Monday Musings: From Laundry House to the very top

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It wasn’t just at Coolmore Australia or the parent company’s headquarters in Co Tipperary that news of Wootton Bassett’s demise brought abject misery and frustration just as last week’s offering here hit the laptops, writes Tony Stafford.

For the Laundry Cottage Stud Farm, in Hertfordshire, 35 miles up the A1 from Central London, it ended a magical 15 years for the breeders of the brilliant, unbeaten juvenile and then an even more remarkable stallion career.

It seems a contradiction in terms that a precocious horse, good enough to go through five races at two unbeaten, including the sales races with their massive fields and prizemoney at York and Doncaster and then the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp, would become a late bloomer as a sire. That was Wootton Bassett to a tee. Melba and Colin Bryce, owners of the aforementioned stud, bought the seven-year-old mare Balladonia at the Tattersalls July sale in 2003, for 27,000gns.

She had already captured the imagination of owners The Cosmic Cases – hard to track them down I’m afraid – but they still have one in training this year with their equally elusive (except on the racecourse) trainer, Richard Fahey.

The Cases – I feel I can call them that as despite never speaking to them, I’m one of their dearest racing admirers by now – paid 30k in successive years for Balladonia to produce Mister Hardy (2005) and Mister Laurel (2006). So when two years later the colt son of Primo Dominie arrived in the Doncaster ring, they (along with Frank Brady) were again in action, stretching the price to 46 grand at the St Leger yearling sale.

Sent to Fahey, he had that stellar year in 2010, making him champion two-year-old in France after winning their top colts’ race. His counterpart in the UK, and overall European champion, was another unbeaten (and how!) juvenile in Frankel. Wootton Bassett raced only four times as a three-year-old, once encountering Frankel, to whom he was an admiring and remote seventh in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

So no Classic achievements for Wootton Bassett, but for Laundry Cottage the exploits of their star graduate had a major influence on prices paid for his younger siblings. Next up was Pretty Primo, 120k in 2009; then Related (2010), and Abbey Village (2011), both 80k; Glenalmond, 100k in 2013 and Barton Mills 42k in 2015. They all won races, so some performance from a mare bought quite cheaply as a seven-year-old. I make it more than £650k all round.

The Bryce family all pitch in at the stud. Daughter Gina finds time between her television and family commitments to help, as do her brother Calum and sister Ailsa. Gina’s husband, Alex Elliott, as well as being a regular buyer of Amo Racing youngsters and older horses, acts as stud manager.

I’ve mentioned it before, about when over a breakfast expertly presented by Michael Bell at his stables in Newmarket around a decade ago, I met the charming duo of Melba and Colin. During the acceptable hour or so, Colin revealed that, when Gina graduated from the Darley Flying Start programme that has set so many on their way to success in racing and its associated activities, they presented her with a book – written by me! I wonder does she still have it?

Meanwhile, the slow developer had started his stud career in France, and in five seasons he went from an initial fee of €6k, via €5k and €4k twice, before getting back up to €6k, by which time his stock had taken an exponential leap (one of several in his amazing career).

Twice more he did his Gallic job at a revised €20k and then twice again at double that, at which point Coolmore stepped in.

Wootton Bassett’s progeny had already shown high-class ability and in restrospect (always helpful!) it seemed a fair assumption that given the improved quality of mares likely to be available for him at Coolmore, he could prove a wise investment. Whichever of the stud’s astute executives came up with the idea deserves the greatest of respect.

Wootton Bassett was already 12 years of age when covering the first of sadly only five crops. At 17 he leaves the legacy of Group 1 winners galore including Aidan’s Whirl, and also Twain, the unbeaten (two from two) horse that we have waited all year to see from Ballydoyle, so far in vain.

Both are among the 83 horses remaining in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, run next Sunday at Longchamp, but Whirl, after her last of six performance behind local four-year-old Aventure, is dropping back in trip for the Prix de l’Opera.

Aidan is relying on four-time Oaks winner Minnie Hauk (Cheshire, Epsom, Irish and Yorkshire) and she is the obvious threat to Aventure, my pick to improve on last year’s second to Bluestocking, who had also beaten her in the 2024 Vermeille. Los Angeles also gets the gig.

At age 17, then, Wootton Bassett was no spring chicken, but the consolation is that he leaves behind three full Irish crops and that will almost certainly amount to around 500 individuals. Plenty of opportunities over the coming three seasons. Hopes that he would be the natural successor to Galileo, who died age 23 in 2022, may be largely dashed, but he’s still up there with Frankel as the sire whose progeny the big owners want to buy into.

Saturday’s racing at Newmarket threw up a tough Coolmore winner of the Cheveley Park Staes in True Love, who is getting tougher as she continues her career. “That’s what Aidan does”, said Michael Tabor in the winner’s enclosure afterwards.

The best performance of the three Group races on the card for juveniles was undoubtedly that of the Godolphin favourite Wise Approach in the Middle Park Stakes. Slowly away and then hampered, William Buick was right at the back for much of the race.

As Coolmore’s Wootton Bassett colt Brussels took what seemed an unassailable lead into the last furlong, suddenly you saw Buick on the wide outside and his mount sustained the unlikely run for an exceptional victory. He looks one for the Commonwealth Cup next June.

The training achievement of the day, however, was that of Karl Burke whose four-year-old Boiling Point made all under 9st12lb to win the Cambridgeshire. Most observers had ruled out horses drawn in the first ten stalls as many more recent runnings of the race had been dominated by those racing on the stands side.

But this was an unusual and in many ways unsatisfactory first leg of the old Autumn Double – if anyone bothers to link the two races anymore. Only 24 were declared, they normally have at least ten more, and this was reduced by one by race time.

The jockeys immediately after the start decided on a two-group strategy and many from the grandstands might have been surprised that the split seemed equal, with acres of Suffolk turf between them. In the event, Boiling Point under Clifford Lee made all the running beating ten others on that side with the Roger Varian-trained Indalo, receiving 18lb, getting to within a nose at the line. First home on the stands side was Erzindjan in fourth, trained by Terry Kent.

Karl’s 106 wins and £2.65 million domestic earnings are some way short of both numbers (121) and winnings (more than £4 million) from last year, but a remarkable 52 of this year’s victories have come from his two-year-olds. Only three of these have been on all-weather.

A reminder of other days occurred at Aqueduct racecourse in New York, otherwise known as the Big A, taking Belmont’s fixtures while it is being remodelled. There, Frankie Dettori teamed up with Charlie Appleby and Godolphin as Rebel’s Romance mopped up the ninth Group or Grade 1 success of his career, landing prohibitive odds of 13/20 by an easy three and a half lengths in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. Mentioning the title, I can see lugubrious Joe in my mind from the press boxes in the US in the 1980s and 1990s.

Talking of late bloomers, although Rebel’s Romance won his first two races, it wasn’t until his tenth that he collected his initial Group 1. In the subsequent nineteen appearances, he’s won another eight, while his cumulative tallies are 20 wins from 29 and earnings of £11,269,144. A money-machine par excellence and the seven-year-old is yet another testament to the gelding of horses before they can get irrevocably out of love with the game.

  • TS

Monday Musings: Dazzling Doubles

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There are doubles and then there are doubles, writes Tony Stafford, with a couple on Saturday courtesy of trainers Richard Spencer and Richard Hannon bordering on the absurd.

How else could you describe the feat of Spencer in winning both the Ayr Gold and Silver Cups (in reverse time order) within just over an hour, in each case with a horse making all the running over the tough six furlongs in testing ground, denying 24 other smart sprint handicappers on either occasion?

Spencer might well take the plaudits for having the two horses in prime form, respectively Candy (Silver) smoothly as a well-backed 8/1 shot with plenty in hand; and Run Boy Run, in a rather more contested finish in the Gold Cup. But behind the trainer there lurks a master planner.

Both horses of course are owned by Phil Cunningham, Spencer’s employer at Sefton Lodge stables in Newmarket. He admitted to having never been to Ayr before but was at the entire three-day meeting and in time for Thursday’s stalls draw for the two features. You can say the research paid off. Phil’s policy of targeting the biggest meetings this year has been handsomely rewarded, and he has been in attendance at them far more often than in the past.

What I liked most about Ayr on Saturday was the fact that none of the 50 horses declared and securing their place in the two valuable sprints – there was £92k on the line for the Gold Cup – was withdrawn, which is a rarity these days. Nobody was left wishing their horse had been, in their connections’ view, unfairly denied a run in one or other of the races.

The times were almost identical, the lesser (in terms of prizemoney, £33k) Silver Cup run in 0.25 sec faster. Maybe the effect of pounding hooves earlier on the yielding turf equated to that time difference – there’s no question though that Candy, winner of the valuable Redcar Gold Trophy last October as well as a course and distance nursery at this meeting twelve months ago, could have a massive future. Graduates of so many of this year’s Group sprints have gone to erstwhile handicappers.

Candy was an auction buy for Spencer and Cunningham, but even more pleasure will have been gained by Run Boy Run, not just a home-bred but also a son of his own stallion Rajasinghe, the Coventry Stakes winner for the owner who stands at the National Stud.

At one time Phil was even offering free coverings by the stallion as a way to getting Rajasinghe’s name onto racecards. The success of Run Boy Run and the team’s Stewards’ Cup winner Two Tribes, a creditable tenth in Saturday’s big race, will prove another boost to the stallion’s appeal.

A small side bar. For years I’ve been wondering why Peter Charalambous would not send his brilliant Apollo One from the Portland, second again the week before last, to Ayr, but he’s waiting for Ascot and the Group race he won last year. Run Boy Run was two places behind him at Doncaster.

The National Stud must be at its most optimistic for many years. Rajasinghe is doing his stuff with limited opportunities, but recent Group 1 winner Diego Velazguez will be joining him after having won the biggest mile feature of the summer in France, the Prix Jacques Le Marois for the Aidan O’Brien stable at Deauville late last month.

I tried to squeeze numbers out of Sam Sangster who brokered the deal, but he remained coy. One opinion related a seven-figure (of course) sum with a sizeable contingency and that secondary requirement has already been met with the Deauville success which makes him a six-time winner on top of his massive yearling price.

One number Sam will not be disputing is the £82k he bid to secure Oceans Four, trained by long-standing associate Brian Meehan in the popular Family Amusements colours. I thought the decision to drop him back a place after being beaten an inch in the Solario Stakes was pedantic in the extreme by the Sandown stewards and I was delighted that he picked up his own Group 3 prize at Chantilly on Saturday – and 30-odd grand too.

But to return to the doubles. How on earth could a juvenile from the Richard Hannon stable, junior or senior before him, be allowed to start at 125/1? It happened though at junior’s local course on Saturday. Richard and the entire family were understandably thinking of his mother, who died last Monday, and saw this win at the family’s favourite track as highly meaningful.

The winner was Night Patrol, fast away in the middle of the pack and comfortably in front until challenged by two opponents in the final 100 yards. The way he stuck out his neck and outstayed his rivals, well on top at the finish, augurs well for his future.

Hannon added to that with a mere 18/1 shot in the next race on the Newbury card, a seven-furlong handicap. Here, former Hannon stable apprentice Tom Marquand had the ride on the four-year-old Christian David and employed opposite tactics, holding up the son of Profitable at the back of the field. He came with a late rattle and got the better of fellow 18/1 shot Tarkhan who had fulfilled the pacemaking role here.  Just the 2,393/1 double for Hannon stable Newbury adherents!

They also raced on Saturday at Newmarket. If you were looking out for a potential winner of the Cesarewitch, staged at the big Dewhurst meeting next month, you shouldn’t really be looking normally at the Trial for that race.

But if anyone would be capable of doing the double it would be one of those Irish enfants terribles, Tony Martin or Charles Byrnes, close to the wind sailors both, and highly capable of landing a punt when and where it’s wanted.

Martin was nowhere to be seen, so it was on Byrnes that the responsibility fell to maintain Ireland’s domination of our staying handicaps. Andrew Balding, prolific everywhere of late, bravely tried to swim against the green tide, but Belgravian, his 11/8 favourite could fare no better than third, with Byrnes, Henry de Bromhead and Peter Fahey, filling the one-two-four.

