Tag Archive for: Kentucky Derby

Monday Musings: Of Bubbles Burst

When they get beat, the Coolmore Classic hotpots, especially in the 2000 Guineas, they make a proper job of it, writes Tony Stafford. Auguste Rodin’s capitulation a year ago, preceding as it did two Derby victories, had a variety of explanations to soften the apparent finality of it. City Of Troy’s tame drift away from the action from a long way out, may be less easy to explain.

I wasn’t the only one with egg on my face, having championed his two runs on the same piece of Suffolk real estate, albeit a few furlongs apart, last year. The Superlative Stakes win from Haatem was, well, superlative. His Dewhurst romp was a tour de force, leading all the way then sprinting up the last furlong with Haatem again well behind.

So how could Haatem turn that around so emphatically, third behind only previously unbeaten Godolphin horse Notable Speech and his own stable-companion, second favourite Rosallion? Just over three lengths behind Charlie Appleby’s second and William Buick’s first 2000 winner, he was now 13 lengths in front of the odds-on favourite, who trailed in ninth of eleven.

Aidan O’Brien professed himself shocked and so would most of the massive crowd, one which gridlocked the always slow-motion Newmarket High Street for hours before the 1.10 p.m. meeting start. Talk might have been of records but there were a few there when Nijinsky started his Triple Crown journey more than 50 years ago, too, and not quite as many cars either!

The filming media behaved as if they were there to attend a Royal family meltdown or a PM taking his leave in front of Number Ten. Apparently unflappable as he was being saddled, there was a paparazzi feel as the lenses pointed his way right in his eyeline as the final touches were being completed. Agitated Newmarket staff shooed away many of the regular Coolmore supporters across to the other side of the horse path, but the cameras were allowed to stand their ground.

Considering this was a race with several previously unbeaten opponents, including the winner – three for three at Kempton, so making his turf debut – his price was either dangerously short (as it proved) or even a little generous, given the expectations.

If anyone can bring a horse back from such an unexpected reverse, Aidan O’Brien is the man and he has before, but talk of another Frankel now looks fanciful.

It’s four weeks to the Derby and we were all talking in the paddock beforehand that his pedigree is more that of a Derby horse than a Guineas type. We’ll have to see. He’s 8/1 now. Last year after a similar reverse, Auguste Rodin was only 3/1 and we know what happened at Epsom with him!

The Coolmore boys stayed up late on Saturday night to watch the Kentucky Derby in which they had two interests, a 100% involvement in second-favourite Sierra Leone and 75% of the Todd Pletcher-trained Fierceness. Todd’s runner faded away after a prominent start but the Chad Brown trainee Sierra Leone must be rated a very unlucky loser.

Held up on the rail around a dozen lengths behind the pace set by Track Phantom until making a move at the end of the back straight, jockey Tyler Gaffalione found himself in a tight position around the turn and was forced to go very wide.

Meanwhile Mystik Dan under Brian Hernandez made a run for home on the rail while Sierra Leone began his wide, late and rather erratic surge in company with the Japanese-trained Forever Young on his inside.

By the time they reached the post, the camera showed there were pixels between the trio and a verdict of nose, nose in favour of Mystik Dan, trained in Lexington by Kenny McPeek, gained the verdict. That nose makes a massive difference: initially £1.7 million between the two top prizes but also his potential as a stallion when he departs racing, presumably to Coolmore’s US branch, Ashford Stud in Lexington. Ashford is home of the only two Triple Crown winners of the last half century, American Pharoah and City of Troy’s sire Justify. They expected two more – one here and one over there.

It truly was the Maktoum family’s weekend, for after the success of Sheikh Mohammed’s Notable Speech on Saturday, Ahmed Al Maktoum, his younger brother won the 1000 Guineas with 28/1 outsider Elmalka, trained by Roger Varian and ridden by Silvestre De Sousa.

In a wide open market, in contrast to the one-eyed appearance of Saturday’s Classic, the fillies’ equivalent offered the prospect of a quintet of potential winners as they came to the last furlong. Until just before the line, two young overseas trainers were entitled to believe their fillies would win.

Ramatuelle (Christopher Head, France) looked sure to hold on but she was challenged late, initially by Porta Fortuna, Donnacha O’Brien/Tom Marquand, but only too briefly as Elmalka finished fastest of all having trailed the field early in the 16-runner contest.

Two others merit a mention. Fourth under a typical, but in this case just too late, Jamie Spencer ride was the David Menuisier filly Tamfana, while Ylang Ylang kept on well for fifth under Ryan Moore, the Aidan O’Brien inmate not getting the clearest of runs. She’ll be set for running over further, maybe in the Musidora next time at York – just guessing on that one.

Elmalka, a daughter of Kingman, was third previously in the Fred Darling Stakes (or whatever appellation it now goes by) at Newbury, where she had rallied to finish close up behind Folgario and Regal Jubilee. The Fred Darling runner-up also started at 28/1 yesterday but finished well down the field for the Gosdens. No doubt Marco Botti, trainer of Folgario, must have wondered why she wasn’t in the line-up.

Unbeaten in five starts as a juvenile initially in Italy (four wins) and then one in France, trained by Marco’s relative Stefano, she has the Coronation Stakes as her sole entry at this stage. Six races unbeaten will make her an interesting wildcard into that always-significant Royal Ascot midsummer Group 1.

I must thank the Editor for drawing my attention to, and therefore helping me follow, this tortuous link. Back in 2007 the most impressive winner of the Coronation Stakes, and a filly that never raced again, was Indian Ink. Trained by Richard Hannon senior, ridden by Richard Hughes, and in the colours of Raymond Tooth – she won by six lengths slaughtering such as Finsceal Beo, and the rest.

Yesterday, in the colours of Clipper Logistics in the 40k newcomers’ race for 2yo fillies, her daughter River Seine (by Soldier’s Call) ran a highly promising second for Karl Burke to Godolphin’s Mountain Breeze, Buick’s pick of three for Charlie even if she sported the nominally third-choice red cap. River Seine could well make a visit to the scene of her mother’s finest hour, but she will have to find a fair bit to turn yesterday’s form around. Karl Burke will give it a go, no doubt.

Of all the performances over the two days at Newmarket, I have to point to Hughie Morrison’s Ben and Sir Martyn Arbib homebred Stay Alert, who ran away with the 1m1f Dahlia Stakes, tracking the Gosdens’ 6/4 favourite Running Lion into the dip and then drawing away with the rest trailing behind.

Hughie Morrison kept her to high-class opposition last year when her best performance had been a two-length second to Via Sistina in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh. Most observers thought she was an unlucky loser that day and the subsequent exploits of the winner which precipitated a sale for 2.7 million guineas at last year’s December sale made her the one to beat yesterday.

