Chevelle
CHEVELLE (Fr)
THE GREY GATSBY X TUCUPITA
As many of you will know, I keep a keen eye on the racing in France and have had this young lady in the tracker since October last year.
She is from a family I was aware of, as I purchased her full brother at the yearling sales in Newmarket in September last year for 30,000gns and he has recently been broken in by Jason Maguire.
Her full brother is still in work and is going very nicely indeed – Jason is very impressed with him, and a feature of his work thus far has been his schooling – he has proved an absolute natural from day one in the lose school and has now gone onto school over hurdles in the arena. He is very good. With that in mind - it very much looked like Chevelle - with her physique and experience from the flat in France would be an ideal candidate for juvenile hurdles in the UK this season.
Her 2 yr old full brother schooling - he has been an absolute natural - seen here giving a lead to another youngster!
Chevelle is by The Grey Gatsby – a sire I am a big fan of. His stock are usually big, strong, scopey sorts – who are tough, and relish a battle. The Grey Gatsby was a resolute and tough racehorse himself; he is the highest rated son of Mastercraftsman, and was the winner of the Dante in York before going on to land the French Derby by 3 lengths. Later that summer he ran two super races to be second in the Juddmonte in York and then winning the Tattersalls Gold Cup on the Curragh. His first crop are 5 yr olds and I have been a fan of his from the start. We were one of the first to spot his potential as a jumps sire and spent a long time trying to buy Greyval a couple of years ago – eventually getting her bought and seeing her win 2 juvenile hurdles in her first season – including the Listed Fillies Juvenile Hurdle (£40,000) in Doncaster.
This route of fillies juvenile hurdles is a little gold mine I have been exploiting for a few years, There is a nice programme in place which includes three nicely spaced out and valuable feature races for juvenile fillies – Newbury (Nov) Listed, Doncaster (Jan) Listed and Cheltenham (April) Premier Handicap. All of these races carry a considerable prize fund, and with Newbury and Doncaster having Listed status – a top three finish in these races secures valuable ‘black type’ resulting in a considerable increase in capital value as a broodmare when her racing days are over.
I have purchased a number of fillies to go down this route – the first, Yauthym, like Chevelle was claimed from France, went on to win 3 times over hurdles and was placed a further 9 times including in the Listed race in Doncaster. She was sold for nearly double the price I claimed her for as a 3 yr old.
Volkovka was purchased with the same race in mind – and like Yauthym she was third in the Doncaster race, despite it being completely the ‘wrong way round’ for her as she had to have a right handed track. She was the winner of 3 hurdle races and has gone on to be a broodmare.
Greyval went two better than the other two by winning the Doncaster heat – and we decided to test her in Grade 1 company in Aintree after that, rather than running her in the Cheltenham race in April. She is currently worth considerably more than we paid for her having also scooped up over £34,000 in prizemoney.
Chevelle has the perfect profile to emulate the three fillies that have gone before her.
Delve into her form and you can see why I was so keen to get hold of her.
Debut: Lyon La Soie – 17/10/23 – 2nd
The winner Francaise is now rated 87 – and on her most recent start was a length second to a horse that had been placed twice in Listed company and is rated 107. Francaise had the benefit of a previous outing as well.
Chevelle – 2nd beaten a neck
The third, Briona – beat Chevelle at the same track on their next start and is a half sister to a horse rated 98. Briona is now rated 77
The fourth, Nonoleta had the benefit of a previous run – but it is what she did subsequently that is of the most interest – her next start was over hurdles in Auteuil – where she contested the Prix Geographie, a maiden hurdle always won every year by a very smart filly. It is a race that Lossiemouth won in 2022. Nonoleta was leading at the second last before tiring in the testing ground to finish fourth, beaten just over 7 lengths. The form of this race is unbelievably strong, as the first two have both gone on to win Listed Hurdles in the last 6 months. Nonoleta, has subsequently finished a close second in a decent race in Compeigne. She is a half sister to two black type performers in Viva Chaleur who was second in a Group 1 (rated 111) and Half Half (highest rating 98)
With the three horses around her all from excellent families, and going onto show very good form subsequently, this was a very impressive debut from Chevelle.
Lyon La Soie 22/11/2023
With the experience of her debut under her belt, Chevelle returned to the course and distance for her second start. She was bounced out in an attempt to make all and ran a really nice race – eventually just getting run out of it in the closing stages to once again finish a close second, beaten by Briona who had been third to her on debut.
For a tall weak filly these two runs – both over 9 furlongs were really commendable, and certainly put her on my radar.
Pornichet 27/3/2024
After a winter break Chevelle returned, once again on the all-weather in Pornichet. The puzzling thing about this run was the drop back in trip – her pedigree shouts stamina – and they dropped her back from 9 furlongs to 8.5 furlongs. For her first run after a break, she ran ok – getting outpaced on the bend and staying on one paced to finish 5 lengths off the winner.
Lion D’Angers 9/6/2024
On the owners instructions, Chevelle was then dropped back to 7 furlongs for her next start. A very strange thing to do! She stood absolutely no chance over that trip, and as expected was outpaced from a long way out. What I liked about her was the fact that she never gave in and tried her hardest all the way to the line despite never having the pace to contend. Her trainer never wanted to run her in this – the owner wanted to.
Vichy 18/7/2024
Upped to 1m1.25f Chevelle ran in a decent looking claimer in Vichy. She went off as the 100/30 second favourite and ran another decent race. She was beaten just 2 lengths into fifth in a bunch finish – with the first four having Timeform Ratings of 69,79p,73,69 – Chevell has a Timeform rating of 70. Four of the first 6 were subject to claims, and it looks like tight enough form for the grade. Once again Chevelle battled all the way to the line and showed her resolute qualities. She was staying on at the death, and I believe that she would have be seen in a better light over even further.
With this form in the book – I think she has a nice future over 2 miles with 8 flights of hurdles in front of her.
We have seen how her full brother has taken to jumping at the tender age of two – and with those genes, she should also relish the switch to hurdles. With enough speed to be effective over 9 furlongs, hopefully an aptitude for hurdling, along with her size, and scope she is ideally suited to a hurdling career.
When you look at the prices paid for fillies to go hurdling out of the recent Horses In Training Sale in Newmarket, with fillies with very much lower Timeform Ratings – and with a lot less size and scope than Chevelle making significantly more money – you have to think that we have snaffled a bit of a bargain.
Given the programme that is open to her, her physical attributes, the form she has shown over wholly inadequate trips and her resolution – she makes a lot of sense!
Chevelle travelled on the overnight ferry from France, arriving at Ivy Lodge Farm at 9.00am on Friday 26 July.
She was jumping around the lose school by lunchtime, before spending the afternoon in the paddock.
As I had hoped and envisaged – like her year younger full brother she is an absolute natural over an obstacle and simply loves to jump!
She will have a few weeks with Jason Maguire at Ivy Lodge Farm, learning to jump, and putting some weight on to fill her big frame, before heading down the road to Fergal O’Brien.
Fergal has taken charge of all of the fillies we have aimed down this route, and has proved that he is very much the right man for getting the job done!
She will be syndicated in 10% shares priced at £1500 each
Monthly fees are set at £300/month and cover all costs.
You will never be asked for any additional funds to cover extraneous cost such as vets fees etc.