Well, a more accurate analysis was that “daylight” was second, third and fourth as Reverand Hubert, ridden by Harry Davies, easily romped eight lengths clear. He finished in the ruck last year in the big one and isn’t yet a certain starter next month but Byrnes hopes his penalty will get him in the final line-up. Could be another Irish benefit, and that’s without worrying about the Wilie Mullins hordes!

- TS

Monday Musings: It’s Aidan Again!

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Now we know why Kevin Buckley was dispatched to Doncaster, writes Tony Stafford. Few trainers or owners would miss the chance of a ninth St Leger, a third in a row, and a possible 1-2-3 to boot, probably enough to wrap up another UK trainers’ title.

No, while the boys’ UK representative was on the Town Moor to watch another routine Classic win, the big guns were at Leopardstown where Derby flop Delacroix wound up a fine career at 10 furlongs by adding the Irish Champion Stakes to his victory in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July.

Meanwhile, earlier in the afternoon, Lambourn, who had benefited from Delacroix’s discomfort at Epsom, vied for the lead back at Doncaster, but again wilted in the closing stages as had been the case in the Great Voltigeur at York. His eventual fourth place, behind determined outsider Rahiebb and his second stablemate Stay True, was an honest enough performance, without perhaps the authority expected of a dual Derby winner.

That perhaps was the intended route for Delacroix when he lined up under Ryan Moore at Epsom. In retrospect, though, for his future stallion pretentions two top Group 1 wins at ten furlongs are immeasurably better box office for would-be owners of elite mares than the sort of mishmash race that Epsom provided on that first Saturday in June.

Lambourn’s future might be over further. Alternatively, as was the case for his predecessor, surprise winner of the Covid Derby, Serpentine, a change of location to Australia and a future pop at the Melbourne Cup might be on the cards.

No confusion though for Delacroix, who it seems we have seen for the final time. As Aidan O’Brien said after his defeat of the two classy UK-trained seven-year-olds Anmaat and Royal Champion, he’s booked for a place at Coolmore stud. “We’ve been waiting a long time for a Dubawi.” No wonder, with all those Galileo mares waiting for an appropriate suitor back in the velvet paddocks of Tipperary.

Having probably been disappointed by his initial few rides as the Ryan Moore replacement without a win, Christophe Soumillon at last got the financial reward his “have saddle will travel” initiative would have expected.

First prize in the Irish Champion Stakes was €712k to which the Belgian will also collect the rider’s proportion of the combined €147k for winning the two stakes races for juveniles on the Leopardstown card. Diamond Necklace looked a smart filly in the Listed event while in the Group 2, five-length winner Benvenuto Cellini sent out an early signal for next year’s Derby.

It must be something of a warning for Irish racing that the one-mile race could only muster three opponents for the 2/1 on chance from Aidan, especially as all three were trained by Aidan’s sons Joseph and Donnacha, whose connections picked up a far from negligible €47k for their pains.

I would have been at Doncaster in the normal way of things and it was hard not to admire the battling qualities of the Tom Marquand-ridden Scandinavia in the final Classic of the UK season, but it should also have been no surprise after his defeat of older stayers in the Goodwood Cup.

The collective £510k earned by the St Leger trio surely puts the championship beyond Andrew Balding although the master of Kingsclere continued picking up nice prizes all week, again benefiting from Oisin Murphy’s skills.

Scandinavia had comfortably beaten the Gosden-trained Sweet William in the Goodwood Cup and that older horse’s easy win in Friday’s Doncaster Cup, named for my old Daily Telegraph deputy Howard Wright, should have been enough to cement the favourite’s credentials.

Howard, who died earlier this year, had never missed a St Leger day since he was taken to the track as a toddler by his parents 80 years ago. Now, with sponsors Betfred attaching his name to the longest race of the meeting, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be with us there for many years to come.

At close of play on Saturday, the margin in favour of Ballydoyle over Balding had stretched to an almost unassailable £750k and Andrew will need to win at least three of the races on Champions Day at Ascot next month as well as some nice handicaps in the meantime to overcome that deficit. Not that Aidan won’t be interfering!

On the same day, one of my favourite horses was running in one of my favourite handicaps. The Portland Handicap over 5f140y is something of a specialist’s trip and there’s no question that Jim Goldie’s horses know how to win it.

On Saturday, Jim’s Eternal Sunshine stuck out his neck to make it three wins in the last four runnings of the race (one of them via appeal). In doing so he denied another big sprint handicap win for the Peter Charalambous legend Apollo One. A regular big player in many valuable sprints over the past three seasons, he seems back at his best and nothing would please me more than if he could knock off another one by the end of the season.

  • TS

Monday Musings: Raising the Stakes in September

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Placed as it is in the calendar just as the seasons seem to have turned abruptly from debilitating summer heat to breezy early autumn, Kempton’s September Stakes retains its status as a Group 3 race despite being run on Polytrack, writes Tony Stafford.

Its recent distinguished roll of honour is overshadowed by the two pre-Longchamp wins of the peerless Enable and it was no doubt with that John Gosden trainee’s exploits in mind that Andrew Balding plotted a repeat success for his Kalpana on Saturday.

Following that one’s three Group 1 places this year behind Los Angeles, Whirl and, finally, Calandagan in the King George at Ascot, but no wins, the Juddmonte filly had been promoted to favouritism for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in a month’s time.

It seemed odd that she should have been at such a short price, but no doubt last year’s late season exploits, following the September Stakes with victory in the Fillies and Mares Stakes on Champions Day at Ascot, gave the suggestion she would again be at her best in the autumn this time around.

The reruns of Saturday’s contest and that of a year ago when, under P J McDonald, she challenged on the outside two furlongs from home and drew clear for a four-plus lengths win over Lion’s Pride, had little in common as this time she couldn’t get past Marco Botti’s six-year-old Giavellotto in the closing stages.

Colin Keane challenged at almost precisely the same moment as McDonald had, on the outside, but whereas previously she accelerated then stayed on stoutly, she found very little this time. Commentator Mark Johnson called her “breezing up”, but it wasn’t long before he inserted a note of well-founded caution.

 

 

Now she has been pushed out abruptly in the Arc market, one that was further amended after events at Longchamp yesterday, to which I will return later. The consensus is that she might miss the big race in Paris – there’s always Ascot as a backup against the girls.

Giavellotto has been a terrific servant to his trainer, the six-year-old now a winner of eight races topped off by last December’s Longines Hong Kong Vase where he had the globe-trotting Dubai Honour as his nearest pursuer. Oisin Murphy took over the riding of Giavellotto when Andrea Atzeni decamped to Hong Kong at the end of the 2023 season, a move replicated this week by the ultra-professional David Probert, who looks sure to make the best of his opportunity.

The seven-year-old Dubai Honour had been off since May but made a splash with his comeback run yesterday in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden; he’s no doubt building up for another tilt at the massive prizes on offer at the end of the year around the world. His career earnings, mainly from overseas, are just north of the £5 million mark. That exceeds by £2 million the money earned by Haggas’s 118 wins and 119 places from the 142 individual runners he has sent out in the UK in 2025.

The trainer’s latest win came in yesterday’s Garrowby Stakes at York where Elmonjed, the stable second string, prevailed in a tight finish. The race though was marred by the fall a couple of furlongs from home after severe crowding of the Haggas and Shadwell number one Almeraq. His rider, Jim Crowley, and Trevor Whelan, also involved in the melee and a faller from Tiger Bay, both reportedly suffered broken legs.

Haggas remains a long way behind the big three in the trainers’ title race. I suggested the other week that Andrew Balding was coming up on the rails and now he has crept above the Gosdens into second place, by dint of nine wins from 53 runners over the past fortnight. Even Aidan O’Brien might not be in reach unless Ballydoyle wins the St Leger and has a beanfeast at Ascot’s Champions Day next month.

Aidan has secured the services of Christophe Soumillon to replace the injured Ryan Moore, and no doubt the Belgian will be at the Irish Champions fixture next weekend. Presumably then, a domestic jockey will be needed for the St Leger with Wayne Lordan also ruled out, in his case by suspension.

Haggas reckons it’s been a moderate season for him as he hasn’t been a factor in many of the top races, but his skill in handicaps has never been in doubt. He added four more on Saturday, with three of his charges starting favourite. In the case of Crown Of Oaks, overwhelmingly so as he siphoned up a contest at Ascot for horses that had not won more than one race, in laughably easy fashion.

Kneejerk reaction from the bookmakers was to promote the three-year-old to 4/1 favouritism for this month’s Cambridgeshire at Newmarket, neglecting to factor in his extreme unlikeliness to make the cut.

From his mark of 85, he gets the 4lb penalty which brings him equally with nine others at a highest possible position of 79, therefore worst case of 88. Thirty-five can run, so it will be a gamble if Haggas waits to find out if the six and half-length cantering winner gets in. He faces at least a 10lb rise, but cynical fellow trainers waiting for tomorrow morning’s new ratings might be thinking the son of Wootton Bassett could get away with a single figure uplift.

Haggas wasn’t the only four-time scorer on the day. It was Oisin Murphy’s 30th birthday on Saturday and he celebrated it by adding three further wins to Giavellotto’s. For the second time last week I marvelled at his instinctive understanding of what would suit his mount as he waited until two furlongs from home even to put Hughie Morrison’s handicapper Caprelo into contention in his two-mile handicap.

Always going comfortably, Caprelo could be seen enjoying every moment and, making use of the cutaway in the straight, he brought the improving four-year-old with a smooth run. The winning margin of three lengths could have been extended. Now Hughie will be wondering whether Caprelo’s uplift matches or even exceeds that of Crown Of Oaks!

Earlier in the week, I was at Windsor where Oisin gave hitherto disappointing Glitter Code an instinctively perfect ride which, though no fault of the rider’s, ended in third rather than first place. Oisin said that William Knight’s gelding pulled himself up when hitting the front, otherwise it might have been success at the 16th attempt.

Oisin’s skill confirmed his owner’s view that he would stay 1m4f and especially as he did so on heavy going. The snag is that Oisin will be elsewhere when Glitter Code reappears at Epsom on Thursday. He’ll be a hard act to follow.

It didn’t take the runaway championship leader long to continue the run of success over at Longchamp yesterday. Teaming up with the Japanese Byzantine Dream, he found a strong finish to edge out the Andre Fabre-trained Sosie by half a length in the Prix Foy, the trial race restricted to four-year-olds and upwards.

 

 

Murphy, who has been a regular ally of Japanese runners in Europe and the United States, reckons that, having not raced since May, Byzantine Dream would improve a little for the run and be at his peak back at the track next month.

If Soumillon had expected an instant dividend on his recently announced stand-in job for O’Brien, he would have been disappointed. First, on the strongly supported Henri Matisse in the one-mile Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, he could finish only a fading fifth to Sahlan who had just enough in hand to resist the last-gasp finish of the frustratingly unlucky Rosallion.

One bright spot here was the back-to-form close third for Ballydoyle of The Lion In Winter, belatedly finding some 2025 promise and only a neck adrift of Rosallion. The Breeders’ Cup might now be on his agenda.

Then Whirl, taken wide early in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille for fillies and mares, faded into last place having led in the straight. This race featured the most likely Arc winning performance, as Aventure drew nicely clear of her field.

 

 

Last year’s second, both in this race and then the Arc behind Ralph Beckett’s Bluestocking, she had the traditional French preparation with no run in July or August and will be at her peak as she tries to fend off Whirl’s stablemate Minnie Hawk and the rest next month. I reckon she is the one to fear.

- TS

Monday Musings: The Ups and (Kentucky) Downs of Racing

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One of the enduring funniest moments in all of racing to my mind was the time when jockey Adam Beschizza was called into a stewards’ inquiry at Newmarket, writes Tony Stafford. Not one of the “faces” among the jockeys at the time, the lead in the stewarding panel asked him his name. “Beschizza”, he replied, omitting to add the requisite, “sir” after the name. The steward continued, “Well, Mr Biscuit.”

I doubt he has had a similar episode in the now eight years he has been riding in the United States. He left in 2017 when he rode 39 winners – his joint-best tally – all his mounts earning £266,382.

On Saturday evening at Kentucky Downs, riding the two-year-old newcomer Ground Support in a maiden special weight race, he came home in front. As the horses passed the post, 40/1 jumped up on the Sky Sports Racing screen. The starting price in the Racing Post on Sunday morning was 101/1.

