Caravaggio Gains Black Type First With Dizzy Bizu

Coolmore's Caravaggio collected his first stakes winner June 6 as Peter Savill's exciting filly Dizzy Bizu (IRE) maintained her unbeaten record in the listed Prix la Fleche at Chantilly. With 140 registered foals and as an unbeaten 2-year-old himself, Caravaggio was regarded as a major contender for first-crop stallion laurels and was swiftly off the mark at the end of March through Tenebrism. Dizzy Bizu was already one of his six to have made the scoresheet so far when enjoying a perfect start at the same track, part of a reasonably new French venture for owner-breeder Savill with Stephane Wattel. The first foal of his listed winner Izzy Bizu has an abundance of speed and is now set to step up to group company. "Her mother was a very precocious 2-year-old filly and she's exactly the same," Wattel said. "It's a nice win for Caravaggio and very nice for Peter Savill. We can expect good ground for the Prix Robert Papin (G2) and that will be her next target." After three seasons at Coolmore's Irish headquarters, Caravaggio moved to Ashford Stud in Kentucky for this year, where he is standing at a fee of $25,000. Neither Siyouni (FR) nor St Mark's Basilica (FR) are strangers to classic success, with the latter giving the Haras de Bonneval sire a second Qatar Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby, G1) in three years after he followed up on his Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French Two Thousand Guineas, G1) triumph, so the other more unexpected pedigree update also came on the Chantilly undercard. Rio de La Plata is a less familiar name in such echelons but he has finally found a good one in Pascal Bary's filly Tahlie (FR), who climbed yet another rung on the ladder in the Prix de Sandringham (G2). Darley's chestnut stallion, who has returned to Darley's Haras du Logis after a brief stint in Sweden, previously had only listed winners to his name. He seems to have a superior bunch of 3-year-olds, with son Fort Payne (FR) also running in the Jockey Club itself. Tahlie's winning sequence began on Chantilly's all-weather track in late November and she has now accumulated four on the bounce, stepping through listed company in the Prix des Lilas over the same mile turf track a few weeks ago. She comes from a terrific family bred by the late Georges Sandor as a sibling to three other stakes performers headed by dual group 3 winner Trixia (FR) and Thais (FR), who was third in the Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T) after moving to Chad Brown in the United States. It was appropriate timing as one of Sandor's key triumphs as a breeder came through the narrow 1996 Jockey Club winner Ragmar, who was also trained by Bary and carried the same green colours of Ecurie Jean-Louis Bouchard.