Lone & Kaj Nielsens Fond’s five-year-old star sprinter Great Wish reached a new high point in an already glorious career on Sunday afternoon, when, in the hands of Mickael Barzalona, he won the Group 3 Prix de Meautry over 1,200 metres at Deauville – and did so by a commanding five lengths.
The son of Night Of Thunder was practically in a race of his own on Deauville’s straight turf course. Barzalona headed for the stands’ rail on the rain-soaked ground, and there Great Wish thrived.
The further the horse galloped, the bigger the gap to the rest became.
The official verdict was a margin of four and a half lengths to Gerald Mosse’s Zzodiac (Kodiac), who took second by a short head from the English raider La Brodeuse (Night Of Thunder).
Victory in the Prix de Meautry was worth €36,600 to Great Wish, who has been trained throughout his career by Bent Olsen at Klampenborg.
It was also Olsen himself who fell for the chestnut at the Doncaster Breeze Up Sale in the spring of 2023 and went on to see off Karl Burke in a bidding duel at £130,000 – all while he had Lone Kaj-Nielsen glued to the phone back home in Denmark.
During the winter stay in Dubai, Great Wish won the Listed Dubai Sprint (L), and since then he has added Group 1 placings in both Dubai and England, a Listed win in the Zawawi Sprint Cup on Derby day at Klampenborg and now a Group 3 triumph at Deauville.
Sadly, Lone Kaj-Nielsen is no longer with us, and she never got to see the apple of her eye win at Meydan either.
But her Great Wish came true.
