Campanelle Dazzles in Prix Morny

Wesley Ward was the first to pay tribute to his old ally Frankie Dettori, but while racing's favorite showman has dominated Deauville from the saddle these past two weekends, the victory of Campanelle Aug. 23 belongs squarely to Ward and his extraordinary filly.

A third Darley Prix Morny (G1) for Ward is further evidence the American is one of the very best when it comes to training horses for specific targets and then traveling them.

Royal Ascot form came to the fore as the Queen Mary Stakes (G2) winner was chased home by Coventry Stakes (G1) hero Nando Parrado, who proved his 150-1 success was no fluke. Third went to the Richard Fahey-trained Rhythm Master, who handled a huge jump in class on just his second start.

Campanelle is due to spend an easy couple of weeks in Chantilly as her traveling companion Wink gears up for the Prix d'Arenberg (G3), but Ward will keep an eye on her recuperation and has not ruled out staying on in Europe for a crack at the Cheveley Park Stakes (G1) at Newmarket.

"We're going to nominate her to the Cheveley Park, and she'll go down to Chantilly with (Wink) for a little bit of a letdown," Ward said. "Chantilly is a beautiful place, and she can have a break while we decide which direction we go. 

"With Hootenanny , he came straight back (from finishing second in the Morny) and trained right up to winning the Breeders' Cup (Juvenile Turf, G1T) for me over a mile. This year the race is right here in my backyard at Keeneland, so I'm excited for her to get her here and training on my home track. 

"We're going to sit down and give the Cheveley Park some serious thought. It's a wonderful race, and Lady Aurelia was right there until they just swarmed us in the last 10 strides. Campanelle has a longer stride, so it would suit her. We'll sit down with Ben McElroy, who picked the filly out and is managing her. Between Ben, Barbara Banke of Stonestreet Stables, and myself, there will be all sorts of opinions and then we'll come to a decision." 

But it is the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies' Turf (G1T)—a race for which Paddy Power makes Campanelle a 5-1 favorite—that will be her ultimate target. Winning the Prix Morny earned Campanelle a paid berth into the Nov. 6 test.

"Frankie just called me, and he was just yelling, 'Mile! Mile! Mile!'

"I told him, 'Don't worry, she wants all of a mile.' We're going to look forward to stretching her out over a mile down the road at some point, likely in the Breeders' Cup," Ward added. "She's a big filly but with a lot of speed as well, and we saw that right from the start when we started training her down in Florida.

"What really impressed me was that she went to Ascot off a very short rest before she won the Queen Mary. Usually my horses get a chance to acclimatize to the cooler weather over there and have good spacing between their races. Everything came close together for her, and she still won.

"Now that she's had the time, I really started to see her blossom at home. We had good spacing from Ascot to the Morny, and she's grown as well as really thriving on the travel. She goes from A to B, and when she gets to B, she just picks right up. We're very lucky to have a filly like her with that long stride, and she's a lot bigger horse than No Nay Never or Lady Aurelia, who were real sprinting types."

Dettori was celebrating a second group 1 in seven days following Palace Pier's win in the Aug. 16 Prix du Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard Jacques le Marois (G1) at the same track.

The Deauville stewards took a dim view of Dettori's failure to keep Campanelle straight shortly after leaving the stalls, but his three-day ban will commence Sept. 6, 24 hours after Enable has her Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) dress rehearsal at Kempton.

"I was very impressed with her in the Queen Mary," Dettori said. "She's grown since Ascot and has an amazingly long stride. She's handled the ground, but she'll be much better on good ground. She's a very smart 2-year-old."

Clive Cox was full of praise for runner-up Nando Parrado, who came out clear second-best.

"We were expecting a good performance, and he clearly delivered exactly that," Cox said. "Although the form hasn't worked out particularly well from the Coventry, it proves his win was no fluke and he's a horse that we're very pleased with in terms of his progress. That was a very solid performance."

Campanelle Fifth Top-Level Scorer for Kodiac 

Campanelle became the fifth top-flight scorer for Tally-Ho Stud stalwart Kodiac. The winner carried the same colors as the 2016 Morny winner, Lady Aurelia. 

Campanelle was bred by Tally-Ho Stud out of the Namid mare Janina, whom they sourced for 39,000 guineas (US$53,330) at the 2016 Tattersalls July Sale, and was snapped up by McElroy for 190,000 guineas ($243,774) at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale.

She completes a three-generational sequence of stakes winners with Janina having won the listed Marygate Stakes at York and her dam, Lady Dominatrix, by Danehill Dancer, having struck in group 3 company at Newbury. Campanelle is inbred 2x4 to Danehill, the sire of both Kodiac and Danehill Dancer. Janina visited Mehmas last year and was covered by Galileo Gold this year. 

Kodiac, a half brother to Invincible Spirit out of Prix de Diane Hermes (French Oaks, G1) winner Rafha, has sired two winners of the Cheveley Park Stakes in Tiggy Wiggy (2014) and Fairyland (2018), with the latter going on to win the Derrinstown Stud Flying Five Stakes (G1) at the Curragh.

His other two top-flight winners are 4-year-old colt Hello Youmzain, the winner of last year's Haydock Betfair Sprint Cup (G1) and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (G1) in June, and the exceptional middle-distance performer Best Solution, who earned a place at stud in Germany, where he won twice at the highest level. 

Kodiac easily ranks among the best sires of 2-year-olds, having fielded a world-record 61 juvenile winners in 2017, and he stood the past two seasons for a career-high fee of €65,000, having initially retired to Tally-Ho at a €5,000 fee in 2007. 

Lady Aurelia's story did not end after winning the Morny as she followed up in the King's Stand Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot the following year, before Banke bought out her partners in the mare for $7.5 million at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's breeding stock sale, in November 2018. 

The daughter of Scat Daddy was covered by Curlin  last year but did not get in foal. She is carrying a colt foal by the same sire, however, after a successful mating this year.