'Bugatti'

It seems like such a long time since 'Jaguar' (Mayano Time) retired, but a suitable replacement for him has now been found - a Thoroughbred that has a similar aura to the onry one, but he's bigger (his race weight was about 20kg heavier than 'Jaguar' at similar ages), a lot younger, less snappy, and full of spirit and potential.

He was born in April 2008 and registered as Segesta in his racing days - a name derived from the ancient city on Sicily. Based at Kiyoaki Sasaki's stables at Funabashi, he won two NAR races in his debut year, and another in 2012. He also picked up a couple of thirds along the way, but retired after a poor result in February 2013.

Although the 3-0-2 record from 16 starts is only fairly impressive compared to Mayano Time's excellent 4-3-4 and Tempai's truly remarkable 7-1-3, he also had three fourths, a fifth and three sixth places, so he did a pretty good job for his owners, that's for sure. And compared to normal, three wins is a real cause for celebration - most horses go through entire careers winning nothing at all...

With regard to his bloodlines, he was sired by Black Hawk, who won the G1 Sprinter's Stakes in 1999, and the G1 Yasuda Kinen in 2001. He had numerous top three places in all manner of graded races, finally ending up with a 9-8-6 record from 28 outings. Black Hawk comes from the Northern Dancer line via Nureyev, while his mother, Silver Lane, was third in the Irish Oaks and carried the Roberto DNA I love so much.

On the dam side, Segesta's mother is Meg Love Chime, who won a couple of races, but her most important role has been in passing on the blood of King Glorious (her father, and winner of two G1 dirt races in the States), who comes from the Mr Prospector line. On her mother's side, we have Alleged, and Sadler's Wells, with the latter's sire bringing about a Northern Dancer cross scenario (S3xM5) for Segesta. Now all that needs to be done is to re-register him as 'Bugatti', and then the fun begins...