News You Can Use, Presented by Darley: Classic Fever

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00:00Backed as if defeat was out of the question

00:02He was an authoritative winner

00:04He set the bar so high as a two-year-old

00:07Champion two-year-old, Irish guineas winner

00:09Ran super-race in the FIPS

00:11He's got the constitution of a rhinoceros, he just loves it

00:14Native Trail hits the lead

00:16Native Trail has won the superlative

00:18Native Trail is going to stay unbeaten

00:30And welcome to our favorite segment, one of our favorite segments

00:34It's News You Can Use with Emma Barry, the European editor of the TDN

00:38Emma, it's been a little while, how has your winter been and what's new?

00:43Well, it's been soggy and freezing but I'm happy to say the sun is shining now

00:47And I had a good long walk down Newmarket's Rally Mile on Sunday

00:50And I'm starting to feel in classic mood

00:53Well, okay, it's interesting you bring that up because

00:56One of the things we want to talk about

00:58We all know how the American horses are prepared for the classics

01:01Most of them have two, some have three preps

01:04Starting in March, maybe a little bit earlier

01:07To get them geared up for peak effort

01:10You have also the classics coming up in England, Ireland and France

01:15How do the trainers overseas, how do they prepare their horses?

01:20It's really kind of varied actually, depending on the trainer

01:25And pretty different, as you say, to the American build-up

01:28Where you've got a much clearer idea already of the road leading in to Churchill Downs

01:33But here, we tend to see less of the classic prospects in the build-up

01:40Some go straight into the 2000 Guineas, for example

01:44The first classic on the first weekend of May

01:46Without having run at three, I mean, the Niveau C have been running at two

01:52And there's been a rise now in trainers using the all-weather surfaces through the winter a little bit more

01:58And we had a very unusual situation last year when Notable Speech won the 2000 Guineas

02:03He'd run three times in January and through on to May

02:09Just at Kempton on the all-weather

02:11And we hadn't seen him as a two-year-old

02:12And I think it's the first time a 2000 Guineas winner had ever not run on the turf first

02:17So that's being used a bit more often

02:20And I think we've seen Charlie Appleby this winter as well

02:23Do a similar, trying a similar approach with Opera Ballot

02:26Who looks a very exciting colt

02:28He's by Gayath, he's from the first crop of Gayath

02:31And he's won twice at Kempton so far

02:34He's only run twice

02:35He was a TDN Rising Star on his debut, won very impressively

02:39And he's right up there in the betting for the Guineas and for the Derby

02:44So he's one that Charlie's trying that favoured approach

02:48But Charlie also had the European Champion two-year-old of last year, Shadow of Light

02:54Who's already a dual group one winner at two

02:57I don't know whether he'll appear in one of the more formal trials

03:02Which kind of start from mid-April

03:04Or I wouldn't be surprised if he maybe just has a race course gallop

03:07And comes straight into the 2000 Guineas

03:09But he's actually, Charlie Appleby's rather spoiled for choice at the moment

03:14Obviously there are plenty of other big staples with big entries for these classics

03:19But we saw Ruling Court as well on Saturday in Maydown

03:23Winning very impressively the Jumeirah 2000 Guineas

03:26He's by Justify

03:28And again, he's going to be a very interesting horse to follow

03:31When he's back in England in the spring

03:34So Emma, after the 2000 Guineas over there

03:37The three-year-old focus then shifts of course to the Epsom Derby

03:42The entries for the Epsom Derby are out

03:44They were released last week

03:46We would call them nominations

03:48You'd call them entries

03:50Who is the favourite right now for the Epsom Derby

03:53And what are some of your thoughts on the entries?

