All New

Photography by Debbie Burt

James Thomas reports on a Champions Day dominated by Ballylinch Stud’s New Bay

QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS DAY was meant to be Baaeed’s coronation, but with Shadwell’s homebred superstar losing his unbeaten record it was another name that gained a crowning achievement at Ascot.

Ballylinch Stud resident New Bay has long been regarded as a young stallion of considerable promise, but potential became reality in quite sensational fashion as the son of Dubawi supplied not one but two Group 1 winners on the card.

The first came when Bayside Boy, bred by Ballylinch, who co-own the colt with Teme Valley Racing, produced a storming late run to land the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes by a length and a quarter from Modern Games. Cheveley Park Stud’s Inspiral was sent off the short-priced favourite but was slowly away and ran a lacklustre race in sixth.

That was Bayside Boy’s first Group 1 triumph at the fifth attempt, although he had finished third behind Native Trail and Luxembourg in last year’s Dewhurst Stakes and Vertem Futurity Trophy. He had previously won the Group 2 Champagne Stakes and regained the winning thread in the Listed Chasemore Farm Fortune Stakes prior to his Ascot heroics.

A stylish performance from Bay Bridge saw the son of New Bay collect his first Group 1 in the Qipco British Champions Stakes for Ballylinch Stud and James and Anita Wigan. Wigan purchased his dam Hayyona for just 18,000gns in 2013.

Trainer Roger Varian said: “I am delighted for the owners and the team at Ballylinch Stud. They have been very patient with him. He won nicely last time at Sandown, which was a nice confidence-boosting win for the horse. I am delighted with him today. He showed a great turn of foot. We’ll enjoy this moment. I hope he is a horse who will still be with us next year. I’m not sure what’s next, but we’ll enjoy today.”

A 200,000gns Tattersalls Book 2 purchase by Richard Ryan, Bayside Boy is the eighth foal and third black-type performer out of Alava, a Listed-winning daughter of Anabaa.

Her second foal is the Listed-placed Rip Van Winkle filly Home Cummins, while her fourth is Forest Ranger, the son of Lawman who won back-to-back runnings of the Group 2 Huxley Stakes in 2018 and 2019.

Bayside Boy’s success also provided an almost immediate update for his Waldgeist half-sister who sold to Leason Bloodstock for €200,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale.

Above and below Bayside Boy: the first Group 1 winner on the card for New Bay, bred by Ballylinch and the eighth foal out of the Anabaa mare Alava

Forty minutes later New Bay’s Group 1 double was completed by Bay Bridge, who produced a performance of silk and steel to win the Qipco Champion Stakes by half a length.

All eyes were on Baaeed, making his racecourse swansong and defending an unbeaten record, but Bay Bridge was always travelling sweetly under a typically positive Richard Kingscote ride and found plenty to fend off the Derby winner Adayar in second.

Baaeed could finish only a length and three-quarters away in fourth, with connections quickly pointing to the ground, which was officially described as good to soft, as having blunted the son of Sea The Stars’ finishing effort.

THIS WAS THE second time this season Kingscote and Sir Michael Stoute had combined to win a Group 1 following Desert Crown’s Derby demolition job, and the trainer reflected on the success by saying: “Bay Bridge was very brave. I am absolutely thrilled. The staff have done a great job with this horse, and we are all delighted.

He was in very good shape coming here – he came back from Sandown with a knock and we had to back off him, so he’s been very consistent this year with the exception of that race.

“We thought the favourite was unbeatable – or I did – but I thought he had a great chance of being second, because he was in terrific shape.”

That was Bay Bridge’s sixth career victory and second in Pattern company following a typically patient preparation from his trainer that also took in competitive handicaps at Newbury and York before his three-yearold campaign ended with a Listed win at Newmarket. He resumed at four in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes but was then no match for State Of Rest in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes before a below-par effort in the Coral-Eclipse.

The four-year-old entire was bred by owner James Wigan’s London Thoroughbred Services and was bought into by Ballylinch Stud prior to his Group 3-winning seasonal reappearance.

Bay Bridge is the fourth foal out of the Multiplex mare Hayyona, who was signed for by London Thoroughbred Services at a mere 18,000gns in 2013. The mare was reoffered at Tattersalls in 2019, the year Bay Bridge was a yearling, but was retained by her vendor at just 20,000gns.

New Bay is now sire of three Group 1 winners, the “Ascot Two” joined by Saffron Beach, in whom Wigan also has an interest, and 18 stakes performers in total.

With sizeable purses on offer his progeny’s Champions Day exploits helped propel New Bay into sixth on the British and Irish sires’ table.

One place behind New Bay on that sires’ list is Juddmonte’s Kingman, sire of another Champions Day winner in Kinross, who claimed his second consecutive Group 1 in the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes.

Bred by Julian Richmond-Watson’s Lawn Stud, the five-year-old gelding was winning over 6f for the first time having previously been seen as a 7f specialist, as highlighted by his win in the Prix de la Forêt.

