Five-year-old The Cheka won the G3 John Of Gaunt Stakes at Haydock on Saturday, May 28. The son of Darley Japan stallion Xaar followed closely to the pace in second and challenged the leader four hundred meters out to score a comfortable win, adding another Group winner for his sire’s tally. It was the third start this year for the Eve Johnson Houghton’s trainee, that has been placed in six Black-type events in his career.
The winner was bred in Ireland by James Robert Mitchell and is owned by Anthony Pye-Jeary & Mel Smith. The Cheka is out of the Royal Academy mare Veiled Beauty, a half-sister to Model Queen that interestingly enough is the dam of the second place finisher in this race, Regal Parade.
Xaar stands at Darley Japan in Hokkaido for a fee of one million yen. Xaar’s last two crops include the 2011 G1 winner, Xtension and three-year-old Broox, a G3 winner in France in 2010. His first Japanese two-year-olds are about to race in 2011.
