Friday

The email bloodstock wakes up to

If you haven’t already received your Racing Post Bloodstock Review by now, hopefully you will do so before the festive period.

It’s packed with absorbing articles, including those evaluating Galileo’s legacy, Frankel’s first sire championship and the rise of digital auctions, making it more entertaining than another viewing of The Great Escape or a family argument over Monopoly.

One of my regular contributions to the magazine in recent years has been a run-down of the top-rated two-year-olds who competed three times or fewer in the preceding season without running in a stakes race or sales contest.

The feature takes ages to research and compile but it’s always time well spent, as it provides me with a valuable reminder of the dark horses who could emerge into the spotlight at three.

Future stars Adayar, Art Power, Even So and Palace Pier appeared in 2019 and 2020, although it’s just as intriguing looking back on those juveniles who didn’t go on to great things, or were perhaps a little overrated by handicappers – the likes of Cartouche, Cleveland, Premier Power and Khayzaraan.

This year’s article encompasses 21 lightly raced two-year-olds who were awarded Racing Post Ratings between 92 and 104 in 2021, up to mid-November, with four sires fielding more than one representative on the list – Almanzor (pictured below), Churchill, Dubawi and Kingman.

I must admit that Almanzor’s presence among that exalted company surprised me a little, as the general impression I had of his freshman record was that it was, at best, solid rather than spectacular.

Indeed, on the surface of it, his seven winners from 33 runners (21 per cent) and absence of any stakes scorers in Europe is a little underwhelming for a brilliant three-year-old champion who was a stakes winner at two, and subsequently covered his first book of mares at Haras d’Etreham at a lofty fee of €35,000.

However, after closer inspection of Almanzor’s performance prompted by those two particularly highly rated juveniles, Dissociate and Filistine, I rediscovered several other unexposed youngsters by the sire who hold plenty of promise and I’ve consequently upgraded my opinion of him.

Dissociate, bred by Tally-Ho Stud out of a middle-distance placed Makfi half-sister to US Grade 3 winner Observational, was sent out by Paddy Twomey to win a seven-furlong Curragh maiden in late October by three and a half lengths from Toy, the Galileo full-sister to Classic winners Gleneagles, Joan Of Arc and Marvellous, for an RPR of 92.

Filistine, meanwhile, was bred by Etreham and Gestüt Zur Küste out of a nine furlong-winning Lawman mare and was transformed by Longways Stables from a €30,000 yearling into a £120,000 Arqana breezer. Trained by John and Thady Gosden, he beat future winner Silent Speech to take a seven-furlong Newmarket novice stakes three days after Dissociate’s victory, with the pair pulling six lengths clear of the third. That effort earned him an RPR of 93.

There is also the Carlos Lerner-trained Queen Trezy, a distant relation to Dissociate who cost €125,000 as a yearling and looks another filly to follow next year after winning a mile conditions race at Lyon-Parilly in September and running second, after a tardy start, in the Prix des Reservoirs in mid-October.