ENGLISH VERSION
the year before.
DARYZ, THE DREAM STALLION? Now announced as a stallion at Gilltown Stud alongside his sire Sea The Stars, will Daryz in turn do justice to his talent and his bloodlines by passing on his precious genes to his offspring? That is the question owners and breeders alike are asking. He certainly has everything going for him. Pedigree, class on the racecourse, and a bloodline free of many of today’ s leading sire lines, such as Galileo, Dubawi and Scat Daddy, to name but a few. Daryz is a half-brother to the Group 1 winner Dariyan( Shamardal) and to five other black-type horses. Their dam, Daryakana, is by Selkirk. Trained by Alain de Royer- Dupré, she won the Qatar Prix de Royallieu, then a Group 2, in 2009, the day before Sea The Stars( sire of Daryz) won the Arc de Triomphe. Now retired, Daryakana enjoys the fresh grass of the Aga Khan Studs alongside the champion Zarkava and Daltama( Indian Ridge), a half-sister to Dalakhani( Darshaan) and dam of the Group 1 winner Dolniya( Azamour). Could Daryz have been raised on the taste of the Arc? History will record that the Aga Khan family kept several of Daryakana’ s daughters, including the Group 2 winner Darkaniya( Frankel) and the Listed winner Dariyza( Dawn Approach). Both have in turn produced fillies by some of the world’ s best stallions: Dubawi, Siyouni and Justify …
Blood will tell!
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ROMANTIC WARRIOR: HOW DO YOU MAKE THE RICHEST HORSE IN THE WORLD?
This is the portrait of a regular in the headlines, the adopted Hongkonger Romantic Warrior. His exploits are so many that he has made the front pages time and again. The richest racehorse in history, with earnings of nearly 37 million dollars, Romantic Warrior bowed out in September 2026.
Who better than his trainer to talk about the star Romantic Warrior? When his retirement from racing was announced, he put it this way:“ Romantic Warrior is very special to me. I was very lucky to have him – and I think he was very lucky to have me, as well as Peter [ his owner ] and James [ McDonald, his jockey ]. There are so many highlights to look back on, but for me, the BMW Hong Kong Derby and the Ladbrokes Cox Plate were incredible achievements. The Cox Plate was very special to me, because we were up against the Hayes team and I wasn’ t sure he was going to win. We had to wait to find out he had won, and it was wonderful to savour that victory. Romantic Warrior is the horse of a lifetime. A dream horse. Now that he is retired, maybe he could start a sec- ond career in dressage, like Golden Sixty. That would be wonderful.”
FROM IRISH PASTURES TO THE HEAT OF HONG KONG The horse of a lifetime, a dream horse. But his story began far, far away from Hong Kong, in Ireland, in the green fields of the Emerald Isle. Romantic Warrior was foaled on 18 March 2018, by Acclamation out of Folk Melody( Street Cry). But it all began in 2016, at the Goffs Breeding Stock Sale. Lot 1385 was offered by Godolphin. It was Folk Melody. Ten years ago, this young broodmare was in foal to Exceed And Excel and had produced only one foal, an Iffraaj filly born that same year. A winner at two in the colours of her owner-breeder, she is a daughter of Folk Opera, known in France for winning the Darley Prix Jean Romanet, a Group 2 in 2008, and the E. P. Taylor Stakes( Gr. 1) in Canada. Folk Melody changed hands for € 82,000, bought by Blandford Bloodstock for Corduff Stud and Tim Rooney. Offered as a yearling at Tattersalls in Book 2, Romantic Warrior was set to travel and head for Asia, bought by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. David Egan, of the Corduff Stud operation, explains:“ He was a really lovely horse as a yearling. Jake Warren was the underbidder. My father had a nomination to Acclamation and we were big admirers of the stallion; getting 300,000 guineas for one of his offspring was a very big sum. He
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