Tag Archive for: Captain Cody

Monday Musings: What Went Wrong?

/in /by

What went wrong, Willie? Okay, so you got the 1-2-7 in the Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr, but what happened to the 3-5, especially when you had an extra runner compared to the five in the Randox Grand National at Aintree the previous weekend, writes Tony Stafford.

“I can tell you”, he might say. “One got carried out and the other two, including last year’s winner, MacDermott, pulled up”. Sadly, it was later reported that McDermott had to be put down due to an injury sustained in the race.

It left the Irishman trailing Dan Skelton by £1,581 in the race for the 2024-25 UK trainers’ title. The winner, Captain Cody, is by flat-race stayer Arctic Cosmos, out of the mare Fromthecloudsabove and that was a fair description of how Harry Cobden delivered him from right out the back to foil Klarc Kent, so not quite the Superman, with a flying finish at the end of four miles, if you don’t mind. Cobden must wish he got a few more rides for the Irishman.

Willie has sent 124 individual horses to the UK this season and 27 of them have won 31 races. With place money he has earned £3,102,994 at 19%. Dan Skelton has run exactly twice as many, 248 for 163 wins at very close to the same strike rate (18%) for £3,104,425 after a treble at Ayr on Friday.

Last year, in what now looks sure to be a similar outcome between the two powerhouses, Mullins dominated Sandown’s final day leaving him with £3,326,135 for the season. Skelton, for all his herculean efforts, was marooned (rather unfair to use that word in the circumstances) on £2,983,657 for 121 victories. He’s already exceeded those figures and has 25 entered for Cheltenham’s meeting this week which has £120k in win money on offer, and Thursday is even more potentially lucrative with almost £160k in winner’s cash to be divvied up.

Mullins has 16 in at Cheltenham and in a final day onslaught has 17 in the early-closing races at Sandown on Saturday week compared with Dan’s four. Tough? Like scaling Everest without oxygen!

The rise of the Skelton yard has been remarkable. Minutely master-minded by Nick Skelton, father of Dan and jockey Harry, it can only continue to thrive. Harry is a former champion jockey and winner of the recent half a million pot for big-race points. Nick is an Olympic Gold medal winner from London 2012 but a top international show jumper for decades before that.

Their Warwickshire base has had all the attention paid to it in the manner of a Ballydoyle. Dan will win the title at some stage if not this time round, as Mullins is pushing 70. Then again, with son Patrick or even Ruby Walsh or David Casey to take over, you wouldn’t expect too much loss of effectiveness from Closutton any time soon.

It’s also fair to consider what Willie does at home, when he’s not scaring the daylights out of our best, like Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, the Skelton boys’ original mentor. Clever fella that Nick Skelton! Mullins has run 287 horses back home this season. Of those, 137 between them have clocked up 181 victories and £4,162,000 in total prizes. He might be good but the numbers help!

I hope Dan manages to move a few thousand clear over the two days at Cheltenham, which will become more than just a side show to this week’s Craven meeting at Newmarket when fast ground will have conditions more like August on the Rowley Mile. <They obviously don’t use that course between June and August, but you know what I mean.>

I couldn’t resist my first few words, as they hark back to probably the two least reasonable examples of “what went wrong” ever used in relation to horse racing.

In April 1985, a horse we’d bought, from Charles O’Brien if memory serves, was heavily backed by its new owner. The more than capable 7lb claimer Simon Whitworth rode a terrific race and Cool Enough won in a photo in a big field Thirsk seller. Wilf Storey was the trainer. In those days daily racing wasn’t televised, so despite picking up a ton of cash, the hard-to-please owner – you’ve guessed it – asked: “What went wrong”, as in “I thought you said it was a certainty”. Cool Enough went on to win seven times in a long career for Lynda and Jack Ramsden.

Then after that, Wilf (I can’t really reveal his part, though totally legal, in it) and the late David Wintle helped engineer one of the best stunts of modern racing history – if I say so myself! - when Topsoil, trained by Wintle having been previously in the care of Barry Hills and Rod Simpson, won a selling hurdle at Haydock.

We’d identified the only danger being a horse of John Jenkins’ and so it proved, Topsoil winning by I think one and a half lengths with 25 lengths back to the third. The owner had a nice win bet and cleaned up with the forecast. Again, no pictures to see; once more the reaction after he collected: “What went wrong?”

It’s hard to believe it was as long ago as July 2017 that Dave died aged 77 and it’s sad that it means he never knew about the significant part in a slice of racing history that his daughter Becky and husband Steve Hillen played in the life of one of the more remarkable horses of present days.

