Clive Cox's Lethal eye pays dividends with a Glorious and much needed winner

At £65,000, the colt out of Entreat was the most expensive yearling to sell within Lethal Force’s third crop when coming under the hammer from Highclere Stud at last year’s Goffs UK Premier Sale.

Only two years before, progeny of the Cheveley Park Stud stallion had been selling for up to 160,000gns, but although subsequently a prolific source of winners, the lack of a big name within those early representatives was not sitting well within market forces as last year’s yearling sales season swung into action.

Yet it would have paid to sit up and take notice of the Entreat colt, if only because he had caught the eye of none other than Clive Cox.

Few people are more in tune with Lethal Force than Cox. After all, it was Cox who picked out the son of Dark Angel at the 2010 Tattersalls Ireland September Sale for a mere €8,500 before saddling him to victories in the July Cup and Diamond Jubilee Stakes. And now in that Entreat colt, Golden Horde, his Beechdown Farm Stables is home to a colt in the process of providing Lethal Force with that vital flagbearer.

Golden Horde’s victory in last week’s Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, in which he outbattled Threat to win by just under a length with the pair well clear of the third Royal Dornoch, was impressive enough to draw comparisons with his sire from jockey Adam Kirby.

“I am pleased for Lethal Force,” Kirby told reporters. “It's nice for him to get a nice winner on the board and hopefully this lad will do him proud. I didn't feel like I was going that quick on him. He is just like his dad in that respect, where he has a high cruising speed and lengthens really well.”

Trainer Clive Cox has a real affinity with Lethal Force and his relationsCredit: Edward Whitaker

Cox echoes those sentiments, and is now looking forward to unleashing the colt into Group 1 company, most probably in the Prix Morny later this month at Deauville.

“At the moment, all the impressions I’ve had is that he’s come out of the race well, and all being well we’re looking towards the Prix Morny,” he says.

“It’s extremely rewarding, and not only because we want Lethal Force to succeed. This is a really nice horse with a bit of scope to him. We like to leave a bit to work on with our two-year-olds and what this horse has done is progress each time.”

He adds: “I loved him at the sales. He has size, scope and a great step to him - a real athlete. At that stage he was probably nicer than Lethal Force. Lethal Force had a great outlook and a great step but he wasn’t completely correct in front. But they’re both horses that manage themselves well and they’re well balanced, which of course is what you want.

“Lethal Force wasn’t necessarily flavour of the month at the time and I think that made his price reasonable.”

Cox has naturally been a keen supporter of Lethal Force since his retirement to Cheveley Park Stud and it’s probably no coincidence that he also trains Konchek, "a very fast horse" who ran second to Advertise in last year’s July Stakes at Newmarket.While Konchek was bred by Cheveley Park Stud, Golden Horde is out of a Cheveley Park homebred in Entreat, who was purchased by Cn Farm through the BBA Ireland while carrying the colt at the 2016 Tattersalls July Sale. The Pivotal mare cost 14,000gns that day in a transaction that now looks excellent value, not just because of Golden Horde but also via her four-year-old Dutch Art daughter Exhort, recent winner of the Pipalong Stakes.

Entreat’s productive summer, however, is merely maintaining an extraordinary run of success for the Imagining family. As the accompanying table shows, there have been six stakes-winning descendants of Imagining in Europe already this season. Three of them, Zabeel Prince, Queen Power and Summer Romance, are products of the Princess Serena branch cultivated by Roundhill Stud, also responsible in its time for the Group 1 performers Rizeena and Puissance De Lune.

Imagining’s most notable legacy to the breed, however, is as the dam of Serena’s Song. Trained by D Wayne Lukas on behalf of Robert and Beverly Lewis, the Rahy filly won 18 of 38 starts and close to $3.3 million from 1994 to 1996. Her haul included a remarkable 11 Grade 1s, while at stud she produced the 2002 Coronation Stakes winner Sophisticat alongside the Grade 2 winners Grand Reward and Harlington. This outstanding mare is also ancestress of Honor Code, Vocalised and recent Prix Chloe winner Suphala.

The achievements of Serena’s Song were still very fresh in the memory when Imagining’s filly by Irish River, River Saint, came up for auction from her breeder Arthur Appleton at the 1997 Keeneland July Sale. River Saint duly made $525,000 to Cheveley Park Stud and although she never won in six starts for Sir Michael Stoute, she did go on to leave behind the tough Richard Hannon-trained Group 2 winner Producer prior to her export to Saudi Arabia (in an interesting twist, Producer - by Dutch Art - now holds a place on the eclectic stallion roster at Calumet Farm in Kentucky, where he covered 12 mares last season at an advertised fee of $5,000). The winning Entreat preceded Producer as the mare's sixth foal.

