of 1983 Horse of the Year and French champion All Along.
Whistlejacket is a full brother to another O’Brien star in Little Big Bear, Europe’s champion two-year-old of 2022. Little Big Bear’s most dynamic performance came in the Phoenix, where he romped by seven lengths. Whistlejacket was unable to emulate him in the Aug. 10 renewal as the odds-on favorite. Softened up by early pressure that day, Whistlejacket was caught by the unbeaten filly Babouche.
Indeed, Whistlejacket has been vulnerable in races that require more finishing power than speed. He was overturned in his six-furlong debut at the Curragh by Cowardofthecounty, the eventual winner of the Prix Francois Boutin (G3). Whistlejacket rebounded on the cutback to five furlongs in the First Flier S. at the same venue. His ensuing wins have come over another furlong, but on speed-friendly courses.
A turning five furlongs in the Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar should suit Whistlejacket, and O’Brien is considering him as a candidate. Rashabar is likely to aim for the Breeders’ Cup, but with a different target. Meehan rightly sees the Holy Roman Emperor colt as the type for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) over a mile.
