Tag Archive for: Cesarewitch

The Shunter realises long-term plan with Cesarewitch strike

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The Shunter repelled all challengers to fulfil a long-term plan in the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch at Newmarket.

Trained by Emmet Mullins, the 10-year-old is more famed for his exploits over obstacles, having won at the Cheltenham Festival and been placed at Grade One level in novice chase company.

Back on the level though, The Shunter teamed up with James Doyle in the two-and-a-quarter-mile contest which offered over £103,000 to the winner.

Doyle rode The Shunter (14-1) with restraint in the early exchanges, making stealthy headway before pushing to the front two furlongs out.

The Shunter (centre) was too strong in the Cesarewitch
The Shunter (centre) was too strong in the Cesarewitch (Nigel French/PA)

Top weight Tashkhan had been prominent throughout but he was eager for a battle, pushing The Shunter all the way through the closing stages while Pied Piper, another National Hunt runner moving back to the Flat, made a late grab for glory inside the distance.

However, The Shunter dug deep to prevail by three-quarters of length from Pied Piper, with Tashkhan (25-1) a further head back in third and 100-1 shot Bashful Boy grabbing fourth.

Mullins admitted this race had been the plan for almost a year, with future plans yet to be decided.

He said: “It was a brilliant performance from horse and rider. I’d say James didn’t know what to make of the instructions going out as I said the horse has probably got more ignorance than ability, but he’ll keep pulling it out and keep fighting.

“It’s a bit surreal it’s come off. This race has probably been on the radar since he finished fourth in the November Handicap in Naas last year. We always thought there could be a big pot in him on the Flat and patience has paid off.

“He’s been in great order at home and he’s very tough, which he has shown down through the years.

“All options are open again. He was entered in last year’s Grand National and we scratched him at the 11th hour, but everything is an option.”

High-class hurdler Pied Piper firmly on Cesarewitch trail

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Ante-post Club Godolphin Cesarewitch favourite Pied Piper is on course for Newmarket on October 14.

Gordon Elliott’s dual-purpose performer had a spin on the Flat at Killarney in August, where he looked the likely winner only to fade into third close home.

A classy hurdler who was second in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, connections are hoping there is still some wriggle room from his Flat mark earned during his days with John and Thady Gosden.

“He’s in good nick and he’s on course to run in the big race later this month,” said Joey Logan, racing manager for owners Caldwell Construction.

Pied Piper (far side) was just touched off in the County Hurdle
Pied Piper (far side) was just touched off in the County Hurdle (Mike Egerton/PA)

“Killarney was his first run back, Gordon wanted to give him a run and he ran great, he just blew up and hopefully he’ll improve a lot from it.

“There seems to be a lot of jumpers, mainly dual-purpose horses, in there this year and I think the ground will suit him.

“The big thing this year is that he’s had a break. When we bought him the year before we just kept him going, he ran at Cheltenham, Aintree and then Royal Ascot – we did an awful lot with him.

“We decided to give him a good break this year through the summer and hopefully he’ll have got stronger and will be a fresher horse.”

Logan went on: “He’s not massively exposed on the Flat and his run at Royal Ascot was very good when you look back. He had traffic problems and wasn’t beaten all that far by Coltrane who is one of the best stayers around.

“We’d be hoping he should have a very nice run there before he goes back jumping.

“We’ll leave the jockey to Gordon, but he won’t be short of offers I wouldn’t have thought. He’s in good form and we’re really looking forward to it.”

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

Goodwood winner Temporize being pointed towards Cesarewitch goal

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A trip to Newmarket for the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch could be on the cards for Temporize following his victory at the Qatar Goodwood Festival.

A rare runner on the level for handler Syd Hosie, the four-year-old has made his mark on the level for the Sherborne-based handler since joining the yard from Charlie Johnston earlier in the season.

