Tag Archive for: Cesarewitch

Monday Musings: A Ces for the Home Team

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I recently wrote about the sad decline in the attraction to trainers of Newmarket’s Cambridgeshire Handicap, run two weeks ago with a first prize of £90k, writes Tony Stafford. On a track where they could easily accommodate 35 horses and room for five or six London buses in between up the straight it looked a mundane affair at best.

They even used to run a consolation race (for much less money) for a few years not so long ago and while never having the relevance of the Chester Cup or Northumberland Plate consolations, it at least gave a run to people who had prepared their horses for the big race and missed out. While admiring the performance of its top-weighted winner Boiling Point for Karl Burke last month, the 2025 race was a tame and wholly domestic affair.

Of course, when it came to the Cesarewitch on Saturday, for a similar first prize, the Irish were interested – sending out ten of their mainly second-division stayers, but where was the feasible home defence going to come from?

In all, only 19 went into the stalls for the race that, as my friend Maurice Manasseh, half a century on from John Oaksey, reminded us, “It begins in Cambridgeshire and finishes in Suffolk”. One of those racing homilies I never tire of hearing.

Accustomed over the years to seeing a massive line-up way over there, a mile along the A14 just behind the service station, this year’s contingent went the reverse way all the 2m2f of it in dribs and drabs. It used to be a stream, and you wondered how they could survive four-and-a-half miles.

I’m sure it’s the smallest field for at least in my consciousness. I restricted myself to going back until 2019 – Wikipedia doesn’t list the size of field, but while there were a couple of near misses with 24 last year and 21 plus two non-runners on the day in 2022, otherwise it has been invariably 30-plus, certainly since 2019 in any case. [Certainly since at least 1997 – Ed.]

That 2019 race went to Willie Mullins with his star hurdler Stratum and was worth 217 grand to Midas-touch owner Tony Bloom. How can a race with this amazing history have declined by more than half in money terms in just six short years?

Part of that irrelevance, no doubt, reflects the enormous strides made by its Irish counterpart, run two weeks earlier with a full 30-horse field. That race carried a first prize of more than 300k whether you count it in £ or Euro.

Ours was a mere pittance in contrast but was well enough patronised by Joseph O’Brien and previous winners Willie and Emmet Mullins, Charles Byrnes as well as Tony Martin. He, apart from doing the job with Leg Spinner in 2007 also had a hand (at least) in the win of his sister Cathy O’Leary with Alphonse Le Grande last year while he was serving a ban – but not one severe enough to stop him celebrating afterwards on the winner’s rostrum.

The Irish on Saturday were 2nd,3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th from their ten representatives, while winner Beylerbeyi, fourth placed Divine Comedy (Harry Eustace) and seventh home Belgravian (Andrew Balding) did at least intrude on the invaders’ expected party. Certainly, the watchers around me were astounded that neither Willie Mullins nor Joseph O’Brien had the winner.

But such is the power of their two stables in flat race staying contests that between them they supplied 14 of the 30 starters at the Curragh two weeks previously including winner Puturhandstogether for O’Brien in the J P McManus colours. I doubt a 4lb penalty would have stopped him off 86 on Saturday (including the penalty) if he hadn’t had bigger fish to fry.

And so to the winner. I saw Ian Willims for a few minutes before he saddled Beylerbeyi for the race. I had been amazed that his five-year-old was as short as 7/1 for a race of this calibre and suggested his handling of the gelding had been remarkable, but he said, “We’ve got to see if he stays yet.”

Until July, I had Beylerbeyi firmly pitched as a middle-range miler; indeed apart from two unsuccessful runs in novice hurdles at the end of last year the longest trip he had ever encountered was one mile one and a half furlongs around Wolverhampton.

Williams loves acquiring chuck-outs from top French stables, most notably Francis-Henri Graffard – not a bad place to buy from – and Beylerbeyi, although a winner first-time at two, from four runs for Jean-Claude Rouget’s top yard, was picked up for only €7k and knocked down to Williams.

Like many trainers, he finds it harder to get his horses’ ratings to drop even after a series of unsuccessful runs, so he put the horse in the care of less-fashionable Patrick Morris, and the adverse effect happened, 13lb off for four defeats, upon which he entered the Williams team proper.