It’s also dangerous to underestimate the influence of Pivotal in the tale of Entreat. Golden Horde and Exhort are two of 16 stakes winners worldwide so far this year out of mares by the Cheveley Park Stud stalwart; others include Advertise, Hermosa, Magical, Defoe, Veracious, Raffle Prize, Love and Sunday’s Group 3 Fritz Henkel Stiftung-Rennen winner Brisando. It really has been a remarkable run for Pivotal in his role as a damsire, as reflected by his lead at the top of the European broodmare sire standings.

Pivotal: Golden Horde is one of 16 stakes winners worldwide so far this year out of mares by the Cheveley Park Stud stalwartCredit: Zoe Vicarage

Golden Horde’s Richmond victory also contributed to a productive week for the Acclamation clan. The Rathbarry stallion himself was represented by two winners at Glorious Goodwood in Dirty Rascal, winner of last Wednesday's 7f handicap for Richard Hannon, and Persuasion, who looked a juvenile of real promise when striking on his debut for Charlie Hills. However, it was his most accomplished sire son, Yeomanstown Stud’s Dark Angel, who really stole the show thanks to Battaash, who captured his third straight King George Stakes, and Stewards' Cup winner Khaadem.

Lethal Force was one of the first sons of Dark Angel to stud and now sits among a group that includes Gutaifan, the current leading first-crop sire by number of winners. Golden Horde has come at an important time for his sire, although time will tell whether his emergence is enough to appease the market. Regardless, thanks to Golden Horde, Lethal Force surely must have a fair shot of becoming a Group 1-producing stallion by the end of the season.

STAKES WINNERS DESCENDING FROM IMAGINING SO FAR IN 2019

ZABEEL PRINCE (13 g Lope De Vega - Princess Serena by Unbridled’s Song) won Prix d’Ispahan - Gr.3, Earl Of Sefton Stakes - Gr.3. Bred by Roundhill Stud

GOLDEN HORDE (17 c Lethal Force - Entreat by Pivotal) won Richmond Stakes - Gr.2, 2019. Bred by Cn Farm Ltd

SUPHALA (16 f Frankel - Sefroua by Kingmambo) won Prix Chloe - Gr.3, Prix Volterra - Listed. Bred by Haras d’Etreham, Riviera Equine SARL

EXHORT (15 f Dutch Art - Entreat by Pivotal) won Pipalong Stakes - Listed. Bred by Cheveley Park Stud

QUEEN POWER (16 f Shamardal - Princess Serena by Unbridled’s Song) won Haras De Bouquetot Fillies' Trial Stakes - Listed. Bred by Roundhill Stud

SUMMER ROMANCE (17 f Kingman - Serena’s Storm by Statue Of Liberty) won Empress Stakes - Listed. Bred by Roundhill Stud

Breeders' Digest

Strong Goodwood for Iffraaj

Goodwood was also kind to Iffraaj, who struck twice courtesy of handicap winners Forest Of Dean and Land Of Legends. Not only that, his ascendant son Wootton Bassett sired Unibet Golden Mile Handicap winner Beat Le Bon. Well worth his place back in Pattern company, the colt is from the fourth crop of Wootton Bassett and, as the product of an Elusive City mare, is inbred to Gone West - a pattern also seen in another classy Wootton Bassett three-year-old in Group 3 winner The Black Album.

Pinatubo new strike for Eljazzi

It was also a week in which Eljazzi was never far from the action. The Artaius mare, a half-sister to champion sire Pitcairn purchased by Major Johnnie Lewis on behalf of Prince AA Faisal, has spawned an almighty legacy headed by Invincible Spirit and Kodiac. Now the family has struck again as the source of impressive Vintage Stakes winner Pinatubo, a fourth generation descendant of Eljazzi. Invincible Spirit’s prowess as a sire of sires, meanwhile, was also showcased by Molecomb Stakes heroine Liberty Beach, by Cable Bay, and juvenile scorer Vividly, by Charm Spirit. Daughters of Invincible Spirit were also responsible for Group winners Duke Of Hazard and Desert Encounter.

Prancealot going global

The victory of Beau Recall, bred by Tom Wallace in County Westmeath, in Saturday’s Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar will have been warmly received by Clay Murdock’s Ranch San Miguel in California following the recent announcement of their deal to shuttle the former Tally-Ho stallion from Cornerstone Stud in Australia. Her victory capped an international week for Sir Prancealot that also included a second success for Sir Dancealot in the Lennox Stakes at Goodwood.

Bargain buy

Obviously 100,000gns isn’t everybody’s idea of a bargain, but in Galileo’s world such a figure represents shallow waters. Nayef Road, who became his sire’s 14th stakes-winning three-year-old of 2019 in last Thursday’s Gordon Stakes at Goodwood, was the cheapest Galileo yearling to sell across Europe in 2017 at the Tattersalls October Sale when sold to Rabbah Bloodstock for 100,000gns, a level far removed from the average of 816,716gns recorded by his sire at that auction. Nearly two years on and he has compiled an admirable record for Mark Johnston as the winner of four starts and close to £200,000. Bred by Ben Sangster, the May 3 foal is the second stakes horse out of Listed scorer Rose Bonheur following the Listed-placed Middle East.

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