us racing Empire making his presence felt
As soon as Royal Delta’s sire Empire Maker left Kentucky to continue his stud career in Japan in 2010, the Grade 1 winners started rolling in. The former Juddmonte stallion ended 2012 as the second-leading sire in America thanks to three Grade 1 winners – Bodemeister, In Lingerie and Royal Delta – and this year he has another top-class filly to represent him in Emollient. Bill Mott’s filly turned in an impressive front-running display to take the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland in April and, after a disappointing show in the Kentucky Oaks, returned to form with a half-length success over Emotional Kitten on her first try on turf in the American Oaks at Hollywood Park. Empire Maker is now the sire of 24 Group/Graded stakes winners, but strangely Emollient is only the second bred by Juddmonte following Canadian Group 3 winner Eagle Poise. It is also worth remembering that Emollient’s family is a relatively new addition to Juddmonte since her dam, Soothing Touch, was a $550,000 Keeneland yearling purchase by the operation in 2005. Soothing Touch, by Touch Gold, didn’t race, but as a close relation to the Niarchos family’s top two-year-olds Denebola and Machiavellian, she is worth her place in any major broodmare band. Those breeders mourning the loss of Empire Maker can take heart that his son, WinStar Farm’s Pioneerof The Nile, has started strongly with three winners at the time of writing. Juddmonte is also home to Empire Maker’s close relation First Defence, whose first-crop daughter Close Hatches ran away with last month’s Mother Goose Stakes by 7l. With Roger Charlton’s smart Dundonnell also among his first crop, the son of Unbridled’s Song is looking good value this year at $7,500.
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...it will be disappointing if a number of American buyers aren’t reinvesting at Newmarket this autumn
Need You Now was bought at Tattersalls last autumn for 160,000gns.
A Game performance at last-ever Hollywood Gold Cup (as is) meeting
California is set to lose one of its best known tracks later this year with the closure of Betfair Hollywood Park, so it was fitting that the final Hollywood Gold Cup (as we know it), won previously by legends Native Diver, Citation, Affirmed and Cigar, should be won in imperious fashion by Bob Baffert’s popular gelding Game On Dude. Jockey Mike Smith barely moved a muscle on the son of the Awesome Again, who crossed the line a length ahead of Kettle Corn to record his second consecutive victory in the race and boost his earnings to just over $5 million. The final summer meeting at Hollywood
Photo courtesy of Tattersallsg-Tipton
Park also featured an impressive winning performance by Mike Mitchell’s Obviously in the Shoemaker Mile. A sixth Group 1 winner for Choisir, Irish-bred Obviously was a bargain €2,000 purchase by WE Syndicate at the 2009 Goffs February Sale and after taking two of his first three starts for Peter Fahey in Ireland, changed hands to Jamie Lloyd and Boomer Bloodstock on behalf of current connections for 130,000gns at the Tattersalls Horses in Training Sale. Need You Now, by Kheleyf, was another Tattersalls graduate to strike in California last month when lifting the Le Cle Stakes so it will be disappointing if a number of American buyers aren’t reinvesting in Newmarket this autumn.
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