Fonteyn brings Group 1-winning form to her pedigree
FONTEYN bucked her family’s recent trends to win the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes.
Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s homebred filly was not to be denied a first top-flight success on her second start at the level when bettering her fourth place on her previous Group 1 appearance in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.
Jockey Neil Callan, who was riding his first Group 1 winner in the UK since 2013 having returned to the UK after a stint riding in Hong Kong, said: “Kevin [Ryan] rang me the other day and said ‘I’m dying to get you on a good filly and I think this is it!’ He was quite bullish and confident even though she was an outsider.
“She looked magnificent in the paddock. One thing he did say to me if she jumps and she is fighting you she will soon come back to you and she did that. We didn’t really go a strong pace. I just let her roll down the hill and she really dug for me up the hill.
“It means so much more to me because it is for Kevin Ryan. We go back a long way and we are very good friends and he is godfather to my oldest child Jack. It is more than just horse racing and being a jockey and trainer, we go beyond that, it is fantastic.”
Fonteyn is her sire Farhh’s second Group 1 winner following King Of Change’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes victory.
Until Fonteyn’s arrival, Fonteyn’s pedigree has not been blessed with any black-type, let alone anything of Group 1 class, some years.
Fonteyn is the first foal out of the unraced Cape Cross mare Luzia, who is the first foal out of the unraced mare Bint Almukhtar (Halling). She bred four winners from five runners and seven foals, none of whom boasted black-type.
Bint Almukhtar’s dam Dabawiyah was placed once at three from just two starts and bred one winner from four runners and eight foals.
The class in the family eventually appears in Fonteyn’s fourth dam, The Perfect Life (Try My Best). She was a Group 3 winner of the Prix du Bois and an own-sister to Last Tycoon.
After producing Fonteyn, Luzia was sold for 3,500gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale 2019 to The Raceology Partnership.
She has subsequently had a colt by Time Test in 2021 and was covered by Dream Ahead this spring.