One of those Ballydoyle juveniles who can make giant strides from start one to two, Montreal (Sea The Stars) looked every inch a 2026 Derby prospect as he stormed to an eight-length maiden success at Leopardstown on Thursday. Always happy on the front end under Wayne Lordan, the 6-4 favourite who had been third over this mile trip and track last month set sail in the straight to put healthy daylight between him and the Jessica Harrington-trained Strikewhileitshot (Too Darn Hot).
“They went steady the last day and Ryan said he was a little bit green when they quickened,” his rider said of the sire's 21st TDN Rising Star who is a half-brother to the G2 Blandford Stakes winner and Irish Oaks runner-up Cayenne Pepper (Australia). “Today he got out a bit more professional and went a nice even gallop-I knew the way I quickened he was going to put some distance between them and I went out through the line pretty well. Whatever he does this year is a bonus, as I think he'll stay next year.”
This was won 12 months ago by another TDN Rising Star in Hill Road, who went on to win the Peter Pan and run third in the Jim Dandy and Ballydoyle representative Chris Armstrong sees him as another middle-distance prospect. “He was going nicely at home before his first run, but he jumped slow and was just a bit green and immature,” he said. “He's improved nicely in the two weeks at home. Wayne controlled it from the front setting a nice even tempo and kept gradually building it up.”
“All the big options for the rest of the year are open to him and he'll be a lovely middle-distance horse for next year,” he added. “He's put himself in the mix to come back here on Champions Weekend for the [G2] Champion Juvenile.”
Pedigree Notes
Montreal is the ninth and currently last known foal out of Shadwell's Muwakaba (Elusive Quality), with one of them being the stable's useful G2 Champions Juvenile fourth Howth (Churchill). Her standout is the aforementioned Cayenne Pepper, who also captured the G3 Flame of Tara Stakes and was placed in two renewals of the Pretty Polly as well as the Curragh Classic and was a 2million gns purchase by Tom Magnier at 2021 Tattersalls December.
Key to Magnier's interest in the half-sibling is the fact that the third dam is Allegretta (Lombard), responsible for the generation-shaping Arc heroine Urban Sea (Miswaki). That means Montreal has inbreeding, with Sea The Stars sitting proud alongside Galileo under her auspices, and it also means that he has the Derby flowing through his veins.
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