Via Sistina was bought by Australian interests and has already won and been second, the latter in the Queen Elizabeth Cup at Randwick in Sydney last month. Her debut win at £310k was worth more than either Guineas race and her second place of £454,000 in the QE Cup was only 130 grand short of the combined total of our first two Classics.

If she had won, the prize would have been £1,577,000. No wonder my good friend and one of the most experienced observers of the racing scene here and overseas for many years says, “We’re a laughing stock! Just get rid of off-course bookmakers – they won’t let anyone have a proper bet anyway – and our racing, which is the best in the world, will take off.” 

* Just a note. While talking of bookmakers who won’t take a proper bet, I’ve just received a copy of well-known former Rails bookmaker Stephen Little’s entertaining autobiography. He was someone who did take a bet as “From Bicycle to Bentley” reveals.

The foreword is by his long-time friend Sir Mark Prescott and it’s published by Pen and Sword Books in Barnsley S70 2AS. My pal Sir Rupert Mackeson has been instrumental in getting Pen and Sword to fill what had become an alarming gap in the production of books with a horse racing theme. Well done, Rupert. As much of it overlaps my time in racing, for me it’s a great reminder of those wonderful days.

  - TS



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Mystik Dan clings on for victory in Kentucky Derby thriller

Mystik Dan just held on by a nose in a three-way photo-finish to claim Kentucky Derby glory for trainer Kenny McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.

Sierra Leone came home strongly but couldn’t quite give his Coolmore owners compensation for City Of Troy’s disappointing display in the 2000 Guineas, while Japanese raider Forever Young was another nose back in third.

The 150th ‘Run for the Roses’ took place on a 10-furlong dirt track described as running fast after a glorious day in Louisville had dried up Friday night’s rain.

A crowd of 156,710 packed into Churchill Downs let out an almighty roar, as Track Phantom took an early lead, flanked by Just Steel and the favourite Fierceness.

That trio held sway until the turn for home, when Mystik Dan burst through on the inside rail and quickly stormed into a three-length lead.

Sierra Leone and Forever Young fought hard to claw back the deficit and were closing in on the leader with every stride, but the finishing line came just in time for Mystik Dan.

It completed a memorable double for the successful trainer and jockey, who had won the Kentucky Oaks with Thorpedo Anna 24 hours earlier, and McPeek told NBC Sports: “Brian just did an amazing job – just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant jockey and ride.

“The draw (stall three) helped us from the beginning but Brian is amazing, probably one of the most underrated riders in racing, but not anymore, right!”

Hernandez admitted the long wait for the result to be confirmed was agonising, stating: “This is just unbelievable, that was the longest few minutes I’ve ever felt in my life, waiting for them to put that number up.

“It was exciting when we hit the front but I wasn’t sure we had won, so it was quite a rush to stay there and wait for it.

CORRECTION Kentucky Derby Horse Racing
Brian Hernandez Jr riding Mystik Dan (right) to win the Kentucky Derby (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

“This is a lifetime achievement. This goes to our whole family, we’ve all worked all our lives for this and it’s hard to describe what kind of feeling this is.

“I always told myself I was never going to step into the Derby winner’s circle until I can do it on the back of a horse, so to be able to live that dream from when I was a six-year-old kid on my grandparents’ farm, telling them all I was going to the Kentucky Derby one day – and here we are.

“It surely makes the last 20 years of getting up at five in the morning and finding horses to ride and finding people to give us opportunities all come to fruition on days like yesterday and today.

“It’s hard to put into words and it’s probably going to take about a week to sink in before we say hey, we won the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks in the same year.”

Trainer Chad Brown said of runner-up Sierra Leone: “To get beaten a nose in the Kentucky Derby, it’s a tough one, but that’s professional sports and at this level you’re going to win some and lose some, and often times it’s going to come down to a matter of inches.

Kentucky Derby Horse Racing
Connections of Mystik Dan celebrate in the winner’s circle (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

“He’s a tremendous horse, he’s nearly undefeated and hasn’t lost by much in both of his defeats and I’m just so lucky to have him and so proud of his effort today.

“He did everything we asked him to do and it came up just a little bit short, but hats off to the winner, and Ken McPeek having the Derby and Oaks winners, to him and his team, they really did a fabulous job.

“The Derby gods can be cruel sometimes, making you wait, and some trainers never have one, so if I’m lucky enough to be back in the same position, I’ll be grateful for that.”

Ben Curtis, champion apprentice in Ireland back in 2010, finished eighth on Honor Marie, while Frankie Dettori was 16th of the 20 runners on Society Man.



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Ben Curtis living the dream with Honor Marie in Kentucky Derby

Back in October when Ben Curtis decided to ride in America for the winter he would not have dared to dream how well the future would pan out. And he certainly might not have thought he would be riding in the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby.

So well have things gone for the former all-weather champion jockey that in March he announced he was going to stay Stateside and his continued good form has seen him selected to ride live outsider Honor Marie for Whit Beckman in the ‘Run for the Roses’.

A lot was made of Frankie Dettori’s search for a mount in the Churchill Downs spectacular, and while he eventually picked up the ride on Society Man, the betting suggests Curtis has the better chance.

“It’s going good. Once we get past the Derby and back up to Delaware we can get a bit of normality back and get back to riding four or five days a week and hopefully start banging in winners again,” said Curtis, who was champion apprentice in Ireland back in 2010.

Kentucky Derby hopeful Honor Marie works out at Churchill Downs
Kentucky Derby hopeful Honor Marie works out at Churchill Downs (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

“Some jockeys will have different agents for different tracks, but I’m lucky that since I got here I’ve been with Ron Faucheux. He was leading trainer at the Fair Grounds for four years and packed it in about a year and a half ago when he was at the top of the game, he just wanted to enjoy life a bit more.

“He’s going to come with me to Delaware and we’re going to ride the mid-Atlantic circuit and then there’s a meeting at Colonial in the middle of that which is mainly turf-based with good money so we’ll base ourselves there for that. Then we’ll head back to Delaware and ride at Monmouth, too.

“Ron worked for Todd Pletcher for years before training himself and grew up alongside the younger trainers now coming through, like Whit who trains Honor Marie, like Rob Falcone, who is making a name for himself in New York. And with the contacts he got from training, he’s been a big leg up for me.”

As well as Dettori there are two other familiar faces riding in the Derby whom Curtis is well acquainted with in Antonio Fresu on Stronghold and Adam Beschizza on Epic Ride.

Epic Ride, the mount of former UK-based jockey Adam Beschizza, on the track at Churchill Downs
Epic Ride, the mount of former UK-based jockey Adam Beschizza, on the track at Churchill Downs (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

“Myself and Adam, when we were apprentices, went over to Italy to do a jockey challenge together, Frankie spent a lot of time with Adam in the UK and I spent a lot of time with Antonio in Dubai, so there are a lot of familiar faces there. I know a lot of the US jockeys from when they came to Ascot or from when I came over here many moons ago. I think I’ve slotted in pretty nicely,” said Curtis.

