By Chris McGrath
Even John Oxx, a man of rare placidity and dignity, must have been tempted to permit himself some private resentment at Leopardstown Sunday, when Harzand (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) provided a piquant measure of the void he must again try to fill in the new campaign. Oxx has not had a Group 1 winner since 2009, when this colt's sire carried all before him, having in the meantime endured the defection of the Aga Khan after an association stretching a quarter of a century. While Oxx will acknowledge that his former mainstay is perfectly entitled to stable his horses wherever he pleases, it would only be human for him to feel at least mildly aggrieved by missing out on Harzand, in particular.
For quite apart from the masterly supervision of his sire's career, Oxx also trained Harzand's dam, Hazariya (Ire) (Xaar {GB}), to win at group level for the Aga Khan before breaking down in the 2005 G1 Irish Oaks. Moreover, he won races with all four of her previous foals to have made the track, gaining black-type with three. Oxx will be bleakly certain that Harzand, with his sturdy build and pedigree, is going to keep progressing with time and distance.
Certainly his success in the G3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax S., a fortnight after a 16-length maiden success at Cork, marks Harzand out as a 3-year-old of authentic Classic potential for Dermot Weld, who has supplanted Oxx as the Aga Khan's principal trainer in Ireland over the past couple of years. Weld, whose horses have started the season very purposefully, plainly expects this one to keep up the momentum and is entitled to send him to one of the premier Derby trials next. But his stable jockey, Pat Smullen, admitted to reservations whether so heavy-topped a colt would handle Epsom, and is already thinking in terms of the G1 St Leger. It must be said that this race was run at a strong tempo in demanding conditions, yet Harzand only really got rolling in the straight.
The colt he ran down in the closing stages himself looks a most interesting type, certainly eligible for the already crowded carousel of Derby candidates at Ballydoyle. 'TDN Rising Star' Idaho (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) still looked a little green in raking his way from last to first, but showed a taking gusto in doing so, and may prove better yet once restored to the faster going on which he was so impressive in his maiden last autumn. Idaho was fast-tracked to Group 1 company in France barely a fortnight after that debut, and may well have found the going too slow there even in finishing a creditable fourth. Certainly his brother, Highland Reel (Ire), is extremely well suited by fast going. Regardless, Idaho pulled 7 1/2 lengths clear of the third-place finisher Sunday and it shows the power of hype that this handsome colt should remain 25-1 for Epsom when his stablemate, US Army Ranger (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), is as short as 4-1 after winning a mere maiden a week previously.
Spring in Ballydoyle's Step…
It is already easy to imagine Aidan O'Brien once again saddling several horses in the Derby, but he has already indicated that he is likely to leave all his eggs in one basket for the G1 2000 Guineas. This unusual strategy suggests an ominous faith in Air Force Blue (War Front), and certainly the champion juvenile's contemporaries at Ballydoyle could not be giving their trainer a firmer sense of where he stands this spring. Three of them won races at Leopardstown last Wednesday–notably a filly named Somehow (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) whose stylish maiden success volunteered her as a plausible candidate to emulate her dam, the 2006 G1 Oaks winner Alexandrova (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) –and yesterday O'Brien saddled two more 3-year-old winners there by Coolmore's champion sire.
The debutant Bhutan (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) stretched clear in a maiden over 10 furlongs, while Black Sea (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) just got up in a three-way photo for the Leopardstown 2000 Guineas Trial–quite a spectacle, for a race reduced to four runners by O'Brien's withdrawal of the original favourite, Johannes Vermeer (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Like the Ballysax, this was run at a pretty earnest pace for a trial in tacky ground and Ryan Moore produced his mount with an expert combination of timing and restraint.
Moore was unable to reel in the first two when riding the favourite for the fillies' equivalent, but Alice Springs (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) seemed to find the conditions too sticky for her brisk action and in essence shaped nicely enough on her first start since the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Conversely the race-fit Jet Setting (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}) had shown her comfort in heavy conditions when winning a maiden at Cork–on the same card as Harzand, in fact–and saw out the race well from the front. In the process she put quite a feather in the cap of her trainer, Adrian Keatley, who bought her out of Richard Hannon's yard for just 12,000 guineas at the Tattersalls Horses-in-Training Sale last autumn and will now consider supplementing her to the German 1000 Guineas.
Two Filled Vacancies in France…
Fitness was also a factor in the G2 Prix d'Harcourt at Chantilly yesterday, Galingari (Fr) (Linngari {Ire}) having already had four races since the turn of the year. Nonetheless there was a theatrical aptness to this breakthrough success, just days after his remarkable trainer had announced the retirement of Cirrus Des Aigles (Fr) (Even Top {Ire}). Corine Barande-Barbe will now aim this late-maturing 5-year-old at the G1 Prix Ganay, three of the past four runnings of which she won with that indefatigable globetrotter.
Of those who finished behind Galingari, none was more disappointing than Ampere (Fr) (Galileo {Ire}). Runner-up in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris on only the third start of a light first campaign, he was soon off the bridle and clearly has some kind of mental or physical issue. But Andre Fabre could be consoled by the promise shown by his other runner, Harlem (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}). Another unexposed 4-year-old, he appeared to be coping readily with the step up in class when badly crowded in the straight. Vincent Cheminaud was unable to ride him out at all, but his mount held a midfield position under his own steam and it will be interesting to see where Fabre pitches him next.
Ribchester Out of Line…
Another French colt unable to show his true colours this week was Vedevani (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}), well fancied for his reappearance in the G3 Prix Djebel at Maisons-Laffitte on Thursday, but lucky to keep his feet after Ribchester (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) lurched into him under the whip a furlong out. The British raider, second past the post, was relegated behind Vedevani (to fifth) and it must be hoped that his quirks do not hinder his fulfilment.
Godolphin bought the colt in training last season and, in keeping with its ongoing proliferation, kept him in Richard Fahey's yard. It is good to see Fahey getting a chance for one of the sport's biggest operators–so many of whom seem culpably indifferent to his achievements with cheaper horses–though the jury is out whether even he can turn Ribchester, quite a free-going type, into a miler. Given that Andre Fabre has ruled Ultra (Ire) (Manduro {Ger}) out of the early Classics, because of a splint problem, Godolphin's increasingly various trainers will be anxious to come up with one or two feasible types to resist the massing Classic cavalry of Ballydoyle at the Craven meeting, which opens at Newmarket Tuesday.
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