03:56Well it won't surprise you to hear that

03:58Aidan O'Brien, the winning most trainer at the Derby

04:01Has the favourites, the Lion in Winter

04:04He's by See the Stars, who obviously was a Derby winner himself

04:07And the Lion in Winter we actually haven't seen since last August

04:10When he won the Acom Stakes at York

04:12But he's still at the head of the betting market

04:14For the 2000 Guineas and the Derby

04:17Aidan O'Brien has the highest number of entries

04:21Once again for the Derby I think he's got 22 of the 90 entries

04:26So we'll see as things progress over the next months

04:30How that shakes down and which horses he ends up running

04:34He often has more than one runner in that race as we know

04:38But also Riff Beckett, we saw him winning at the Breeders' Cup

04:43Last November with Starlust

04:46He's got a notable high number of entries in the Derby this year

04:49I think he's got 12 colts in there

04:52And it's going to be also very interesting to see how Wooden Basset fares

04:56Because he, of the sires with Derby horses

05:00He's got the most, I think he's got about 12 colts entered

05:05So I'm sure Coombe will be hoping to have one of his

05:10He had four, I think, brute one winning two-year-olds last year

05:15To see one of those step forward

05:17When Classic will be high on their list of

05:22Wish list, if we should say, for next year

05:25And I was just actually going to note a couple of new training names

05:31That might not be so familiar to American listeners

05:36Rafael Freire is a Brazilian trainer based here in Newmarket

05:41And he's literally just moved in this weekend

05:44To Sir Michael Stout's very famous yard, Freemason Lodge

05:47Which was bought by Ammo Racing over the winter

05:50Ammo Racing made a really big splash at the yearling sales last October

05:54And they're going to have a lot of very well-bred, very exciting horses to follow

06:00And Rafael's a young man who's been training for a few years

06:04He has a Derby entry

06:07As does James Owen, another trainer who's making quite a big splash here as well

06:11At the moment, he's got four, I think, horses entered

06:14He's going to be someone to watch out for

06:16He's also a very good jumps trainer

06:17He could make a big splash next week at Cheltenham at the festival

06:22But he's also got some notably well-bred horses for the Gredley family

06:28It might be a bit of a shake-up to the sort of regular classic order this year

06:33With some new names coming to the fore

06:35Emma, you mentioned Aidan O'Brien with a big stable coming in from Ireland

06:41You mentioned Charlie Appleby from the UK

06:43What about France?

06:44I understand there's some French horses, though, that also deserve a second look

06:49Or are also right in the thick of things

06:52Yes, there's one colt who really came out and made everyone sit up and take note

06:57A couple of weeks ago

06:59He's called Tito Mocen

07:01And he's actually a half-brother by Uncle Mo

07:03The late Uncle Mo, sadly, now

07:05He's a half-brother to Rematuel

07:07Who I'm sure people will remember

07:08Came over to Delmar last November

07:11But was scratched, unfortunately, from the Breeders' Cup

07:13But she's a Group 1 winner for Christopher Head

07:16Bred by Guada Centurion

07:19And now her younger half-brother

07:21Is actually in training with Victoria Head

07:23Who is Christopher's sister

07:25He was made a TDN Rising Star

07:28With a very, very impressive debut

07:30I think 1x7 lengths on the Chantilly Polly track

07:34He's certainly gone into a lot of notebooks

07:37And has classic entries for Victoria

07:40There was a lovely filly as well

07:42Last week winning for Carlos and Jan Lerner

07:45Who had their first classic victory last year

07:47With Luc de Wege in the Breeders' Jockey Club

07:50They have a filly named Godspeed

07:53She's from the first crop of Hellejoomzijn

07:55And, again, was a very impressive winner last week

07:58We're going to see a lot more

08:00The turf season is underway in a few weeks here

08:04And they've been racing in Cannes-sur-Mer

08:07In the south of France

08:08And on the Chantilly Polly track quite a bit

08:10We're going to start to see some nicer horses

08:12Coming out in the next few weeks

08:13And get a clearer picture of what's going to be happening

08:16In the classics come May and June

08:18Well, Emma, I want to thank you so much

08:20For News You Can Use, brought to you by Darley

08:23We'll be having you back soon

08:25To keep track of what's going on over in Europe

08:28As it's an exciting part of the year for them as well

08:30Once again, thanks Emma

08:32It's a pleasure, bye-bye

08:34News You Can Use is brought to you by Darley

08:36And that brings us right to Native Trail

08:39Who does stand at Darley?

08:40Native Trail was the undefeated European champion at two

08:44And a classic winning miler at three

08:47He has 150 infaux mares in his first book

08:51The infaux mares include siblings to 117 stakes horses

08:5620 grade one winners

08:58And 41 grade one horses

09:01Namely, Kind of Blue, Coronet, Pretty Pollyanna

09:05Time Piece, Footsteps in the Sand

09:08Harbour Law, Margot Did and Belvoir Bay

09:1136 mares from that first book have already produced a stakes winner or a performer

09:1726 of them at group level

09:20The Irish 2000 Guineas winner is now covering his second crop of mares

09:25And is available at Darley for the cheap fee of €16,000

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