Of Honor Marie, Curtis feels he is coming to a peak at just the right time.

He said: “He’s a horse who is going the right way, it was a big step forward in the Louisiana Derby to finish second but we all feel he’s very much at home at Churchill, he seems to come alive.

“He looks fantastic, his skin is absolutely shining. On a normal morning he’s not like the rest, dragging you around, he’s very relaxed and takes it all in, looking at the press – he just seems to enjoy it.

“He’s also one of the later foals as he doesn’t turn three until May 4, ironically the day of the Derby, so we feel he’s just coming to his peak, he’s on a nice trajectory.

“Obviously it’s very competitive but we couldn’t be happier, his pedigree screams stamina and he’s got course-winning form in the Jockey Club so there are ticks in the right boxes to make you hopeful of a big run.”

It is well known that dirt racing is almost a different sport to racing on turf. But Curtis appears to have adapted very well.

“It’s very different riding on the dirt to turf, it’s a different style of racing, but he’s a very simple horse to ride. He’s not a strong puller, he likes to find his own rhythm and the key to him is not to interfere with him too much and just let him warm into a race,” said Curtis.

“There’s 20 runners and yes it is the Kentucky Derby, but a lot of horses are going an extra furlong or two further than they’ve ever gone and on his pedigree you’d be confident of him staying so he should have more time to find his way into the race.

“Looking at the draw, it should be a strongly-run affair which should suit us. Dirt races aren’t won by horses quickening, it tends to be the horses who can go fastest for longest, they tend to be won by horses grinding it out.

“I think a lot of people here think if Fierceness gets out in front and gets his own way, that will be the race over. He’s a bit of an enigma, though. He runs one race and looks unbeatable and then he can put in a below-par performance. Sierra Leone I’ve been watching gallop on a morning and he looks a lovely, big, imposing type, but I’m not sure stall two will suit him.

“To be honest, with the way my horse is training and looking and with his uncomplicated nature in the way he does things effortlessly, I’m hoping that will stand to him on the day.”

Although a champion during his time in the UK, the big jobs escaped him and now Curtis is just enjoying what the future may bring.

“A lot of it in this game is about being in the right place at the right time unless you have a name that you can kick people off horses. A lot of the time I’ve not been in that position, for it now to turn around I’m absolutely elated and I can’t wait for the big day,” he said.

“There’s hundreds of people on the track in the morning, the press are everywhere and the build up is fantastic. They are estimating 160,000 on the day so it will be as close as you can get to being in a Roman colosseum, I think. I’m really, really looking forward to it.”



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Dettori lands Kentucky Derby ride on Society Man

Frankie Dettori has picked up the mount on Society Man in the Kentucky Derby on May 4.

Dettori quit the UK to ride in America full time last year and repeatedly stated one of his main goals was to secure a ride in America’s most famous race.

Having not ridden in the Churchill Downs feature since finishing unplaced on Saeed bin Suroor’s China Visit in 2000 behind Fusaichi Pegasus, the Italian will be pleased to be involved, even though Danny Gargan’s colt will be among the outsiders.

He was last seen finishing second in the Grade Two Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct.

“I’m excited to have him (Dettori),” Gargan told Daily Racing Form.

“He’s riding great. I know it’s a race he wants to be in and a race he wants to win.”

Another former UK-based jockey will also be involved as Ben Curtis will retain the ride on the Whit Beckman-trained Honor Marie, who finished second in the Louisiana Derby on his most recent appearance.

“It was definitely on my to-do list, but it’s come around a bit quicker than I thought,” Curtis told www.bloodhorse.com. “It’s a fantastic opportunity and on a horse that I think could show up brilliant on the day.

“He was beaten a length last time. A length is easy enough to turn around.

“It’s a credit to Whit and the owners for sticking by me. I’ve had a lot of experience riding around the world. A lot of people in America probably wouldn’t know me, but I have a lot of credentials to my name. I think myself and the horse get along very well. If it’s working, don’t fix it.”



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Forever Young enhances Kentucky Derby claims

Forever Young booked his ticket for the Kentucky Derby with a smooth success in the UAE Derby.

Advertising once again Japan’s standing on the world stage, Forever Young was following up his victory in the Saudi Derby last time out.

His sights will now be set on the Race For The Roses after he wore down Auto Bahn close home to win with authority for Yoshito Yahagi, no stranger to winning on Dubai World Cup night after his treble two years ago.

Yahagi explained how it was a poignant success: “This is after my master trainer my father passed away this morning.

“He is potentially very high class and he did not enjoy the travel to Saudi but he still performed very well.

“He travelled better to Dubai. I really believe my team will keep him in good order to go for the Kentucky Derby.”

Winning jockey Ryusei Sakai added: “His condition has improved since Saudi. I really trusted him to perform to his best today.

“I believe this horse is unbeatable at the moment. A lot of good owners and trainers have given me good opportunities, like they did on this horse.”

Ryan Moore almost pulled up Henry Adams, who failed to face the kickback, while stablemate Navy Seal finished fifth under Wayne Lordan.

Two Rivers Over won the Godolphin Mile
Two Rivers Over won the Godolphin Mile (PA)

The Godolphin Mile went the way of outsider Two Rivers Over for Doug O’Neill and Edwin Maldonado, in which Simon and Ed Crisford’s Swing Vote finished eighth.

“Turning for home, I was trying to get him out and in the clear,” said Maldonado.

“This means such a lot, I’m super grateful to the owners and couldn’t ask for more.”

Tadhg O’Shea was seen to great effect on Tuz in the Golden Shaheen.

Tuz showed a remarkable turn of foot
Tuz showed a remarkable turn of foot (PA)

O’Shea, who has made a great career for himself in the UAE, won the race two years ago on Switzerland and was a nose from victory last year on the same horse when beaten by Sibelius.

Japan’s Don Frankie made a bold bid but O’Shea spied a gap up the rail and Tuz quickened up in impressive fashion to run out a wide-margin winner.

“This makes up for a narrow defeat last year in a race that’s been lucky for me,” said the jockey. “He needed his race last time but put this to bed in a matter of strides. Back in his own back yard, he was a different horse tonight.”



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Jockey Club and Ascot build Churchill Downs ties

Two runners from the Kentucky Derby meeting in 2024 will be offered wild card entries for the Epsom Classics run in June four weeks later.

A runner from the Edgewood Stakes, run on Kentucky Oaks day (May 3), will receive an entry and travel incentive for the Betfred Oaks on May 31, while a colt from the American Turf Stakes on Kentucky Derby day will get the same privileges for the Betfred Derby.

Jockey Club Racecourses and Ascot have been coordinating with Churchill Downs Incorporated to create links between historic races in the UK and the top turf races in the United Stakes, with the aim of increasing runners between the two countries.