Normally you might expect a lesser disparity, and more often the other way around. It ended a notable day for Adam’s family. His aunt and cousin, Julia and Shelley Birkett - Julia formerly trained as Feilden, her maiden name, until joining forces with her daughter earlier this year – had a great evening themselves nearer home at Chelmsford.

From three runners, Sam’s Express (16/5) and Rusheen Boy (9/2) both won, while their middle runner Mrs Meader, a soft-ground specialist forced to run on AW but declared overpriced by her trainers, was second at 40/1. If she had come in first, the 1,025/1 hat-trick would truly have taken the biscuit.

Enough of contrived intros and now we must mention the shock news that Ryan Moore, said by Aidan O’Brien to have been riding with a broken leg for the last two months, is likely to miss the rest of the season.

Additionally, Ballydoyle and its Coolmore paymasters will also have to accept the absence of their highly effective number two Wayne Lordan for a while. He collected a ten-day riding ban at Goodwood last Sunday, a sanction which he is aiming to overturn. If he fails, the big Irish Champions weekend will have to go on without him, as will the St Leger, a race the stable has won eight times including the last twice.

Aidan O’Brien’s span has been from 2001, the first of them being Milan. That was the year when Michael Tabor, Jeremy Noseda and I watched on for hours in the lunchroom of our hotel in Lexington, Kentucky as the scenes from the bombing of the twin towers in New York earlier that day made such an impact on the world.

We were all there for Keeneland sales, the first day of which had to be postponed for 24 hours. With travel plans disrupted, Tabor’s plane home was very much in demand from UK trainers and others, and I just missed the cut on the Friday, I think, so missed getting back in time for the big race. John Magnier, of course, got out a day earlier!

Aidan’s speed of acquisition of England’s oldest Classic is impressive, but he needs to up the ante in both numerical and time terms as 19th Century trainer John Scott won the races 16 times in a 35-year span from 1827-1862, a record they said at the time, “would never be beaten!” You never know with the master of Ballydoyle.

No doubt jockey agents will be on the lookout for possible rides for their employers, with the top squadron like Oisin Murphy, William Buick and Tom Marquand offering obvious attraction. At home Aidan has been giving plenty of rides to the 5lb claimer Jack Cleary.

He had a mount yesterday at Tipperary but Lordan, whose ban is yet to kick in, was in the saddle for the stable’s three remaining runners, in a maiden, a Group 3 and a Listed contest.

Such a blow for Ryan Moore comes at a most inconvenient time of the year when so many massive prizes are available around the world, and the O’Brien stable is often represented in them. Fortunately, the 41-year-old has built up a nice cushion over the years as he has deservedly earnt the accolade as the best jockey in the world, and not just from professionals in the UK and Ireland either.

If losing their main jockey for a lengthy spell was a blow for Coolmore, their long-term major rivals Godolphin suffered an even more devastating setback last week. Ruling Court, the winner of the 2,000 Guineas this spring, has had to be put down due to laminitis, a serious and often incurable foot condition.

A son of Justify, the US Triple Crown winner and already a prolific sire on both sides of the Atlantic, Ruling Court held off Field Of Gold in the Newmarket Classic, a race that cost Kieran Shoemark, the runner-up’s rider, his job with the Gosden stable.

Third on his next run behind Field Of Gold in the St James’s Palace Stakes at the Royal meeting, he ran what was to be his swansong with another solid third place behind Delacroix and Ombudsman in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown in early July.

He would have been an obvious potential successor to the ageing but still firing Dubawi at Darley Stud where he would have commanded a substantial fee for his first season as a stallion in 2026.

Many of Godolphin’s finest days were achieved with Frankie Dettori in the saddle and the former champion, now residing with much material and emotional satisfaction in the US, teamed up with three UK-based trainers to collect some of the even more substantial prizemoney at Kentucky Downs, scene of Adam Beschizza’s earlier score. Adam’s race was worth $101,000 to the winner, so would have been equivalent to three months’ activity for him back here in 2017 for just over a minute’s work!

Dettori was operating at a far higher end of the scale, teaming up with James Owen on the Gredley family’s Wimbledon Hawkeye, whose form this year ties in with Ruling Court, to whom he was fifth in the 2,000 Guineas. He has been toiling all season, usually getting close to the better three-year-old milers and middle-distance horses.

Last time out before Saturday, Wimbledon Hawkeye was nosed out by the rapidly improving William Haggas horse Merchant in the Gordon Stakes over a mile and a half at Goodwood. That run alone was enough to send him off the favourite for a 10.5-furlong Grade 3 race that carried only around 20 grand less than the Derby to the winner and was called the DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitation Stakes.

Dettori’s day was sublime with a third place for Charlie Hills in a Grade 2 and fourth for Hugo Palmer in a second Grade 3. Kentucky Downs has been a track that from modest beginnings has rapidly become an entity with high prizemoney. James Owen mused that more UK trainers should be targeting the races there as the course is all grass with no US dirt to be seen. Why this emerging training talent in which Bill, son Tim and the rest of the family operation have put so much faith, should want to advertise the track’s splendours, I can only shake my head in wonder.

Next year though, for this fixture, the top stables will be chartering the planes and no doubt the evergreen Mr Dettori will be happy to offer his skills. Tim Gredley goes back a long way with Dettori and says at one time they lived next door to each other. They have both had exciting lives to say the least since then, with Tim enjoying great success as a show jumper and point-to-point rider until taking charge of his nonagenarian father’s racing interests.

And of Frankie, what more is there to say? Well, how about that he rode a 2391/1 four-timer at the same track last night!

- TS

Monday Musings: Sovereignty Looks The Real Deal

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This is the time of year when we like to see Derby form franked as we move into the lucrative end-of-season international racing action around the world, writes Tony Stafford. Initially, we didn’t and then gloriously at Saratoga on Saturday night, we did.

There were suggestions that Lambourn’s Derby win had been in some ways fortunate. He was very much the second pick for Aidan O’Brien, Ryan Moore favouring Delacroix, who found himself well behind the all-the-way winner. Then the latter’s subsequent electric finish to catch Ombudsman in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown muddied the waters a little further.

Both colts went to York last week, Lambourn on the back of a second Derby triumph, in the Irish version at the Curragh which was a little underwhelming – but he won, and he was the chosen one in York’s Great Voltigeur Stakes.

Delacroix was pitched in against Ombudsman once more in the Juddmonte International and in a race that took a lot of watching with his pacemaker Birr Castle at one time seemingly in an unassailable lead under Rab Havlin, before he ran partly out of steam.

You have to say “partly” as he was still good enough to be third at a price of 150/1 – thank you M Fabre, say Godolphin and the Gosdens. The winner earned £748k; the second £283k and Birr Castle swelled the Godolphin coffers by a further 141 grand. I bet Havlin has never earned so much for finishing as far back as third on a 150/1 shot.

Once you get into a stream of consciousness, such as events on that first of four days at York, you (well anyway, I) go into sidetrack mood.

Godolphin must be happy with the progress of Ombudsman, but the international operation must be even happier in the knowledge that almost certainly they own the best dirt horse in the world.

For much of the year their Sovereignty, trained by the vastly experienced Bill Mott, and the Michael McCarthy-handled Journalism have dominated affairs among the classic generation. They finished one-two in Sovereignty’s favour in both the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in May and again in the same order in the Belmont Stakes, third leg of the Triple Crown run over the shorter than usual 1m2f at Saratoga. The track’s tighter configuration doesn’t allow for the 1m4f at Belmont Park which has been under reconstruction.

The margin between them doubled from one and a half to three lengths, while Journalism stepped in for leg two, the Preakness run at Pimlico, Maryland in between, winning that race comfortably. Additionally, he can also lay claim – horses do, you know! – this year to the San Felipe and Santa Anita Derby in California and since the Triple Crown races, picked up the prestigious Haskell at Monmouth Park in July, where he pulled victory from defeat with a flying late run.

So over to you, Sovereignty. Mott departed from the sequence of Grade 1 or Classic races by picking up the Grade 2 Jim Dandy early in the Saratoga meet, but then upped him in grade for the Travers, known as the midsummer 3yo championship for the colts.

Only a quartet took on the 30/100 favourite, but one of them, Magnitude, next best at 18/5, came into the race with interesting credentials. He had won the well-regarded Risen Star at the Fair Grounds in February collecting a $240k prize for trainer Steve Asmussen and one-time North of England jockey Ben Curtis.

The team were reunited when Magnitude went on to win a turf race at Prairie Meadows racecourse back from a lengthy break in July and here was running for $660k in the Travers Stakes.

Curtis set the pace and, coming to the far turn, he was still challenging at the front with eventual runner-up Bracket Buster (Luis Saez), who had been fourth to Journalism in the Haskell.

On their outside around the far turn, Junior Alvarado brought the favourite alongside and for a half-furlong or so, Victoria Oliver’s colt looked to be holding his own. Then the turbo kicked in, Sovereignty quickly drawing clear, and in the last furlong he put ten lengths’ daylight to his closest pursuer even as his jockey eased up in the final strides.

What of Magnitude, winner by nine lengths in each of his two previous races? He was another eleven lengths further back, his bubble well and truly pricked. Ben wouldn’t have been too fussed, the cumulative third prize being a handy $120k.

In his last full season in the UK two years ago, Ben Curtis rode a level 100 winners from 677 rides. The aggregate stakes earnings for his mounts’ efforts were £1,339,549.

The last three runs from Magnitude alone have worked out at not far short of half a million dollars, so without being too pedantic about exchange rates, that’s around a quarter of what his efforts on those 677 rides brought. Indeed, Equibase informs us that Curtis has 2025 earnings to date of $6,568,478 from his rides! And that’s before factoring in all the travel up and down the country and early mornings on the gallops here in Blighty.

Working in the US seems to be just the job for Frankie Dettori (a ‘meagre’ $3,552,180 this year from his roughly half as many mounts) and in a much quieter way, it’s proven ideal for the very capable Ben who at 35 is two decades younger than the former multiple UK champion and is going to make plenty of bank for the rest of his career.

Sovereignty’s superiority on Saturday was overwhelming and he now goes to the Breeders‘ Cup Classic on November 1 as the guaranteed favourite. With prize money as lucrative as it is, there’s no reason why Journalism shouldn’t be there in the vain hope Sovereignty has an off day, and there’s still terrific purses for the places. Last year’s one-two, Sierra Leone and Fierceness, have stayed in training, their connections energised by the thought of £2,866,000 to the winner.

My belief is that the younger pair will take centre stage with Sovereignty looking the best we’ve seen since the 2022 winner Flightline.

After the Wednesday Knavesmire reversals, the Coolmore/Aidan O’Brien week did get much better when the Epsom and Irish Oaks heroine Minnie Hauk comfortably won the Yorkshire version by three and a half lengths from her main market rival, the four-year-old Estrange; her season is putting her potentially in Enable territory.

With big race wins for the Gosden father and son team, the prizemoney margin between their stable and O’Brien has shrunk to not much more than £500k. Creeping up on the inside is Andrew Balding, whose 142 wins this year in the UK is almost double the Gosdens’ number.

Balding’s £5,244,464 tally includes victory in the initial Group 1 running of the Sky Bet Stakes at York on Saturday with Never So Brave, and Jonquil kept up the pressure with success in yesterday’s Group 2 feature at Goodwood.

All three stables have more than 200 horses, but Balding is definitely on the march and I wouldn’t be surprised if he came through to take the pot. I reckon the other contenders will need to have a great Champions Day in October to stave him off.

  • TS

Monday Musings: Sam’s Masterstroke

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We’ve all read them, writes Tony Stafford. Streams of platitudes when somebody gets a new appointment. But last year, when Sam Sangster became one of three new youthful directors at the National Stud, his words were to prove so prophetic.

“I hope to bring added value to an already well-established team… I am excited to be part of the path they are heading towards – it promises to be a very exciting journey.”, he said.

With four solid stallions, heroic multiple Group 1-winning staying champion Stradivarius and ace sprinter Bradsell (from this year) among them, they were sure to keep the tills of the Jockey Club, which owns the National Stud, ticking over.

Then twice within a few days, Sam outdid what anyone could have thought possible for an operation which, by its own admission, is nowhere near the top table as far as owners of mares are concerned.

First, last week, there came the announcement that in a deal brokered by Sangster and put together with “several investors”, Diego Velazquez had been purchased out of the Aidan O’Brien stable. He will stand at the National Stud next year and, while remaining with O’Brien, will carry the famed colours of his late father Robert for the rest of the season.

