Andrew Caulfield on Phoenix Reach

RACING POST TROPHY-G1, £216,000, DON, 10-25, 2yo, 8fT, 1:43.82, sf. 
1–ELM PARK (GB), 127, c, 2, by Phoenix Reach (Ire) 
     1st Dam: Lady Brora (GB), by Dashing Blade (GB) 
     2nd Dam: Tweed Mill (GB), by Selkirk 
     3rd Dam: Island Mill, by Mill Reef 
O-Qatar Racing & Kingsclere Racing; B-Kingsclere 
Stud (GB); T-Andrew Balding; J-Andrea Atzeni. 
£122,493. Lifetime Record: 5-4-0-1, £212,040. Werk 
Nick Rating: C+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 
Click for the Racing Post result, the brisnet.com PPs or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, courtesy attheraces.com. 
In the 13 years prior to Saturday's edition of the Racing Post Trophy, this Group 1 mile contest had been won by four future winners of the Derby, two of the St Leger, two of the Irish Derby, one of the 2,000 Guineas and one of the French 2,000 Guineas, with a Breeders' Cup Turf winner thrown in for good measure. 
The stallions involved in this impressive baker's dozen included such stand-outs as Montjeu, Galileo, Shamardal, Rainbow Quest, Machiavellian and Sadler's Wells, who were collectively responsible for 10 of the 13. 
It therefore makes an interesting change that the latest impressive winner, the Phoenix Reach colt Elm Park, has a much less fashionable pedigree than most of his predecessors. It is worth remembering at this point that one of the most famous winners of this contest, which has had a variety of names, was Vaguely Noble. This son of the none-too-fashionable Vienna held no Classic entries but went on to defeat the 2,000 Guineas and Derby winner Sir Ivor in the Arc. 
Elm Park was conceived in 2011, when his sire Phoenix Reach was advertised by the National Stud as a dual-purpose sire, at a fee of only £2,500. Despite his modest fee, Phoenix Reach covered only 25 mares, for 16 foals, including a few out of mares who had raced over hurdles and fences. The stallion's connections decided the time had come for a change and Phoenix Reach moved to Mickley Stud, where the switch in emphasis to jumping mares accelerated. 
The fact that Elm Park is the first group winner from Phoenix Reach's first five crops sounds much more damning than it is. Those five crops contained only 114 foals, all of them sired at fees of £3,500 or less. A couple of Elm Park's predecessors, Whiplash Willie and Rawaki, have shown form worthy of a stakes winner. Whiplash Willie, for example, has run well in several of Europe's top stayers' races this year. 
All three of these good performers are trained by Andrew Balding, who owes a considerable debt to Phoenix Reach. This son of Alhaarth helped put the young trainer on the map in the years immediately following his taking over the licence from his father at Park House Stables, Kingsclere. 
In my role of correspondent to a Japanese magazine, I was tasked with asking Andrew Balding about Phoenix Reach prior to his challenge for the 2004 Japan Cup. 
“He's an amazing horse,” he told me. “He's been beset by injuries and setbacks his whole career. I think without those he could have been a champion–and he could still be now. 
“He was beaten a head by Norse Dancer in his first start at two and then suffered a fracture to his pastern. 
“He had to have a year off, but won his first race back very easily,” Balding recalled. “He was having only his third career start when he won the G3 Gordon S. and then was third in the St Leger. He was still quite inexperienced when he went all the way to Canada to win the Canadian International. 
“We had his pastern X-rayed again during the winter, just to check that everything was fine, and the X-rays revealed a slight problem which required a small clip being inserted into his fetlock again. He came out of that well and ran a very good race in the Prince of Wales's S. Then he went to France, where he was beaten four lengths in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, but he needed that run. 
“Sadly, he was suffering from a viral infection when he ran in the King George. It has taken him a long time to recover, but he seems right back to his best now.” 
Phoenix Reach was far from disgraced in Japan, finishing a creditable sixth of 16, and the run had him in perfect shape for the G1 Hong Kong Vase two weeks later, which he won. His rich vein of form continued when he moved on to Dubai, for the very valuable Dubai Sheema Classic. That became his third international Group 1 success and he later went quite close to winning a Group 1 in Singapore. His earnings fell just short of the equivalent of £2 million, and we can only wonder what heights he might have scaled had he proved less susceptible to injury. 
