David Thiselton
Gaynor Rupert landed a first overseas Gr 1 win in France on Sunday with her UK breeding and owning operation Cayton Park Stud and this could potentially spell good news for South African breeding.
She bred the St Mark’s Basilica colt Thesecretadversary in partnership with Coolmore and owns him in partnership with Mrs John Magnier.
The colt runs in the familiar light blue with a white box colours of Drakenstein Stud.
The good-looking chestnut colt with the unmistakeable white face stamped his credentials at Royal Ascot, winning the Gr 3 Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs despite jumping from what had proved to be an unfavourable low draw during the meeting.
He has now followed up with an impressive start-to finish victory in the Gr 1 Prix Jean Pratt over the same distance at Deauville.
Prior to Ascot he had fallen short when tackling Gr 1 events, hitting trouble in running at Woodbine last year and also not showing his true colours in both the Newmarket and Curragh editions of the 2000 Guineas.
However, the Fozzy Stack-trained colt had his tail up after Royal Ascot and excelled once again at the seven furlong distance under Christophe Soumillon, who was deputising for usual pilot, the suspended Seamie Heffernan.
Thesecretadversary was still full of running at the line as Aidan O’Brien’s running-on English 1000 Guineas winner True Love (No Nay Never) finished strongly to be beaten half-a-length and make it an Irish-trained one-two. Christopher Head’s Gr 2 winner Nighttime (Wootton Bassett) was best of the home team, finishing a further head back in third.
Stack said: “Christophe Soumillon gave him a superb ride. We were a little concerned about the pace of the race. He told me, ‘I think we’ll have to go on because nobody else seems willing to do it.’ I replied, ‘Go ahead’. Everything worked out perfectly. He had pulled too hard in the English Guineas, and in the Irish equivalent he never got a clear run.”
“We have always believed he was a good horse. When he then won the Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs at Ascot, Seamie Heffernan, who rode him that day, said he would be even better over six furlongs. Christophe Soumillon said exactly the same thing today.”
“He holds entries in the City of York Stakes, a Group One at York, as well as the Sprint Cup at Haydock. I will now discuss the options with the owners to see what they would like to do. Both partners (Gaynor Rupert and the Magnier family) are involved in the stallion business, so I will partly be guided by their long-term objectives.”
The last statement gives reason to wonder whether Thesecretadversary will stand at Drakenstein Stud in South Africa one day.
If so he will join the Paardeberg Stud-based Expert Eye (Acclamation) as a Jersey Stakes winner standing in South Africa, while Paardeberg’s Kikkuli (Kingman), a three-parts brother to Frankel, was just touched off in the Jersey Stakes.
The Secretadversary’s victory continues a fine run for Stack, who also sent out exciting juvenile Nola Soul to win at Royal Ascot, and Stack added: “If you said to me a month ago I would have had two Royal Ascot winners and then a Group One at Deauville I would have said ‘stop it’, it’s amazing.”
Gaynor Rupert, among numerous other homebreds, also has another top class three-year-old representing Cayton park Stud in the UK at present, the Sea The Stars filly I’m The One. The John and Thady Gosden-trained filly won her debut over a mile and two furlongs at Newbury in ultra impressive fashion by six lengths under William Buick and was promptly installed as Epsom Oaks favourite. However, she was beaten into second in the Listed Cheshire Oaks at Chester next time out and has been laid off ever since.
