Furthermore, until the new millennium, Ireland was without a Group 1 sprint so the May-run Greenlands has always been key race for the nation’s speedsters, and in 2015 the race was upgraded from Group 3 to Group 2 status.
Weatherbys, recognising the pivotal role the race plays, began its sponsorship 30 years ago and the first winner under the company’s banner was the Vincent O’Brien-trained three-year-old colt College Chapel (pictured), who also won the race the following year. He and Hitchens are the only two horses to have won the race twice since it has been staged under the Weatherbys banner.
Bred by British-based breeder Tim Holland-Martin at Overbury Stud the colt by Sharpo was bred to be fast – his dam was the speedy King George Stakes winner Scarcely Blessed (So Blessed) and his grandam the exceptional Parsimony.
“The whole family was so fast,” reports Holland-Martin. “We did try at one stage try to breed horses from the pedigree to stay a mile, but 5f and 6f was always as far as they wanted. College Chapel’s grand-dam Parsimony, a half-sister to Mummy’s Pet, won the July Cup and the Cork and Orrery, and that was despite her being by the Derby winner Parthia!
“The family also nicked really well with the Sharpen Up line – sadly, by the time I had realised that it was too late!”
College Chapel was sold at Tattersalls and joined the O’Brien team. He did not run at two and his first Greenlands Stakes victory was only the second race in his career, the colt having made a successful April three-year-old debut at The Curragh in the Group 3 Tetrarch Stakes for O’Brien.
The colt progressed quickly and the esteem in which he was regarded was evidenced by the fact that the legendary Lester Piggott claimed the mount for the colt’s second career start.
The Greenlands Stakes was held on the Irish 1,000 Guineas card and it proved to be a frustrating day for Piggott – he finished third on Danse Royale in the Group 1 Irish 1,000 Guineas for Michael Grassick, and down the field on his only other mount, the O’Brien-trained Portrait Gallery, in the Listed Silver Race.
The 58-year-old jockey would have been keen to get some recompense from his trip to Ireland, and he got the result on College Chapel.
“Led over a furlong and a half out, edged left, ran on well, eased close home” was the post-race analysis after the colt’s second win on The Curragh – it was a smooth and easy success for the colt under Piggott and, hopefully, a happy jockey returned to Newmarket.
The master trainer O’Brien, then in the latter stages of his brilliant career, continued to kick on with an ambitious programme for College Chapel and he sent the colt for to Royal Ascot for his third run where he claimed a Group 3 hat-trick with victory in the Cork and Orrery Stakes.
College Chapel’s win at Royal Ascot, carrying the colours of O’Brien’s wife Jacqueline, was the last Royal meeting success for Piggott (116 wins) and the 25th and final victory for the trainer.
Piggott said to the BBC in a post-race interview with Julian Wilson: "After he [College Chapel] won at The Curragh, the Cork and Orrery was the obvious race to run him. Vincent was not all that keen to run him, the ground did not suit, but the horse tried hard l I think he is a little better than that.
“This horse is as good as any of Vincent's Cork and Orrery winners.”
It was an emotional result and O’Brien broke with tradition of the time and lead-in the colt to the winners’ enclosure. Horse and jockey returned to huge applause and Piggott said to Wilson: “It was a marvellous reception for both of us and for the horse as he has only had two races, to come here and run against all those experienced sprinters, it takes a bit of doing.”
From the Royal meeting, College Chapel went on to finish second in the Group 1 July Cup and in the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Gheest before taking a third and fourth in the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) and in the Hazelwood Foods Sprint Cup (G1) at Haydock in September where he finished behind Wolfhound, Catrail and Lochsong.
It was golden year in the sprinting division.
O’Brien kicked off the colt’s four-year-old season back at The Curragh where he took second in the Gladness Stakes (G2) before reclaiming his crown in the Greenlands, beating the three-year-old The Puzzler, Midhish and Lavinia Fontana. Under Piggott, College Chapel asserted close to home, and it was a fine performance under the penalty burden and top-weight of 9st11lb.
An subsequent eighth place in the Cork and Orrery, run on unsuitably fast ground, was College Chapel’s last racecourse outing. He was retired to Coolmore moving to Collin Stud in 2002, and then to Italy and Allevamento Della Berardenga Srl in 2004.
His best progeny was the 1998-born speedy filly Superstar Leo, who was bred, appropriately, by Piggott at Cheval Court Stud in partnership with his good friend Tony Hirschfeld from the third crop of the young sire.
Her dam Council Rock was a daughter of General Assembly and the Nassau Stakes winner Dancing Rocks, who is now famed as grand-dam of Footstepsinthesand and Pedro The Great, and great grand-dam of the 2,000 Guineas (G1) and National Stakes (G1) winner Power and the E.P. Taylor Stakes (G1) winner Curvy.
Council Rock was purchased as an eight-year-old by Susan Piggott for 11,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale 1993. The mare’s ninth foal, a filly, was offered by the Piggotts at the 1999 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale – unfortunately the buying bench was unimpressed and she was bought back in for 3,400gns.
Piggott decided to name her after a boat on board which he had enjoyed a particularly good party, he and his daughter Maureen Haggas formed The Superstar Leo Partnership and the filly was sent into training with Maureen’s husband William.
Superstar Leo quickly proved the sale ring assessment to be wrong – she developed into a fine two-year-old and beat the colts in the millennium renewal of the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes. After the Royal meeting she was sold into Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stable ownership and went on to win the Weatherbys Super Sprint breaking the track record by over a second. It is still the fastest winning time for the race.
She was stepped up to Group 1 level when second in the Phoenix Stakes and was second again at the highest level in that autumn’s Prix de l’Abbaye to Namid, himself winner of that year’s Greenlands Stakes.
After all those superb efforts, unsurprisingly, Superstar Leo was the European champion juvenile filly of 2000.
Sadly, she did not train on – her best result at three was a Listed second in the City Of Wall Stakes at Chester in July and last start came in the Group 3 King George Stakes at Goodwood when 11th of 15 runners.
She was retired to join the Gretchen’s broodmare band and her best foal was Enticing. A daughter of Pivotal, she had better luck in the Group 3 sprint at Goodwood with success as a four-year-old in 2008, building on her course victory in the Group 2 Molecomb Stakes as a juvenile.
Enticing’s own best foal has been One Master, the three-time winner of the Prix de la Foret and four-times Group 1-placed for Lael Stable. A daughter of Fastnet Rock, she had a colt by Dubawi last year and was due to Frankel this spring.
College Chapel’s name is not being passed down through the generations in many pedigrees, but he did also sire the Prix Robert Papin (G2) winner Black Amber, who was also fourth in the Phoenix Stakes (G1), and the Prix Cabourg (G3) winner Hunan, while his 1997-born gelding Final Exam emulated his sire with victory in the 2001 renewal of the Weatherby’s Greenlands Stakes when ridden by the late Pat Smullen for trainer Dermot Weld.