It took 11 runs starting from and ending on 62 before Beylerbeyi’s initial victory – point taken! – in June last year over seven furlongs at Wolverhampton. Within weeks that had transformed into a hat-trick with victories over seven again and then a mile at Doncaster. Three more runs preceded one further win, in the outing over the extended nine furlongs I mentioned earlier, back at Dunstall Park.

He was still racing at around a mile when he reappeared this year and then, in July, he was third when tried over one mile two and a half furlongs at York. Then it was another hat-trick, all upped to 1m4f. You would still hardly regard that as sufficient evidence for eyeing the Cesarewitch and its 2m2f slog.

Beylerbeyi is by Invincible Spirit, sire of many high-class sprinters and milers, and I doubt his breeders Al Shaqab Racing would have predicted a race like Saturday’s as on their radar. But the sire does have a good win percentage with the smaller group of his progeny that have tried 1m6f and above. When Ian moved him up to 1m6f, he finished strongly when second at the Doncaster St Leger meeting and then was an eye-catching third at Newbury.

But here he was, running over half a mile further than ever before, no wonder the trainer’s apparent uncertainty. Beylerbeyi broke slowly and Billy Loughnane held him up last of the entire field for much of the trip. He moved him out just as Hughie Morrison’s Caprelo had started his run a couple of lengths ahead of him on the outside and, when that opponent’s promise quickly evaporated, Beylerbeyi simply got stronger.

Caprelo’s rider Tyler Heard had been instructed to sit in the pack and hold on to his mount. He told Hughie afterwards, “They seemed to be going so slow; I was worried they would get away from me”. Morrison pointed out yesterday morning that in fact this was the fastest race on the day compared with standard times on a day when the Dewhurst and two other Group races for two-year-olds were contested. I can further tell Hughie that this was the second-fastest Cesarewitch of this century!

So just when the Irish hordes, headed by Joseph’s Dawn Rising with a run timed to perfection it seemed by Oisin Murphy, and Willie’s Bunting (William Buick), whose transit was troubled, seemed to have it between them, along came Beylerbeyi.

Loughnane, on the outside of what promised to be a three- or even four-horse conclusion, utilised the speed that won Beylerbeyi so many races at around a mile and he was soon clear, going away from his field at the finish.

With such races as the Chester Cup and Ascot Stakes among Williams’ favourites and both on his palmarès, expect Beylerbeyi to be aimed at those and maybe more ambitious targets next year. One regret Williams might have is that he didn’t give the five-year-old a third jumps run. His mark might even have been lower than he’ll get after tomorrow’s re-think.

Loughnane has 106 wins in the portion of the year that decides the Jockeys’ Champion with Oisin Murphy way out in front on 140 and guaranteed to collect his prize on Saturday at Ascot. Over the whole year, Loughnane has a remarkable 167 victories. Still only 19, he is destined for many jockeys’ titles of his own.

One former champion, Ryan Moore, has had to sit out a good portion of the important autumn this year as the number one for Coolmore. In his stead Christophe Soumillon hasn’t been received with universal joy by some of the people around the team.

His success in France last weekend was enough to quell some of the criticism, but now back on UK soil and despite big wins on fast-improving and now 1,000 Guineas favourite Precise on Friday and unbeaten Pierre Bonnard, impressive in beating stablemate Endorsement in the 10-furlong Zetland Stakes the following day, the chatter continued.

One said, “He’s okay with steering jobs or in France, but I reckon he’s been beaten in seven photo-finishes on Coolmore horses since York.”

The 44-year-old’s riding of Gstaad in the Dewhurst Stakes, the race that probably would have had the Aidan O’Brien colt in pole position for the 2,000 Guineas next May had he won, also drew criticism.

While James Doyle on the Andrew Balding-trained 25/1 chance Gewan raced prominently throughout the seven furlongs, Soumillon allowed Gstaad to drift back into centre-pack in the middle of the race and had several positions looking for gaps before getting into second in the last furlong. He was beaten by three-parts of a length.

A contemplative and solitary Ryan surveyed the paddock before the race, and I would love a penny for his thoughts on how it panned out. It did make a £350,000 difference in the gap between the two protagonists for the trainers’ title. O’Brien still holds a £630k lead over Balding, but a round million would have felt more secure going into a mouth-watering British Champions Day at Ascot next Saturday.

At least, with the weather set fair, we should have unusually decent ground for this fixture when if Delacroix, on his final appearance, should win the Champion Stakes it will all be done and dusted.

- TS

A Dream To Share team successfully appeal handicap decision

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A Dream To Share will be given a handicap mark by the Irish handicapper after connections were successful in their appeal against the decision to not to allot a rating.

