Lucky Guess for Cheveley Park after Prix Jean Prat success
Good Guess was one of the outsiders of the field in Sunday's Haras d'Etreham-sponsored Prix Jean Prat but Hisaaki Saito and Fabrice Chappet's colt always had the breeding to shorten his odds of success.
He was a seventh Group 1 in the career of Tally-Ho Stud’s Kodiac and has his roots in several of Cheveley Park Stud's finest families, which led to his 420,000gns purchased by Sebastien Desmontils of Chauvigny Global Equine as a yearling at Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale in 2021.
Good Guess is a grandson of the brilliant 1,000 Guineas and multiple Group 1 star Russian Rhythm, who is responsible for a dynasty of other Group performers. Good Guess’s dam, Zykina, is an unraced daughter of Cheveley Park's mighty Pivotal who has produced Sceptre Stakes winner Spangled as well as popular handicapper Jumira Bridge, who is set to appear again at Wolverhampton on Tuesday.
Chris Richardson, Cheveley Park's managing director, said on Sunday: "He was a very good looking horse and when we sold him as a yearling he made his money, and obviously we’ve been following his progress.
"It’s great to see that sort of success. It’s so nice when people spend a lot of money, and they buy a nice horse, and they get rewarded. It’s so important."
The result provides a fine update for a member of the family being offered at this week's Tattersalls July Sale. Lot 107 is a four-year-old filly named Foxtrot, by Le Havre out of another of Russian Rhythm's daughters, who is in foal to Twilight Son.
“We’ve got so much of the family, it’s just a wonderful family," Richardson told Great British Racing International. "Sadly [Zykina] is quite a tricky breeder. She’s had three barren years, unfortunately, although I suppose not totally her fault as we sent her back to Starspangledbanner to try and duplicate on Spangled, and he’s not the strongest, but she’s back in foal to Kingman.
"Spangled hasn’t had an easy run either, just like her mother, it’s quite a tricky family. But we have a nice Mehmas colt out of Spangled in Book 1 and Bashkirova, another daughter of Pivotal from the same family, is in foal to Frankel. She’s out of Russian Finale, another daughter of Russian Rhythm.
Chris Richardson (right) was delighted with the result for Cheveley Park Stud
"We’ve got Potapova still in training. It’s such a big family that we’ve got plenty going forward for the family."
Reflecting on the year so far, Richardson added: "We’ve had a busy season. We’ve got 62 foals on the ground, 40 colts and 22 fillies. We continue to offer the colts and race the fillies. We’ve got eight yearling colts in Book 1 and eight in Book 2, and a small draft for Goffs UK in Doncaster.
"We had a couple of near misses at Royal Ascot with Sacred and Inspiral, which was a little frustrating from my perspective. If those had won, we’d have been leading owner and leading breeder for the meeting, but there you go, you can’t look back."
