Dylan Thomas (Ire), a dominant European competitor who won four Group 1 races this season, was named the 2007 Cartier Horse of the Year on Wednesday.

Aidan O’Brien trains Dylan Thomas, who also was named the Cartier champion older horse.
The Cartier Awards are the European equivalent of the Eclipse Awards, and were established in 1991. Results from pattern races, votes from readers of Racing Post and The Daily Telegraph, and views from journalists on Cartier’s racing panel determine winners.

Susan Magnier’s and Michael Tabor’s Dylan Thomas earned five wins and three runner-up finishes in nine starts this season and earned $4,116,100. The Danehill colt out of Lagrion, by Diesis (GB), opened his season with consecutive wins in the Ascon Rohcon Alleged Stakes on April 15 at the Curragh and the Prix Ganay (Fr-G1) on April 29 at Longchamp.

Dylan Thomas also posted victories in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Eng-G1) on July 28 at Ascot and captured the Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes (Ire-G1) on September 8 at Leopardstown.

Prior to a fifth-place finish in the John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) on October 27 at Monmouth Park, Dylan Thomas won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Lucien Barriere (Fr-G1) on October 7 at Longchamp. The bay colt also posted runner-up finishes this season in the Tattersalls Gold Cup (Ire-G1), the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Eng-G1), and the Juddmonte International Stakes (Eng-G1).

Other Cartier Horse of the Year finalists included multiple Group 1 winners Peeping Fawn, Authorized, Ramonti, and Manduro.

Authorized, a one-length winner against runner-up Dylan Thomas in the Juddmonte International on August 21 at York, was named Cartier’s top three-year-old male. Trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam for Saleh Al Homeizi and Imad Al Saga, Authorized won three of his five starts this season and earned $2,365,763.

Peeping Fawn, also trained by O’Brien for Magnier and Tabor, received the Cartier Award as top three-year-old filly. The Danehill filly out of Maryinsky (Ire), by Sadler’s Wells, won five of ten starts in her first season of racing and earned $1,388,309.

Susan Magnier and Diane Nagle co-own Yeats, who was named the Cartier champion stayer for the second straight year. The Sadler’s Wells horse out of Lyndonville, by Top Ville, won four of his five starts this season and earned $634,581.

New Approach, a Galileo (Ire) colt who is unbeaten in five career starts, received the Cartier Award as top two-year-old male. New Approach earned three of his wins in group stakes, including Group 1 victories in the Bank of Scotland National Stakes (Ire-G1) on September 16 at the Curragh and the Darley Dewhurst Stakes (Eng-G1) on October 20 at Newmarket.

New Approach i is trained by Jim Bolger. Jackie Bolger, the trainer’s wife, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum co-own New Approach.

Group 1 winner Natagora was named Cartier’s top two-year-old filly. The Divine Light filly out of Reinamixa, by Linamix, won five of her first seven career starts and earned $536,982.

Multiple group stakes winner Red Clubs, winner of the Betfred Sprint Cup (Eng-G1) on September 8 at Haydock Park, was named the Cartier sprinter of the year. Barry Hills trains the Red Ransom colt out of Two Clubs (GB), by First Trump, for Ronald Arculli.

The Niarchos family received the Cartier/Daily Telegraph award of merit. The award is presented to the person or persons whom, in the opinion of a 20-person selection committee, have done the most for European racing and/or breeding either over their lifetime or within the previous 12 months.

The Niarchos family’s involvement in racing has spanned more than 50 years, and began when the late Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos first owned horses in the 1950s. Stavros Niarchos’s daughter, Maria Niarchos-Gouaze, and sons, Philip and Spyros, now carry on the racing tradition.

The Niarchos family has owned or bred the winners of 121 Grade 1 or Group 1 races.


Courtesy of thoroughbredtimes.com

係咪姐係「狄倫」呀~~?