With that in mind, there will also be wild card spots up for grabs in the Twin Spires Turf Sprint Stakes for the King Charles III Stakes (formerly King’s Stand) and the Old Forester Turf Classic Stakes for either the Prince of Wales’s Stakes or the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot.

Soul Sister and Frankie Dettori won the Betfred Oaks this year
Soul Sister and Frankie Dettori won the Betfred Oaks this year (David Davies/PA)

In return, a runner from the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the Queen Anne will receive the same incentive for the Arlington Million and a runner from the Falmouth will be invited to the Beverly D Stakes.

The winners will be invited but should they not take it up, the racecourses may turn to the placed horses instead.

Matt Woolston, assistant racing and international racing director at The Jockey Club, said: “We’re delighted to develop these links with races at the Kentucky Derby Meeting in its 150th year.

“A trip to Churchill Downs is one that should be on the bucket list for every racing fan, the world over. The Kentucky Derby itself can trace its origin back to Epsom Downs in 1780, when Diomed won the very first Derby, and we are proud to reinforce this historic link.

Mostahdaf was an impressive winner of the Prince of Wales's Stakes in June
Mostahdaf was an impressive winner of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in June (John Walton/PA)

“These historic races already have an international reputation and we want to welcome more and more international runners in the years to come.”

Nick Smith, director of racing and public affairs at Ascot racecourse, said: “We are very excited to be working with Churchill Downs and the UK Jockey Club on this exciting new initiative.

“We were very pleased to play our part hosting the Churchill team at Royal Ascot last year, with the Kentucky Derby trophy on display as they built up to this important 150th running of the world’s greatest dirt race.

“We have a rich modern history of American runners at Royal Ascot and their success always adds hugely to the meeting.”



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Monday Musings: You Say Potayto

You say tomayto, I say tomahto. You say potayto, I say potahto, as the George and Ira Gershwin 1937 song Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off goes, illustrating the spoken differences in the American and British versions of the English language, writes Tony Stafford.

You say Mage, I say Mawj. Two very similar four-letter words, beginning with MA that identify respectively the surprise winners of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday night and the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket yesterday on a Coronation weekend of great significance for the United Kingdom.

There were 20 horses in the Run for the Roses and 18 for the fillies’ mile classic and each time the winner was the only one with four letters in its name. In the entire history of the ten furlongs around the Louisville circuit, since its inception in 1875, only once, in 1892 when Azra won, has such an economically framed name adorned the winner. In that context, the win of Zeb, the only winner with three letters to his name exactly 100 years ago is a statistical disappointment, for someone who bothers with such trifles anyway.

We only need go back three years to Love’s winning the fillies’ race on the way to a sublime year of achievement for Aidan and the Coolmore boys to find another four-letter name. In the Classic’s early years, the more demanding breeders’ young horses were never given names until they won, simply regarded as the something colt or the something else filly. Many four-letter and mostly mundane names adorn the dusty pages of the 1000 Guineas winner register during the 19th Century.

At Churchill Downs on Saturday, it took a decision on the morning of the race by the veterinary examining committee to bar the Todd Pletcher trained Forte. The morning line favourite, winner of his last five, including a strong-running victory at 3/5 in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, was ruled out on a soundness issue.

He was clearly the one to beat, so it was music to the ears of connections of Mage, twice behind Forte in his last two runs, but getting nearer and only overtaken in the last 100 yards at Gulfstream.

Now as a 15/1 shot and with veteran Javier Castellano on board, he came through to win the first leg of the 2023 Triple Crown at the 16th time of asking for the jockey. The colt came down the outside beating Two Phil’s by a length with Angel of Empire, who inherited favouritism, third. Trainer Gustavo Delgado would not have been one of the more likely handlers of a Derby winner in the line-up. His previous best win was in the G1 Test Stakes at Saratoga seven years ago, though he did also saddles the 2020 winner of the G1 Clark Handicap on this track.

What Mage did over there, Mawj did here and when I saw the blue Godolphin number one colours fighting it out with the favourite Tahiyra from some way out and then going well clear with her into the Dip and up to the finish, instinctively I briefly thought, another for Charlie Appleby.

Then the double realisation hit home. No, it’s Saeed and Oisin and then instantly, “and she’s going to win”.

The first conclusion was these are two very high-class fillies. Dermot Weld had only ever previously run one filly in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, some statistic considering he’s been at the forefront of international training for half a century.

But then Saeed bin Suroor, the most modest, polite and uncomplaining man you will ever encounter, has been at it a while too, associated firmly with Godolphin from its inception. The native of Dubai, where his first career was as a policeman, has never shown any resentment at being now the undoubted second trainer behind Charlie Appleby for Sheikh Mohammed’s team.

He said that Appleby worked under him for a long time and while conceding the big-race wins may not be so plentiful nowadays, this was his third 1000 Guineas, 20 years on from the second. It was also unique in that no filly campaigned in the winter in Dubai before running in this Classic had ever won it.

She had been a good second at Royal Ascot last year to yesterday’s second favourite Meditate but that filly disappointed in much the same way as the two Aidan O’Brien/Coolmore colts, first and third favourites Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear, had on Saturday.

Before the race, Dermot Weld was ruing the fact that he probably needed another two weeks to have Tahiyra to his entire satisfaction. She will have the opportunity to take her revenge on Mawj – who may also improve in the interim, of course – at the Curragh and it’s hard to see anything else from this race at least, troubling either.

For Oisin Murphy, who missed the whole of last season in the aftermath of his various breaches of the rules in relation to Covid and alcohol, this was a joyous moment. Nobody doubts his talent. Now it’s up to him to steer clear of temptation. Non-riders might think that nothing could be more addictive for a jockey than winning big races. Maybe it’s not always that straightforward, such are the pressures.

This was his 52nd success of the year in the UK and 24 different trainers have contributed to the score which is running at more than 20% wins to rides. The Guineas win also took him past the £1 million prizemoney mark. If Murphy can stay focused, William Buick will indeed have a rival to fear as the former three-time winner will have designs on wresting the crown back from last year’s debut champion.

Strangely, this was Oisin’s first ride of the season in the UK for Saeed, although in the years 2019 to 2021 he rode 70 first past the winning line for bin Suroor. Saeed said in his post-race interview on TV that he has now won 192 Group 1 races. (Hope I heard correctly!). Few can match that.

Of course, on the day of the Coronation, racing’s enduring monarch of the saddle, Senor L Dettori chose one of the most exciting days I can remember on the Rowley Mile for years, for all that it rained all day, to steal another show.

The flood of racegoers and their cars arriving from early on the day was reminiscent of the 70’s and 80’s. Three of the mile colts’ Classics in the 30-odd years since Frankie came across from Sardinia had fallen to him. Two of those – Mark Of Esteem and Island Sands – of course were for bin Suroor while he was the undisputed number one rider for Godolphin for so many years.

