Juddmonte stallion Oasis Dream (Green Desert—Hope, by Dancing Brave) acquired his 59th career stakes winner when his daughter Dream Clover squeezed out a neck victory in the Prix de la Cochere, a listed race for 3-year-old fillies at Chantilly. Trained by Freddy Head for owner George Strawbridge, Dream Clover covered the mile on good turf under Thierry Jarnet in 1:40.06. Filling the minor placings were the Wertheimers’ Foreign Tune (by Invincible Spirit) in second a length to the good of Neuquen (Rock of Gibraltar), both of whom are out of mares by Green Tune (Green Dancer).
Dream Clover’s first black-type win continued the Strawbridge run of luck in Europe, following the success of fellow 3-year-old Thought Worthy (Dynaformer) the full brother to St. Leger (Eng.-I) winner Lucarno who is triangulating his own path toward the last of the English classics, having won the Great Voltigeur (Eng.-II) at York; Aiken (Selkirk), winner of the group II Grand Prix de Chantilly; and Moonlight Cloud (Invincible Spirit), the filly who gave the undefeated Australian speed queen Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) one of her sternest tests (second by the narrowest of noses) in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Eng.-I) and winner of the group I Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville in August.
Out of the group III-winning Inchinor mare In Clover, Dream Clover is the eighth stakes winner from her sire’s fifth crop and the second stakes winner from the 2009 crop bred on the cross of Oasis Dream with Inchinor mares. In May 2012, Power, representing the juggernaut Ballydoyle battalion, took the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (Ire.-I) at the Curragh. Power’s dam Frappe, is a winning Inchinor half sister to group I winner and promising young sire Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway) and to 2012 Phoenix Stakes (Ire-I) winner Pedro the Great, the first stakes winner by freshman sire Henrythenavigator (Kingmambo). They are all out of Glatisant, a group III-winning daughter of Rainbow Quest out of the Green Dancer mare Dancing Rocks.
The cross of Oasis Dream with Inchinor mares is relatively untested but has provided a great deal of success: From four foals (3yos and up) have come two stakes winners (50%). When all six foals of racing age are considered, the percentage drops to 33.3%, still a lofty figure, considering neither of the 2-year-olds has started.
Bred in Great Britain by Strawbridge, Dream Clover now has three wins and two thirds from eight starts, all in France.