The racing industry is quick to forget where praise is due. When the Hillens’ filly Via Sistina was sold to Australian interests at the end of her 5yo career from the George Boughey stable, nobody seemed to remember it was the retired Joseph Tuite who had sent her on the path to greatness, patiently handling the five grand yearling buy.

True, Boughey quickly brought her into Group race company and her final run, second as a five-year-old to Derby runner-up King Of Steel in the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October 2023, was a great achievement.

Sold by the Hillens for an eye-watering 2.7million guineas at the 2023 December sales, she went into the care of Chris Waller in Australia. She won a Group 1 race almost immediately in her new home before running a well-beaten 2nd in last year’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick racecourse in Sydney.

On Saturday, she put that blemish to rights, winning this year’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes by more than a length from the William Haggas globetrotter Dubai Honour in a finish of seven-year-olds. In between, from August in the latest Australian season, she has won another six races, so seven in a single campaign, all at Group 1 level, emulating one of the achievements of Winx for that great mare’s trainer. In all, eight from 11 runs is her Australian tally.

The race was worth £1.46 million to the winner and £420k to the runner-up. That should help with jockey Tom Marquand’s travel expenses to ride the runner-up. New Zealand-born cash cow James McDonald held the reins on the winner as usual.

Via Sistina’s total earnings have passed £6.6 million and she has such an easy disposition according to her trainer that she could keep on notching up those seven-figure prizes for a while to come. Imagine if Joe Tuite had cranked her up as a two-year-old when she wasn’t ready. Indeed, how many potentially great horses go the wrong way for impatience either from owners or indeed trainers?

This week at Newmarket, the Craven Breeze-up Sale will offer the most desirable pedigrees of all the sales of two-year-olds in training to be had, with the arguable exception of Arqana’s similar auction next month. The biggest prices at Newmarket will be paid for sprint types that record fast times over two furlongs in the middle/conclusion of their breezes, but as the editor pointed out to me when we met last week, various other considerations have been added to the agents’ and trainers’ wish lists. I can’t wait to see the returns.

We saw some nice performances in the Newbury Classic trials, notably appropriately named 33/1 Dubai Duty Free Fred Darling Stakes winner Duty First. Archie Watson’s Showcasing filly slaughtered a decent field and Archie’s owners will presumably re-invest their share of the £48k winnings to supplement her to the 1,000 Guineas.

The Watership Down Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes was almost as clear-cut. Sir Michael Stoute may have retired but Jonquil, in his care for Juddmonte last season, made an instant hit for Andrew Balding – he of the 282 horses, up from 236 last year. This nice colt beat the equally admirable Rashabar from Brian Meehan fair and square, but both will have plenty to say as the season stretches on.

- TS

National service resumed for Mullins with one-two at Ayr

/in /by

Captain Cody benefited from an ultra-patient ride by Harry Cobden to lead home a one-two for Willie Mullins in the Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr.

For much of the straight it appeared as if his stablemate Klarc Kent who would be the one to provide Mullins – who had the first three in last weekend’s Grand National at Aintree – with back-to-back successes in the marathon chase, but Cobden was smuggling his mount into the race.

On just his second ride for the champion trainer, Cobden exuded confidence and despite getting close to the last, the seven-year-old Captain Cody (9-1) quickened smartly to win cosily at the line. Our Power was third.

Harry Coden and Willie Mullins celebrate with Captain Cody
Harry Coden and Willie Mullins celebrate with Captain Cody (Jane Barlow/PA)

By saddling the first two, Mullins was taking a giant stride towards retaining his British trainers’ championship.

In what proved an action-packed affair, Mullins’ title rival Dan Skelton saw his two runners inadvertently taken out in the early stages.

Sail Away was brought down at the first by last year’s runner-up Surrey Quest, while Snipe was also brought down just a couple of fences later.

As the field thinned out on the final circuit, a group of eight began to pull clear with Our Power, Rock My Way and Grozni all involved, but last year’s winner Macdermott had been pulled up.

Klarc Kent made a bold bid under Jonathan Burke, but Cobden was always sitting pretty and despite getting tight to the last, he got up to win by a length.

Mullins told Racing TV: “The two horses ran unbelievable races, they are two very good jumpers and two very good stayers.

“There are very few races over these distances so they don’t get much chance to show off how good they are – plus the fact it takes a long time to recover from these kind of trips.

