Strike The Deal shines for Van Nistelrooy
7th August 2007
Ashford Stud-based Van Nistelrooy - who has already been responsible for stakes winners in America and Singapore - added a very smart British G2-winning juvenile to his ever-improving list of successes when Strike the Deal (2c Van Nistelrooy - Countess Gold, by Mt Livermore) captured the G2 Richmond Stakes over six furlongs at Goodwood on Friday.Strike the Deal, trained by Jeremy Noseda for The Searchers syndicate, was unlucky on his last start when third in the G2 Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Laffitte and put in a good effort to defeat the Choisir colt Fat Boy (2c Choisir-Gold Shift, by Night Shift) by a length and a quarter.
A $40,000 yearling purchase from the 2006 Fasig-Tipton July Sale, Strike the Deal - who was bred by Five-D Thoroughbreds LLC - was then shipped to Britain and reoffered at the 2007 Tattersalls Breeze-Up Sale where he was secured by Anthony Stroud for 140,000 guineas.
"He was buried on the inside and never got out until the last furlong in the Prix Robert Papin," said Noseda, who is considering the G1 Prix Morny on Sunday week as a next step. "I'm not saying he would have won but he would have finished a lot closer."
The Searchers is a syndicate including British Horseracing Authority chairman Paul Roy, top jump owner Andy Stewart, Lordship Stud's Trevor Harris, Martin Myers of Mountgrange Stud and Kevin Watts.
Connections were delighted with the run of second-placed Fat Boy, a Choisir colt bred by Peter Mooney.
"He's a very underrated horse," said trainer's son Richard Hannon jnr.
"He's got loads of speed and is as hard as nails. We will look at the G2 Gimcrack or the G1 Prix Morny."