Having announced this to be his final year in the saddle, with Chaldean earmarked for his final 2000 Guineas mount, it was a complete shock when he was jettisoned from the colt’s saddle on exiting the stalls as they set off as an odds-on shot for the Greenham Stakes two weeks earlier. That the colt came through unscathed, having accompanied Isaac Shelby and the rest up the straight mile without a rider, was a cause for relief for the Andrew Balding team, and his preparation for last Saturday clearly hadn’t been affected.

With the well-fancied Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear not performing to expectations on the other side of the track – their normal transport routine, flying in on the morning of the race having been ruled out, was Aidan’s suggestion – here was Chaldean on the far side, fulfilling all that Dewhurst-winning promise with a smooth success in the Juddmonte colours.

I was delighted to be there for all the frustration of an awful day of drenching rain and with the race being run on such un-Newmarket like ground. Dettori, remarkably, but obviously, is as good a jockey as he ever was.

It’s a long time since, with many of his achievements in his future, I was asked to ghost-write a mini autobiography entitled A Year in the Life by Frankie. I’ve told before how the book was already in print in the days when computerisation didn’t exist. The pages were set if not in stone, in hot metal.

So, what does Dettori do with weeks to come before publication and publicity? Just ride seven out of seven at Ascot! An extra chapter was hurriedly added and placed at the front of the book– I can’t remember if he contributed anything to it – I think he was far too busy celebrating. No doubt he was in similar euphoria after Saturday.

When you write about someone in that way, taking such a long time gathering the material, inevitably you never lose that proprietary interest. I know that every big win in the 27 years since from Frankie has brought if not a warm glow exactly, certainly a little smile.

The book was written all those years ago when Frankie was still engaged to Catherine. Now with six children, and with three jockeys’ championships and 22 English Classics behind him, he’s still the same engaging, garrulous chap he always has been. Basically, a Peter Pan figure, the 52-year-old apprentice! How many more big ones await him? That he can still be around with Buick, Oisin and Ryan Moore all in their prime makes the prospect of the 2023 flat-race season, his last round-up, a vintage one.

- TS



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Kentucky Derby adventure off the agenda for Brave Emperor

Archie Watson’s Brave Emperor has been confirmed as set for travelling duty – but will stay closer to home rather than bid for Kentucky Derby glory.

The three-year-old had earned a spot in the ‘Run for the Roses’ through the European qualifying system, but having weighed up all the pros and cons, owners Middleham Park Racing have decided he will be better off in a Group Three in Germany.

Should his progress continue he will then have some lofty targets on the domestic front, including likely at Royal Ascot.

“We won’t be going there on this occasion, unfortunately,” said Middleham Park’s Tom Palin.

“We ran the numbers and as much as it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it would wipe out all of his prize-money and while you shouldn’t really try to make sense of this game, we did this time.

“He is on his travels, he’s going to go to Germany for a Group Three on April 28 (Krefeld, Dr Busch Memorial), that’s where he’ll run next.

“He’s got no penalties. He has won a Listed race but he’s picked up novices, handicaps and conditions races so for a serial winner like him he doesn’t have penalties so we can pick and choose.

“He should be rocking up at all the big meetings, Royal Ascot, Goodwood, so we’ll hopefully have a good summer with him.

“Trip-wise, 10 furlongs might be a question mark, but certainly nine furlongs we are of the opinion is no problem, it is almost nine furlongs in Germany and we’re confident about that.

“I can’t see why he wouldn’t see 10 out in the future. We could maybe think about something like the Hampton Court at Ascot.”



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Kentucky Derby not yet out of the question for Brave Emperor

Connections of Brave Emperor have still not totally discounted heading Stateside for the Kentucky Derby.

The Archie Watson-trained gelding won at Kempton to earn valuable points towards qualifying for the ‘Run for the Roses’ at Churchill Downs and was second in a £100,000 race at Chelmsford on Saturday evening which also carried points.

While his syndicate of owners are excited about the possibility of the challenge, the unsubsidised cost of getting to America and back is something of a stumbling block.

Tom Palin, who manages the Middleham Park Racing syndicate which owns Brave Emperor, said: “We’re still in discussions with the owners, it’s not going to be cheap. Probably about £120/130,000 to get there and back on our own which will burn through all of his prize-money and then some.

“We just need to have a grown up conversation with the owners. They provide incentives to travel to the Breeders’ Cup, but maybe the Kentucky Derby is such a standalone event they feel they don’t need to as everyone wants to run in it.

“He’s brave, he grinds and he gallops. I was really taken with how he got his elbows out and got down and dirty at Chelmsford as it was a messy race.

“You never know how they will transfer their form to dirt or adapt to American racing, but he does have a lot of the right credentials. You’d go there hopeful he could handle it but definitely not confident.

“It’s something we would love to do, but it’s just if we can make sense of the numbers. Then again, horse racing is not really an industry where one should try and make too much sense of it.”



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Cairo taking Mendelssohn route to possible Kentucky challenge

Should Aidan O’Brien’s Cairo emulate Mendelssohn in winning the UAE Derby on Saturday, Kentucky could be his next port of call.

Mendelssohn absolutely destroyed the field in 2018, winning by 18 and a half lengths, showing the dirt surface to be no problem, yet his experience in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs was not a happy one.

Bumped on leaving the stalls, and again soon after, his race was effectively over after a furlong and he trailed in last of 20 behind Justify, who would go on to lift the Triple Crown.

O’Brien has not been put off, however, and given Cairo won the same Listed race at Dundalk prior to the UAE Derby, the Ballydoyle handler is treading a familiar path.

“Cairo is a powerful-looking horse. We’ve been very happy with him through the winter and we were very happy with him when he won at Dundalk,” said O’Brien.

“Obviously, he’s going over a bit further than he has run before and of course it’s a different surface, but we’re happy with him and Pat (Keating, travelling head lad) has been very happy with him since he’s been out there. We’re hopeful.

“Mendelssohn was by Scat Daddy, this horse is by Quality Road and some of his do go on the dirt I suppose.

“Of course there’s a chance he could go to the Kentucky Derby after this, but we’d have to see how he runs. There’s a good chance, we’ll just see what happens first.”

Broome won the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot last year
Broome won the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot last year (David Davies/PA)

O’Brien also runs two well-established Ballydoyle inmates. Broome steps up for just a second crack at two miles in the Dubai Gold Cup while Order Of Australia runs in the Dubai Turf having won in Qatar last time out.

“We think the trip might suit Broome, we think the good ground might suit him and he had a good run the last day in Qatar when he last ran,” said O’Brien.

“We think and hope that he should run a good race.

“Order Of Australia won his last start in Qatar and he’s in good form.

“Obviously this is a furlong longer, but we’re very happy with him and hopefully he’ll run well.

“He’s done lots of travelling, he loves it and is very professional.”