“I gave Harry one instruction, I said this horse only wins for Jody Townend, Paul’s sister, and when Paul gets on it doesn’t particularly work well, so I said to Harry to put on your best ladies’ voice! He’s Ms Harry Cobden now!

“I looked up over the first or second fence and he was last or nearly last, but Harry gave him a very cool ride. It’s a bit easier to ride them like that when they are among the outsiders.”

When it was pointed out to Mullins Captain Cody had won at 9-1 he replied: “9-1? Harry’s fans must have backed him.”

Reflecting on the title Mullins still thinks he faces a tall order.

He said: “Dan won’t be standing still so he’ll probably win it, and if he does he’ll feel like he’s won a proper title. Today we were having a dreadful day until the National, but then it came right which puts us right back in there.”

A big kiss for the trophy from Harry Cobden
A big kiss for the trophy from Harry Cobden (Jane Barlow/PA)

Cobden said: “I just wanted to get settled and creep into the race. I followed him at Cheltenham (National Hunt Chase) and he probably unshipped Danny Mullins because he was going so well.

“It couldn’t have gone any better and when you are riding for Willie Mullins it is easy. That’s just my second ride for Willie, I was one of the 11 in the Triumph. My only instruction was that he went well for a girl so I said I’d try to do that.”

There was a sad postscript to the race, however, as it emerged Macdermott and The Kniphand had suffered fatal injuries.

Facile success for Captain Cody on hurdles debut

/in /by

High-class bumper performer Captain Cody made the most of what looked a gilt-edged opportunity to make a successful debut over hurdles at Gowran Park.

A runaway winner of a National Hunt Flat race at Limerick 12 months ago, the Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old went on to finish a creditable sixth in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival before disappointing when well fancied for a Grade Two contest at Aintree in the spring.

Making his first competitive appearance since failing to fire on Merseyside, Captain Cody was a 2-11 favourite for the Connolly’s RED MILLS Irish EBF Ladies Auction Maiden Hurdle and came home with 10 lengths in hand without being asked a serious question by Jody Townend.

“He jumped a bit rusty at times but when it counted, over the last two, was very good,” said the champion trainer’s son and assistant Patrick Mullins.

“He seems to love this heavy ground, Jody will be delighted to get a win on him and it’s onwards and upwards for him now.”

Captain Cody was cut from 50-1 to 25-1 for the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham by Betfair and Paddy Power.

The Closutton team went on to complete a treble, with Monkfish (13-8) landing the Galmoy Hurdle and Tactical Move justifying 5-4 favouritism in the Daly Farrell Chartered Accountants Beginners Chase, both ridden by Paul Townend.

The latter was not hard pressed to score by three and a half lengths from Saint Felicien and his rider expects him to go on to bigger and better things.

He said: “He had a nice run the first day (over fences) behind Nick Rockett and backed it up today. We came down the straight fast today, he was accurate and good at what he did.

“He has tested the owners’ patience but I think he has a decent level of ability. I liked him last year but didn’t see him after it, so hopefully he can keep the wheels under him now.

“I think he has that Cheltenham level of ability.”

Henry de Bromhead’s Champagne Mahler was a 14-1 winner of the Langtons Kilkenny Handicap Hurdle under Darragh O’Keeffe, with Emmet Mullins-trained hotpot Benjis Benefit (4-6) a disappointing fourth.

Of the winner, De Bromhead said: “I was disappointed with him the last day in Cork but he obviously struggled with the trip (two and a half miles).

“We initially thought he was crying out for a longer trip but dropped him back today, he loved the ground and jumped really well. He is a fine big horse and a real chaser.”

Joseph O’Brien’s Samyr made a smart start to his career in the P.J. Foley Memorial Flat Race.

The 280,000 guineas yearling was a 4-5 favourite for his racecourse debut and lived up to the billing with an eight-length success in the hands of John Gleeson.

O’Brien said: “It was a nice performance and I’m delighted for Brian and Rob (Acheson, owners). It is my first runner in the Robcour colours and he obviously was bought to go on the Flat.

“He was bought as a yearling but he had a couple of setbacks, so Brian decided we’d wait for his four-year-old bumper campaign. We might reap the rewards of that going forwards.

“I was worried about the ground but decided to let him take his chance and there’s no doubt he will be better on better ground.

“He is a good looking, well-bred horse and there is no doubt he could go back to the Flat at some stage. It was a smart performance and we’ll see what Brian and the team want to do now.”