The seven-year-old, owned by JP McManus and trained by John and Thomas Kiely, won the Champion Bumper at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival but has had his attentions switched to the Flat of late.

He won one of three outings but Irish handicapper Gary O’Gorman declined to give him a mark, a decision that was reciprocated by his British Horseracing Authority counterpart.

Following an appeal hearing on Thursday, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has confirmed A Dream To Share will now be given an official rating.

A statement said: “Having considered the submissions and observations made by the appellants and the handicapper in this appeal, the Appeals Body has decided to allow the appeal of the appellants and remit the matter to the handicapper with a direction that he should allocate a handicap mark to the horse.

“The Appeals Body will provide its reasons for this decision in writing not later than Friday 12 September 2025.”

A Dream To Share had been prominent in the ante-post betting for next month’s Club Godolphin Cesarewitch Handicap, but the BHA confirmed last week that the gelding was ineligible as the conditions of the Newmarket race meant he needed a handicap mark before August 19, with the weights published on August 27.

Cesarewitch hope A Dream To Share ineligible for Newmarket contest

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A Dream To Share, the general second favourite Club Godolphin Cesarewitch, is not eligible to run in the race, the British Horseracing Authority has confirmed.

The seven-year-old, who is owned by JP McManus, won the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival and the Punchestown equivalent in 2023 but had his attentions switched to the Flat in the spring after two disappointing runs over hurdles in the winter.

A Dream To Share subsequently won one of three Flat outings for trainers John and Thomas Kiely but he has yet to be given a handicap mark, which makes him ineligible for the Cesarewitch on October 11 as the ratings for qualification were published on August 19.

A BHA spokesperson said: “An appeal was made by connections of A Dream To Share to the BHA’s handicapping ombudsman, David Cleary, which asked him to consider whether the BHA’s handicapper has been correct in refusing to give a British Flat mark to the horse, based on the information available to them.

“In a decision that will be published in full in due course, Mr Cleary found that the approach taken in this case, following the decision of the IHRB handicapper to decline to give the horse a mark, was consistent with the treatment afforded to any other Irish-trained and raced Flat horses. He therefore denied the appeal.

“Regarding the Cesarewitch, the conditions for the race confirm that the rating used for qualification is that published on August 19, prior to publication of the weights today.

“A Dream To Share, therefore, was not qualified and – in the interests of fairness to other competitors and those who have bet on the race – there is nothing within the race conditions that allows for a horse to be added at a later date.”

Cesarewitch next port of call for East India Dock

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East India Dock is being primed for one more outing on the Flat in the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch Handicap before attentions turn to making his mark in the staying division on his return to hurdles.

James Owen’s dual-purpose star was third in the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and wasted little time securing a valuable prize on the level when scooping the Chester Cup in May.

Having felt another prestigious event went begging when sixth in the Northumberland Plate, Owen has his eye on the historic Newmarket marathon on October 11 before switching focus back to timber, where he will have an exciting new target.

“East India Dock has had a small break and is now back in and we’ll aim at the Cesarewitch with him,” said Owen. “He’ll go straight there.

East India Dock ridden has excelled in both codes
East India Dock ridden has excelled in both codes (David Davies for The Jockey Club/PA)

“I feel we missed a chance in the Northumberland Plate and the ground may have been on the lively side for him at Ascot, but Newcastle was our chance.

“It was one of his best runs on figures, but annoyingly he didn’t get a great run round, he got caught wide and shuffled to the back of the field.

“A great big pot on home turf, when hopefully by then they will have had a bit of rain, we think will be ideal and then back over hurdles we will campaign him as a Stayers’ Hurdle horse – I’m sure he will stay well and he gives himself every chance to.”

While East India Dock has key business on the Flat to attend to before changing tack, Owen has already identified the hurdling starting point for stablemate and fellow dual-purpose performer Burdett Road.

Burdett Road will head to Newcastle when the jumps season begins
Burdett Road will head to Newcastle when the jumps season begins (Mike Egerton/PA)

Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle has been pencilled in as the first stop for the Champion Hurdle runner-up over timber, whose season once again will be geared around an appearance in the Cheltenham Festival’s opening day showpiece.

“Burdett Road’s having a nice break and we might give him one prep run on the Flat before going for the Fighting Fifth,” continued Owen.