A respectable display at Newbury on debut was followed by a near-miss in a competitive heat at Ascot before finding the target on the Sussex Downs and having originally been bought to go hurdling, plans to tackle timber could now be on hold with further big-race Flat assignments under consideration.

They include the £200,000 Cesarewitch on October 14 and now rated 89, there is the possibility that Temporize could head straight to the Rowley Mile.

“I still have to make a firm plan with the owners, but I think they would like to run in the Cesarewitch,” said Hosie.

“There is a race at York, but I said to the owners if you run him and they put him up in the handicap you are taking a bigger weight to the race. So he might go to the trial in September time or go straight there.

“We bought him to go hurdling and thought we would run him a few times on the Flat because the owner wanted to go to Goodwood. I said if he runs any good at Ascot, we can go there and obviously he just got beat at Ascot. He did the business at Goodwood and then all the hurdling plans go out the window for a bit.

Luke Morris gives Temporize a pat after victory at Goodwood
Luke Morris gives Temporize a pat after victory at Goodwood (Molly Hunter/PA)

“When we got him he had finished second at Doncaster and he gave the winner so much weight and was still there fighting at the end of the race. That was one of the reasons we bought him.

“His three-year-old form is good as well and he goes on any ground which is nice. Hopefully he will still go jumping at some point in the autumn.”

Hugely popular Buzz heads for long and happy retirement

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Cesearwitch and Ascot Hurdle winner Buzz has been retired by Nicky Henderson and owners Thurloe Thoroughbreds.

The popular grey captured the public’s imagination with a string of tough staying performances on the Flat and over hurdles for the Seven Barrows yard.

As a seven-year-old in October 2021 he captured the Cesarewitch under Oisin Murphy and the following month took the Grade Two Ascot Hurdle in the hands of Nico de Boinville.

However, he suffered a fractured pelvis on the eve of the Long Walk Hurdle and while he subsequently recovered to make a comeback after 508 days off in the Further Flight Stakes at Nottingham earlier this month, he finished last of five to Rajinsky.

In a statement, Thurloe Thoroughbreds said: “Our Cesarewitch and Ascot Hurdle star Buzz, who recovered so remarkably from a pelvis fracture last year, has been retired.

“It was a massive achievement getting Buzz back on the racecourse last week after a year and a half off. He was eased down after getting tired in heavy ground and although he was fine after the run he was lame and sore after the next day.

“It was a muscular lameness which flared up as a result of reusing muscles he hasn’t used for such a long time.

“We have discussed with Buzz’s vet Dave Matheson and have agreed that persevering with Buzz in training would be very tough on him as even though he is fit, well and enjoying his training, he does put so much into his work and his racing that he may always be a bit lame and sore afterwards.

“Therefore we have made the bittersweet decision to retire Buzz from racing.

“Buzz brought Thurloe on the most unbelievable journey from day one, throwing his all into every race he competed in.

Buzz and Nico de Boinville (left) took the Ascot Hurdle
Buzz and Nico de Boinville (left) took the Ascot Hurdle (Nigel French/PA)

“It was always going to be a huge achievement to get him back onto the track and we are so grateful for all of those who have been part of the process from Nicky Henderson and everyone at Seven Barrows, Dave Matheson, Charlie and Tracy Vigors at Hillwood Stud, Greta Mason and Matt Buckland and, of course, Reggie Pallas who has been devoted to him as his work rider and loyal partner from day one.

“Buzz’s character has made him a horse to follow but the fact that he has contributed to raising upwards of £150,000 for our charity endeavours, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, has made it even more special.

“We are delighted that Buzz will retire with a happy and long life ahead of him with Reggie, who will be able to have him himself.

“He will have a summer off now and hopefully there will be plenty of wonderful adventures for him and Reggie to discover in their next chapter together. He has been a joy for us in every way to own and we are so happy he can have a long and healthy retirement.

“Thank you for the memories Buzz, you are, and always will be, a horse of a lifetime.”

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