The Weekly Wrap

One of the downsides of Newmarket's refusal to return the G1 Darley July Cup card to its rightful midweek slot is that it's almost impossible to digest fully the many decent races that were staged across Britain and Ireland last Saturday.

Newmarket's Group 1 sprint brought a new young buck to the fore when Harry Angel (Ire) claimed the Darley-sponsored contest for Godolphin on Sheikh Mohammed's birthday. But, on a weekend when it was announced that the sheikh's widely loved maroon-and-white silks would be brought back to the racecourse in his daughter's name, one of the most famous horses associated with those colours, Singspiel (Ire), was represented by a sprinter whose efforts over a number of seasons should not go unheralded.

Now 10, Take Cover (GB) is, in the words of his owner-breeder Andrew Hollis, a “once-in-a-lifetime horse,” but the early signs were not promising for the veteran who is now the winner of 11 of his 36 starts after only starting his racing career in the October of his 4-year-old season.

“He was broken in at two but a vet saw him then and said he had such bad knees that he'd never race,” says Hollis, who also previously campaigned the homebred treble listed winner Polar Jem (GB) (Polar Falcon). “He went to Jane Chapple-Hyam's and showed very little and I was about to lease him to a girl to ride in apprentice races but then she broke her leg and didn't want him.”

Take Cover returned to Hollis's Norcroft Park Stud and eventually went back into training at four, winning his first three starts for George Margarson before switching to David Griffiths, for whom he has twice won the G2 Qatar King George S. at Glorious Goodwood, as well as two runnings of the Listed John Smith's City Walls S., the second being last Saturday at York.

“We'll go back to Goodwood and aim to win the King George for a third time, which I'm told would be a record,” Hollis says. “He likes York and he's been third in the Nunthorpe so we'll have another crack at that but I can't see him going on past the end of this year. There are so many youngsters coming through that it's going to get tough for him, but he's done us proud and has won more than £500,000 in prize-money. I can't imagine he'd have achieved as much as he has if we'd tried to race him as a 2-year-old.”

Take Cover's sire Singspiel died back in 2010, but his homebred dam, Enchanted (GB) (Magic Ring {Ire}), is still at Norcroft Park in Nottinghamshire, having won five times on the track for Hollis, a solicitor with his own legal practice.

“Enchanted is 18 now but doesn't look her age,” added her breeder. “She wasn't covered this year but has a Nathaniel (Ire) filly foal and a yearling colt by Nathaniel, as well as 2-year-old colt by Sepoy (Aus). They have a lot to live up to.”

Reliable Man? Yes, One Does Exist…

I've never quite forgiven Alamshar (Ire) for his half-length triumph in the G1 Irish Derby which meant that Dalakhani (Ire), the object of my obsession in the 2003 Flat season, would end his racing career with just one blip on an otherwise faultless record. Two years later I met a man who, to my horror, had named a cat after his favourite horse, Alamshar. I eventually overlooked this unfortunate behaviour enough to marry him, even though his grasp of genetics wasn't good enough to realise that the feline Alamshar, being tortoiseshell, was actually female.

The naming of cats that arrive in our yard, usually without invitation, after one of the current year's Classic winners has continued and we have a grey Natagora along with an errant Camelot, who seems to have decided that the grub is better at one of our neighbour's houses.

Dalakhani had of course won the G1 Prix du Jockey Club prior to his Irish challenge and he went on to sire a winner of that same race (albeit at the shortened distance), Reliable Man (GB), who now spends his time shuttling between Germany and New Zealand.

Beating It's A Dundeel (NZ) to win the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. at Randwick as a 5-year-old after switching from France to Chris Waller's stable did wonders to boost Reliable Man's appeal to Southern Hemisphere breeders. He now provides some illustrious middle-distance genes at Westbury Stud, where last year he covered 160 mares following an initial crop of 85 foals.

The grandson of Sven Hanson's Oaks winner Fair Salinia (GB) (Petingo {GB}) has already been represented by a Group 1 runner-up with his first Southern Hemisphere crop, Belle Du Nord (NZ) having finished a length and a half behind Melody Belle (NZ) (Commands {Aus}) in the G1 Manawatu Sires' Produce S. in April. Last week Narella (Ger), from the first crop of just 34 foals to be sired from his base at Gestut Rottgen, strode home a winner at the stud's local track, Cologne. Narella is trained within the beautiful walled oasis on the outskirts of the city that is home not only to Reliable Man and another Australian Group 1 winner, the Melbourne Cup hero Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}), but also to the string of horses trained by Markus Klug, who recently sent out the G1 Deutsches Derby winner Windstoss (Ger) (Schirocco {Ger}) in the Rottgen colours.

