French Recruits - Dnipro

A 3-year-old gelding by Galiway, Dnipro was bred by Al Shaqab racing and made his racecourse debut for the Fabre’s in a debutantes maiden at Saint-Cloud in May. Sent off at odds of 2.8 PMU (SP Fav), he was able to dictate in front under Alexis Pouchin in a race run with a very slow early pace. It took Dnipro over 1:58 to cover the opening mile, but from there the pace lifted and the front 3 pulled a long way clear of the rest, with the winner recording a time of 36.07s for the final 600m (Source: McLloyd). The horses who finished 5th and 11th have won races since, but this wasn’t the strongest maiden by any means and the main market rival, Contador (Graffard) was a non-runner on account of the soft ground conditions. The early pace was so slow that we can’t really use the time to confirm the official going description of “Collant 4,2”, but the other times on the day would suggest that this was a fairly accurate description of the conditions at Saint-Cloud on the day. Dnipro was always holding the placed horses inside the final furlong and he certainly shaped like a horse who would stay further. Given that the Fabre team chose to make his debut over 12 furlongs, he had perhaps been suggesting that at home too and his subsequent entry in a Class 2 conditions race over the same course and distance would have given us a better idea. The Fabre team and Al Shaqab won that race with Colbert, but Dnipro had already been sold to join Willie Mullins in Ireland at that point.

The team at Closutton have enjoyed a lot of success with the progeny of Galiway. Vauban, Jimmy du Seuil, Gala Marceau and King Rasko Grey have all brought top class success to the team and the fact that Dnipro has the same sire and will run in the Ricci colours, means there is likely to be quite a considerable amount of hype about this horse when he makes his Irish debut. His dam, Lucky Lycra, was a G3 winner on the Flat in Germany for Francois Rohaut and both her progeny to have reached the track have won races. She is a half-sister to a Listed winner and both her dam and grand dam were pattern winners, with the latter (Pearly Shells) winning the Prix Vermeille in 2002. It’s a very smart pedigree and although I couldn’t find any obvious examples of horses from this family going over obstacles, the success that Galiway has had over hurdles must surely mean that Dnipro will have a juvenile hurdling campaign. In reality, we didn’t learn very much about him from his debut run at Saint-Cloud and this purchase has certainly been made based on his potential rather than what he achieved on the track. However, he is with the right trainer, in the right colours, with the right pedigree and so he has to be a horse to note for the new season as a result.