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North Wales Chronicle
a day ago
- Sport
- North Wales Chronicle
Gezora takes Prix de Diane honours at Chantilly from Bedtime Story
Trained by Francis-Henri Graffard and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, Gezora raced in the pack through the 10-furlong contest before switched out to launch her challenge with around a furlong and a half to run. She kept finding for pressure all the way to the line, having enough in reserve to hold off the Aidan O'Brien-trained Bedtime Story, who only narrowly failed to come from last to first under Ryan Moore. The Charlie Fellowes-trained Shes Perfect turned for home and momentarily looked she would again be involved at the business end, but while she was in front with two furlongs to run, she had raced keenly in second and was ultimately eased by Kieran Shoemark when her chance had gone. Gezora was beaten by stablemate Mandanaba on her initial start in April, but the Almanzor filly landed the Prix Saint-Alary last time – a performance which gave Graffard plenty of confidence. He said: 'She ran a nice race at Longchamp, she showed something new to me. She's improving all time and I saw after the race she really improved again, she was so happy, so confident in herself.' Bookmaker reaction was positive to a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe bid, with Coral introducing Gezora at 14-1, and Graffard added: 'It's great to have the Arc 'win and you're in races' and we know she loves the soft ground and we close no doors.' Soumillon praised the winner's heart for a battle, saying: 'When they started to quicken in the straight I was following them really easily, I knew she'd be able to change gear and that's exactly what she did. The pace was on and she was ready to react at the right time. 'I saw Ryan coming on my outside and thought 'here comes Aidan again!', but she had a great heart and we won it.' Asked about the Arc, the rider said: 'She can do a mile and a half, I think, we'll see what she can do in the Vermeille. We know she likes soft ground and the form from the Prix de Conde (last year) was great, the winner (Lazy Griff) was second in the Derby at Epsom and here (she is) the winner of the Prix de Diane, so sometimes you never know.' For owner Peter Brant, the victory in his White Birch Farm colours was the realisation of a long-held ambition to win the French fillies' Classic. Brant purchased Gezora after she won two of her four juvenile starts and was thrilled to see her better Sistercharlie, who was beaten just a length in the 2017 renewal before going on to a stellar American career. He said: 'I think it's probably one of the three or four races I've dreamt of winning. I think it's the greatest three-year-old filly race – it's always stiff competition. 'We were second with Sistercharlie, a great filly who won seven Grade Ones and she couldn't even win this race because she got into trouble. It's a very difficult race to predict.' O'Brien said of the runner-up: 'We're delighted with Bedtime Story's performance. She ran a magnificent race. Her improvement is clear. I've consistently run her in good races, and she's now showing her true form. 'This result, over this distance, opens a lot of doors. I'm not sure yet what we'll do next. We need to see how she comes out of it.' Meanwhile, Fellowes will now drop back in distance with Shes Perfect, who finished ninth, and could also dip in class in search of what would a deserved Group-race win. He said: 'I think it's clear she just didn't really stay. I always thought 10 furlongs would be in her range, but then she did a really sparkling piece of work earlier in the week and I thought maybe she had more speed than I gave her credit for. 'She won a Pouliches so we have a very, very good filly, it was the right thing to roll the dice here over 10 furlongs and we have learned a lot. 'The Falmouth would be the obvious race for her, but we might even think about dropping back in grade to try to get her head in front, give her a bit of a confidence boost and get that stakes win. 'I have a slight niggle in the back of my head that she might prefer a bit of ease underfoot, even though she ran so well in the Pouliches, maybe she was just saving herself a bit today as I walked the course and it was fast enough. 'If it turned up quick for her next run, I wouldn't shy away, but I think we'll let the dust settle a bit before making a firm plan.'
