Rebel Empire
Race entries
Purchased at the Arqana Breeze Up Sale - known as the most prestigious of the breeze up season. The Sale which, which produced The Cheveley Park winner LEZOO & The Mill Reef winner SAKHEER.
From the Consignors - Hyde Park Stud - of Maylandsea 100,000gns, Cachet 60,000gns, Mystery Angel 22,000gns and now this colt by 2yo Group winning 2yo GOKEN.
We were absolutely thrilled to bring him in, on budget, for €72,000. Shortly after we’d purchased him, ace Bloodstock agent Federico Barberini came over to us and said: “Coming into the sale, he was one of my two naps, I’m delighted that you bought him.”
This colt is already, on pedigree, a half-brother to a Group 3 winner (by Charming Thought) so he’s bred fantastically well on his dam’s side and obviously he’s by the up and coming, young sire, Goken.
He came highly recommended by Hyde Park’s John Bourke and he’s particularly well bred, so ticks such boxes, but those reasons alone, are not why we bought him, in particular. Yes, he ticks the pedigree boxes, being out of a world class mare by Exceed And Excel, however it was much more about the horse, as an individual, why we were determined to buy him.
Watch his breeze, here:
The moment we saw him breeze, he wowed us. We loved his breeze, held together beautifully by his pilot over the early 200m and eased into top gear at around the furlong pole (200m pole), he immediately runs green for 2 or 3 strides, then, the penny drops, and he hits full flight, displaying a huge stride (we’ve measured it) and fantastic head carriage, to power through the line. You can see, as the racecourse bend approaches, he runs green again for a moment, having never seen one before. It’s fair to say that he’s very much still learning on the job, a work in progress. It would be no surprise were he to prove significantly better than we’ve seen to date, backing up his Consignor's opinion of him. In terms of progress, for instance he made up 107 places in his ‘race’ position between the end of the first 200m and the end of the second 200m, as the penny dropped. His gallop out time was the 8th quickest of the whole cohort. He was just getting going, as others called “enough”. It’s our assertion that if the breezes were to be rescheduled to take place once more, or the breeze distance be elongated to 5f or so, that the timesters would rank him significantly higher than the 60th placed (overall) that they judged him to be.
Watch his profile video, here:
As you can see from his photos and the videos, he’s a fabulous individual and he even moves great in his walk too.
We took Richard Hannon to see him, and he and he loved him, “He’s lovely and he’s got great scope too. He’s one for next year as well as this. Let’s take our time with him over the next month and give him a chance to relax and settle in, pick him up again and go to some fancy places”! Music to our ears!
Out of an Exceed and Excel mare, as you know, he’s likely to be 5f & 6f most of his life but he may stretch out a tad further. If he’s another Maylandsea, Cachet, Shouldvebeenaring, Ziggy’s Phoenix, we wouldn’t be surprised. He is a handsome dark bay colt and Richard really likes him.
He is also 'French Owner Premiums' qualified. Read about this prize money boosting scheme. here: https://www.frbc.fr/owners-premiums/
Here he is at home on the gallops (Jan' 26th):