There are mix of goals for connections with some hoping their filly or mare can gain some important first black-type, some hoping for winning improvement on stakes race form already on CVs, or that the race can act as a useful stepping stone to bigger targets.
Trainers William Haggas and David O’Meara have produced winners of the Pipalong before and both trainers send fillies, with very different profiles, to the Yorkshire track with leading chances.
The Haggas-trained Purplepay is by far the most expensive filly or mare in the field having been sold at the Arqana December Sale 2021 for a cool €2 million when offered as a two-year-old in training.
That winter buyers were in a spending mode needing to relieve the tedium of Covid and that day in Deauville produced a then-record turnover for a session at French sales house. The filly’s form going into the ring certainly warranted a sizable price tag – she had finished third in the Grand Criterium (G1) and was a rare two-year-old filly in-training offered with juvenile Group 1 form to her name.
By the Aga Khan Stud stallion Zarak and from the strong miling family of the Group 3 winner Johnny Barnes and the Lawman pair of Most Improved and Ectot, she was bought by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables.
The couple sent her to their long-term trainer Haggas, who that autumn had produced their admirable runner One Master to win the Prix de la Foret (G1) for the third year in succession.
After transferring to Newmarket, Purplepay finished sixth in last year’s Irish 1,000 Guineas (G1) and went on to take the mile Prix de Sandringham (G2) and fifth in the Pretty Polly Stakes (G1).
Unfortunately, things have not really clicked since and a spring trip Down Under did not reap rewards; she finished out the back in two Group 1 outings.
This is her first run back in the northern hemisphere and she is the only entrant in the nine-runner Pipalong field with a BHA rating over 100. Her trainer will be hoping to use the Listed race as confidence builder to an entry in a Group 3 at The Curragh later this month.
The omens are good as Haggas’s previous Pipalong victory came in 2004 courtesy of the Cheveley Park Stud-owned Chorist (Pivotal), who went onto win the Pretty Polly Stakes (G1) at The Curragh, finish third in the Nassau Stakes (G1) and second in the Champion Stakes (G1).
O’Meara produced last year’s Pipalong winner Thunder Beauty, her trainer upgrading the Night Of Thunder filly’s previous Group-placed form to a Listed win and black-type capitals.
This year the Yorkshire-based trainer sends Love Interest, a four-year-old filly by Time Test. She cost 75,000gns as a yearling when bought by Joe Foley for Clipper Logistics and was the most expensive yearling filly sold to that point by the National Stud-based stallion.
She is arguably the best-bred filly in the field – she is out of Wild Mimosa (Dynaformer), a half-sister to the Group 1-winning pair of Compton Admiral and Summoner, and to the Watership Down Stud-bred, Listed-placed Twyla Tharp (Sadler’s Wells). She claims bragging rights as dam of the four-time Group 1 winner The Fugue (Dansili).
Love Interest has finished third in a Listed race on the Newcastle All-Weather, and connections are looking for that winning promotion.
Likely second favourite Zenga, who is trained by Roger Varian, is a daughter of Lope De Vega, bred by James Wigan and bought by Amanda Skiffington at Tattersalls as a foal from West Blagdon Stud in 2019 for 80,000gns.
She has only run six times, winning on her third start over 1m1f on the All-Weather at Wolverhampton in July 2022, and the Pipalong will be the four-year-old’s black-type race debut.
After a poor effort in October at Newmarket on good to soft, she reappeared this June at Royal Ascot in the Kensington Palace Fillies' Handicap after wind surgery. Despite being denied a clear run, she finished a good seventh, a promising effort after such a long break.
Zenga boasts decent pedigree links – her third dam is Zenda, Juddmonte’s Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1) winner, the half-sister to Oasis Dream and the dam of Kingman – and she is entered in the Tattersalls July Sale on Thursday (Lot 829) due to be consigned by Baroda Stud.
Varian also trains Fall In Love, a four-year-old by Sea The Stars. She has no stakes form to her name but has run down the field in the Prix Vermeille (G1) and the Prix de l’Opera (G1) when trained in France by Japanese trainer Hiroo Shimizu. She won her second start for him but has not troubled the judge since, including in the Group 2 Cape Verdi Stakes in Meydan in February, and this is her first start for Varian.
The four-year-old was a 2020 Arqana October Sale €450,000 Daniel Cole purchase bought 14 days after her half-sister Aunt Pearl (Lope De Vega) had won the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes. Three weeks later the Brad Cox-trained filly improved again to take the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
The Crisford-trained Al Agaila, another daughter of Lope De Vega and a first foal out of the Group 2-winning dam L’Amour De Ma Vie (Dansili), was bought as a yearling by Stroud Coleman for €240,000 at the 2020 Arqana Select Sale, the one-off September Sale that was scheduled in the midst of Covid replacing that year’s abandoned August Sale.
Al Agaila races for KHK Racing and won three times on the All-Weather last winter over a mile and 1m2f. Her last handicap success came in the Winter Oaks Fillies’ Handicap off 90.
L’Amour De Ma Vie won the Group 2 Balachine Stakes, was second in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes (G2) and fourth in the Prix Rothschild (G1). Her dam Cuba was graded stakes placed in the US.
The Irish-trained entrants Dha Leath, trained by Gavin Cromwell, and Mary Salome, from the Andrew Kinirons yard, are both making stakes race debuts.
Dha Leath by Mehmas is a five-time winner last successful over 1m2f at Naas in November off a rating of 84. She has not shown any form this season, but was trying to stretch to 1m4f last time and this trip will be more suitable.
The Juddmonte Farm pedigree tendrils extend here, too, as Dha Leath boasts the same family background as Zenga – her granddam Ataraxy is a half-sister to the Juddmonte’s key broodmare Weymss Bight, the dam of the multiple Group 1 winner and sire Beat Hollow, and a half-sister to Hope, the dam of Zenda.
The admirable Mary Salome has run 49 times to win six over trips from 6f100yds to a mile, and she was successful in June at Roscommon over 7f off a rating of 77. Her County Kildare-based trainer has had one previous runner over hurdles in the UK – the mare Hidden Lane (Hard Spun), who finished 11th in the Grade 2 mares’ novice hurdle at The Festival.
Bred by Noel O’Callaghan, Mary Salome’s dam Christa Maria is a half-sister to Shadwell Stud’s Tamweel, a runner-up in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes.
The five-year-old Kingmania is, as the name suggests, by Kingman. Bred by Deerfield Farm and owned by Salah Fustok, she transferred from trainer Chris Wall to James Ferguson on Wall’s retirement. She added a fourth career victory to her name in April for her new yard, and her quartet of victories have all come over 7f or a mile.
Her Group 3-winning grand dam Beauty Bight (Danehill) is out of Dietrich, a daughter of Piquentnol, who was a half-sister to the top-class Chimes Of Freedom and Denon, and it is the talented family of Spinning World, Aldebaran and Good Journey.
The Newsells Park Stud homebred Espressoo (Dark Angel) was a winner in May over 7f at Ayr off a rating of 83 for trainer Charlie Johnston. She boasts course form having finished fourth at Pontefract last September in a 7f EBF fillies’ handicap, looking then as though further would suit.
Her dam Elas Diamond (Danehill Dancer) is a half-sister to the enigmatic Group 2 stayer Pallasator and a daughter of the Group 3 1m4f winner Ela Athena, who was five-times a Group 1 runner-up when second in Hong Kong, France, Britain and the US.