Rhyl Journal
a day ago
- Sport
- Rhyl Journal
Gezora takes Prix de Diane honours at Chantilly from Bedtime Story
Trained by Francis-Henri Graffard and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, Gezora raced in the pack through the 10-furlong contest before switched out to launch her challenge with around a furlong and a half to run. She kept finding for pressure all the way to the line, having enough in reserve to hold off the Aidan O'Brien-trained Bedtime Story, who only narrowly failed to come from last to first under Ryan Moore. The Charlie Fellowes-trained Shes Perfect turned for home and momentarily looked she would again be involved at the business end, but while she was in front with two furlongs to run, she had raced keenly in second and was ultimately eased by Kieran Shoemark when her chance had gone. Gezora was beaten by stablemate Mandanaba on her initial start in April, but the Almanzor filly landed the Prix Saint-Alary last time – a performance which gave Graffard plenty of confidence. He said: 'She ran a nice race at Longchamp, she showed something new to me. She's improving all time and I saw after the race she really improved again, she was so happy, so confident in herself.' Bookmaker reaction was positive to a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe bid, with Coral introducing Gezora at 14-1, and Graffard added: 'It's great to have the Arc 'win and you're in races' and we know she loves the soft ground and we close no doors.' Soumillon praised the winner's heart for a battle, saying: 'When they started to quicken in the straight I was following them really easily, I knew she'd be able to change gear and that's exactly what she did. The pace was on and she was ready to react at the right time. 'I saw Ryan coming on my outside and thought 'here comes Aidan again!', but she had a great heart and we won it.' Asked about the Arc, the rider said: 'She can do a mile and a half, I think, we'll see what she can do in the Vermeille. We know she likes soft ground and the form from the Prix de Conde (last year) was great, the winner (Lazy Griff) was second in the Derby at Epsom and here (she is) the winner of the Prix de Diane, so sometimes you never know.' For owner Peter Brant, the victory in his White Birch Farm colours was the realisation of a long-held ambition to win the French fillies' Classic. Brant purchased Gezora after she won two of her four juvenile starts and was thrilled to see her better Sistercharlie, who was beaten just a length in the 2017 renewal before going on to a stellar American career. He said: 'I think it's probably one of the three or four races I've dreamt of winning. I think it's the greatest three-year-old filly race – it's always stiff competition. 'We were second with Sistercharlie, a great filly who won seven Grade Ones and she couldn't even win this race because she got into trouble. It's a very difficult race to predict.' O'Brien said of the runner-up: 'We're delighted with Bedtime Story's performance. She ran a magnificent race. Her improvement is clear. I've consistently run her in good races, and she's now showing her true form. 'This result, over this distance, opens a lot of doors. I'm not sure yet what we'll do next. We need to see how she comes out of it.' Meanwhile, Fellowes will now drop back in distance with Shes Perfect, who finished ninth, and could also dip in class in search of what would a deserved Group-race win. He said: 'I think it's clear she just didn't really stay. I always thought 10 furlongs would be in her range, but then she did a really sparkling piece of work earlier in the week and I thought maybe she had more speed than I gave her credit for. 'She won a Pouliches so we have a very, very good filly, it was the right thing to roll the dice here over 10 furlongs and we have learned a lot. 'The Falmouth would be the obvious race for her, but we might even think about dropping back in grade to try to get her head in front, give her a bit of a confidence boost and get that stakes win. 'I have a slight niggle in the back of my head that she might prefer a bit of ease underfoot, even though she ran so well in the Pouliches, maybe she was just saving herself a bit today as I walked the course and it was fast enough. 'If it turned up quick for her next run, I wouldn't shy away, but I think we'll let the dust settle a bit before making a firm plan.'