To show just what a shrewd acquisition this is, look at the breeding. Diego Velazquez is by the unbeaten Frankel (by Galileo) out of a mare that bred Group 1 winner Broome and dual Group 2 victor Point Lonsdale. He cost just the 2.4 million gns as a yearling.

As a racehorse he had compiled a record of five wins, three at Group level, in a career of only ten races. Two wins at age two are always manna from heaven for a stallion owner and that overall record could have been even better had the realisation that he had speed in excess of stamina kicked in earlier. He was unplaced over 1m4f at Royal Ascot last year.

This season only started at the Royal meeting, when he was 8th to surprise winner Docklands in the Queen Anne Stakes. He dropped back another furlong for a Group 2 at the Irish Derby fixture, winning very easily, and Sam’s deal was brokered just in time to run in his colours in yesterday’s Prix Jacques Le Marois.

With Ryan Moore otherwise engaged on the disappointing favourite, Lion In Winter for the Coolmore owners, Christophe Soumillon stepped in for the ride. Always in the first three close to the outside, Diego’s big white blaze and four white legs were always easily visible in the first three.

Having taken over inside the last furlong from Roger Teal’s back-to-form Dancing Gemini, he had enough in hand to stay ahead of the fast-finishing Notable Speech, the 2024 2000 Guineas winner, in his case also showing he’s back to his best. The winner handsomely turned around the Ascot form with Docklands who finished fourth just behind Dancing Gemini.

 

 

What a difference those few centimetres have made. Diego Velazquez is now a Group 1 winner, and not a Mickey Mouse one either – this race is the acknowledged midsummer mile championship in France.

As such, it carried a first prize of £472,231, the head verdict making more than £280k difference to the detriment of the Charlie Appleby, William Buick and Godolphin-connected colt.

So now, having probably been aiming at a nice first-season figure for their colt, Sam and whoever else will be making the decisions from this point on, will no doubt have a higher figure in mind than they originally did. Then again, there is sure to be a flurry in interest in him, and a sensible initial amount would pull the numbers in. He will assuredly, whatever happens in the pricing of his services, give the staff at the National Stud a massive boost.

Through much of the late 20th Century the names of O’Brien and Sangster were irrevocably bound at the same Ballydoyle complex that houses the present Aidan O’Brien team. But it was Robert Sangster, Sam’s father, and Vincent (I must stress once more, no relation) O’Brien, as with his successor, the pre-eminent trainer of his generation on this side of the Atlantic. The present-day link of course is John Magnier, Vincent’s son-in-law and foremost among the Coolmore partners.

It’s been a while since a horse ran in the famed green, blue sleeves, white cap from Ballydoyle and I did suggest to Sam (tongue in cheek, of course) when the news of the deal broke that maybe he would need to take a set of silks with him to Deauville.

“We already have them there,” he said, referring to the fact that several of the Brian Meehan stable challengers had been involved running under Sam’s Manton Thoroughbreds banner over the past few days. Those syndicates have helped sustain the highly talented Meehan going through some testing times, and while they kept hitting the crossbar, more than 120k in placed earnings made this a lucrative venture.

Even when the numbers have been more limited, Meehan always has some nice two-year-olds; while the successes last week of the unexposed three-year-olds, the filly Lodge at Chepstow and the gelding Release The Storm, making it two from two at Doncaster on Saturday, promise an exciting finish to the season.

Release The Storm has a fast-ground action and had no trouble making all under his penalty in a novice race up the testing Doncaster 7f. There certainly ought to be overseas buyer interest in this gelding who carries the trainer’s colours.

One facet of his training this year has been that none of the ten individual two-year-old runners (five winners) he has sent out from his Manton base has raced on all-weather, from 30 collective starts. I’m not sure whether that’s just a coincidence, as I know he uses Lingfield’s Polytrack when he sends unraced horses for barrier trials.

The best part of the Meehan-Sangster partnership has been their two-way loyalty. Sam has had a horse or two most years lately with Nicolas Clement in France. He also had a winning filly with Tom Ward a couple of years ago but, as they choose all the young horses together, it’s great that they sink or swim together also.

You might have thought that, seeing as they were both in situ all over the weekend, Sam Sangster Bloodstock might have been among the purchasers over the first two days of the Arqana August Yearling sale which began on Saturday. Unless he is operating through proxies, which I doubt, he simply hasn’t bought any. He never overpays for the yearlings he buys and as a result leaves the first stages here, and mostly of Newmarket Book 1 and Goffs’ top sale, to the people with bulging chequebooks.

Whatever else happens to this highly personable (as with all the family) young man, now he will always go down as the man who single-handedly (with Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore partners’ help of course) brought the National Stud of Great Britain right back into the horse breeding limelight.

From Deauville, all the big players will be sorting the private jets for four days at York. I’ll be going there much more prosaically, but Jim and Mary Cannon do have one comfortable room free, so that’s going to be my holiday for 2025. The weather apparently is taking mercy on those of us who don’t relish too much heat, so all we need is a winner or two. Got anything running, Brian? Doesn’t have to be there!

- TS

Monday Musings: Nunthorpe Notices

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Amid all the excitement of the longer-distance Group 1 races set to be staged at next week’s Ebor Festival at York, one that normally commands less attention is the Nunthorpe Stakes, an all-aged 5f sprint, writes Tony Stafford.

In this case, all truly does mean all, as we’ve 27 horses still entered for Friday week’s Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes, the title paying homage to the stud’s closest acknowledged successor to Galileo and the race’s being worth a tasty £340k to its winner.

Ages are represented from seven all the way down to a couple of two-year-olds. True Love, the Queen Mary winner at Royal Ascot and then successful back home in the 6f Railway Stakes, is in the list but she was humbled in the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday.

Whether Aidan O’Brien will be tempted to try to win back some of his employers’ money is an intriguing question. The other juvenile in the original cast was Zelaina, a 650k breeze-up buy for Wathnan Racing who won first time for Karl Burke at Nottingham but flopped at Ascot and again when favourite at Goodwood.

But, and in a season of exceptional achievements from the first crop of Starman, there might just be a left field contender. It comes in the shape of Ger Lyons’ Lady Iman, the first scorer for her fledgling sire at Dundalk as early as March 28, and successful another three times, including impressively in the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood.

Starman, trained for his breeder David Ward by Ed Walker, didn’t make it to the track at two, but the son of Dutch Art made up for it with five wins from eight starts at three and four, including an impressive win from 18 others in the July Cup at Newmarket.

Lady Iman’s story, as ever in racing, is one of one man’s (or family’s) luck meaning another’s misfortune. She was bred by the Tony O’Callaghan family at their Tally-Ho stud which stands Starman. She was sold for £185,000 but returned by the buyer, leaving her to run in wife Anne O’Callaghan’s colours.

By Goodwood, she comfortably won against the colts despite carrying a 3lb Group 3 penalty. She had lost her unbeaten record the time before over 6f at the Curragh when a Wootton Bassett filly from the Ballydoyle yard outstayed her after she had looked the assured winner.

Now Lyons, not entirely of his own volition it seems, has been persuaded by the O’Callaghans to supplement her for the Nunthorpe, where she will aim to be only the third winner of the race of her age since 1992.

That was the year when Richard Hannon senior’s filly Lyric Fantasy started at odds-on under Michael Roberts, now a top trainer in his native South Africa. He did 1lb overweight at 7st8lb. In 2007, the John Best colt Kingsgate Native was a 12/1 shot under Jimmy Quinn and ran home a comfortable winner, belatedly opening his account at the same time.

The Starman success story began with a rush and has continued unabated with I think 16 individual winners, several of them emulating Lady Iman by clocking up multiple wins.

Foremost among them – for now – must be Venetian Sun who completed her unbeaten hat-trick in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket last month. Green Sense, who had been a close second earlier on home soil to Lady Iman, went across to France and won the Prix Robert Papin, a noted Group 2 summer juvenile feature there.

Starman’s owner-breeder David Ward was on hand to see The Prettiest Star, his homebred daughter of the sire, romp away to a wide-margin debut victory in a newcomers’ race at Newmarket on Friday evening. Simon Crisford expects her to be a star and is looking forward to formulating an appropriate programme for her. Ward coyly admits to having “another nine or ten” of that minted first crop “waiting in the wings”, as you do.

Having counted to 16 from the list of Starman winners, I came to a borderline similar result when having a first look through the initial test of potential two-year-old marketability, Goff’s Premier Yearling Sales, staged at Doncaster immediately after York, on the 27th and 28th of August.

Around 400 yearlings will be offered, 17 by my count with Starman as their obvious attraction and five of those coming from Tally-Ho. Should the filly win on the previous Friday, the O’Callaghans will not have to wait long into the Doncaster sale to see how much that will affect prices. Lot 1 is their daughter of Starman out of the Dunaden mare Under Oath. Light blue touch paper and retire? Not quite!

Anne O’Callaghan will be a very much welcomed winner of the Nunthorpe if that should come to pass. She is the sister of John Magnier and there is no question that she, along with Tony and sons Roger and Henry, have not wasted any knowledge picked up from their illustrious relative.

Tally-Ho Stud has been a watchword for developing raw stallion talent into top progenitors, with Mehmas (now €70k from €7.5k in 2020) an obvious example. Kodiak, still going strong at age 24, has settled back down for this year at €25k after peaking at €65k for four seasons (2019-2022) from a starting point of just €5k.

Top sprinter Big Evs (€17.5k) and Champion Stakes winner and Derby runner-up King Of Steel (€20k) were this year’s new additions, but no doubt Roger O’Callaghan will be keeping his eyes open for further prospects for 2026, the new blood that the stud habitually finds under everyone else’s noses!

Joe Fanning, 54 years old but still riding to the top of his ability, has been booked to manage the light weight of 8st and the 27lb his mount receives from the older male sprinters is a compelling attraction.

There was a lovely “where are they now” piece in the Racing Post around the time of Royal Ascot this year where Chris Richardson, boss of Cheveley Park Stud, detailed the many phases of Kingsgate Native’s life.

After the big win at two, he continued to race in John Mayne’s colours at three, although bought by the stud for a projected stallion career, and he added the Golden Jubilee Stakes at three at the Royal meeting.

A first try at stud didn’t work out so he returned to racing, though not with Best, starting with Sir Michael Stoute and continuing until age 11. After that he spent time at the British Racing School. As Chris related, “Anyone who could stay on him had achieved something as he enjoyed throwing the riders off!”

A later phase was his time at the Newmarket Horseracing Museum where he was a celebrity that the regular visitors always sought out. He left there four years ago to spend his time in Cheveley Park’s paddocks but last August he was paraded at York prior to the Nunthorpe. “He spent a couple of weeks at David O’Meara’s before that and he was great,” says Richardson. “We’ve no plans for him now,” he said, adding, “He’s just living a wonderful life”. Just the job for a 20-year-old!

On the basis of even-handedness, what of John Best, who left the training ranks a couple of years ago? I called him over the weekend and he told me he has joined forces with his girlfriend Raeane Turner, who owns the Rhoden Rehabilitation Centre near Tonbridge in Kent, close to where John trained for the whole of his successful career.

“It has been running since 2020. Not the best time to open! We have an equine water treadmill which is used in the rehabilitation after injury but just as much for strength and conditioning. I’m also a great believer in injury prevention. This gets the horses working using all four limbs equally and therefore helps to stop compensatory injuries before they occur. It’s an unbelievable bit of kit.

“We also have a combi floor which is a magnetic vibrating plate that increases blood circulation and provides a full body massage. This is helpful for many types of injury and afterwards for exercise to loosen them up. Finally, in the centre we have a cryotherapy machine which we use to reduce heat and swelling and increase blood supply.

“My principal job though is running the salt and oxygen system. We have it mobile in the back of a 3.5 ton horsebox and go to yards to treat horses with breathing and skin issues. Also, it’s used post-surgery to speed up healing. The horses go in the back of the box and the whole of the back fills with a very fine mist of Dead Sea Salt. They breathe it in and it lands on their skin. I’ve been amazed by the results.

“Horses with allergies or asthma respond really well. We have had horses that the vets cannot stop coughing but we seem to be able to sort it out. We are getting more referrals from vets all the time as our system allows horses to be treated drug-free. Quite often it’s horses they just can’t seem to fix,” he said.