It will be worth watching out for Reliable Man's son Chairman's Choice (GB), who will be a very special runner eventually for Sven Hanson as he is out of the owner-breeder's treble Group 1 winner, Pride (Fr) (Peintre Celebre) and thus a half-brother to the dual Group 2 winner One Foot In Heaven (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}). The juvenile colt is not yet listed as being with a trainer, but with his sire, dam and siblings all having been prepared by Alain de Royer Dupre, it's a safe bet that he too will end up at the same stable in Chantilly.

The 50% Club…

Frankel (GB) not only set a furious pace in his races, but he has maintained a strong gallop throughout his stud career to date. He still boasts a 50% winners-to-runners strike rate at the head of the second-crop sires' table for Europe and his stakes tally gained another boost on Sunday when the Juddmonte-bred Finche (GB), a half-brother to top-level winners Proviso (GB) and Dansili {GB}) and Byword (GB) (Peintre Celebre), landed the G2 Prix Eugene Adam at Maisons-Laffitte.

We've mentioned it here before but, if early signs are anything to go by, Dabirsim (Fr) continues to look like a stallion we should be taking very seriously indeed, and he heads the European freshman table, also with a 50% strike-rate, with nine winners from 18 runners. Admittedly, he has just one stakes winner to his name so far, the G3 Albany S. victrix Different League (Fr) who is unbeaten in three starts, but the ratio of Dabirsim's runners who are winning first time out has been eye-catching. The Gemini Stud homebred Audacious Girl (Fr) was the latest to strike at Maisons-Laffitte on Sunday.

While he was well supported numerically during his first season at Gestut Karlshof, the quality of the mares he covered will have been nowhere near the level of Frankel's first book– though that can be said for most stallions. Now resident at Haras de Grandcamp, Dabirsim will be one to follow closely as the juvenile races step up a gear in the second half of the season, but at this stage it could well be that Normandy has another exciting young stallion prospect to crow about.

Whip-crack-away Not for Grey…

The whip has been in the news of late and, while many racing professionals attest to its continued use as a necessity, there's always an exception to any rule. The William Haggas-trained stayer Theydon Grey (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) has been progressing through the ranks steadily and will have a mark in the 90s following his most recent win on Saturday. It was his third in a row at York, a course clearly as beloved by the 4-year-old as it is by his locally-born trainer, but what made it stand out on a crowded day of action is that Georgia Cox never once picked up her stick on the front-runner despite a pretty determined challenge to his supremacy from runner-up Byron Flyer (Ire).

According to the trainer's wife Maureen Haggas, Theydon Grey simply does not respond to the whip in the same way as his competitors, but he continues to give his all under the sympathetic hands-and-heels riding of rising young apprentice Cox, who has partnered him to all three of his victories this season.

Murphy's Magic Start…

Talking of rising stars, new trainer Olly Murphy barely has time to tweet about his latest winner before he's off to saddle another. The son of bloodstock agent Aiden Murphy and National Hunt trainer Anabel Murphy has recently served as assistant to Gordon Elliott, who not only laid down a serious challenge to Willie's Mullins's jumps championship title but recently sent out a Group 2 juvenile winner on the flat, apparently just for fun.

Murphy junior appears to have been taught well. Only returning to his native Warwickshire at the end of the jumps season, he sent out his first runner, Dove Mountain (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), on July 4 to win over 10 furlongs at Brighton. Five days later came his first National Hunt winner, Gold Class (GB) (Firebreak {GB}), over hurdles at Market Rasen, and on Sunday he notched his first double, with Pershing (GB) (Mount Nelson {GB}) at Southwell and Sky Of Stars (Ire) (Frozen Power {Ire}) at Stratford, while on the same day Varene De Vauzelle (Fr) (Assessor {Ire}) was beaten just a short-head. Murphy's tally now stands at four winners and four seconds from just 10 runners. Watch this space.