Leader Live
a day ago
- Sport
- Leader Live
Gezora takes Prix de Diane honours at Chantilly from Bedtime Story
Trained by Francis-Henri Graffard and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, Gezora raced in the pack through the 10-furlong contest before switched out to launch her challenge with around a furlong and a half to run. She kept finding for pressure all the way to the line, having enough in reserve to hold off the Aidan O'Brien-trained Bedtime Story, who only narrowly failed to come from last to first under Ryan Moore. The Charlie Fellowes-trained Shes Perfect turned for home and momentarily looked she would again be involved at the business end, but while she was in front with two furlongs to run, she had raced keenly in second and was ultimately eased by Kieran Shoemark when her chance had gone. Gezora was beaten by stablemate Mandanaba on her initial start in April, but the Almanzor filly landed the Prix Saint-Alary last time – a performance which gave Graffard plenty of confidence. He said: 'She ran a nice race at Longchamp, she showed something new to me. She's improving all time and I saw after the race she really improved again, she was so happy, so confident in herself.' Bookmaker reaction was positive to a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe bid, with Coral introducing Gezora at 14-1, and Graffard added: 'It's great to have the Arc 'win and you're in races' and we know she loves the soft ground and we close no doors.' Soumillon praised the winner's heart for a battle, saying: 'When they started to quicken in the straight I was following them really easily, I knew she'd be able to change gear and that's exactly what she did. The pace was on and she was ready to react at the right time. 'I saw Ryan coming on my outside and thought 'here comes Aidan again!', but she had a great heart and we won it.' Asked about the Arc, the rider said: 'She can do a mile and a half, I think, we'll see what she can do in the Vermeille. We know she likes soft ground and the form from the Prix de Conde (last year) was great, the winner (Lazy Griff) was second in the Derby at Epsom and here (she is) the winner of the Prix de Diane, so sometimes you never know.' For owner Peter Brant, the victory in his White Birch Farm colours was the realisation of a long-held ambition to win the French fillies' Classic. Brant purchased Gezora after she won two of her four juvenile starts and was thrilled to see her better Sistercharlie, who was beaten just a length in the 2017 renewal before going on to a stellar American career. He said: 'I think it's probably one of the three or four races I've dreamt of winning. I think it's the greatest three-year-old filly race – it's always stiff competition. 'We were second with Sistercharlie, a great filly who won seven Grade Ones and she couldn't even win this race because she got into trouble. It's a very difficult race to predict.'
Irish Daily Mirror
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
'He would have won six Gold Cups' - the story of Arkle's death 55 years on
Paddy Woods could still recall the moment clearly. He was enjoying a holiday with his wife Phyllis in London for the 1970 Derby at Epsom when he was stopped in his tracks by a newspaper seller. A pleasant stroll after lunch along the River Thames was interrupted with shocking news as he stared in disbelief at the headline on the front page; 'Arkle is dead'! 55 years ago, the greatest and most iconic horse of all-time, Arkle, took his last breath. Severely painful arthritis in his feet had been plaguing him for some time and on May 31, 1970 the agonising decision was made by his owner Anne Duchess of Westminster, his former jockey Pat Taaffe and vet Maxie Cosgrove to put him down. Arkle's magnificent career had ended three and a half years earlier in December, 1966, when he fractured his pedal bone while jumping a fence in a surprise defeat at the King George in Kempton. Ironically, on that London visit, one of the first things Paddy did was visit Kempton and renew acquaintanceship with friends he had made when looking after Arkle during the weeks of veterinary care. 'I couldn't believe it. We had just been talking to the lads in Kempton that morning. I'd made a lot of friends there when they looked after him and I said I couldn't come to London without seeing them,' said the late Paddy in a 2020 interview with the Irish Mirror. 'We stopped for a cup of tea after lunch and there was a paper shop there and I saw the headline. He died the night before. It was a big shock,' recalled Woods, who rode Arkle out every morning during his brilliant career, also winning a race on him at Gowran Park in 1962. Arkle had finished a stricken second to Dormant in that King George on December 27, 1966. It was a dank and misty afternoon and very few saw it happen as the race was not covered by the BBC. There's no TV footage anywhere but for Woods, who sadly passed away aged 93 in April 2024, the memories were vivid during that 2020 conversation. 