Although Phoenix Reach was highly accomplished, breeders could be forgiven for not stampeding to support him in his new role as a stallion in 2007. He had sold comparatively cheaply as a weanling and a yearling, perhaps because none of his first three dams had won. His dam Carroll's Canyon was an unraced daughter of Hatim, a very disappointing stallion. However, Carroll's Canyon was a half-sister to Carroll House, winner of the Arc and Irish Champion S., but a disappointment as a stallion in Japan. The fact that all three of Phoenix Reach's Group 1 wins were gained over a mile and a half wouldn't have made it any easier to attract support from commercial breeders. 
Fortunately the Balding family wasn't about to forget what Phoenix Reach had done for them, and Elm Park's dam, Lady Brora, has a pedigree which combines some of the finest performers to have been trained at Kingsclere during the last 50 years. 
The sequence starts with Elm Park's fifth dam Anippe, who was sent out by Ian Balding to win two of her five juvenile starts in 1965. That was the second year Balding had held the licence. He had formerly assisted Captain Hastings-Bass, the trainer who had bought Kingsclere in the early 1950s. Sadly Hastings-Bass died at the age of only 43 in June 1964. Balding later married the Captain's daughter Emma, who can take credit for breeding Elm Park under the name of Kingsclere Stud. 
Balding had been only 26 when he took over the licence. Even so, he made an impressive start, notably sending out Paul Mellon's Tom Fool colt Silly Season to win the 1964 Dewhurst S. Silly Season went on to win the Champion S. at three. 
It wasn't long before Silly Season and Anippe met again, this time in the breeding shed, the resultant foal being Elm Park's fourth dam, Siliciana. This filly, who was bred by Ian Balding, recorded her first important success for Balding in 1972, when she took the G3 Prix de Flore over 1 5/16 miles. Siliciana later landed one of Britain's most competitive handicaps, the Cambridgeshire, and her form was good enough to earn her access to some of the best racehorses of that era. She produced three foals to Mill Reef, the brilliant racehorse who will always rank as Ian Balding's finest achievement as a trainer. One of the three was Elm Park's third dam Island Mill, who gained her only success for Balding over the St Leger course and distance. 
The next link in the chain was Island Mill's daughter Tweed Mill, who was by Selkirk, an outstanding miler who was sent out by Balding to win the 1991 Queen Elizabeth II S. Like many a daughter of Selkirk, Tweed Mill handled very soft ground and she won over 1 1/16 miles at Epsom. 
For the final link, the Baldings sent Tweed Mill all the way to Germany in 2004 to visit Dashing Blade, another alumnus of Ian Balding's stable. A winner of the G1 National S. and G1 Dewhurst S. at two, Dashing Blade went on to prove he stayed a mile and a half at three, landing important races in France and Italy. 
Part of Dashing Blade's appeal as a mate for Tweed Mill was that he was by Elegant Air, who showed smart form for the Balding-Mellon partnership. As Elegant Air was a grandson of Mill Reef, Island Mill's Dashing Blade foal, Lady Brora, is inbred 4×3 to this great horse. With 16% stakes winners and nearly 10% group winners, Mill Reef confirmed that he was just as brilliant as a stallion as he had been at virtually every stage of his racecourse career. 
Lady Broare is also inbred 3×3 to the high-class 2-year-old sprinter Sharpen Up. The inbreeding didn't impart any special talents to the filly as a racehorse, her only victory in 12 starts coming in a one-mile all-weather event. However, it is beginning to look as though it has been a considerable help to Lady Brora as a broodmare. Elm Park is her second foal (and he is followed by a colt by Shirocco and a filly by Passing Glance). 
Elm Park has now won the last four of his five starts, generally showing that he has an excellent cruising speed. While he can be expected to shine over a mile and a half, I see no reason why he shouldn't be effective over shorter distances at the start of his second season. His grandsire Alhaarth started favorite for the 1996 2,000 Guineas and ended his 3-year-old campaign with an all-the-way group victory over a mile.