“He’ll take the Champion Hurdle route again and will be running in all the big two-mile hurdle races en route to Cheltenham.

“He did very well last year and it will be very tough again, but he’s entitled to be in all those big races and hopefully he can be very competitive in them.”

Monday Musings: A Mishap for Martin

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It wasn’t Mullins, Willie or nephew Emmet; nor Gordon Elliott; neither O’Brien, Aidan or Joseph; nor even tricky old Charles Byrnes that was slipping away silently to collect the proceeds from a 33/1 winner of the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch at Newmarket on Saturday, writes Tony Stafford. No, it was that man Martin again.

Tony of that ilk is a mastermind at, in racecourse parlance, having it off. He did under his own name in the Chester Plate (Cup consolation) in May; lost his licence but still had the brass neck to stand grinning alongside his sister Cathy O’Leary – the trainer in name – after the same horse, Alphonse Le Grande, also picked up the Northumberland Plate consolation at Newcastle in June. Martin must have had more than a little influence in Saturday’s even more spectacular coup de grace on Dewhurst Stakes Day.

I would imagine those closest to the horse won a few bob – it’s difficult not to when the SP is 33/1 and presumably in a race that was at least ten short of the optimum figure - and no better for it - they must have got longer than that in the build-up.

It was almost with glee then that on the TV coverage after the photo-finish verdict was announced, Lydia Hislop and Nick Luck counted the whip strikes administered by apprentice rider Jamie Powell and came up with ten, the magic number which would normally be construed as the borderline for disqualification.

Nothing will be finalised until tomorrow when the whip offences committee reviews a case that seemed to satisfy the local stewards and young Powell himself, namely that he did indeed hit Alphonse Le Grande ten times.

The £99k first prize will be a significant loss to the owners, the appropriately named Bet Small Win Big syndicate, but their respective sibling trainers have done them proud collecting three very tough handicaps in the UK this year. Pretty rough justice for the rider, too!

The hapless jockey is no novice. Before this year he had amassed 59 wins in three seasons at home. In that context, only seven more from 171 rides in 2024 when an acceleration might have been expected along with experience, is quite an anomaly.

But nothing like the anomaly where riding for Saturday’s trainer, or indeed her brother when he still held the licence, is concerned. Cathy O’Leary has had an almost equal number of domestic runners on the flat and over jumps in the past period. Until September 5 when En Or won a two-mile handicap at Clonmel, she had not trained a single domestic winner and, until now, it’s En Or from 37 runs. Over jumps, it’s nought from 30, so one from 67 in all.

As to the possibility of a rider/trainer(s) connection, forget it. Young Powell, as I mentioned earlier, has had 171 rides in Ireland this year, yet none from either Mrs O’Leary or her brother. I wonder if the disqualification is confirmed tomorrow whether he’ll be asked to get up on another of their plots.

Plots they surely are. One report suggested Alphonse Le Grande had been down the field in his previous race in Ireland as though it was a rubbish run. His eighth of 30 in the Irish Cesarewitch, worth almost 500k to the winner, represented a very good performance. I just watched the replay, and he was almost the only runner staying on in a race won by Aidan O’Brien’s The Euphrates

In the last furlong and a half, he passed at least half a dozen high-class handicap stayers, many like him laid out to try to win the massive prize. Had there been another 100 yards to run, he would have been fifth.

Anyway, one win in 67 at home: yet two in five for Cathy in the UK. Her Zanndabad came over for the Queen Alexandra at Royal Ascot, started 9/2 favourite and finished sixth under William Buick. Belgroprince accompanied Alphonse Le Grande to Newcastle and finished seventh behind him.

Her final UK runner in that time is probably one to write down in your notebooks or trackers. The 47-rated Jackie Brown came to Hamilton in August and was unplaced in a low-grade handicap.

Since returning home, the filly has had three runs and started 25/1 each time. First it was 14th of 17; next 5th of 12; then last week at Navan she was beaten only half a length in an 18-runner handicap. Remember the name and watch out UK, Cathy might well be coming!

If the result is amended tomorrow, it will mean that never mind the 12-horse Irish assault, the UK will have ended two years of their domination in the race with a 1-2. The Crisfords’ Manxman won the race on the far side by half a length from Ian Williams’ Aqwaam, who looked all over the winner a furlong out. Strong-finishing Alphonse Le Grande nosed ahead on the near side of a race shaped into two halves by Ryan Moore’s guiding Queenstown across as they entered the ten-furlong straight.

