Have you noticed how many hotpots have bitten the dust lately? I was at Newmarket on Saturday, writes Tony Stafford, and after an initial 1/3 romp by a Godolphin horse propelled by Billy Loughnane, the overwhelming leader as he goes for a first jockeys’ championship was far from the punters’ friend as the afternoon wore on.
With only 38 horses on the entire seven-race card, and ten of them in the greys’ race alone, it was inevitable that golden boy Billy would corner the market through the day. Beaten midway through the meeting on a 2/1 on chance, his least-expected reverse came in a four-horse race on an Ed Walker 3/1 on shot in a four-runner handicap. Add those to another reverse for joint 7/4 favourites (4/11 coupled) and for market followers it was more a case of carnage than profit.
I’ve marvelled before how trainers in Newmarket seem to ignore opportunities on their doorstep with the many weekend (Friday night and Saturday afternoon) fixtures through the middle of the summer.
Here we had a 0-70 over ten furlongs for 3yos. Imagine how many ordinary animals in that horse-obsessed town would be expensively loafing at home munching away rather than going up the road for the chance of winning some money for their owners.
Indeed, on Saturday the owners’ room was very sparsely attended – more profiteroles than people! In the race in question, local man Terry Kent did provide one of the four runners, a filly called Pipily who set the pace ahead of Lambourn-based favourite Del Corso, the latter aiming to follow two earlier wins at odds-on for Walker and from only 6lb higher.
Everything seemed serene as the favourite passed the pacemaker with two to run. What of the other pair, narrowly longer odds than Pipily, both carrying the colours of Lance Bloodstock Ltd and trained in Kildare by Gerard O’Leary?
They quickly came at Del Corso in a pincer move at around the furlong pole and then, in a private tussle to the line, provided a one/two via Femme Beauty (8/1) and Dont Get Me Wrong, half a point longer, for a forecast payout of almost 40/1. Not bad in a four-horse field.
Sometimes something that you would normally take with a pinch of salt can actually be true. O’Leary said he noticed just before 10 am on Thursday that only two horses were declared for this race and thought it looked easier than running at the Curragh the following day, so he declared them. I take his point: 69-rated Femme Beauty would have been running in the 3yo and up handicap yesterday off 8st10lb. Dont Get Me Wrong (61) would have been a shade out of the bottom of that handicap.
I doubt that Lance Bloodstock Ltd, the registered ownership name of Patrick John O’Leary, would have access to the sort of instantaneous travel that Coolmore and some other big operations have at their disposal.
So doubtless no plane for a there and back in a day. Ger obviously must have previously sourced out the logistics of organising a ferry to get his horse across to the July Course. After all, he had made the entry on Monday.
If there was availability, then up to Dublin, across to either Pembroke or Fishguard higher up would presumably be the direction. Then, in the searing heat of August 2026 – hope his box has air conditioning – it’s another 260 miles or so across the country to Suffolk.
Even more so when you consider Mr O’Leary’s sorties across the water since the start of the 2022 season. Before Saturday, he had sent out only ten horses to run on the flat in the UK in that period, without a winner although with half a dozen places. He has had his share of success in Britain over the years though, including a couple of hurdle winners in the late summer of 2024.
Both horses involved in the exacta were sourced from other stables after winning claiming races. Femme Beauty was running off only 61 when she won an apprentice claimer for Ken Condon earlier in the summer. To win here off 8lb higher first time for Ger was a decent achievement.
Dont Get Me Wrong was rated 69 at the time of his acquisition from the Kevin Coleman yard. He had raced three times for the new owners and looks set to win again back home now down to 61 after this solid effort. Maybe they did get something wrong: the winner opened at 9/2 and drifted to 8/1, Dont Get Me Wrong shortened from 20s to less than half those odds.
I haven’t heard any screams from bookmakers that a right old job was perpetrated on them – and you would think you would have done had such a stunt been accomplished. Then again, the best “touches” are those when nobody realises it’s happened, and more importantly that the organisers don’t boast about it afterwards!
Back to the top level. How ironic that Bow Echo will no longer be there on the racecourse to showcase his, Loughnane’s and George Boughey’s skills. Neither for a while will be Gstaad who also had an issue after their third tussle in the Sussex Stakes on that fast ground at Goodwood just over two weeks ago.
But Boughey isn’t sitting on his hands, and he master-minded a brilliant coup on American soil at Saratoga on Saturday night with the Michael Tabor-owned mare Survie in the £333k to the winner Christophe Clement Turf Stakes.
Survie, ridden by Manuel Franco, came from last to first in the short Saratoga straight to beat Minaret Station comfortably over the 1m4f turf course. Boughey now is aiming at tackling the boys again in the Breeders’ Cup Turf rather than go for the Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland this autumn.
A 5yo daughter of Churchill, Survie was bought from the Chantilly yard of Nicolas Clement, now operating jointly with M Hermans, for 1.9 million gns at Tattersalls December sale last year. Nicolas is the brother of the late Christophe and will have been delighted that Survie could win the race commemorating his younger sibling.
Christophe was only 59 when he died, but his son, who took over from his father, has quickly shown he has inherited all the family’s skills. Miguel shares his grandfather’s name. Miguel Clement senior trained with great success for Robert Sangster, and Robert’s son Sam has done well with horses in Nicolas’ yard for almost a decade.
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So, on to York and the delights start right at the beginning with the clash between 132-rated (up 4lb for his Ascot romp) 5yo Ombudsman and 3yo Constitution River, equally domineering this year, first at Chester, then in the French Derby from a terrible draw, and, most recently, peerlessly in the Coral-Eclipse.
It seems a stretch that his mark is 8lb lower than the Gosden team’s standard bearer. You get the impression that if Ombudsman does get beat Big John will be distraught. Sorry old boy, I think it’s going to happen. William Buick will have to time it just right.
It’s not a two-horse race, though, as befits a contest with £1.5 million guaranteed and £850k to the winner. The Juddmonte operation always likes to try to retrieve as much as possible of their lavish input, and dual course and distance winner Item, so impressive last time in the Sky Bet York Stakes, will have a big chance of getting in there somewhere.
These top international races never seem to be contested without a runner from the dominant French stable of Francis-Henri Graffard, and the Aga Khan Studs have duly provided him with an interesting contender in Zaydann.
Like Constitution River, this Dubawi 4yo has five wins in a row alongside his name, although he was second the twice he appeared on a track before that winning sequence.
I wouldn’t mind betting that there haven’t been many Juddmonte International runners coming to the race having won successively at Compiegne, Le Mans, a Listed at Deauville (fair enough), Bordeaux-le-Bouscat and last time in a Vichy Group 3. If he got into the first four it would prove another triumph for Graffard’s small steps programming.
But I’m going all out for Constitution River. Jimmy Quinn (whose shoe size is an unbelievable two and a half – “not easy to find them”) is with me. On Saturday Jimmy told me that Ryan has always thought of Constitution River as “outstanding”, offering that opinion before he ran at Chester. Former top lightweight Jimmy now rides three lots, six days a week for Marco Botti, whom he rates very highly as a trainer and a boss.
Talking of Constitutions, it now seems the still more famous – for now – of the pair, Constitution Hill, will probably wait for his comeback and aim to stay unbeaten on the flat in the September Stakes at Kempton. Nicky Henderson’s plans to run in last Saturday’s Geoffrey Freer at Newbury were scuppered by the fast ground on the racecourse and grass gallops. Something else to look forward to – there always is!
- TS
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