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Royal Ascot week keeps getting better for Coolmore Stud with resident or past sires responsible for eight of the first 18 winners over the first three days.
Champion sire Galileo and the young shuttle sire Zoffany have been the stars, each siring two winners, while the other Coolmore stallions to hit the board have been Danehill Dancer, Mastercraftsman, Scat Daddy and the late High Chaparral.
* ZOFFANY, a son of Dansili and a contemporary of the mighty Frankel during his own racing career, sired the third stakes winner from his first crop of Northern Hemisphere two-year-olds and his second Royal Ascot winner when Waterloo Bridge won Thursday’s G2 Norfolk Stakes, joining his first day Listed Windsor Castle Stakes winner Washington DC (Zoffany x How´s She Cuttin´, by Shinko Forest).In between Zoffany was on the mark again at Hamilton in the UK on Wednesday when the Kevin Ryan-trained Bint Aldar (Zoffany x Maggie Lou by Red Ransom) won at her second outing.
Waterloo Bridge (Zoffany x Miss Childrey by Dr Fong) swept home under Ryan Moore to record his second win in five career starts.Purchased for 350,000gns from Book One of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale by Doyle Bloodstock, the colt is a half-brother to the G3 winner Forces Of Darkness (Lawman).
Trainer Aidan O’Brien was singing the praises of Zoffany, who returns to Coolmore Australia this spring.“They all have such great speed, so I’m delighted he’s had these wins this week,” O’Brien said.
“He wants a fast pace, like all those Zoffanys. Fast horses go on fast ground. He might go to Goodwood or something like that.”Derrick Smith, who heads the Coolmore partnership which owns Waterloo Bridge, said: "It's a fantastic win for Zoffany - that's two out of two at the meeting, so we are very excited."
• GALILEO is playing his part as expected, following up the win by his outstanding colt Gleneagles in the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes on day one with a G2 victory by his classy filly Curvy in Thursday’s G2 Ribblesdale Stakes defeating G1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Pleascach.The David Wachman-trained Curvy had beaten the colts in the G3 Gallinule Stakes at the Curragh last month and showed her class to overcome serious interference in the straight to run down Pleascach.
Wachman also trains Legatissimo, the Danehill Dancer filly who has been placed in the 1000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks but said he plans to keep the pair apart as much as he can.“Curvy got a free entry in the Irish Derby for winning the Gallinule and my plan was to come here then possibly run in that. We will see what suits,” Wachman said.
Curvy was a 775,000gns purchase by Coolmore’s MV Magnier from Book One of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.She is a half-sister to the Irish 2000 Guineas winner Power (Oasis Dream) and Thakafaat, winner of the Ribblesdale Stakes in 2005 when the Royal meeting was staged at York.
Curvy’s second dam is the G3 winner Glatisant (Rainbow Quest), dam of the 2000 Guineas winner and sire Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway), G1 winner Pedro The Great (Henrythenavigator) and the Listed winner Belle d’Or (Medaglia d’Oro).• DARLEY’S gun sire Dubawi edged closer to 100 stakeswinners when the impressive Time Test recorded an easy win for trainer Roger Charlton in the G3 Tercentenary Stakes.
Time Test (Dubawi x Passage Of Time by Dansili) is the 95th stakeswinner for his sire and may well be his next G1 winner after storming home for the softest win over 10 furlongs.The colt won as a 2YO last season and opened his three-year-old season with a convincing win at Newbury last month.
A Juddmonte homebred for Khalid Abdullah, he is out of the G1 winner Passage Of Time, a half-sister to G1 winner Timepiece and a sister to King Edward VII victor Father Time.They are from the family of Twice Over.
Time Test is the 17th Group winner this year alone for Dubawi, a number that includes seven G1 winners in 20-15.“We've taken our time with this horse and the owner has been patient, and we're rewarded with a nice horse,”Charlton said.
“He's got a fantastic pedigree - every day Dubawis win great races, and if he develops we've got a lot to look forward to.”