Weekly Wrap With Chris McGrath for Sept. 19

My favourite story of the week is also a perfect story for the time of year; a time when all of us–the dreamers, and the cynics, and everyone in between–follow each new yearling round the ring much as gamblers do the ball bouncing round the roulette wheel. Of course, the business needs the guys who pile millions on odd-or-even, red-or-black. But it also needs them to watch in bemusement, from time to time, as their chips are scooped by the fellow who has staked his modest all at far more precarious odds. The ball bounces, wobbles, and finally snags into a numbered groove: the wrong colour for many, but exactly the right number for one. And, because this game calls for skill as well as luck, that man will often turn out to be Bobby O'Ryan.

Reprising the remarkable rise of Polish champion Va Bank (Ire) (Archipenko), you just knew it had to be Bobby who found him for €4,500. There he was, hidden among 587 lots in the Tattersalls September Yearling Sale of 2013, unable to meet even the sire's £6,000 covering fee for Airlie. But O'Ryan has always bought flesh and blood, rather than catalogue pages. That was how he procured a G1 2000 Guineas winner for 30 grand; and that was how he found Wootton Bassett (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) for £46,000.

Va Bank, of course, has since gone on a dizzy unbeaten spree in Poland, looking in a different class from the local herd, and has now extended it beyond the border with a comfortable Group 3 success at Baden-Baden last month. And he dragged the runner-up, sent off odds-on after going down by just a length in Group 1 company on his previous start, six lengths clear of the rest. Having duly confirmed his calibre, he this week enabled his owners to cash in a 50% stake to those astute readers of international form as Team Valor–whose interest in exploring his stamina extends even to having the G1 Melbourne Cup in the back of their minds.

O'Ryan has charted the full span of life's blessings and burdens this summer. On the one hand, his CV reads better than ever through the sire of the outstanding Almanzor (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). On the other, he suffered the cruel loss of his cherished cousin Tom, a man no less respected in his own sphere of the business. Those watching O'Ryan work the sales this autumn will see the same old combination of hard graft and easy charm. But not all of them will have seen Va Bank. They will find the videos well worth a look. When a horse keeps on winning this way–he is now 12-for-12, one ahead of Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire})–you just don't know where things might stop. But you do know where they started.

Two Famous Mares Back on Track…

For every rags-to-riches champion, naturally, there will be one whose destiny seems written from the moment its dam was led into the covering shed. But either is equally vulnerable to the mishaps that delay or abort the fulfilment of potential. Certainly a lot of water has passed under the bridge–much of it turning the ground to the liking of Harzand (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire})–since those spring days when two of the best-bred 3-year-olds in Newmarket appeared born to win an Epsom Classic. Both, happily, now seem ready to make up for lost time.

Last week Midterm (GB) (Galileo {Ire})–the first foal of multiple Group 1 winner Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB})– made that sterling comeback at Chantilly, his first start since disappointing in his G1 Investec Derby rehearsal at York in May. True, he was permitted to control an undemanding gallop, and Makahiri (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) was able to run him down late very much in the fashion of a piece of work. But however flattering the margin, the fact is that Midterm ran a very plausible G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner to a neck when palpably in need of the run.

Things had gone rather better at the Dante meeting for So Mi Dar (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), whose impressive success there seemed to tee up a gripping Oaks showdown with Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Unfortunately she then suffered an injury, but the second foal of Dar Re Mi (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) made an immaculate resumption in a listed race over 10f at Yarmouth on Wednesday.

Albeit this was a sensible grade in which to get any freshness out of her system, So Mi Dar looks the type that will always go about her business with gusto. That may leave her a little vulnerable if stepped up to 12f, and the G1 Prix de l'Opera duly looks an ideal target. Moreover, whatever the limits to her physical development, the durability of her dam at the highest level augurs well for her prospects as a 4-year-old.

Atty Boy…

Dar Re Mi has a 2-year-old colt, by a certain rookie stallion, that has for some months now been mentioned in dispatches from Newmarket Heath. In the meantime, barely a week seems to pass without a fresh boost to the reputation of Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}). Things are now reaching the stage where his stock seem to have an identifiable trademark, Atty Persse (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) on his debut at Sandown on Wednesday only the latest to show a brio and physical buoyancy that somehow never brims over into reckless exuberance.

Backed into odds-on for his debut, he showed inexperience when asked to organise himself, but also an excellent attitude to knuckle down for a couple of slaps. He covers the ground really fluently, and saw out the Sandown hill in a manner that had the G1 Racing Post Trophy written all over it.

It is nice to think that Atty Persse may prove equal to the distinction of his christening, which preserves the memory of the great Henry Seymour Persse. Forever honoured as trainer of The Tetrarch, one of the fastest juveniles in history, Persse also schooled the young Cecil Boyd-Rochfort–who would, of course, one day hand over his own stable to his stepson, Frankel's trainer Henry Cecil. Auspiciously for his namesake, Atty Persse would leave far less scope for improvement in his young debutants than Roger Charlton.

The Beckhampton trainer may run Fair Eva (GB) (Frankel {Ire}) in the G2 Shadwell Rockfel S at Newmarket on Friday. How edifying to see two such athletic young prospects housed in the same stable where their sire's dam made her name.

Let's All Get Rich Quick…

Despite poor fertility, The Tetrarch left a profound impression on the 20th Century Thoroughbred. And he never raced at three, owing to injury. So we cannot be too dogmatic. Nonetheless, traditionalists will be depressed to see that Mehmas (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) announced as the latest to be heading to stud–not by accident, but by design–as a 3-year-old.

It worked big time for another son of the same sire, of course, in Dark Angel (Acclamation {GB}). And both his physique and his professional precocity make it pretty plain that Mehmas might struggle to maintain his current profile at three. But the road also taken by the likes of Zebedee (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Approve (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is not the hard road; not the road that fully explores traits that might best sustain the breed.

These sires can get you a fast horse; and they might very well make you a fast buck. But they will not–unlike The Tetrarch– get you three G1 St Leger winners! To those supporting these pubescent stallions, of course, that is precisely their dismal appeal.