John’s 25-year career had many other highlights apart from the two Group 1 wins from Kingsgate Native. A regular at St Moritz over the winters, he had multiple wins there most years, recognising the right horses to send to race on that frozen lake. Also, in 2008, the year of Kingsgate Native’s Golden Jubilee success, he sent three horses to run in the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity on the Polytrack at Keeneland in Kentucky and won with Square Eddie. His other two runners finished fourth and eighth.

A very nice and knowledgeable guy. I wish him well.

- TS

Monday Musings: Getting Older

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When I was in my early days in Fleet Street, the term “dizzy blonde” used to be a regular description in the Red Top newspapers of young, outgoing females, the blondeness used to express silliness, whether deserved or not, writes Tony Stafford. I have never been blonde, if answering to “bald” nowadays, and now I know what “dizzy” feels like.

Last month, soon after spending three days in the extreme heat of the Newmarket July meeting, I was sitting as I am now in front of my computer screen and everything started rolling around. It lasted two days, innumerable bouts of vomiting which was just bile rather than anything solid and the world kept on spinning.

Vertigo was the obvious answer. Why, though, after all this time? Then Steve Gilbey, my good friend and Raymond Tooth’s long-term security and driver, called the first night when I was too sick to contemplate talking to anyone. He told my wife that two other people he knew had had a similar problem a couple of days earlier and, again, for the first time in their lengthy lives. The conclusion must be the effects of too many hours at such high temperatures.

It wasn’t just human old-timers that were affected. The previous week, before the attack on the players at the Test match by swarms of ladybirds, we had been afflicted in the same way with them all over every surface inside and out for several hours.

When I was young, I used to have awful bouts of migraine, once missing a whole week of school slumped in my bed listening to the radio. It’s coming back to me now, hearing “I Enjoy Being a Girl” by Pat Suzuki from Flower Drum Song – probably 67 years ago, when I was 12. Why that song I’ve no idea. Don’t worry, I’m not for changing!

For the next four decades at least, mention of the word “migraine” had me panicking, often getting another lesser episode. I would hate to think the work “vertigo” would send me toppling over in a similar fashion.

At that time, I even was brought to a teaching hospital in Central London, sitting next to a specialist in a large, tiered hall, in front of a sizeable group of medical students as he related my case to them. I’m not sure it helped, but I have been clear for half a century thankfully.

Two friends also have suffered from the condition. Quite a while ago, Harry Taylor informed me he was unable to come racing with me whatever day it was, as he had vertigo. He ended up in bed for a week and has had the occasional reminder on a milder scale since.

Ironically, when my first attack started, I had been going through and editing the manuscript of the book I’ve recently written with owner-trainer and 82-year-old work rider Victor Thompson and partner Gina Coulson. I’d just got past a chapter, ten minutes earlier, where Victor describes his experiences – you’d never believe it – with vertigo and his remedy for countering it.

He focuses on a spot in the distance, if he’s riding work; one on the ceiling if he’s unable to sleep, and another on the floor if he’s dealing with a horse’s feet. My vision didn’t stop long enough to focus anywhere for two days at least.

Still, the ECG when the medical team – I understand two attractive young women, but I never opened my eyes while they were here, so cannot confirm it - was clear while the blood pressure was very high. So, no biscuits, cakes or sugar of any kind. I’ve no idea what I can eat when I get back to my regular monthly lunches with Editor Matt Bisogno, or in the box at York later this month, which probably will be my full comeback to racing, all being well. Is my room still available, Mr Cannon?

Ten years after that 1958 migraine episode, a young trainer was making his first steps towards a terrific career. Paul Cole could hardly have come from better tutors, having been assistant to Richmond Sturdy and then George Todd, who owned Manton before Robert Sangster acquired it in the 1990s.

I admit my lying low prevented my noticing that Cole, after 57 years as a licensed trainer at the beautiful Whatcombe estate in Berkshire - the last six seasons in concert with middle son Oliver - had retired, at the ripe old age of 83.

There has been little or no discernible change in the success rate of the stable since the joint ownership of the licence, and while I realised that Paul had been around for the whole time I’ve been involved with the sport, it had never occurred to me that he must have been in his mid-80s.

To say he’d served his time was an understatement and always with, at his side, his wife Vanessa. Her death last year was an obvious blow to a man who always showed a stern outlook especially to outsiders.

His training career was little short of miraculous. He regarded 1990 Derby winner Generous as the best he trained. To show his class, he had the speed to win a five-furlong race at Ascot as a two-year-old, something few winners of the great race could have done to start their careers.

Generous went on to win that year’s Dewhurst and, at three, the Derby, Irish Derby and King George. Cole attributed those achievements to the sort of speed he exhibited first time out. Generous’ owner, Fahd Salman, was the main supporter around that time and I remember well the three Royal Ascot Prince Fahd juvenile winners in one week, all backed as though defeat was out of the question. It wasn’t.

If Paul Cole has been rather taciturn throughout his career, son Ollie and for that matter elder son Alex, racing manager to Jim and Fitri Hay, are anything but. I don’t remember meeting the third sibling, Mark.

Ollie has long looked forward to his eventual taking over as sole trainer at Whatcombe and, as he says, “We’d been talking about it for some time, but it was still a surprise when my father finally said a few weeks ago that he was ready to hand it over to me.

“All his life he had been used to getting up at 5 a.m. and in the yard at 5.30. It runs so deeply in his life. Stopping was a wrench for him, but it was finally time to stop. Since my mother’s death last year, it has been horrible for him to be on his own.”

Ollie related that his grandparents had two farms but were unable to provide anything towards the young Paul as he began his journey. “He had to do it all himself, from scratch. He was too tall to be a jockey – trainers wouldn’t employ him to ride their horses so he had to do it the hard way, and what a stellar career it was!

“All my life I’ve been watching and learning and now I’m in the happy position of having had lots of experience and can use all the knowledge I’ve picked up from him over so many years.

“Whatcombe is a wonderful place to train horses and many of our owners are as much friends as clients. Few trainers are as fortunate. My older brother Alex of course has been a big help as manager to the Hays and Anthony Ramsden of Valmont has become a very good friend and is the second-biggest owner in the yard.

"I’m looking forward to continuing Whatcombe’s success and have some ideas to let the potential owners around the sport know that we are a young, dynamic set-up that intends getting back to the top echelon in the sport - and quickly."

Ollie has always been very engaging and has been around the international scene, first as his father’s assistant and then joint trainer. He had big plans to reinvigorate the stable five years ago when he joined forces, but now he can express himself.

The Hays are very much involved as owners at Whatcombe as are Valmont, original owners of last year’s Irish Oaks winner You Got To Me, which Graham Smith Bernal’s syndicate bought into before her victory at the Curragh for the Ralph Beckett stable.

Oliver Cole was quickly off the mark with the three-year-old filly Bela Sonata, who had also won first time out this year for the joint handlers. She easily won a well-contested fillies’ handicap at Newbury last month in the style of an improving filly.

Cole’s placing of the filly in that race was either fortuitous or reflected a keen sense of timing. She is owned by Weatherbys Racing Club and no doubt racing’s administrators’ much-travelled senior director Nick Craven would have been on site to enjoy the post-race celebrations.

It came only three races after the Weatherbys Super Sprint, their biggest sponsorship of the season, won by race-specialist Rod Millman’s Anthelia. That was the principal reason for Nick’s attendance.

He’ll also be needed tomorrow when he and I have a go through Victor’s “80 Years In The Fast Lane” with the production team. Weatherbys will be publishing it later this year.

Nick was on duty at Goodwood last week when the star of the meeting was Beckett’s 150/1 shot Qirat, belying his pacemaker status in benefit of long odds-on Juddmonte-owned Field Of Gold in the Sussex Stakes.

Beckett had convinced the Juddmonte management team to allow him to supplement the four-year-old at the five-day stage for £70,000 that would have got back £57k if he had managed fourth behind the three apparent major players, Field Of Gold, Rosallion and Henri Matisse, the latter pair running second and third. Instead, it was Field Of Gold who got the consolation prize for fourth, John Gosden stating that he “just didn’t fire”.

 

 

Not far behind in terms of merit was Coolmore’s Whirl in the Nassau, Aidan O’Brien’s filly making all from an old-style barrier start under Ryan Moore. She coped admirably with the rain-drenched conditions and must be the top staying filly around.

 

 

The Coolmore boys would also have been happy at the half-length Haskell win of Journalism, into which they had bought an interest, at Saratoga on Saturday evening.

 

 

Apart from his two defeats by generational leader Sovereignty, Journalism comfortably heads the remainder in what looks a very solid team of Classic three-year-olds in the US.

  • TS

Monday Musings: Wokism

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There was a race at Thirsk on Friday which has given me at least a double pause for thought, although the first of them was barely a pause, just a momentary operational stalls malfunction which brought a ridiculous decision from the course stewards, writes Tony Stafford. Indeed the worst in the history of racing in this and probably any other country.

The 4.35 race was a handicap over 1m4f. Post-race, the stewards stuck their heads together and were satisfied that the berth occupied by the grey, Red Force One, had opened after the others, and declared the horse a non-runner. Presumably they came to that conclusion at least in part as he would not have qualified for any prize money, which he didn’t, finishing tailed off.

I had reason to look at the race a couple of times, still having no clue that anything had been amiss. As the stalls opened, you could see the grey horse was a stride or so behind the others at the outset, ambled along for the first 20 strides easily into the leading group and after a furlong was right in the hunt.

Flat racers probably go around 30 strides to a furlong, so somewhere near 360 strides in a mile and a half race. Thus, if he was inconvenienced at all by the blink of an eye slower exit, it represented one of the 360 strides of the race – 0.28% of the full distance. No wonder he was a non-runner!

Would the stewards still have declared him thus if he had won the £5k plus first prize or even been placed? Wokism, or rather Jokism. Racing is going to the dogs if we have people like these administering the Rules in this way.

The race itself threw up a winner for my great friend Wilf Storey, 85 I believe and still going strong, or rather, strongish, given that the stable strength at Grange Farm stables, Muggleswick is down to a handful. But the team with granddaughter Siobhan Doolan also to the fore, had five wins last year and now two this season, both with the ex-Charlie Fellowes filly Idyllic, from just 13 runs.

I went to see the then three-year-old after Siobhan had successfully bid 9,000gns for her at Newmarket’s HIT sale last backend. Once a winner for Fellowes from ten runs after her 62k yearling purchase, she is by Bated Breath, who stands at £8,000 at Juddmonte, so was hardly excessively priced when Siobhan pounced.

But here comes my bone of contention. She was ridden with rare judgment, strength and skill by the 3lb claiming Paula Muir, who after Friday has ten more wins to go before she loses her claim. If you seem to think Scots lass Paula has been around for a while still to be claiming, you would be right.

In the two years 2018 and 2019 she rode first 22 winners from 216 rides and then 15 from 257. So far this year, she has had the grand total of 13 rides. That’s right, 13, coincidentally the same number as Wilf has sent out with the same horse providing both successes. And ten of those have been for Wilf, who also contributed five of last year’s seven victories, although she did have a more credible 82 rides in 2024.

Chatting to Wilf after the win, he said, “I can’t understand it. Here’s a girl who had had more than 1,000 career rides and now 85 wins. She does a light weight, and she’s really strong and can claim 3lb, yet she can’t get a ride.”

Wilf told me she rides out for Kevin Ryan. “I understand it’s usually on the difficult ones, or those two-year-olds coming up for a first run. She gets a fair bit of knocking about and told me she might pack it all in at the end of the season.”

Investigating this apparent statistical oddity I found that, apart from the ten rides for Storey, she has had one each for another Durham handler in David Thompson - a horse that won its previous race but was 4th of eight when she rode it and did not keep the mount next time, Barry Murtagh and Ryan. Murtagh put her on a 150/1 chance which ran entirely to expectations finishing last of 15 while Kevin Ryan entrusted her with a 50/1 debutant that again didn’t confound the betting market in last of eight.

Before Saturday, Ryan had sent out 40 winners this year from 308 runners, with 33 individual winners from the 94 horses he had raced. You might have thought he could have found her a ride or two more with chances of doing something. A win for his powerful stable would undoubtedly give Paula’s career that little bit of help she needs to help push her back into the limelight.

