Breeze-up reject Gaenari taking second chance with Diego Dias

It is usually the horses that sell profitably and go on to successful careers which put breeze-up consignors in focus. Gaenari, who was a total failure on the first count, is beginning to make up for it on the track for Diego Dias and the Star Bloodstock team.

Bought back for just £3,000 at the last Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale, having cost £23,000 from her breeders Tally-Ho Stud at the Premier Yearling Sale, the daughter of Inns Of Court was put into training with Dias, who is closely involved with the pinhooking operation run by Matt Eves with Byron Rogers.

After getting collared by Nemonte on her first start at the Curragh on Irish Guineas weekend, Gaenari was upped straight into Listed Class for Wednesday’s Coolmore Ten Sovereigns Tipperary Stakes and was beaten a whisker once again, dead-heating with Alabama for second, a neck behind Kieran Cotter’s Raven’s Pass colt Son Of Corballis.

"Another second, and so close again!" says Dias. "It was a great run, she's done everything she could. Unfortunately the gap didn’t come a little bit earlier for her to get a run, she probably would have got there, but we’re still delighted with her.

"She did run a little bit green, it was a good sharp five furlongs and she’s got pace to come. The jockey [Gavin Ryan] said she took the five furlongs well, she would get six and might even get seven, he said she had the stride and everything, he was very happy with her."

Gaenari is running to keep herself in the shop window, although Dias says connections are happy to keep her unless or until "the right money comes". They could, at least, be in for some big days out.

"We have a plan," says Dias. "We entered her in the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes a while ago and she’s also entered in the Moyglare. We’ll probably give her a run at Naas first, there's a race for fillies over five furlongs on July 26 [the Arqana Irish EBF Marwell Stakes], we might go there and if it goes well, then we can probably head into the Phoenix."

The Star operation places a good deal of emphasis on data and technology before it selects its candidates, which have included the dual Group 1-placed and future €3,200,000 Moyglare Stud purchase Malavath among their success stories. Gaenari began as an example of what happens when the cards do not fall quite as intended.

Diego Dias (left) with his first winner WinemakerCredit: Patrick McCann

"I looked at her with Byron as a yearling; at the time she was a nice mover, balanced, walked well," Dias recalls. "She wasn't the biggest but her back was still high and we knew she was going to grow into a nice filly.

"She did breeze bad but unfortunately I did get a fall, I’d say I was feeling very sore and it was probably my fault for not giving her a proper ride.

"It was a little bit of her [too], she didn’t go hard, and she’s that kind of filly. We’d known from the start that she was more of a racehorse than a breeze-up filly, being more comfortable with other horses rather than to be breezing by herself."

Dias currently has a string of five in work at his yard at the Curragh. He is not exactly an accidental trainer but is doing it for a particular purpose at present, having also taken out a licence to saddle his Johnny Barnes gelding Winemaker, who struck in a handicap at Listowel at the start of June and wasn't beaten far when fourth in a conditions race at Naas on Saturday, when burdened with top weight.

His two-year-old stablemate Mansa Musa made an encouraging enough debut on the same card, showing up well early on before weakening to finish sixth of 11. The Ten Sovereigns colt had been brought back to Ireland having failed to find a buyer at the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale in late March. 

"My father trained back home in Brazil and I always thought I might end up doing it one day," says Dias. 

"I will continue with the breeze-ups - the horses I have here racing are mostly ones I didn't sell at the breeze-ups ups - and I’ve got another two-year-old, Bitcoin Profit [who showed some promise on his debut at Bellewstown on Thursday], who didn't make it to any breeze-up sale, so the second option is I have to race them.

"I’m enjoying it very much and I’m very happy with the way they're going. I’ve had only a few runners but they’re all hitting the bar and running well."

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