'I was there the day he got hurt, not only that I was there for two weeks afterwards too. He was there for six or seven weeks but I couldn't stay any longer. I'd a young family at the time. 'I had gone over with Arkle to the race, myself and Johnny Lumley (Arkle's stable lad). The race had been put off on St Stephen's Day because of frost and we were furious because we thought they could have raced. We definitely would have raced in Ireland. 'Myself and Johnny walked the track afterwards and noticed he'd taken a lump out of the toe bar at the ditch past the stands. The vets said that's what definitely did it. 'They X-rayed him and confirmed the break. I remember Johnny innocently asking them if it would put him out of the Gold Cup in March. I said 'It will put him out of this year's Gold Cup and next year's too.' 'It was disappointing because he'd have definitely won the 1967 Gold Cup. It was a really bad race. He'd have won a fifth the following year too as Dreaper's won it with Fort Leny, a horse much inferior to Arkle. Johnny reckons he'd have won six Gold Cups.' Arkle was a chasing superstar in the 1960s and his fame in these islands equaled that of The Beatles and Mohammed Ali. He won 27 of his 35 races, including three Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1964, '65 and '66, while his astonishing weight-carrying feats in races like the Irish Grand National, Hennessy Gold Cup and Leopardstown Chase are still the stuff of legend. He was trained by Tom Dreaper in Greenogue, a small townland around two miles outside of Ashbourne in county Meath, and for four seasons his brilliance and personality transcended the sport while his battles with Mill House began the Irish-English rivalry which made the Cheltenham Festival what it is today. He's still the highest rated steeplechaser of all-time, an awe-inspiring animal so far ahead of the rest that a different handicapping system had to be used when he raced. After several attempts to get him back on the racecourse, Arkle was officially retired in 1968, and had moved back to his owner the Duchess of Westminster's farm at Bryanstown, near Maynooth in Kildare. Pat Taaffe had called in to visit his old partner with his daughter Olive, fussing over him with apples and treats, but noticed all was not well with the 13-year-old when he went to close the stable door. 'I had to move him back a foot and when I did, he almost fell. I realised that it was only courage and pride now keeping him on his feet,' Taaffe poignantly recalled in his book My Life and Arkle's. He immediately called the vet and the Duchess, and a decision was reached that evening. One of Maxie Cosgrove's partners in his Lucan clinic, James Kavanagh, walked to the back of his car and filled the syringe. Arkle would have felt nothing, it could have been a routine injection, and the greatest steeplechaser the racing world has ever known passed away peacefully. Woods still recalls his first experiences with Arkle, adding: 'He just came to be my ride out. I didn't think that much of him at first, he was just another horse. Then one morning I was riding him out on the gallop and I thought, 'He's going to be great.' 'I rode Arkle every day. He was very good at home. 'Mr Dreaper was a brilliant man. He was a genius; no one knows how good he was. He was a great man to work for too.' Woods got to ride Arkle in 1963 at Gowran Park in a hurdle race when the stable jockey Pat Taaffe couldn't do the weight of 10st5lbs. 'I thought I should have ridden him first time out but Pat (Taaffe) was riding Liam McLoughlin's horse Kerforo, and the boss man was fair and gave the ride to Liam. 'The day in Gowran we were running in because Johnny Lumley had a tip or something. I was going in with him and as soon as I set foot in the place the boss man grabbed me and said, 'get your colours on, you're riding Arkle'. 'It was a good race. He was beaten twice before that but was favourite. Going past the stands I was pushing and kicking and thought I had no chance. I thought he was done. He was gone. 'I got serious three out, and gave him a few slaps down the shoulder. I asked for a big one, we took off in fourth and landed in the lead. I never heard another horse until we pulled up.' Arkle was a huge celebrity in the 1960's - the Dreaper's even having to hire a secretary, Mrs Tinsley, to reply to all the fan mail he would receive, some just addressed to 'Arkle, Ireland'. Dominic Behan wrote a song about him and he even appeared on the Late Late Show with Gay Byrne. Visitors to the yard would have been regular but Woods remembers one occasion when two musical superstars of that era, Dickie Rock and Butch Moore, came to see Arkle. "Ah the two of them got up on him all right. It was a funny sight. Dickie wore his winkle pickers. 