Baaeed makes his first Group 1 outing a winning one

Jocelyn de Moubray reviews the action in Europe with Baaeed, the descendant of Height Of Fashion, winning his first top-level race

FRANCE’S AUTUMN RACING programme returned to its traditional pattern with the opening week at Longchamp featuring the Group 1 Prix du Moulin over a mile, following a few days earlier the Prix de Fontenoy and Prix de la Cascade for unraced two-year-old colts and fillies respectively, races which still have a cachet for at least some of France’s leading trainers.

The Moulin attracted a field of six, including the Group 1 winners Order Of Australia and Victor Ludorum, as well as the unbeaten Baaeed, but the race was without either Palace Pier or Poetic Flare, the season’s leading milers to date.

The complexion of the race was changed when the Peter Schiergen-trained filly Novemba missed the break completely.

Jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev rode Novemba into the lead, as we can safely assume the other jockeys were expecting, but she had used up a lot of energy to get there and never looked like creating a surprise from the front.

As a result the race was slowly run and while Jim Crowley and Ryan Moore were always leading the remainder on Baaeed and Order Of Australia, Mickael Barzalona settled Victor Ludorum in last place a good few lengths behind his main rivals.

When the pack began to sprint in the straight Baaeed had to be driven, but he showed his tactical speed to take a decisive lead before the 200m marker. Order Of Australia and Victor Ludorum finished faster, but they had given the winner too much ground to be real threats.

Baaeed held on to win decisively by threequarters length from Order Of Australia with Victor Ludorum only a neck behind in third. The son of Sea The Stars maintained his unbeaten record and this was an impressive performance on his first attempt in a Group 1.

The time was only a modest 1m39.13, slower than the last three runnings of the race and nearly 2.5 seconds slower than Persian King recorded when winning the Moulin in 2020, and as much as four seconds slower than Green Forest’s race record in 1982.

On this basis, Baaeed will have to show more than this if he is to challenge the division’s two leaders.

Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum bought many very expensive horses during his decades involved in racing, but his best buy of all was probably Height Of Fashion, purchased from The Queen as a filly in training in the early 1980s.

Nearly 40 years later Height Of Fashion’s descendants are still producing top horses and she is Baaeed’s fifth dam.

His own dam Aghareed was trained in France by John Hammond to win a Listed race over 1m2f. Hammond also trained Baaeed’s second dam Lahudood, who was Group-placed in France before winning Grade 1s, including the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mares when transferred to Kiaran McLaughlin as a four-year-old.

Baaeed is Aghareed’s third foal and the first two, Kasbaan and Hukum, are also BHA rated over 100.

Hukum, a full-brother to Baaeed, has won over 1m6f, but it should not be too surprising that his younger brother is a faster horse as they are both inbred to Mr. Prospector 3x4x5.

The 1m2f Group 2 Prix du Prince d’Orange drew a strong field of three-year-olds with runners from Germany and England joining their seven French-trained rivals. This was yet another tactical race and those who waited at the rear of the field, notably the promising colts Gregolimo and Integrant, had no chance of catching those who raced close to the slow early pace.

The finish was between the Aga Khan’s Saiydabad, a son of Blame trained by Jean Claude Rouget, who just got the better of the Schiergen-trained Lord Charming.

Saiydabad had looked a potential top colt in the spring and finished fourth in the Jockey-Club from an impossible draw and remains a horse who could compete successfully in Group 1s in the future.

Lord Charming, who benefited from an excellent ride from Murzabayev, was fourth in the Deutsches Derby and has performed to a high level all year.

Murzabayev himself deserves a small parenthesis as this young jockey from Almaty in Kazakhstan is yet to be fully appreciated outside Germany where he will be champion jockey in 2021 for the third consecutive season.

The 28-year-old Murzabayev started to ride in Western Europe in 2015 and quickly established himself in Germany. He has ridden around 500 winners since and looks to be more than capable of succeeding anywhere in the racing world.

Hamdan Al Maktoum bought many very expensive horses during his decades involved in racing, but his best buy of all was probably Height Of Fashion

In Germany he regularly wins races which appear to be lost causes, and only very rarely loses those he should have won.

Talented: Bauyrzhan Murzabayev

Gregolimo and Integrant finished fast to take third and fourth and are also highclass colts. Gregolimo is one of five blacktype winners from the second crop of the Haras de Colleville’s Galiway, who has to be regarded as one of the best sire sons of Galileo currently at stud in Europe.

GALIWAY stood at only €3,000 in 2017 and produced 48 foals, who now include six black-type horses and five black-type winners. Esope won the Group 3 Prix de Lutece at the beginning of September joining Gregolimo, the Group 1 winner Sealiway, Vauban and Galik. Three of these – Sealiway, Gregolimo and Galik – are out of Kendargent mares.

The other three-year-old performance of the “rentrée”, as everything is called in September in France, came from the Frankel filly Sibila Spain, who won the Listed Prix de Liancourt over 1m2f for trainer Christopher Head, the son of Freddy, and owner Yeguada Centurion.

Olivier Peslier took the filly straight into the lead and in a very atypical manner they ran the fastest 200m of the race straight from the stalls.