Every horse she rides gets a proper go as you will see if you watch the video of Friday’s win. Having got Idyllic back on terms with the favourite Ancient Myth, ridden by Mark Winn (ten wins from 138 rides this year) for David O’Meara, that had swept past her at the furlong pole, she pushed her mount back on terms and, confidently with hands and heels, took control for a comfortable neck win.

As I said, watch the race and tell me why she shouldn’t be riding every day of the week rather than the twice a month of 2025. It was planned for her to renew her acquaintance with last year’s dual winner Edgewater Drive at Ayr today, but the ground has dried up too much for him.

Back to Idyllic. Having raced at 1m3f in her previous three races, Idyllic was now up another furlong at Thirsk. Somehow the Wilf Storey horses, especially the females, over the many years of his career and our friendship, always seemed to become more stamina oriented as they developed. It will not shock me to see Idyllic winning over even two miles later in the year.

**

Admittedly, the five-runner field that divvied up the best part of £1.5 million for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, did comprise a field of Group 1 horses. But it left a sour taste that 2023 St Leger winner Continuous – tailed off after playing a significant role in the majority of the race - could cop forty grand for last place as the Aidan O’Brien second-string. It was £110k for a below-par Jan Brueghel, Coolmore’s number one, in fourth. It would be understandable if most racegoers found that to be money hardly well spent.

Ascot’s Nick Smith did his best to justify this 20% rise from last year’s figure which meant that Francis-Henri Graffard, who won both races, last year with 25/1 shot Goliath and now with 11/10 favourite Calandagan, is well over £1.5 million in stable earnings from the two victories.

The obvious rejoinder to Smith’s case was the standing still in money of many other races around Ascot from top to bottom level. This race is the jewel in the course’s crown, but it is no coincidence, that neither winner will ever be on show in their own country’s biggest event, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October, from which geldings are excluded.

One who will presumably have booked her place having finished runner-up only a length behind the winner is the Andrew Balding-trained filly, four-year-old Kalpana, who looked sure to win when Oisin Murphy sent her past the one-paced Jan Brueghel. He, with Continuous, did not help Rebels Romance’s cause as the second string raced on leader Jan Brueghel’s girth until the action heated up in the straight.

Ascot is legion for trouble in running up its short straight even in small fields. That seems absurd given the wide expanse of the track – two handicaps on Saturday were scheduled to field 22-runner races and there were little noticeable hard-luck stories in them. At the Royal meeting, some handicaps accommodate 32 runners. The Godolphin horse was the one that was hamstrung as Kalpana sneaked through between horses and Calandagan came widest of all after lobbing along in last place for the first ten furlongs of the race.

Calandagan clearly found Ascot an easier track to handle than Epsom where Jan Brueghel beat him narrowly in the Coronation Cup. If he didn’t already have it with a series of previous near-misses at the top level, it was cemented that day at Epsom in which he earned the reputation among many (including me) of being a little wimpish.

There was no sign of a wimp from him now though, as he followed up an easy Group 1 score in France last time by reeling in Kalpana, unlike those Thirsk stewards the day before. The BHA should announce an investigation and with seemingly no possible argument to the contrary, turf out the culprits!

- TS

Monday Musings: Deception

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There are funny camera angles for close finishes on a number of tracks, but until the past week or so, I’d never put Newmarket’s July Course into that category, writes Tony Stafford. Then, three times at least, as the horses flashed over the line, the apparent leader in the race to the line, was usurped by a horse or horses racing nearer the stands side.

It happened when the horse I was cheering for, William Knight’s Royal Velvet, had control of her two closest rivals in the final strides before the conclusion in a race the week before last. What happened next, the shot actually on the line, told a totally different story.

The same thing transpired on Friday when the £1.9 million yearling, Charlie Appleby debutant Distant Storm, appeared to have been outdone (on his outside) by Aidan O’Brien’s fellow newcomer Constitution River, but again the online camera left us in no doubt.

Then again on Saturday, in the Bunbury Cup, a 13-runner affair rather than the usual maximum 20, resolved in favour of William Haggas’ More Thunder, who also had a narrow margin to spare. We’ve often mused how often William Haggas goes into big-money handicaps with short-priced favourites. More Thunder was a 6/5 shot in a race where they often go maybe 6/1 the field.

That he should so narrowly get the better of the Ian Williams-trained Aalto, a 40/1 outsider, means no doubt the rise in his mark can be if not minimal, too little to prevent a follow up in another big money handicap.

Williams, also, is a terrific target trainer and he certainly had his eye on the money on offer this last week. His Oneforthegutter picked up Friday’s big prize, the bet365 Trophy over 1m6f, having judiciously employed stablemate Dancing In Paris, runner-up previously in the Northumberland Plate, to ensure a strong gallop.

William Knight isn’t slow to learn. Just a week after Royal Velvet’s near miss he brought out Suzy Hartley’s four-year-old filly again and this time William Buick kept the stands side route for her challenge, again looking less emphatic in the running than at the conclusion.

After being on the conventional side of the track on Friday, I switched to the marquee side – something of an oasis – on Saturday and the ‘on the eye’ view offered no confusion at all. Buick was well in control on Royal Velvet throughout the last half-furlong.

Talking about in control, Buick and his principal employer Charlie Appleby had a meeting to savour, with three apiece on each of the first two days and a concluding double on Saturday, meaning the jockey had three trebles.

The O’Brien / Appleby and Ryan Moore / Buick battles also came down in favour of the home team when Superlative Stakes favourite Italy was easily upstaged by Saba River, both colts coming on after comfortable debut wins.

It was always going to be Italy, in the race where we first saw the true potential of City of Troy two years ago, that would be favourite to justify his status; but Saba River got the stands run while his rival was pushed into the middle of the course. More surprising perhaps than the result was the 6/1 starting price of the winner, who was less than half that price in the morning.

The future progress of the two principals on those two juvenile events on successive days will be something to savour for the rest of the year.

It’s probably a little unkind to leave mention of the July Cup to this stage of the article, so apologies for Richard Hughes not to register the trainer’s first Group 1 win courtesy of the hard-working and obviously talented No Half Measures in the Pat Gallagher colours to confound his 66/1 starting price. The winner’s rating of 105 was 13lb below that of favourite – and last year’s 2,000 Guineas winer – Notable Speech, but he didn’t ever look like joining in the Godolphin win spree.

Ratings and handicap form are too often taken literally when assessing the top sprints, but with around 3lb to the length at 5f and 6f, any minor interruption to a horse’s progress can bring apparent no-hopers into the argument.

Given a peach of a ride by veteran Neil Callan, who said he was amazed how well he was going coming to the last furlong, No Half Measures had to pounce on Mick Appleby’s Big Mojo, a worthy successor to the stable’s Big Evs, and just outstayed his rival.

Pondering the race afterwards, Mick was anything but depressed. “I’m sure if it had been 5f or today’s trip over a less testing course, I’ve no doubt Big Mojo would have won. He’ll be very hard to beat in the Nunthorpe next month.”

As I said earlier, I watched the early races, though not the July Cup, from the other side of the track and counted in excess of 40 strides across the full width. Of course, with its busy summer programme, the track is divided in two but is still more than wide enough. For some reason though, in bigger fields they seem to cluster up and cause each other unnecessary difficulties as the action hots up.

Richard Hughes was a brilliant rider at the top level and while his training career until Saturday has had fewer top-end triumphs, it has been one of unfussed steady progression.

From his third season, in 2017, Hughesie has never fallen below 41 wins, and six times he has been between 50 and last year’s highest figure of 64. The big prize on Saturday pushed him comfortably over the £1 million prizemoney figure for the first time and it’s now four years in a row that he has set new personal scores in that regard.

It is very likely that at his present strike rate, the tally of 42 wins could reach 65 and bring another personal best for this man who, as the son of Dessie Hughes, the long term top Irish jump jockey and then trainer, he therefore was bred for the top.

It was fitting that Neil Callan, whose young son Jack has already ridden 16 winners, would be the vehicle to give Hughes his first Group 1 win. They also teamed up with Richard’s best previous win with Calling The Wild in the 2023 Northumberland Plate.

The three (so far) 2025 heatwaves have brought fitness difficulties for trainers at home in getting their horses onto grass gallops and facing fast ground at most tracks. Most years, trainers have been up in arms when rain has fallen on watered tracks causing wildly different conditions than were anticipated beforehand.

Among the moans about ground being too firm, there was always a strand of complaint, usually drowned out by the majority, saying that the fast ground horses that undoubtedly do exist, were being victimised.

At least this summer the fast-ground horses can enjoy a rare time when opportunities abound. Anyone with a garden – unless you have a hosepipe ban – will tell you that when you water your lawn, later the same afternoon it will have dried out again.

Similarly, if your horse is in the last race at a track where they have put some water on and you don’t want it too firm, hard luck. My already mentioned walk across the July Course posted as “watered, good to firm”, revealed a healthy cushion of grass. Some trainers I’ve been speaking to of late have been surprised to find that some of the horses they had marked down as needing soft ground, surprisingly have won races on firm. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, as they used to say.

- TS

Monday Musings: A Star Is Born

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A star is born. That’s right, another from that dastardly Aidan O’Brien nursery, especially if your name is Gosden anyway, writes Tony Stafford. I noticed John, the elder of that father-son combine, bravely smiling straight after his hotpot Ombudsman had been mugged close to home by Ryan Moore and Delacroix in the 50th edition of the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park on Saturday.

Coral had done a splendid promo job, obliterating the previous 90 years’ existence of a race that has always been the province of Classic-standard horses. You wouldn’t get Doncaster, for example, minimising the St Leger’s two centuries’ plus existence for the minor detail of this year’s sponsor.

The racecard on Saturday listed previous winners, from Wollow in 1976 to City Of Troy last year, and that caused me to a momentary – “he wasn’t”.

Surely Wollow I thought was earlier than that, but no of course it was Wollow’s sire, Wolver Hollow, both colts trained by Henry Cecil, that had won the race in 1969. The 1976 champion, Italian-owned, was ridden by Frankie’s father, Gianfranco.

As me and my friend Dick McGinn, who sadly died of cancer a few years ago in Australia after emigrating there, waited at home to see the superb mare Park Top we thought would win that 1969 race, when along came Wolver Hollow and Lester Piggott to give the future Sir Henry his first big win. It was also my final losing bet as a single man – at that stage!

Everyone, including my parents, were already in place as best man Dick and I quickly left the house and sprinted down to St John-at-Hackney Church for my wedding. On arrival, as he searched his pockets for the ring, we learnt that the bridal car was on its third circuit! Sorry dear, better late than never!

I got rather excited last week about a ride in a handicap chase at Uttoxeter. Many were equally enthralled by Ryan Moore’s performance on Delacroix, whose chance coming to the furlong pole looked so remote that one exchange punter managed to secure £2 at 330/1!

But the last furlong at Sandown can seem almost as far as not-yet-forgotten Towcester where a ten-length lead over the last fence wouldn’t guarantee success up its Himalaya-like gradient. Sandown isn’t so steep, but when they’ve gone a solid pace and set out for home early enough, as William Buick did on impressive Royal Ascot winner Ombudsman, that can often be a recipe for disappointment.

While not disagreeing with the general view of Ryan’s latest Group 1 masterclass, he did have a more than willing ally in Delacroix. Neither jockey nor trainer seemed to have expected the sudden burst of speed he unleashed from 150 yards out, when coming from last in what seemed like a flash.

He certainly did flash home, passing all five opponents, including Classic winners Ruling Court (Charlie Appleby, 2,000 Guineas), and his stablemate Camille Pissarro (Prix du Jockey Club) in that final half-furlong. His display in the winner’s enclosure when he promised either to trample or squeeze into the rails anyone silly enough to get on the smaller than usual line in the winner’s photo, suggested he had the energy to have gone round again.

Reduced to an onlooker in the Derby after a troubled run as the race panned into another O’Brien/Coolmore colt in Lambourn’s favour - and that horse lost nothing in reputation by following up at the Curragh – now the more lucrative ten-furlong route for a future stallion is wide open for Delacroix.

The Gosdens and their other big owning connection, Juddmonte, could have taken Irish Guineas and superb St James’s Palace winner Field Of Gold to the Sandown race, but that superb grey colt is firmly on target and odds-on for the Sussex Stakes next month at Goodwood.

