“Ca va, ca va, ca va,” one rider after another said as they reported to trainer Fabrice Chappet about their mounts during their Monday morning routine in Chantilly.
Then there’s Gregory Defrel, the Martinique-born racer of G2 Prix winner Greffulhe Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}).
“Tres, tres bien,” he said, before appreciating the internationally recognized ‘ok’ hand signal.
That’s good enough for the trainer, who remained placid as he watched his second lot spin under the trees at Rond Allez France. Chappet doesn’t tend to make outrageous statements about his athletes, either before or after the race, but he does admit that he’s happy to have Onesto in his immaculate Chantilly stable. One wouldn’t consider Chappet too superstitious, but he notes with a smile that suggests with amusement that the horse came to his yard from America last year on Club Prix du Jockey day. An omen, perhaps?
Onesto has certainly taken a rather unusual route towards this year’s ‘French Derby’. Bred in Ireland at Coolmore by American breeder Adam Bowden of Diamond Creek Ranch, this dog made his first public appearance in the UK at the Yearling Sale in October at Tattersalls, where he was sold in level 185,000gns.
With the pandemic showing no signs of abating and 2-year-old sales likely to be halted or delayed again, the foal was shipped to the US and eventually consigned to Ocala Spring Sale in Florida, where it first caught the eye of the dealer’s lifeline. Hubert Guy.
“He went to see Ciaran Dunne, who was one of the big shippers in Ocala,” Guy recalls. “This horse worked and I was shocked. He’s taken an unbelievable step forward and has had a great time. Then I saw that he was with Frankel out of a Sea The Stars mare, so it looks on the pedigree like he was a horse that went a mile and a half, and his grandmother was of Kahyasi, and you go back to the Hasili Dam, from Juddmonte’s best family. I called Jean-Etienne Dubois and I said ‘we have to buy this horse’. “
There the two worlds collide, in more ways than one. Adam Bowden only recently added purebreeding to his repertoire, having majored in Standardbreds. His Diamond Creek ranch, with wings in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, has 11 stallions. Across the Atlantic, Jean-Etienne Dubois is a name etched in the annals of French sprint racing, as a former coach, racer and champion breeder. . Dubois, now based in Australia, owns a third of Onesto, in partnership with his father Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois, as well as Ecurie Hunter Valley, Ecurie Billon, Haras d’Etreham, Hubert Guy and Fabrice Chappet. Quite a few votes of confidence from the dealer and trainer, as well as a potentially wise investment from the renowned stud breeders at Etreham.
“He has a superb footwork. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to buy a horse you really like, and then have that horse repeat it on the track. But he had a perfect checkup, everything was fine,” said Guy, who rallied the army to buy him for $535,000.
“When I saw the work, I rushed to the barn to see him. When I arrived I saw a little chestnut pony, but he walked very well and had a great attitude. Nothing bothers him at all.”
An employee flips through a directory page with Frankel and Sea The Stars (Ire) in the first two generations it can be reasonably assumed that the horse in question may be on the large side. Perhaps Onesto’s orderliness comes from the fact that he is always with his family. As Guy referenced, this is one of Juddmonte’s best. His great dam Kerali (GB) (High Line {GB}) created the petite Hasili (GB) (Kahyasi {Ire}), the legendary dam of the five Group/Class 1 winners. That’s you unrated Kalima (GB) girl by Hasili, who serves as Onesto’s great dam.
His pedigree is shown some nice historical symmetry by the fact that his fourth dam Sookera (Roberto) was the highest ranked man in the 1977 Ireland Free Match against the Fairy Bridge ( Bold Reason), who also appears in the fourth generation of Onesto in the top line as Sadler’s Wells dam. Furthermore, with Galileo (Ire) and his half-brother Sea The Stars Like his grandfather, Onesto was crossed 3×3 with Urban Sea (Miswaki).
Chappet of Onesto, who lived only one hop, skipping and jumping from the front door said: “He was always a good horse. This coach celebrated his first Classic success 5 years ago with Precieuse (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, and he ended painfully the years. between with Dice Roll (Fr) (Showcasing {GB }) for third in the pony equivalent tournament, the same season that Intellogent (Fr) (Intello {Ger}) won the G1 Prix Jean Prat after finishing in fourth place in the Club Prix du Jockey. In the delayed 2020 Classic, Speak Of The Devil (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) had been hit once in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and was followed home by her half-mate Mageva (Fr) in third place.
He added, “People saw that when we bought him at an exchange. He moves fast, and he wasn’t born to do it. ”
Onesto, whose name is translated from Italian as ‘honest’, certainly has the form of a horse worthy of such a moniker. As he roamed the woods of Chantilly, he kept his head low, focused on his work, never misplaced his foot when one or two of his steady friends showed a sense of high jumps. on Monday morning. His short stature is made up for by strong suits and a long, loose walk.