'I was friends with Butch and I remember being at a show with Roly Daniels some years afterwards and Roly was talking about horses,' recalls Woods. Country singer Daniels had an interest in horses and owned Hazy Dawn, a mare that gave WIllie Mullins his first Cheltenham Festival success in the 1982 National Hunt Chase. Daniels famously celebrated by singing Danny Boy in the winners' enclosure. 'Roly was telling us about his horses and Butch butted in and said: 'What are ya talking about, sure I rode Arkle, didn't I Paddy.' It was very funny.' Woods also remembered a huge security alert one time. 'Mrs Dreaper answered the phone to the British Police warning her that a pair of dopers, masquerading as a couple with the female an attractive blonde, had caught the ferry to Ireland.' 'Would ya believe as she looked out the window to the front gates, there was the couple getting out of their car. Paddy Murray (head lad) stopped them and quickly gave them gate.' Murray was another key member of the Arkle team, famously mixing two bottles of Guinness into his nightly feed called 'the mash.' 'Guinness would deliver bottles of beer to the yard every week for Arkle. We'd a bit of bother keeping some of the lads away from them though,' recalled Woods, who never drank. 'I was disappointed though when we were putting up the statue in Ashbourne a few years ago. Lynsey Dreaper wrote to Diageo but they said no, they weren't interested in giving us anything towards it. They got plenty of mileage out of Arkle with all the photographs.' Woods returned to London with Arkle in 1969 for the Horse of the year show at Wembley. 'It was a great week. Everything was paid for. I'd actually left Dreaper's at that stage but they asked me to go over with him and Pat. He was stabled about half an hour away on a big estate. He seemed as good as ever. 'In the nightly parade at the show there was a well-known cockney fruit seller, a famous fella in London or something, with a donkey and cart. Arkle loved sweets; he could smell in a pocket from three yards away. 'On the last night we decided to have a bit of craic. A tune was played for every horse and for Arkle it was, 'There'll Never Be Another You' by Nat King Cole. The cart man stopped in front of me and I let Arkle have a look at it, I let the reins loose and he nosed the back of the cart, and started scoffing like a child. 'He ate a big hamper of fruit and he got a huge applause; it brought the house down.' Speculation had been rife the previous year in 1968 that Arkle would race again. A special race was arranged at Fairyhouse for his comeback but his fate was sealed when Dreaper took him to Naas to school over hurdles with stablemate Splash. After they had jumped the hurdles Taaffe walked him over to Dreaper who asked: 'All right Pat?' The reply came: 'No, sir.' 'When do you think he will be right?' 'I think he will never be right, sir.' Taaffe died in 1992 at just 62, having had Ireland's second ever heart transplant the previous year. That Wembley trip was to be his final outing but Woods revealed that the Duchess decided to give Arkle one more chance to prove himself before resigning herself to his retirement. 'The Duchess asked me to meet her in the yard one of the mornings. She asked me to put the saddle and bridle on him and give him a spin. All the locals were out taking photographs and everything. 'We did about a mile and a quarter and he worked great and felt absolutely marvellous. I said 'you'll have to put this fella back in training, that's as good as ever he was'. 'We did the same thing the following morning but he took a lame step and that was it. Her vet had told her that might happen and if it did, he was finished for good.' Arkle's story continued even after his death. He was buried on the Duchess' farm in Bryanstown but in 1976 after the land was sold it was feared his grave could vanish if developed for houses. A museum at the Irish National Stud was being started and a controversial idea was forged to display Arkle's skeleton as a centrepiece - where it still is displayed to this day. The Duchess took some persuading and the project was not short of controversy with Arkle's breeder Alison Baker abhorring the idea - only accepting an invitation to meet the Queen in 2011 on condition she didn't have to see Arkle's remains. Paddy met the Queen too that morning, 'she was just like one of us, I couldn't believe it. She said to me 'it must have been very exciting to ride him.' I said it was great, sure a child would have ridden him. ' Paddy and his wife Phyllis, who passed away in January 2020, stayed on for the Derby in 1970 and witnessed another equine superstar Nijinsky power to victory at Epsom in one of the race's greatest ever performances. Himself would surely have approved.