Then it will be off to York for the Juddmonte should all go to plan close to the Solent and another of those long sponsorships, at York, where the Juddmonte International will have a massive place in their affections. Watch out, that’s where they will undoubtedly be encountering Delacroix.

Who knows? Just a year on from City Of Troy’s disappointing showing in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, by November time, Delacroix might have forced his way into earning a similar challenge and finally win the race for O’Brien. It’s 25 years if you can believe it since the Iron Horse, Aidan’s 2000 Coral-Eclipse winner Giant’s Causeway, agonisingly failed by only a neck to hold off Tiznow at Churchill Downs.

These days, the old “keeping themselves to their own” breeding policy between Coolmore and Godolphin is no more. According to my chosen source of record, Delacroix is one of ten produce of Godolphin’s prime stallion Dubawi among the Ballydoyle three-year-old division and there are also 13 juveniles. His dam is the champion international miler Tepin, making him a fantastic out cross for all those Galileo mares.

Delacroix’s success will make this autumn’s auctions for his yearlings even more a competition between the two prime powers in racing, although of course Godolphin has all the home-breds of Dubawi it wants.

To counterbalance that, Coolmore’s star, the 300k a pop Wootton Bassett has five representatives among Charlie Appleby’s team of juveniles, but none of the Classic generation. The former French-based sire hadn’t yet announced his true talent before switching to Ireland for the 2022 breeding season.

Meanwhile, the principal Godolphin buying team of Anthony Stroud and David Loder will equally be scanning the sales to see which of the Wootton Bassetts is to be targeted. Loder, I heard from Charlie Appleby on Saturday, has had some successful surgery on his eyes and he’ll be seeing them coming, according to Charlie, from a mile off!

Sandown otherwise had a nice, varied programme backing up the big race and it was only by a neck that William Knight’s nine-year-old Sir Busker failed to match Delacroix’s last to first effort with a flying second at 22/1 in the finale. In his case there were seven horses to pass from last place a furlong from home, but as Brandon Wilkie brought him wide with that rattling finish, they were just foiled by the James Tate-trained Flying Frontier, whose trainer was quizzed afterwards.

Stewards habitually want to know why horses run better than expected, perform worse than expected or are beaten favourites. That’s racing, gents or ladies. I know that Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds’ syndicate owners of Sir Busker have had seven wins including at Royal Ascot, from 58 runs and 660k in earnings.

His later career was hampered by a freak injury when turf flicked up into an eye at Meydan but he came back as bravely as ever and can be a force in these handicaps for a while longer. I would hope the handicapper refrains from raising his mark above 100 once more, but sentiment isn’t much part of their make-up.

Dubawi is also the sire of another of Saturday’s winners, the Richard Hannon-trained Classic, running in the colours of Mrs Julie Wood. He won a £63k handicap in great style earlier on the card, making all under Sean Levey.

Mrs Wood normally recruits her horses in foal sales, but made an exception with Classic, sold as a yearling by Newsells Park Stud for 260,000gns, a price she would never expect to pay for a foal. On the way he won on Saturday there will be much more to come from him.

- TS

Monday Musings: Only The Bold

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I know we’re only halfway through the year; halfway indeed through the decade and barely a quarter into the 21st Century, but I think I’ve just seen the ride of said 100 years, writes Tony Stafford. If you reckon you see one better the other side of 2050, don’t bother try telling me about it, I’ll no longer be here troubling anyone.

My candidate for this purely unbiased accolade was not on show riding the Irish Derby winner – indeed at time of starting this article, the Classic was more than an hour away from being run. I could have a cup of tea and a piece of cake after presenting my case and before sitting down to watch the main event.

The big one here from three jumps only cards – all to the west of the country – was the bet365 Summer Handicap Chase over 3m2f and 20 (to start with) obstacles. Uttoxeter, at 143 miles, was the nearest to London, Ffos Las is 212 miles and Cartmel in the Lake District is 269 miles, for whatever that useless statistic may be worth!

Sometimes it’s only when you’ve backed the recipient of such a ride, especially when the horse comes from out of the clouds as it were, that the degree of amazement is even noticed. I watched Only The Bold, mostly with minimal expectation during the running, purely as it had been my top bet (not supported by cash, I’m afraid) for my From The Stables line in the William Hill Radio Naps table (and, more importantly, for subscribers of a service with the same name, our dear editor being one of the directors).

The horse, a ten-year-old, was having its third run for the Jamie Snowden stable, having shown plenty earlier in its career but suffering from a lack of confidence which brought three consecutive pulled up runs most recently for David Pipe. It happens to the best of them and, sometimes, a change of yard can often be enough to remedy things.

First time for Snowden, Only The Bold was moving well when a mistake halted his progress at Ludlow – resulting in a fourth consecutive “P” on his form line.

But Jamie took heart from that and even more when he rattled home fast but too late into third at Aintree in May. Another two furlongs yesterday and a mark very much down on his peak figure of a couple of years ago meant the near 40 grand first prize had to come to the shrewd Jamie’s notice.

Fifteen horses lined up, soon to be reduced by one from an unseated, and as the leaders - including the Fergal O’Brien-trained Manothepeople - ensured a fast pace, Gavin Sheehan on Only The Bold never looked especially comfortable.

His horse showed little fluency in his jumping and after the first half circuit was firmly among the tailenders. The proximity for a while of the unseated horse didn’t appear to be helping and that might have been why Sheehan took him to the wide outside.

They were in the back three for most of the way, with the jockey manoeuvring widest of all on each of the pretty sharp left-hand bends. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the many new winner-finding formulae available on the internet hasn’t physically tracked the paths of all the runners (it has - Ed.). I guess he would have gone much the furthest but enjoyed the clearest run thanks to Gavin’s steering.

Four from home at Uttoxeter isn’t all that far out, but Only The Bold was still last and on the outside. Then Gavin got going, and on each of the bends you could see his mount running past a few. Coming to two out the Irish-trained Digby had eased past Manothepeople and was still going well and looking impregnable.

A few lengths behind, Only The Bold was being gently switched inside and at the last fence he was within half a length of the not-stopping leader. Now, I was already expecting the miracle to happen, and indeed it did, the Snowden runner showing the better speed while at the same time stopping yet another Irish invader pilfering a hefty chunk of our prize money.

I say pilfering advisedly. Two runs prior Digby had been brought across to Bangor on the back of some ordinary home form and, supported from 40/1 to 22/1, bolted home, a run that brought a question from the stewards. It was accepted after trainer Dermot McLoughlin cited the longer trip as the reason for the improvement.

A win at home over hurdles in between would have boosted expectations and, apart from Only The Bold’s tenacity, Sheehan’s in-race flexibility, and Snowden’s rejuvenation of an apparently lost cause, they would have been on another 16/1 triumph as well as a nice haul of cash.

If you don’t believe me how unlikely it was until the last fence, have a look at the film, but I’m not bothered either way. Eighteen-to-one winners are like rocking horse’s teeth! [26.0 Betfair Starting Price, traded at 140 in running!]

Next, I’m bringing in an event that was run a few minutes after the Irish Derby as up at Cartmel one trainer listed as having only 18 horses in her care in this year’s Horses in Training book, made it two big-race wins on successive days, one in either discipline.

Dianne Sayer and her assistant, the former jumping amateur rider and daughter of the trainer, Emma, were understandably delighted when their Savrola stayed on too strongly for his opponents to win the two-mile Northumberland Vase, consolation race on the flat to the time-honoured Plate, won by Andrew Balding’s Spirit Mixer.

The Vase carried a big cash upgrade from last year and was worth equal to the prize won by Only The Bold at Uttoxeter. Then, yesterday, the Sayers’ Charlie Uberalles went down to Cartmel and took the Oakmere Homes Handicap Chase and its £22k pot, fending off a trio of well-fancied Irish raiders in the process.

At least there was a numerically strong team from the UK vying for the main prizes in the Irish Derby but, predictably, Ryan Moore and Lambourn landed the odds and added to the horse’s Betfred Derby victory at Epsom.

Lambourn did not make all at the Curragh this time; indeed he was unable to as he was challenged on his inside from the early stages by Richard Kingscote on Sir Dinadan, very much the Ralph Beckett stable’s second string as far as the market was concerned. He kept a ridden Lambourn company until well into the straight when the favourite took over. If we had expected him to draw away from that point we were mistaken, as a later challenge came but not from any of the beaten Epsom contenders, rather from much closer to home.

Serious Contender, another of the Aidan O’Brien/Coolmore contingent, was reappearing only ten days after he was beaten from a mark of 92 in one of the Royal Ascot three-year-old handicaps, and he gave favourite backers a serious fright. One trainer I was speaking to last week was suggesting that finishing even tenth in that mile and a half race or in the Britannia over a mile at the fixture meant you were probably a good way ahead of your handicap mark.

William Haggas, not afraid to run Group 1 horses in handicaps, won the race with Merchant off 90. He went up to 103 last Tuesday and, with his nearest victim then getting so close to the Derby winner in the Irish Derby, he’ll get another jump. I doubt Haggas or the owners, one of Highclere’s syndicates, will mind. If a deal hasn’t already been done, he’ll be on his way before long for a nice few quid.

The last 50 yards or so of the Irish Derby was extraordinary. As the winner edged away from his stablemate, it was only then that Lazy Griff, under William Buick got running for Charlie Johnston and Middleham Park Racing, losing one spot on his Epsom runner-up position. He again had the better of Epsom third Tennessee Stud by a neck while Sir Dinadan was another neck away fifth and Green Impact a nose back in sixth.

That last gasp effort made a €100k difference to the Middleham Park shareholders, but up front another one-two in an Irish Derby brought a heady €950k to the home team. It was O’Brien’s 17th Irish Derby victory, his first coming in 1997. Surely no top-level race anywhere in the world can ever have been so dominated by one stable over such a length of time.

- TS

Monday Musings: Debut Trouble and Double Bubble

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Having cringed five days earlier at the sparse crowds on the Hill at Epsom for Saturday’s Derby, I would have thought taking care of potential money-spending clients would be at the forefront of all racecourses’ actions nowadays, writes Tony Stafford.

Yet on Thursday at Newbury, where there was a 1.30 start, for some reason the course management decreed that until 12.30 they (probably regarded as the enemy until that moment) would not pass.

It could be of course that racecourses’ race day insurance might not kick in until an hour before the first race; but if that’s right, then it’s something they ought to address.

Luckily the owners’ car park is but a stone’s throw from the entrance to the very posh owners’ facility, so once denied admission at 11.50 – I got there quicker than expected as the long-standing and lengthy 50 m.p.h. stretches on the northern part of the M25 and also some more on the M4 had magically disappeared since the start of my house arrest for the previous three weeks.

“Great”, I thought, “that’s plenty of time to get a cup of coffee and study the card.” The horse I’d come to watch wasn’t in until the second race at 2.05 so I might even take advantage of the lunch that’s offered, although with everyone going in at the same time, it would be a bit of a scramble.

One hot choice, pork sausages, so any one unable to partake on religious grounds, would be left with the cold buffet. No such restrictions for me and the sausages were great. I digress.

At 11.50, the promised rain was coming down nicely enough to turn the going from good to firm to good, good to soft in places, allowing the trainer’s assistant associated with “our” horse, a 120k debutant, another possible factor to add to the legion of pre- and post-race book of excuses for a first outing.

After a couple of minutes standing behind the gaggle of already almost-drowning pensioners that comprise many midweek attendees, I had a brainwave, following a couple of others with rudimentary knowledge of the track. “There’s a bar in the hotel, and if that’s no good, there’s always the Lodge”, they offered. The Lodge is where stable lads can stay overnight.

No go at the hotel and around the corner we were very welcome to go into the Lodge, but on race days their bar isn’t open. I slunk back to sit in the car for half an hour.

By the time I did return to the entrance somebody must have taken mercy on the drowned veterans and a few were already in the bar, including my old mate Mike “Chunky” Allen, a fixture at Newbury and Windsor especially, who surprised me with the announcement that it was 20 years since he had left British Airways from his job as Cabin Services Director.

He always used to tell me about all the people in racing he’d managed to get upgrades from coach to first over many years and, from memory, Paul Webber was one of his regular beneficiaries.

I was going on a long-distance trip with my then wife sometime in the 1990s, to the US if I recall. He told me the name of the man who would be CSD on the flight and said: “When you go into the plane, ask for him. I’ve told him about you and he’ll put you in Business Class at a minimum or with luck, First Class.”