The chestnut pony made his home circuit debut last September when circling the field to get through his early stages with ease, beating Juddmonte’s Badge (GB), a its close relative Frankel. He was given a Rising star TDN for his efforts.
Chappet said: “He had a small respite when he first arrived but he always did what we asked. “The first time on the pitch, he was very impressive. Next time we wanted to give him a good lesson and he was beaten by Welwal (Fr) but he dropped 1,500m. And for the first time this year, because he’s the winner and because he showed such a good footwork, we thought maybe he could go to the Guineas. So we sent him to Fontainebleau, and he ran really well if you look at the watch, but he just showed that the distance was definitely a bit short for him to show his full potential. its ability. “
Onesto came back from his eighth place in the G3 Prix Fontainebleau stepping on the 2,100m Jockey Club ride in the G2 Prix Greffulhe. Once again his leg turns came into full play as he ramped up his former Agave (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) favorite speed to ease the win.
“Then last time he was impressive and that is what we wanted to see before we decided to join the Jockey Club,” Chappet added. “And he came out of that race perfectly. I am quite pleased with him at this stage.”
Gold start for Diamond Creek
For breeder Adam Bowden, an avid fan of European grass racing, it’s not just Onesto that has made his early morning races even more enjoyable this year, because of Diamond Ranch His Creek is also the breeder of Rising star TDN and Queen Olly bound by Royal Ascot (Ire) (No, never). The farm will also be doubly represented in GII Black-Eyed Susan S. by graduate student Missy Greer (Nyquist) and Favor (Pioneers of the Nile).
“Two of the fillings we bred were at Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico on Friday, so it seemed like too much luck at once,” Bowden chuckled. “I’m grateful and I’m enjoying it because I know it’s incredibly difficult, so when it happens, you should enjoy it.”
He added of his foray into the Purebred world, “I am a huge fan of Galileo and Frankel. I spent the morning in the office watching all the English and Irish songs and just got hooked on it years ago.
“My wife and I went to Ireland when we sponsored the Vincent Delaney Memorial Standardbred race, and one of our free days we took a tour of Coolmore. When we were there, they told us they had some mares for sale. Eddie Fitzpatrick was amazing and my contact there, and we ended up buying a few mares from them. “
If breeders wanted to make a splash in the European race, they could do worse than buy from the best, and in addition to the mares acquired from Coolmore, Bowden subsequently purchased the Onshore Dam (GB). ) by Onesto (Sea The Stars {Ire}), is an unrated 3-year-old from Juddmonte’s draft at the December 2016 Tattersalls Sale.
“Her pedigree is a huge attraction for me,” he says of his relationship with stallions Dansili (GB), Champs Elysees (GB), Cacique (GB) and Leroidesanimaux (Brz), yet including horse racing stars Banks Hill (GB), Intercontinental (GB) and Heat Haze (GB). “We went around the mare and my agent Mike Akers came up to her and said ‘well if you’re willing to spend what it takes to buy her I think she’s the type. stubborn we want.’ And it was successful. ”
It also seems to be working with Queen Olly Surprise (GB) dam (Galileo {GB}). The offspring of the mare, double winner Schooner Ridge (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}), was one of two Bowden had during his training in Chantilly with Nicolas Clement, while Queen Olly was purchased precisely at the Orby Yearling Sale for €300,000 by Amo Racing.
“It’s crazy how all of this happened at the same time and she looks pretty special as well,” Bowden noted. “It was more than I could have hoped for in a short period of time. We really only joined the Thoroughbred team six or seven years ago. We had a sales success and now it’s on the right track. ”
Four Diamond Creek mares recently returned to Coolmore after a stint in the US.
“We cut down to 10 mares and split them relatively evenly between Europe and the US,” explains the breeder. “All of our mares are moving to Kentucky in the fall of 2020. I can’t travel because of the pandemic and we just wanted to get a better feel for them and see what the ponies look like. I’m not sure how long the pandemic will last so they ended up staying here for a while and recently came back with birds of prey.”
And small world is the horse world that recently brought Bowden to Jean-Etienne Dubois, part owner of Onesto, who has also enjoyed much success in the UK as part of the Group 1 ownership organization put Flotus (Ire) (Starsangledbanner {Aus}).
“He happened to be here in Kentucky doing something Standardbred a few weeks ago and we ran into him,” Bowden said. “We were there to review one of their Standardbreds to stand as a stallion and we ended up talking about Onesto the whole time.”
The winner of the Prix Greffulhe, Onesto, here second, has a lovely, laid-back way about him. Go down, get to work. The son of Frankel go to Club Prix du Jockey cho@ChappetRacing. pic.twitter.com/K4Iv5DxGlW
– Emma Berry (@CollingsBerry) May 16, 2022