Ryan and Aidan had earlier had the disappointment of the withdrawal of overnight odds-on shot The Lion In Winter from the Darley Dewhurst Stakes.

In his absence, once raced, and that only a week earlier, Expanded made a brave battle of it with Godolphin’s Ancient Truth up the stands rail while Shadow Of Light, the other Charlie Appleby runner, switched over from the far side group to get up late in a battle of heads.

All three colts will probably be aimed at a Guineas, though whether it will be in Newmarket, Longchamp or at the Curragh is anyone’s guess at this stage. It didn’t appear there was another City Of Troy in there this year, but you never know and it was a great effort for Shadow Of Light to come back so soon after his emphatic Middle Park Stakes win over Whistlejacket two weeks earlier.

Saturday’s racing for the big teams was almost a half-term break after the excesses of three days of Tattersalls October Yearling sale Book 1.

The board behind the auctioneers shows several currencies in addition to the UK guineas bidding, with Euro, US dollar and Yen to the fore. I am grateful to the Blood Horse for revealing that Newsells Park Stud, owned by Graham Smith-Bernal, grossed almost three times as much as any other vendor, his lots accruing more than $23 million. That’s 17.6 million guineas!

The median figure (the middle when all 400 are laid out from top to bottom was an astonishing 250,000 guineas and the average 340,000 guineas, both records, as was the total turnover of 128 million guineas. That figure beat the 2022 record when 120 more yearlings were catalogued.

Sixteen lots exceeded one million guineas, and two buyers dominated throughout. Amo Racing, in a concerted effort to break into the territory that Kia Joorabchian described as “the province of the home-breeders like Coolmore, Godolphin, Juddmonte and Shadwell”, paid a total of 20 million for 17 yearlings.

Godolphin might be prolific breeders these days, but Sheikh Mohammed and team were also very active, even exceeding Amo Racing’s tallies with 18 yearlings at just over 22 million guineas.

Smith-Bernal, happy for the international break so he could concentrate on his lovely yearlings rather than Tottenham Hotspur FC, sold the most expensive of the lot at 4.4 million for a filly by stallion of the week Frankel, naturally to Amo.

Lots of love, as the ancient Romans and Latin scholars might have said, going around at Tattersalls. And plenty of Amo too!

- TS

Monday Musings: Still Not Sleepy

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They raced for a lot of money in Ireland yesterday, the Friends of Curragh Irish Cesarewitch carrying a £292k first prize, for which 30 horses turned up, writes Tony Stafford. You would have won a lot of money, too, if you had found the Joseph O’Brien-trained winner, the potential heir to the Ballydoyle job one might suggest, sending out 150/1 shot Magellan Strait for a victory which prompted a quiz from the stewards.

The magical Joseph might well have been a little more confident of his shortest-priced horse of four, third home Dawn Rising, who had won Ascot’s Queen Alexandra Stakes as the 2/1 favourite under Ryan Moore at Royal Ascot back in June.

The two O’Brien stayers were split by another veteran of big-race success in the UK, Dermot Weld’s Falcon Eight, successful in the 2021 Chester Cup under Frankie Dettori.

The winner and second do not have the much less well-endowed but still probably more prestigious Newmarket version in three weekends time on their agenda, but 13 from yesterday’s race do, and I’ve managed to find another 11 from various races over the past couple of days even including an unplaced runner in the Preis von Europa in Cologne, Germany, yesterday.

That was the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Live Your Dream, who is very high up in the weights. This 14 was bolstered by Saturday’s Turners Cesarewitch Trial at Newmarket, won nicely by Andrew Balding’s Grand Providence, clearly enjoying the extended trip. Eight of the nine that followed him over the line have the big-race entry.

Ryan Moore, amazingly, was back after riding in Sydney the day before, but his mount, Aidan’s Tower Of London, understandably favourite after his creditable fourth behind stablemate Continuous in the St Leger only eight days earlier at Doncaster, could not make his lenient mark tell.

In all, Willie Mullins had six runners in the big race. The ease with which Ireland’s champion jumps trainer knocks off our big flat long-distance races, matched only really by his main Cheltenham protagonist Nicky Henderson, is well chronicled, but here he was well and truly on the back foot.

