Termagant, winner of the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh, Ireland, has earned a guaranteed place in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita, USA, on November 6 following her success. 
   The Kevin Prendergast-trained Termagant (ex Rock Salt by Selkirk) upstaged some better fancied rivals to land the Moyglare Stud Stakes, which was run on heavy ground. 
   A debut winner at Leopardstown in June when she accounted for the subsequent Group Three scorer Cabaret, the daughter of Powerscourt was sent off a 16/1 chance in a race that attracted leading fancies Lillie Langtry and Long Lashes. 
   However, Termagant belied her odds to retain her unbeaten record with a gritty success by two and a half lengths over Famous, trained by Aidan O’Brien. The latter’s stable companion Lillie Langtry had to settle for third, a further one-and-three-quarter lengths in arrears, with Godolphin’s Long Lashes another eight lengths back in fourth. 
   “She’s a very good filly but we were worried about the ground for her,” Prendergast told Racenews.com who trains the winner for Swiss-born Jorge Vasicek - owner of the Tipperary-based Kenilworth House Stud. 
   “I’d say that she probably has enough done for the season now and this could leave her nailed on for the Irish 1,000 Guineas next May. I think we’d be leaning toward the Curragh rather than Newmarket with her,” Prendergast added. 
   “We felt she was pretty smart going to Leopardstown and, although she was very green, she beat Cabaret that day who has since upheld the form.” 
   For the winning jockey, Declan McDonogh, Termagant represented his first Group One victory since he landed the 2002 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh aboard Prendergast’s Rebelline.
 “She’s such a good moving filly the heavy ground had to be a major worry especially as it was quick when she won on her debut but she coped with it very well,”   
“The race went very well for me. She settled well, travelled well and battled when she needed to. She’s just a very good filly and she doesn’t do a whole lot at home but she certainly saves it for the track,” said the rider. 
   This win was also a first Group One success for Vasicek who was ironically taught to ride by the race sponsor Walter Haefner, off whom he bought his very first horse. 
    “Kevin had trained a couple of horses for me before and we had been lucky together already. So when I saw this filly win in his wife’s colours at Leopardstown during the summer I enquired whether she might be for sale and she was.” 
   Termagant was selected for Prendergast by Frank Barry at the 2008 Goffs Sportman’s Yearling sale where he paid just €34,000 for her.  The Group I victory has since made her worth ten times that.  She is out of the Northern Dancer mare, Kamkova, an unraced half-sister to the Grade 1 Belmont Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, Vanlandingham (by Cox’s Ridge).
   The Moyglare Stud Stakes is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge, an international series of 63 races whose winners earn qualifying positions into a corresponding race at the World Championships, following the payment of applicable entry fees on October 26. The Moyglare Stud Stakes is one of 11 Challenge races held in Europe this year. 
   The next European race in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge is the Group One Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday, September 5, in which the eagerly-awaited clash between Sea The Stars and Fame And Glory is on the cards. The winner receives a place in the $3-million Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Turf (November 7).  
    In addition to the prize money, the winner would have also earned $30,000 in Owners’ Premiums from the Breeders’ Cup if she had been nominated to the Breeders’ Cup programme as a foal.   So the Owners’ Premiums go instead to the connections of Famous and Lillie Langtry, both of whom were Breeders’ Cup nominated. 
   This year, the Breeders’ Cup has placed $50,000 in Owners’ Premiums on 11 international Breeders’ Cup Challenge races. If a Breeders’ Cup nominated horse finishes in one of the three top finishing positions, the owner of the horse earns an additional bonus.  
   The deadline for 2009 foals to be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup Programme at a cost of $500 (US) is October 15.

Tags: Breeders, Group I
Permalink| Aug 31, 2009

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