By the time Sibila Spain and Peslier reached the straight the race had long since been won and they passed the post over 2l clear of their rivals.

Sibila Spain had looked unlucky when fourth in both the Group 1 Prix Saint Alary and the Prix de Diane and is due to make her next start in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera.

She is the 13th foal of her dam L’Ancresse, who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mares and looks likely to end her career as the best of them, even if her full-brother Master Of Reality has been Group 1-placed.

André Fabre won both the Fontenoy and the Cascade with the Medaglia d’Oro colt Chancellery and the Dubawi filly Agave.

This is probably significant in itself as the best recent winners of these races, Waldgeist, Victor Ludorum and Philomene were also trained by Fabre. Chancellery, who topped May’s Arqana Breeze Up Sale at £675,000, won without coming off the bridle and in a faster overall time than Agave, who is out of a half-sister to Enable.

Smart performances at four-day Baden-Baden

BADEN-BADEN RACECOURSE opened for the first time under new management and held four days’ racing, which were a huge success in every respect – excellent racing with runners and winners from all over Europe and the crowds were close to the daily COVID imposed limit of 10,000.

Baden-Baden in September is where the best German two-yearolds are often revealed and two fillies put up particularly good performances.

Stall Ad Epsias’s Pedro The Great filly Best Flying had previously created a surprise when winning in Deauville over 6f by 3l and 4l, but the Andreas Suborics-trained filly confirmed her class by winning at Baden-Baden over the same trip in similar fashion.

She made all the running to win unchallenged and is due to make her next start in the 7f Group 1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardère. Not sold as a yearling for €22,000 at the Baden-Baden October Sale, she is a half-sister to the three-year-old Best Lightning, who came close to winning Group races in Cologne and Chantilly this year.

Gestüt Roettgen’s Adlerflug filly Wagnis made an impressive winning debut over a mile defeating two fillies who had run well before, and the second, who had been close to a subsequent Group winner in Rocchigiani, was receiving some 10lb due to the successful young jockey Sean Byrne’s allowance.

Wagnis is a half-sister to Wirko, who won a Listed race at Epsom in the spring, won comfortably in the excellent time of 1min41.04.

The two-year-colt Manolas, a full-brother to the dual Classic winner Brametot, made a winning debut over the same distance and his time was not far behind, on level weights, the 1m39.18 the four-year-old Rodaballo recorded in the Group 2 for older horses.

Rocchigiani came from behind to win the Group 3 Renate und Albrecht Woeste Zukunftsrenen over 7f giving his sire Time Test another black-type winner from his first crop.

Rocchigiani remains unbeaten after two starts and continues the success of his owner-breeder Dr Till Grewe, who purchased the dam Ronja as a yearling at the Keeneland September Sale for $50.000.

The daughter of El Corredor was a Listed winner herself and has now produced five winners and two black-type winners.

Two of the Group races for older horses were won by the Madridbased trainer Guillermo Arizkorreta Elosegai with Kitty Marion and Rodaballo.

Kitty Marion was bought cheaply out of training, but the five-yearold Iffraaj mare is a high-class sprinter and narrowly got the better of Majestic Colt to win the Group 3 Golden Peitsche over 6f.

Rodaballo, a four-year-old son of Lope De Vega who was bought by his trainer at the Guineas Breeze Up in Newmarket, held on in another close finish to win the Group 2 Oettingen Rennen over a mile by a short head and a head from Jin Jin and Liberty London.

THE TWO MOST significant performances for older horses came from the three-year-old Intello filly Waldbiene in the Group 2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis over 1m4f, while the Adlerflug colt Torquator Tasso won the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden to set himself up for a run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Waldbiene, one of three Group winners for Haras du Quesnay’s Intello over the weekend as Dawn Intello and Bubble Smart took Group 3 races at Longchamp the following day, is trained by

Waldemar Hickst for Albrecht Woester’s Stall Grafenberg. She was bought from Haras de Saint Pair at Arqana August Sale.

Waldbiene, who comes from the magic Ravensburg “W” family of Waldgeist, Waldmark and Wurftaube, had made her three previous starts in France but appreciated running over 1m4f with a strong pace and defeated two of the placed fillies from the Diana in Walkaway and Isfahani to win in the excellent time of 2mi31.62.

Gestüt Auequelle’s Torquator Tasso has been among the best horses in Germany for two years now and had finished a close second to In Swoop in last year’s Deutsches Derby.

The Marcel Weiss-trained colt needs a strong pace to be shown at his best and defeated this year’s Derby winner Sisfahan by a length to win in the excellent time of 2min29.21 seconds.

This was the fastest Grosser Preis since 2007 and the only faster ones in recent times were won by the top horses Quijano, Borgia, Pilsudski, Lando and Lomitas. Those who went on to the Arc, Borgia, Pilsudski and Lando, all finished placed in Paris.

When he does retire to his owners’ stud Torquator Tasso will be popular as a top-class consistent performer by an excellent stallion and inbred to the dam of Allegretta from the same family as Galileo, Sea The Stars and Adlerflug.

Baaeed makes his first Group 1 a winning one