Of course, all his sextet, plus one in a consolation race for those missing out on the big one, have Newmarket entries, where he will be aiming to add to his hat-trick from 2018-20. One of those, Stratum, was in the field but Brighton and Hove Albion FC’s chairman Tony Bloom was probably far too engaged watching his team beat Bournemouth (boo! – Ed.) than to take more than a passing notice of his veteran’s 25th place.

Expect an upgrade if he turns up at HQ, and the same probably goes for Jackfinbar (8th), Lot Of Joy (11th), Echoes In Rain (13th), Mt Leinster (22nd) and M C Muldoon (27th after making the running for David Manasseh and partners).

Echoes in Rain had finished second in the inaugural big-money Irish Ces last year, behind the then Aidan -trained Mr Waterville, who is now with Chris Waller in Australia. Ryan rode him into fourth place at Rosehill on Saturday and no doubt he has the Melbourne Cup as his main objective as had Tower Of London. Maybe the latter raid may be under review.

But the one trial that caught most of us out – yet it shouldn’t have if we had examined the very extensive history of his career – was the all-the-way gutsy win of 11-year-old Not So Sleepy in a quite valuable (by UK standards) 1m5½f handicap at Newbury.

Since making a winning debut over a mile as a juvenile at Nottingham almost nine years ago, the home-bred Not So Sleepy has now won ten races for Hughie Morrison, five each on the flat and over jumps. Not So Sleepy has raced 63 times (46 on the flat) with six second and five third places along with ten fourth’s, including in the Cesarewitch’s of 2019 and 2020. Under both codes he has won around a quarter of a million and nudged over a combined £500k on Saturday.

When he won his third-ever race in the Group 3 Dee Stakes his rating jumped up to 107 after that Derby trial. It has never dropped below 94 despite two long losing sequences – 13 in succession after Chester over the next 18 months, then another 15 following his Epsom Derby Day handicap win as a five-year-old.

Running well enough with places in tough races not to get much respite from the BHA officials, Not So Sleepy got a late and in many circles highly questionable switch to hurdling as a seven-year-old. The cynics were preening themselves after he was far too free on debut at Kempton, but he then bolted up at Wincanton which earned a 125 rating. One more pulled up run ended that mixed campaign.

So now it was back to the flat, for another six winless runs, but a portent of what might be in the future was a fourth in his first try at the Cesarewitch behind Stratum. Now it was back to hurdling, winning two Ascot handicaps by making all in devastating fashion, his mark already up to 144 by the time he turned out for the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury the following February.

That year, the big field produced two false starts and after being in a great position to jump first time round, Not So Sleepy found himself hampered at the eventual departure and the then eight-year-old was never in contention. Hughie and his owners Lord and Lady Blyth still had the ambition to run in the Champion Hurdle, but he was pulled up.

A break followed until the autumn, when under Graham Lee he won a Pontefract handicap off that career lowest 94 before his fourth place to Mullins’ Great White Shark at Newmarket in Cesarewitch number two. He then resumed over hurdles, jinking and unseating at the first flight in the 2020 Fighting Fifth won by Epatante, before gaining a second win in the Betfair Exchange Hurdle at Ascot.

This gave Morrison great satisfaction as he beat a former stable-companion, Buzz, whom the owners had moved to Henderson after Morrison had successfully managed physical issues in his early days on the flat.

He then ran a much improved race, fifth in Honeysuckle’s first Champion Hurdle, before taking in the Chester Cup, finishing a close seventh. He still got his lengthy summer break, but instead of a third run at Newmarket, a close second in a Doncaster handicap was the prelude to a dead-heat with Epatante in the 20201 Fighting Fifth before a fifth place behind the same J P McManus mare in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and the same position, a little closer than the previous year, behind Honeysuckle in her repeat championship.

He continued with two relatively disappointing runs in summer 2022 but was back in top form with a third after taking up the running a mile out in last year’s Cesarewitch.

Three hurdles runs, two behind the new star Constitution Hill, including once more in his fourth Champion Hurdle, preceded the usual summer break. And you can guess the rest.

He returned at Newbury on Saturday, his trainer joking before the race, having heard the news that Constitution Hill was to continue hurdling, with a wry: “Whatever happens today, I can categorically state that Not So Sleepy will NOT be going chasing this winter.”

So next month, he will be trying to match another of his rival Henderson’s achievements. Nicky won the 2008 Cesarewitch with the 11-year-old Caracciola who proceeded to win the Queen Alexandra at age 12. Morrison has a Group 1 win on his record with 10-year-old Alcazar, but if Not So Sleepy does the deed at the fourth time of asking, that would be a bigger achievement to my mind.