Kinross, who races for owner Marc Chan after a private sale ahead of his four-year-old campaign, has won eight races, six of which have come in Group company. As well as his Group 1 triumphs he has also landed three Group 2s, namely the Lennox Stakes, the City Of York Stakes and the Park Stakes.

A double day for Frankie Dettori: celebrating here after winning the Qipco British Champions Sprint on Kinross (Kingman), who was dropped back to 6f after Group 1 success over 7f in the Prix de la Forêt

Trainer Ralph Beckett said: “As a three-year-old the late James Delahooke, who managed the stud for Julian and Sarah Richmond-Watson who raced him at two, rang me and said, ‘Should I be backing him for the Guineas?’. I said, ‘I don’t know, James, but I think he’s quick enough to win a July Cup.’

I’ve always had a little bit of a hankering for him to do it at this trip and now was the time, even with a Breeders’ Cup Mile on the horizon. He’ll go there, with any luck.

THE OTHER GROUP 1 at Ascot went the way of Emily Upjohn, who became Sea The Stars’ 19th top-level winner with a 3l victory in the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes.

The John and Thady Gosden-trained three-year-old, who missed out in the Oaks by just a short head, initially raced for owners Tactful Finance and Stuart Roden, but carried the Lloyd Webber silks having bought into her after her Epsom second. The result continued a hot spell for the Lloyd Webbers, whose Watership Down Stud sold two of the top three lots at Book 1, headed by the 2,800,000gns top lot, the Frankel colt out of So Mi Dar; the most expensive yearling sold in the world this year.

Emily Upjohn: the daughter of Sea The Stars was bred by Lordship Stud & Sunderland Holding, and is the sixth foal out of Hidden Brief (Barathea)

Emily Upjohn, a 60,000gns Book 2 purchase by Blandford Bloodstock, was bred by Lordship Stud and Sunderland Holdings from the Barathea mare Hidden Brief, who was offloaded the December following the filly’s birth for only 16,000gns. Gaelic Bloodstock signed that ticket.

The Ascot meeting began with the Group 2 Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup, which went the way of Trueshan for the third year running. Bred by Didier Blot, the redoubtable six-year-old has now won 13 races, including Group 1s in the Goodwood Cup and Prix du Cadran, and netted over 1.5 million in prize-money.

He is comfortably the highest-rated of Planteur’s 12 Flat stakes performers and was purchased by current connections through Highflyer Bloodstock and trainer Alan King for 31,000gns at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale, where he was offered by Thomond O’Mara’s Knockanglass Stables.

Planteur stands at Chapel Stud purchased by owner-breeder Simon Davies, who trades under the DahlBury banner.

Trueshan

Dubawi: British champion sire elect

AFTER YEARS of coming up against his old adversary Galileo, Dalham Hall Stud’s Dubawi is on course to claim a first British and Irish champion sires’ title. It is nothing more than the 20-year-old son of Dubai Millennium deserves having finished runner-up to Galileo on four occasions and, moreover, having sired an incredible 365 stakes performers, 53 of whom have struck in Group/Grade 1 company.

His 2022 campaign has been capped by Classic victory for the illfated Coroebus, who added a St James’s Palace Stakes to his 2,000 Guineas triumph, while Eldar Eldarov landed the St Leger. Those results took Dubawi’s progeny prize-money earnings to over £6 million, leaving a seven-figure gap back to the dethroned Frankel in second.

Results from Champions Day could have potentially swung things in Frankel’s favour with Inspiral a warm order and Adayar looking the chief threat to Baaeed, but in the event the former failed to fire and the latter could finish only second, while Dubawi’s offspring claimed two lucrative podium finishes with Modern Games second in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Creative Force third in the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes.

However, Frankel is out clear at the head of the European standings thanks in no small part to the exploits of Kirsten Rausing’s homebred Alpinista, who recorded that famous victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Europe’s premier Group 1 boasts a first prize of €2,400,840, which is not only a mammoth pot but also a significant figure in the context of the European sires’ table – Frankel leads Dubawi by €2,385,636 at the time of writing, meaning the Arc has swung things in the Juddmonte stallion’s favour.

In truth, Frankel rates a thoroughly deserving winner of the European title, even if he has been unable to retain his British and Irish crown, as the 2022 season has seen the son of Galileo take his roll of honour to 169 stakes performers and 26 Group/Grade 1 winners from just seven crops of racing age.

He has enjoyed a particularly fruitful campaign on the continent, with Alpinista’s Longchamp victory preceded by Prix Jacques Le Marois triumph for Inspiral, Prix de Diane success for Nashwa and Grand Prix de Paris glory for Onesto.

Those names join his domestic Group 1 winners – the Irish 1,000 Guineas victress Homeless Songs, the Irish Derby scorer Westover and the Dewhurst Stakes hero Chaldean, a roll of honour that displays an array of talent and the kind of diversity that will ensure Frankel will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.