Come the day, with my wife saying don’t be silly, we’ll sit in our seats, I wasn’t for turning. The man was standing at the point where passengers would turn left or right. I asked whether he was our man. He said: “Yes”. I said: “Oh good, Mike Allen told me you would look after us.” He gave me a quizzical look and said: “Mike Allen? Never heard of him!” We turned right with one embarrassed husband and an “I told you so” companion.

Last Thursday, I retold the tale with Mike and a witness and Chunky said, “That’s right, I only worked with him for 38 years!”

I thought it would be only fair to buy him what he was drinking as his small house white wine was soon to disappear at the bottom of his tiny glass. I ordered the same again and a non-alcoholic beer for me. I had a longish drive home so you can’t be too careful these days - £12. Good job he didn’t have a large one!

In a field of eight, of course “our horse” was the one doing all the shouting in the pre-parade and, by the time we went into the paddock proper and met the assistant trainer, he added to that obvious negative news with, “Not only that but he’s got his old man out.” A more prosaic description than the coy “rather colty” version beloved of broadcast paddock commentators, you might say.

This juvenile had been, we understood, very forward from day one, had done plenty of galloping and a video of his last piece of work was most encouraging. It’s not my horse, but I attempted to keep the conversation as light as possible as there was, apart from my friend, another partner and his father there. I said, “I saw that gallop, he looked good, unless he was working with a tree.”

Anyway the eight eventually set off on the six and a half furlongs of Newbury and he was slowly away, then dropped further back immediately. On return after the race, his jockey said, “I’d gone 20 yards and he started shouting and it wasn’t until the last furlong that he seemed to get the hang of things.”

He advised patience at least to see his next run as he did keep on well up to the line, improving the distance behind the other two stragglers if not his actual position. Trainer’s assistant said the jockey couldn’t pull him up for ages after the line, so that’s a comfort and I had already taken that reassurance on the eye first time round. I hope my friend and the other owners get some enjoyment. Promise on the gallops can so quickly evaporate with one or two poor displays on the track.

*

I know it’s Royal Ascot this week. I am going to manage only three days, but the early morning work I do for the revamped From The Stables service where around 20 trainers offer their thoughts to me every day means it’s going to be hellish if the roads are difficult.

On Saturday, there were initially 30 horses (in the end quite a few came out) to wade through to find a nap which would appear in the William Hill Radio Naps table.

In the five years I’ve been doing the job – pushed my way when the Editor of this site recommended me when asked his opinion of who might fill a vacancy – we’ve won the competition three times (out of ten goes combined, for the NH and Flat seasons).

Doing my regular call around on Saturday, I spoke to Roger Teal. I very much fancied his horse Hucklesbrook at York as I had done a few weeks earlier at Leicester where he won at 9/1. That day, I forgot to email the tip through and was given a 2/7 shot from the regular substitute provider when mine is a no-show for any reason.

Anyway, Roger told me he was in a rush as his horsebox had broken down on the way and he was waiting for a replacement to bring the horse to run in the valuable featured three-year-old sprint, worth £64k to the winner.

All was well, Hucklesbrook getting there safely and then, ridden by Joanna Mason, winning very authoritatively at 16/1. Roger Teal is a much-underrated trainer (although in fairness, so many of them are). I would love him to win the Queen Anne Stakes, the meeting curtain-raiser of a wonderful Tuesday card, with Dancing Gemini.

To have a 16/1 nap go in was great, but under a new regime instigated only last month and containing an inflex of talented trainers, we now offer a nap, next best and third choice along with an each-way outsider.

The NB, Ben Brookhouse’s My Dream World, had earlier won the Queen Mother Cup for lady amateur riders at 4/1 so an 84/1 double was in place. It is now no longer a secret that winning rider Megan Jordan, partnering a 13th career winner, weighs six cases and two bottles of champagne. At around £50 a pop that’s three and a half grand’s worth. Good for her.

I was getting excited after Hucklesbrook, but then the third choice, Jamie Snowden’s 9/4 shot Hope Rising, turned round just as her field was sent off for a novice hurdle at Uttoxeter, losing a good ten lengths according to the course commentator.

Gavin Sheehan soon got her rolling and she quickly went through the field and into the lead. Jumping well, she seemed to be going better than the hot favourite in the race, but those earlier exertions taxed her stamina and she had to be content with an honourable second place. That treble would have been 272/1!

Later, the day’s each-way outsider, Hughie Morrison’s Mighty Real, a 12/1 shot at Leicester, came with a dangerous-looking run but had to be content with third of eight. If, a word we use too often in racing and I suppose in life generally, things had gone right, it would have been somewhere close to a 3,600/1 payout. Of course, I didn’t have a penny on, but I’m glad to say, plenty of the members did!

You can take a three week trial of From The Stables, using the coupon code ‘geegeez’, here.

 

Monday Musings: Aidan’s Hat-Trick Heroics

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So Aidan and the boys won the Betfred-sponsored Coronation Cup, Oaks and Derby last weekend, picking up around £1.5 million in the process, writes Tony Stafford. Lambourn, the well-backed third favourite on Derby Day, far out-performed his much more talked-about stable companions The Lion In Winter and short-priced favourite Delacroix in almost a repetition of Serpentine’s all-the-way easy victory under Emmet McNamara at the height of Covid five years ago.

Ryan Moore had selected Delacroix from the gang of trials winners rather than Chester Vase hero Lambourn and, in retrospect, it was maybe a little strange as Aidan always sends his best candidates to Chester, its timing best suiting Epsom.

People may question the suitability of a one-mile always-turning circuit as a recipe for revealing Epsom Classic talent, but I know Henry Cecil always reckoned that a big horse would be fine around the Roodeye if he was well-balanced. Lambourn certainly is.

He was picked up almost by default by Wayne Lordan, the apparent third string – Colin Keane, the regular Irish champion was on Dante flop The Lion In Winter. But the stamina Lambourn showed in winning the Chester Vase (just beyond 1m4f) last month convinced Wayne to go hard in the first furlong out of the stalls – to wake his mount up as much as anything – as he knew, unlike many in the field, his mount would not fail through lack of staying power.

Auguste Rodin (2023) and City Of Troy last year were fully expected winners but two other runnings in the last decade have gone to perceived third or higher strings. Wings Of Eagle, the fifth choice in terms of expectations in 2017 was a 40/1 shot when Padraig Beggy guided him home.

Beggy has been rarely seen since on the racecourse, but he did return to Epsom two years later to partner outsider Sovereign as a pacemaker in the Derby and finished tenth. He then rode him as a 25/1 outsider in the Irish Derby and won it!

McNamara might not have seen much riding action after Serpentine’s triumph, but it’s hardly surprising as he had been combining his riding with studying at Griffith College, Dublin. He graduated from there in 2018 with first-class honours in accountancy and finance in 2018 and works in that capacity in the Coolmore operation. Talk about top-class staff!

Moved across to Ballydoyle when David Wachman, John Magnier’s son-in-law, stopped training to take a behind the scenes role in the Coolmore machine, Lordan was third string to Ryan Moore and Seamie Heffernan until that veteran left the team a couple of years or so ago.

Lordan, one of those outdated characters, a true lightweight, had a serious injury during the 2023 Irish Derby which took eight months to overcome. As he said after Saturday’s triumph, he has a wonderful job. It was only a neck that denied him the Oaks-Derby double when Moore’s mount Minnie Hauk just edged out he and Whirl after another flawless front-running ride around Epsom’s tricky 1m4f course the previous afternoon, showing what jewels are available to the Coolmore number two on which to demonstrate his skills.

The modest Mr Lordan affirmed that he will have been in for work at 7 a.m. as usual yesterday and after no drunken celebratory stupor. Like the trainer he’s a teetotaller.

Aidan O’Brien has now won the Derby and Oaks eleven times each and, for good measure, ten Coronation Cups after Friday’s determined triumph for Jan Brueghel over the odds-on French four-year-old Calandagan. The Francis-Henri Graffard-trained horse was adding to his string of half-hearted second places (now four in a row) behind a typically tough O’Brien stayer.

In all, it’s 47 UK Classics from the 139 that have been contested since his first winning attempt in the 1,000 Guineas in 1998. That’s around 33 per cent. At least everyone else has been able to share the remaining two-thirds although, as time goes on, the dominance if anything is strengthening.

Aidan’s 22 Epsom Classics have all come this century, thus 22 of the 52 to have been run, or 42%! When Michael Tabor and Mrs Sue Magnier add their joint win with the Andre Fabre-trained Pour Moi, they are on 12.

To add to the winner, Coolmore’s partners also own Tennessee Stud, who finished fast from off the pace for the Joseph O’Brien stable. This son of Wootton Bassett was bred by Joseph’s mother Anne-Marie. Wootton Bassett has been the runaway star of the Coolmore firmament of late and his fee for this year was raised to an almost unthinkable €300k.

But even at that lofty price, in this Derby line-up he wasn’t the most expensive of the 14 sires (New Bay, Ghaiyyath, Sea The Stars and Frankel were doubly represented). Juddmonte’s Frankel’s fee is £350k. Dubawi, with one runner yesterday, has the same fee for his services at Darley Stud.

Every November the stud fees for Coolmore’s stallions are made public. I was shocked in 2023 that Australia, the 2014 Derby and Irish Derby winner and a son of another outstanding Epsom hero in the peerless Galileo, had his fee for 2024 reduced to €17,500. If potential clients needed any further encouragement, his dam is the Oaks winner Ouija Board.

I mentioned it to one of Coolmore’s stallion sales team at the time, who said it reflected his lack of popularity, probably because his progeny often needed time. He added that the only people that seemed to have confidence in him still were Aidan and Anne-Marie who sent a good number of mares to him.

Checking on my facts, I was further stunned that the 2025 fee was down to ten grand (Euro, about £8,400). Aidan and Anne-Marie sure know their stuff. It’s not too late for Australia to start going back towards the €50k at which he began his stallion career. Note, for example, that he is still at Coolmore while others have been sent elsewhere due to the hard-nosed realism that characterises the stud’s management. Of the 20 published stallion figures for flat race rather than jumps sires, only one was listed at a lower figure.

Watching from home due to entirely foreseen but inescapable circumstances, I was momentarily fooled into thinking that Lester Piggott had come back to ride in the Derby in the second running after his death. As the horses walked around, I noticed just how similar Rossa Ryan carries himself on a horse. When you get the chance, have a look. No doubt he’ll win the race one day, but the Dante Stakes winner Pride Of Arras never looked in with a chance.

One fact that certainly didn’t fool me was the dispiriting sight of the sparsely populated Hill. Every first Saturday in May, in Louisville, Kentucky, upwards of 100,000 squeeze in, a tradition in US racing that goes back to the days of the famed War Admiral/Seabiscuit match race at Pimlico in November 1938, where upstart Seabiscuit met his regally bred Kentucky Derby-winning rival and humbled him.

When I used to go to Epsom with my dad in the 1960s, there were more people there during the three-day (now one) Spring meeting in April than deigned to turn up on Saturday.

All the years I used to go there when with the Daily Telegraph, I arrived for breakfast in the old lads’ canteen, waiting for a glimpse of a few of the contenders having a leg shake in the morning, and the crowd was already building up. Many scores of buses lined the straight and the Hill was packed. On Saturday there was a sprinkling of people and even Ollie Bell and former England hockey goalie Sam Quek couldn’t disguise the fact that there was enough room for kids to play impromptu football matches.

Apparently, the Jockey Club, who run Epsom, is considering how to deal with the problem. The remedy is simple. Charge a tenner for cars and allow free admission. Then people will begin to flock back, find it an enjoyable experience and one that will develop as the years go on. I’ve never been so embarrassed. Derby Day once was a great British tradition. For most of our much-changed society, it’s an irrelevance. Thank goodness ITV think it’s worth making the effort.

Many say switching from Wednesday was a big mistake but, since Covid, it seems so few people these days have physically to GO to work, that simplification is a red herring.

It’s not as if there’s loads of competition from other sports at this time of year. On Saturday, England played a World Cup qualifying match against Andorra. Who? Our brave boys, rated number four in the world, hammered the opposition (rated 173 – I didn’t know there were that many countries) by a single goal to nil. Some of them are on £300k a week. Worth every penny I’d say.

- TS

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