Both the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire began life in 1839 and they are two of my favourite races. I was hoping to write a piece today outlining why I thought Dylan Cunha’s Silver Sword was a good thing to win the race next Saturday, but the trainer is unwilling to run him back so soon after his eye-catching run last week in Listed company at Sandown. He prefers to wait for a race he has in mind at Santa Anita in November. If only!

In his absence, I would love to see William Knight make up for last year’s unlucky defeat of Dual Identity, who won most impressively recently at Sandown. All we can hope is that Knight, who has had no luck this year, might have it turn his way this weekend for a change.

- TS

Monday Musings: Newmarket Rejuvenation

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I had intended writing copiously 24 hours after my first wholly enjoyable, nay rejuvenating, visit to Newmarket racecourse for two years about a brief conversation of which I was the sole observer, writes Tony Stafford. The conversants were those two genial giants of our sport, Charlie Appleby and Aidan O’Brien, but I will leave that until later.

It was in the evening during a catch-up scan through the Saturday results that I noted the 7.30 p.m. race at Chelmsford was called the Tote.co.uk Now Never Beaten By SP Handicap (Division 1).

I’ve noticed that race title before, marvelling that the object of so much ridicule and indeed suspicion in its Betfred-owned days between 2011 and 2019 had been apparently transformed upon its acquisition and operation by the group formerly known as Alizeti Capital but now UK Tote Group.

Their intention, I remembered reading, was exactly that - to ensure the Tote returns were never to be bettered by SP and to help grow its new version to be of financial benefit to the sport.

In its rubric, Tote Group UK says it is “now owned by a group of racehorse owners and breeders who are passionate about the sport, backed by people who own and train over 1,000 horses worldwide.

“We’re united by a shared desire to secure British racing’s finances for generations to come through a revitalised Tote”. Glowing contributions in that notice in support of UK Tote Group have come from Sir Anthony McCoy, John Gosden, Richard Thompson of Cheveley Park Stud, and the Racehorse Owners Association.

I scrutinised all 36 races run in the UK on Saturday and in 24 of them, including the 7.30 at Chelmsford, SP was better than the returned Tote price about the winner. Course and betting shop punters would not have benefited, but I am reassured that online Tote odds backers will have been, according to the publicity (admittedly confusing) blurb to the tune of a maximum £500 per bet. [The race title referred to tote.co.uk, the online arm of the tote]

The three regular backers I know whom I thought might have been able to confirm this as correct all were unable to do so as they all three to coin a theme “had my account with the Tote closed years ago.” They all habitually try to get a few hundred quid on a horse. One big firm, asked for £500 each way on a horse the other day, offered to take £2.80 each way. Still theirs is a happy slogan and I wish anything that might correct the joke level of prize money in the lower reaches of the sport, a potential blessing. But as my three friends I’m sure would say: “Don’t hold your breath.”

I mentioned Charlie and Aidan’s very amicable chat earlier at Newmarket soon after the Darley Dewhurst Stakes victory of unbeaten Native Trail and the Irishman was glowing in his congratulations to his younger English counterpart.

Three wins on the day had already pushed Appleby past Andrew Balding at the top of the trainers’ championship standings for the first time and Aidan admired both Native Trail and the less exposed Coroebus, easy winner of the Group 2 Autumn Stakes.

Where Native Trail was a breeze-up buy for 210,000gns in the spring, able to make his debut in early July and now was making it a perfect four-for-four, there is no Godolphin blood in him, being by Oasis Dream out of an Observatory mare – Juddmonte all the way.

Coroebus meanwhile is Godolphin through and through: by Dubawi, their version of Coolmore’s great stallion Galileo, out of a mare by Galileo’s first superstar, the unbeaten Teofilo.

O’Brien remarked on both colts’ physicality, to which Appleby replied: “Coroebus is 540 kilos and Native Trail is 545, and that’s as heavy as Adayar who you know is a monster!”  Formidable for two-year-olds you would agree!

The wins brought Appleby some elbow room at the top of the table and with a dearth of major and valuable races to come save next Saturday’s Qatar Champions Day at Ascot and the Vertem Futurity (just over £100k)  at Doncaster the following weekend, opportunities are somewhat polarised.

Aidan told me he plans to run his top juvenile Luxembourg in the Vertem Futurity and expects that outstanding Camolot colt to go first in 2022 for the 2000 Guineas where he will almost certainly encounter Native Trail and Coroebus.

