Vadeni beats tough-luck Mishriff in Eclipse Stakes at Sandown
Three-year-old Vadeni needed every bit of his 10-pound weight break to hold off 5-year-old Mishriff and win the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes on Saturday at Sandown Park in England.
Even conceding 10 pounds to his younger rival, Mishriff, who missed the break to start matters, likely was the best horse in the 1 1/4-mile Eclipse. He came with a late surge after jockey David Egan gave up on finding a way through homestretch traffic and swung to the far outside.
Vadeni was held up last in this six-runner field, with jockey Christophe Soumillon taking great pains to stay covered up behind Native Trail until his mount hit the two-furlong marker. There, Soumillon steered Vadeni left, coming outside Native Trail. With the whole Eclipse field lined up six across the course, the diminutive Vadeni surged to the lead with an eighth of a mile to run. Egan ended his pursuit of a hole between fading Bay Bridge and Native Trail and swung left for a final try that carried him past third-place Native Trail by a head while falling a neck short of the winner.
Vadeni was the first France-based Eclipse winner in 62 years and first in the important 10-furlong contest for the venerable French trainer Jean-Claude Rouget. The Aga Khan homebred was coming off a win in the Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby, his first Group 1 success, and Rouget encouraged the horse’s connections to supplement Vadeni into the Eclipse.
Lord North ran well to finish fourth, just behind Native Trail, while favored Bay Bridge was fifth and Alenquer a fading sixth after setting the pace. Winning time over the good-to-firm right-handed course was 2:05.20. Vadeni paid $5.40 in the U.S. Vadeni is by Churchill out of Vaderana, by Monsun.
* Free Wind was stopped cold, checked hard, and ran into the temporary rail a furlong from the finish, yet still managed to recover and win the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks by a going-away two lengths on Saturday at Haydock Park. Four-year-old Free Wind, a Galileo filly trained by John and Thady Gosden for George Strawbridge, now has won five of her seven starts and figures to be headed for her Group 1 debut after Saturday’s improbable victory.
* In Germany, 2021 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Torquator Tasso bounced back from a dismal 2022 debut to win the Group 2 Grosser Hansa-Preis by 3 1/2 lengths on Saturday. Marcel Weiss, who won the Belmont Gold Cup with Loft, trains the winner, a 5-year-old son of Adlerflug.