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Monday Musings: Shocks on the Derby Trails

So the age-old Derby formula will not be holding this year, writes Tony Stafford. Third in the 2,000 Guineas (well fourth it used to be, as I conceded last week) meant first in the Derby at Epsom, but Luxembourg is lame. He will therefore not be carrying the Coolmore/Westerberg colours into yet another very probable annexation of English racing’s most sought-after prize.

Just as well then that a legion of bench-warmers took the opportunity at Chester and Lingfield to step up into the principal positions. First it was Changingoftheguard, running all over Godolphin’s theretofore Derby second favourite, New London, in the Chester Vase. It was great to see a revitalised Ryan Moore dominating the entire three-day fixture with superlative tactical riding from start to finish.

Chester revealed Ryan back to his very best, remarkably so in the face of the continuing serious health problems of his younger brother Josh, which have brought universal messages of sympathy from all around the racing world.

Changingoftheguard won the Chester Vase by a wide margin and then, in picking up the Dee Stakes with Star Of India, the Ballydoyle team had already started stacking up the back-up squad for the first Saturday in June.

It’s probably worth mentioning that their other three runners at the meeting - the filly Thoughts Of June in the Cheshire Oaks (there’s a name to conjure with!), Temple Of Artemis in the three-year-old handicap on the Thursday, and a lone Friday runner, Cleveland, who picked up the Chester Cup almost as an after-thought - all also crossed the line in front.

Then on Saturday it was on to Lingfield for their Derby Trial and, faced by another Godolphin/Appleby/Buick favourite in Walk Of Stars, Ryan and his mount, United Nations, were comfortably the best on the day.

Paul Smith, son of Derrick, was quizzed at every call on Saturday (as was Kevin Buckley at Chester) as to where he thought the pecking order might now be behind Luxembourg, but that was before yesterday’s news that the favourite will not run. Now I’m sure if you were to ask Paul or Derrick Smith, or Michael Tabor, or John and the junior Magniers or Georg von Opel or even Peter Brant in whose colours he runs, they would all shout in unison, “Stone Age!”

Where did that colt suddenly appear from, you would be entitled to ask? Well, certainly not from the upper reaches of the Classic consciousness after his five winless, although not promise-free, runs as a juvenile.

They brought a couple of second places in Group races, notably a one-length defeat behind the James Ferguson-trained Kodiac colt El Bodegon in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud over ten furlongs in testing ground in late October. If it proved Stone Age’s stamina credentials – as if they were ever in doubt – it certainly also hurried Ferguson into the upper stratum of international racing.

El Bodegon has yet to appear since, but he has a Dante entry at York this week and then is a 25-1 shot for the Derby. That makes him ten times the price of Stone Age after a 13-length reappearance win at Navan on March 22 and then a five-and-a-half length romp in the Derby Trial at Leopardstown yesterday.

Each successive winning triallist won with authority, with Changingoftheguard and Stone Age showing the most. It will shock nobody to learn that all four colts – and the Cheshire Oaks heroine, too, are by Galileo, his famed Classic-winning genes still as effective a year on from his death at the age of 23.

Talking of Chester, only one of the five O’Brien winners was not by Galileo. Cleveland, who was stepping up a mile from his longest previous race distance to win the great staying handicap, is by Camelot, also the sire of Luxembourg. Camelot will doubtless have other chances of siring the winner of the second Classic he won.

The hardest part for any trainer is to break into the big league. Last week George Boughey won the 1,000 Guineas with Cachet and Ferguson must also be harbouring that dream, probably first imagined in the years his father John was, with Simon Crisford, at the helm of running the Godolphin interests of Sheikh Mohammed.

Another young Newmarket handler who may not be too far away from joining them is Tom Clover. On Saturday Clover took the Oaks Trial at Lingfield, his first stakes win, with the unbeaten Rogue Millennium, a bargain buy for the Rogues Gallery from the Shadwell dispersal. She was bought on the strong recommendation of her previous handler, Marcus Tregoning, who never got her to the track. A beautiful, strong daughter of Dubawi, she cost 35,000gns at auction and with her pedigree, looks and above all ability must be worth half a million!

I’d love her to win the Oaks. Tom and his wife Jackie, daughter of the late and much-missed Classic trainer Michael Jarvis, are showing signs of moving smoothly onto racing’s top table;

 *

One necessary ingredient in racing is luck. Another is the ability to take an opportunity when it comes along. On Friday morning in Kentucky, one of the original 20 horses in the field for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Louisville, was withdrawn owing to a late injury.

That left the way for the 21st acceptor on the list, Rich Strike, an 80/1 shot trained by Eric Reed and ridden by the unknown South American jockey Sonny Leon, to squeeze into the line-up and race from the widest draw of all.

His two best runs this spring had been placed efforts (third and fourth) in minor stakes behind Tiz The Bomb, favoured on both occasions, each time as a 20/1 shot or longer at Turfway Park. That horse was also in Saturday’s field and started a 30/1 shot.

Race commentator Larry Colmuss couldn’t have considered him much either because the second highest-priced winner of the race in the past 110 years had already run past the two favourites into the lead before he even noticed him.

Rich Strike bolted up and afterwards his trainer, who had the mortification of losing a large part of his string, his records, trophies and memorabilia in a stable fire a few years ago, said he had been very hopeful as he knew he would stay.

I don’t know what the horse is like in his stable but I can honestly say I have never seen so graphic a sight of one horse trying literally to savage another. For several minutes as Sonny Leon was trying to participate in a post-race interview his horse was attacking the pony, despite all the efforts of that horse’s rider.

Eric Reed certainly had luck on his side when he decided to claim the colt out of a race on the same Churchill Downs track last autumn. You pay your money beforehand over there, and if they run badly you have to bite the bullet.

Eric Reed and his owners didn’t have a bullet to bite, just the thrill of seeing the horse, bred and raced in the famed Calumet Farm colours, romp home by more than 17 lengths. Even then, thoughts of the Kentucky Derby must have been some way from even their optimistic minds.

It is hard not to sympathise with the jockey who rode him that day. That young man had to endure each of the two days of the meeting riding a single unfancied and unsighted horse, before watching the Derby. An Englishman who between 2010 and 2017 rode between a high of 39 and low of 15 wins over those eight seasons, he left for a new career in the US the following year.

Initially his move to the US brought great success and by early December 2018 he had ridden well over 50 winners, enough to put him second in the Fair Grounds, Louisiana, jockey standings.

No doubt he would never have expected to have ridden a Kentucky Derby winner in that horse’s only previous career win. The way Rich Strike finished on his return to Churchill Downs offers hope that the winning will not stop there.

Anyway, have you guessed the identity of the jockey? I think I’ d like to delay the revelation to allow me what I have always thought was the funniest moment ever at a disciplinary inquiry in the UK. Up before the terrifying if slightly out-of-touch gentleman in charge of the inquiry, upon being asked for his name, our hero said: “Beschizza” which the gent misinterpreted as “Biscuit, sir”. “Well Mr Biscuit,” he began. No wonder Adam of that name thought he’d better go elsewhere to ply his trade.