While Appleby has been inching his way up to and past Balding, who has had a season that must have surprised him with more than £4 million already in the satchel, he will be aware that John and Thady Gosden, who started slowly this year, are still in there pitching.

Balding has ten entries for Ascot, but only a couple, both 8-1 shots – Invite in the Fillies and Mares race, and Alcohol Free in the QE II – have better than outside chances. Appleby’s hopes from six entries centre, should he run, on Derby winner Adayar, about whom 3-1 is probably a little tight after his Arc exertions.

But the Gosden ten, with six in the closing Balmoral Handicap - Gosden senior dearly wants to win that race – include four serious darts at the biggest prizes of the day.

Mishriff, saved from the Arc in favour of the Champion Stakes, is 6-4 favourite for the £680k Champion. Palace Pier vies for favouritism with improving Baeed in the £623,000 to the winner QE II. Additionally, Free Wind is 7-2 for the £283,000 Fillies and Mares, and Stradivarius, should he renew hostilities with Trueshan, is second favourite behind that horse in the similarly-endowed Stayers’ race.

The Gosdens lurk around £500,000 behind Appleby and, unless such as Snowfall and maybe something else can edge out Mishriff, or The Revenant, back with a near miss at Longchamp, could possibly again unseat Palace Pier with Baeed’s help. Otherwise it seems a dominant position for a hat-trick for Clarehaven. It looks theirs to lose.

While that stealthy challenge in the trainers’ race has suddenly crystallised, the jockeys’ battle between incumbent Oisin Murphy and his nearest challenger William Buick has been a constant side-show most of this year.

It’s easy to portray this tussle as between Mr Naughty and Mr Squeaky Clean and certainly Oisin Murphy’s second failed breath test, which for the moment merely cost him one day’s riding at Newmarket on Friday, has done nothing for his reputation.

The jockey stressed that the alcohol reading while exceeding the permitted limit for being allowed to ride a racehorse was below that excluding him from driving a car. Great! Only slightly pissed then!

He dominated talk at Newmarket on Saturday, most people saying that for a repeat offence the case should get a proper investigation and the inside story at Newmarket on Saturday was that an inquiry will be held at the BHA today.

A one-day slap on the wrist, if that is all that happens for the offence, seems inappropriate to me. Suppose he hadn’t been tested, thus was free to ride on Friday and had caused danger to other jockeys and their horses. That puts the six-month ban (now ended) for promising apprentice Benoit de la Sayette when he was found in breach of the drug rules back in the spring in some context.

In the end, of course, Murphy was free to ride Buzz in the Cesarewitch and he gave the one-time Hughie Morrison horse a peach of a ride, one befitting of a champion, to make it a third win in the race for Nicky Henderson.

Buzz came to deny Burning Victory and William Buick in the dying strides, maintaining his margin over his rival to eight, when had the result been turned around it would have been only six. Charlie isn’t giving up on his jockey though and plans to run plenty of talented maidens between now and D Day on Saturday. Burning Victory of course was only Mullins’ second string but it would have been a nice result for readers of this column who may have noticed my frequent mentions of the mare in recent weeks.

So we had a seven-year-old winner who hadn’t raced on the Flat for two years beating a mare who had never previously run in a Flat race either in England or Ireland outclassing 30 other stayers. Burning Victory’s defeat and the no show of favourite M C Muldoon stopped a Willie Mullins four-timer in this contest.

Why are jumps trainers so good at winning on the Flat? We’ve known about these two for decades, but another younger member of their profession, an Irishman based in Gloucestershire, is showing similar tendencies.

Until 16-year-old daughter Fern attained that age in the summer, her father Fergal O’Brien was so disinterested in Flat racing that he had only winner from 50 runners in sporadic seasons from 2013 to 2019.

Fern, mentored by Fergal’s assistant and partner Sally Randell, a former star military race rider, won at the first time of asking a couple of days after her birthday and now stands on four wins from eight rides for her father as a lady amateur. His other 16 runners have yielded another four victories, including smart hurdler Gumball making all in a decent staying handicap at York on Saturday and Polish getting home first in a jump jockeys’ Flat race at Goodwood yesterday.

That makes it eight from 24 and a strike rate of 33%, a figure the Gosdens, Balding, William Haggas and the rest would kill for. And none of them has 55 jump winners since the end of April either!

  • TS