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Decorated Knight wins ears pricked

Decorated Knight continued a momentous season at the Curragh on Sunday when capturing the Tattersalls Gold Cup to bag his second Group 1 victory of the year.

With the Curragh receiving a deluge of rain during the first day of the meeting on Irish 2,000 Guineas afternoon, there was doubt as to whether Decorated Knight – a top of the ground horse – would be fully effective in the conditions. However, by Sunday the ground had dried out enough for him to take part and with regular partner Andrea Atzeni in the irons, he was sent off the 7/2 favourite to oblige in a field that included fellow Group 1 winners Deauville and Johannes Vermeer.

Settled in the perfect position by Atzeni just off the heels of the leader Success Days, Decorated Knight shot through an opening past Moonlight Magic when asked and although he momentarily had a good look in front, had far too much in hand to stave off the late challenge of Somehow. At the line, he had a length and a quarter to spare over the Ballydoyle filly with Deauville another two and a quarter lengths away in third.

Decorated Knight has been a model of consistency over the past 18 months for Roger Charlton, winning five stakes races including the Group 1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan and Group 3 Meld Stakes at Leopardstown.

“I was very worried when I was at Goodwood yesterday; somebody showed me a picture from the Curragh with near flood waters and cars splashing about, and I thought, ‘Thank you very much!'”, Charlton told the Racing Post.

“But when I walked the course I was pleasantly surprised. The ground was in very good shape, it was a bit dead but I’d call it good to soft and there were no complaints.

“He picked up well, he got a bit lonely in front, Andrea said he pricked his ears when he got there, but he picked up again when Somehow came to him, which was pleasing because she’s a good filly. It worked out perfectly.

“This horse has improved, he’s very tough and sound. The Group 1 he won in Dubai wasn’t the strongest, but this race was a deal stronger and you couldn’t really ask for more.”

Andrea Atzeni was also impressed, telling At The Races: “It went very smoothly. We had a good draw, we had a good position all the way and he travelled beautifully into the race. Two (furlongs) out, I was very confident it was going take a decent horse to beat him today.

“He got to the front easily enough. In the last 100 yards he got a bit lonely, but when the second horse came he went again. He’s very brave, he’s got a big heart and he’s going the right way.”

Decorated Knight is the first foal out of Pearling, a daughter of Storm Cat who joined the stud when purchased by Tony Nerses at the 2011 Tattersalls December Sale.

Pearling boasts a pedigree out of the top drawer as a sister to champion Giant’s Causeway, subsequently a multiple champion sire for Coolmore in America, and the Group 2-placed Freud, himself a leading sire in New York.

Decorated Knight and Blenheim Warrior as foals at Blue Diamond Stud

Another sibling, Cherry Hinton Stakes winner You’resothrilling, is the dam of top miler Gleneagles, Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Marvellous and Group 3-winning juvenile Coolmore.

Pearling is also a sister to stakes-producing sires Tumblebrutus and Roar Of The Tiger and out of the remarkable mare Mariah’s Storm. The daughter of Rahy won ten of 16 starts including the Grade 2 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes, Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Stakes and a quartet of Grade 3 events. A remarkably tough mare, eight of her wins were secured after she fractured a cannon bone when failing to finish in the Alcibiades Stakes as a two-year-old.

It is also the immediate family of Classic-placed colt Storm The Stars.

This is a family that goes back to Henry Isaac’s 1948 Grade 3 Colonial Handicap and Prioress Stakes heroine Itsabet. Later a multiple stakes producer for Isaac’s Brookfield Farm, the daughter of Heliopolis became the fifth dam of Mariah’s Storm and Hasili, another great matriarch of the sport who provided Juddmonte with three Group 1-producing stallions in Dansili, Cacique and Champs Elysees as well as the brilliant fillies Banks Hill, herself dam of the exciting young South African stallion Ideal World, and Heat Haze.

Pearling’s three-year-old, the Frankel filly Ambrosia, is with Roger Varian. Unfortunately her 2015 Dansili colt died as a yearling.

Pearling is back in foal to Galileo for 2017.

Roger Charlton added: “He’s got a very classy pedigree, he’s closely related to Gleneagles and his dam is a half-sister to Giant’s Causeway, so he will have a stallion career.”