A nephew of Julia Feilden, he’s very much from a racing background and if he hasn’t quite made the big time in the US he will always be able to tell his grandchildren of the day he rode the horse that was to win the Kentucky Derby to a 17-length win also at Churchill Downs.

- TS



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Monday Musings: Irish Domination

Where once there was meaningful rivalry, now there is renewed omnipotence. A picture spread through social media early this year of a grinning trainer talking on a mobile phone atop a dead horse has had even more effect than its horrified recipients throughout the horse world could have imagined, writes Tony Stafford.

Up until Cheltenham, the remnants of the Gordon Elliott stables, which had run 321 horses from the time jump racing resumed after the initial stopping through Covid19, was still punching most of its weight under the name if not the supreme control of Mrs Denise Foster.

Traditionally though, every late April/early May the Punchestown Festival has ended any wistful hope that the brash Elliott with his legion of major owners, most notably the O’Leary family’s Gigginstown House Stud, might finally gain a first Irish NH trainers’ championship.

Last week, respectable second place seemed a long way off, that eminence supplanted by the exploits of Henry De Bromhead, he of the surreal Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup and Grand National hat-trick over the previous six weeks.

But now we were in Willie Mullins territory and the week was just perfectly situated to welcome back the trainer’s previously stricken stable jockey. Paul Townend had seen his advantage over the challenging and seemingly unstoppable Rachael Blackmore slip to less than a handful of winners with seven days to go.

Mullins doesn’t do Cross-Country races, of which there are four over the five days of Punchestown, but he does do everything else. And how!

Eight races are staged each day, leaving 36 to go for. Mullins, with five on the opening day and never fewer than three on the four succeeding instalments, put together the unbelievable tally of 19 wins from the available 36 – so more than 50%. He did have 87 runners, very often multiple chances, then, and another 21 of his horses made the first four, that’s 40 win or placed. Place money at the meeting goes down to sixth and he had another ten of those, so altogether 50 in the money.

In all, Mullins’ runners brought back a total haul over the week of €1,470,950. For the season his 182 winners brought almost €5.5 million.

Elliott’s monetary reward for his 155 wins was €2,863,875 at the time of his suspension. Add to that Mrs Foster’s 16 victories in 205 runs from 135 of the Elliott horses was another €412,860.

But the magic which initially lingered after the paper – if not actual – change of control all but died last week. Mrs Foster’s 36 runners at Punchestown brought no wins, three second places, two thirds and a single fourth and a mere total of €52k. Nineteen of her runners either finished outside the first ten or failed to finish.

You would think that everyone associated with the Closutton steamroller would have been delighted, but what was probably the most spectacular of his victories, in terms of style of performance and the circumstances behind it, was a cause of regret for that horse’s connections.

When Mark Smith first moved to his present house in Essex 40 years ago the one-time Foreign Exchange trader met a neighbour who was soon to become his best friend. Mark owned Balasani, a horse that won the Stayers’ Hurdle for Martin Pipe at the Cheltenham Festival, and soon he and his friend, John Coleman, regularly went racing together.

Then a few years back John became gravely ill with cancer by which time he had bought Klassical Dream. Sadly he was never able to see the horse on the track – it raced in the name of his widow Joanne but was a family horse with his two sons and a nephew taking shares. They insisted that Mark should also accept a share.

It was bitter-sweet for the team when Klassical Dream won his maiden hurdle first time up at Leopardstown’s St Stephen’s Day fixture in 2018 and he duly went on to take three Grade 1 prizes, at Leopardstown in February, Cheltenham’s Supreme Novice, and Punchestown’s Champion Novice Hurdle.

The 2019/20 season proved a massive anti-climax, the ante-post Champion Hurdle favourite racing only twice and beaten at odds-on behind less talented stable companions. Cheltenham 2021 was originally on the agenda but that came and went without him, after which the plan was laid for Thursday’s big stayers’ hurdle over three miles. Klassical Dream had never raced over much further than two miles and would have a 487-day absence to overcome.

Mark spoke to Willie a few days before the race and on Thursday morning before leaving home for a funeral of another good friend he tried unsuccessfully to reach the trainer. Mullins left a recorded message when he could and Mark says it was very similar to the previous one.

I’ve heard it and in it Willie says he would be happy if the horse finished in the first six but above all the priority is that he comes home sound. Mark interpreted this to mean the trainer wasn’t sure he would make the first six.

Mark relayed the news to the other owners, and before leaving had what he calls a “suicide throwaway 50 quid” at around 17-1 when he first noticed the price was dropping. He had expected to be home in time to watch the race, but was still at the reception at the off, so watched it on his phone.

In what was described as the biggest gamble of the week, 20-1 down to 5-1, Klassical Dream under Patrick Mullins, and one of four stable-mates in the race, cantered into the lead going to the last hurdle and drew easily clear of Mullins’ James Du Berlais for a nine-length victory.

There was more than a degree of consolation that the horse had come back with such a bang, and not least for winning the €147,500 winner’s prize, but also some irritation that the message might have been a little more accurate.

These words will be written before Mark and the trainer have their next conversation. “I knew I shouldn’t talk to Willie, who has always been so helpful in all our dealings, as I would probably have lost my temper. None of the other owners are racing people in the way John was and of course I am, and their delight at their horse coming back in such a dramatic manner easily outweighs for them any irritation that they might have had a bigger bet if they knew a bit more beforehand”.

The Irish dominated Cheltenham and Aintree and it was the Flat trainers from that side of the wet divide who collected the first two Classics of the season at Newmarket.

First Jim Bolger, 79, and jockey and son-in-law Kevin Manning, 54, took the 2,000 Guineas with brave home-bred Poetic Flare, 16-1 and a son of Dawn Approach, also a Bolger home-bred and winner of the same Classic.

Then yesterday, Aidan O’Brien, a pupil and amateur rider for Bolger before embarking on his own stellar training career, made it seven wins in the 1,000 Guineas. His second string 10-1 shot Mother Earth, ridden by 50-year-old Frankie Dettori, made use of her greater experience to run past long-time race favourite and stable-companion Santa Barbara.

Like Love last year, who came to the “1,000” with three wins from seven juvenile appearances, Mother Earth put in plenty of creditable runs at two but in her case for just one win, although second at the Breeders’ Cup was hardly a negligible effort.

Unlike Love, though, who went on to Epsom and then York for two more emphatic wide-margin Group 1 victories, Mother Earth is being pencilled in for the Irish 1,000. Santa Barbara, who understandably showed signs of greenness - she raced only in one maiden as a two-year-old – goes straight to Epsom.

It was quite a weekend for big numbers and veterans. Bob Baffert, now 68 years old, made it a seventh Kentucky Derby when Medina Spirit, at just over 12-1, made all under John Velazquez, who is in his 50th year. The colt had won only once previously too, so it was stretching credibility after three defeats that he could win the most important three-year-old race of the year in the USA.

But it was even more amazing given that two runs back, in the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, Medina Spirit had been crushed by eight lengths by another Baffert colt, Life Is Good, who was unable through injury to get to Churchill Downs.

The old prototype for winning the “Run For The Roses” was plenty of race-conditioning as a two-year-old, but Medina Spirit didn’t appear until January this year. That was also the starting-point for Life Is Good. That day, Medina Spirit came up short by only three-quarters of a length and he must have been energised when he noticed that his nemesis was not in the field.

Still pictures of the race finish show the Churchill Downs grandstands were packed. I just can’t wait for that to happen here - sooner rather than later I trust!



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Monday Musings: Weird Ky Derby Looks Authentic!

It’s been a topsy-turvy world for everyone this year, writes Tony Stafford. I bet the connections of Tiz The Law, 7-10 favourite for Saturday night’s re-scheduled Kentucky Derby, run in 2020 as the second rather than first leg of the Triple Crown, wished the race had simply been erased from the schedules. Instead it took place in September rather than the first Saturday in May and the Bob Baffert-trained Authentic outstayed the favourite for a memorable sixth win in the race for his silver-haired trainer.

The Americans have not found it within their powers to re-write the programme books as their European counterparts did to keep their Classic races, if not to the normal schedule, certainly in the prescribed order.

The Stateside authorities changed the distance and position of the Belmont Stakes, but kept it in June, racing having resumed over there a good deal earlier in some jurisdictions than others and well before France, the UK and Ireland in that order.

The Belmont, normally the last leg and over a mile and a half of the biggest oval in North America was reduced in distance to nine furlongs. The Barclay Tagg-trained Tiz The Law was untroubled to beat nine rivals there and extend his career stats to five wins in six starts. He embellished it further with a facile win in the Travers Stakes – normally the August date which identifies the summer champion among the three-year-old colts – two months and more after the Belmont.

By the time the three-race, five-week war of attrition is concluded on that June afternoon in New York, normally most of the Classic generation that managed to keep all three dates are on their knees. It takes a good one to survive it.

Two years ago, Justify was Baffert’s fifth winner of the race and his second to complete the generally-elusive Triple Crown. The Belmont, following the Preakness two weeks after the Derby and then the race in New York three weeks further on, proved to be within Justify’s capabilities, but no more. His career came to a full stop after a training injury soon after, but at least he could be retired as an unbeaten winner of the Triple Crown with six out of six on his scorecard.

Three years earlier Baffert was immediately denied an unbeaten campaign for American Pharoah once he was beaten on debut in a maiden the previous autumn. But by the time he’d won his Triple Crown, his tally was seven for eight, with all bar one of the wins in Grade 1 company – the exception a first-time three-year-old cruise in a Grade 2 to get the competitive juices flowing again.

He was tough, too. He won the Haskell Invitational in early August at Monmouth Park, but then as so many before him, got beat in the Travers at Saratoga, for good reason known as the Graveyard race for Triple Crown race winners or Horse of the Year candidates. He bounced back after a sensible break with an impressive win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic before drawing stumps and preceding his younger fellow TC hero into stud duties at Ashford Farm.

I was on hand – for the only time - to see Baffert’s third Kentucky Derby win in 2002 with War Emblem in the green and white stripes of Prince Ahmed Salman’s Thoroughbred Corporation. That 20-1 chance made all the running.  Baffert had already sent out Silver Charm (1997) and Real Quiet the following year to score. I’ve no doubt that having put away Tiz The Law in a thrilling set-to up the Churchill Downs home straight, many would have been hoping to see them do battle again at Pimlico racecourse in Baltimore for the Preakness, but immediate post-race reaction suggested one or even both might miss the final leg.

That race, normally run two weeks after the Derby but this year four, unlike the Belmont but in common with the Derby, has retained its traditional distance of one mile and three-sixteenths. This was the course and distance over which California-based Seabiscuit memorably beat the East Coast champion War Admiral, the 1937 Kentucky Derby winner, in that famed match race. This of course was made doubly treasured by Laura Hillenbrand’s book and the film in which Tobey Maguire and Gary Stevens – as good and natural an actor as he has been for so many years an outstanding jockey – played the roles as the great underdog’s jockeys.

As they turned for home in that 1938 race, the big favourite War Emblem had drawn upsides and most of the massive crowd expected him to pull away. Instead it was Seabiscuit, who had become a much-loved symbol of the American working class in those Depression years, who gained the upper hand: courage and toughness outpointing class and evidently superior breeding.

Saturday’s Classic was virtually a re-make of the Seabiscuit film. Two horses came around the long turn between the back stretch and the home run with the favourite poised on the outside and the rest clearly irrelevant. Authentic had moved quickly from an ordinary start into an early lead from his wide position, so it was reasonable watching live to think he could be swamped when Tiz The Law, always well placed, came with his customary wide run to take his rightful place at the top of the podium.

But as with Seabiscuit, this relative underdog, third favourite at a shade over 8-1, kept going much the better for a length and a quarter success.

Going into the race, Authentic, like the favourite, had suffered only a single reverse, in his case behind Honor A P in the Santa Anita Derby, turning over an earlier result between the pair. Understandably, Honor A P edged him for second best in the Derby market, but there can be no doubting the pecking order now, as Honor A P finished five lengths behind the winner in fourth.

A smaller-than-usual field contested the race this year. Normally it’s a bun-fight to qualify for one of the 20 available stalls. This time, only 15 turned up, reflecting that there are fewer untested dreams at this stage of the season from later-developing horses than is customary. What I did notice, possibly because of the smaller field and the fact that the runners have had more racing experience than is customary, hard-luck stories seemed minimal.

Also it was one of the fastest-ever Kentucky Derbys, the winner clocking 2 minutes 0.61 seconds. Secretariat in 1973 still holds the all-time best with 1 minute 59.4 seconds in his Triple Crown year. Monarchos in 2001 has the fastest electronic time, while in 1964 Northern Dancer, the ultimate sire of sires, most significantly the direct line, from his son Sadler’s Wells through to Galileo and then Frankel and the rest, clocked an even 2 minutes.

Other fast times were Spend A Buck, 2.00.2 in 1985 and Decidedly 2.00.4 in 1962.  Authentic, with only five faster than him is right up there in historical terms, certainly in front of Baffert’s previous quintet, the less attritional, more even-tempo nature of the race – on a track that was riding fast – doubtless contributing.

Many times, beaten Kentucky Derby runners avoid the Preakness entirely. This year, of the nine horses beaten by Tiz The Law in the first leg of the Triple Crown, only two – neither in the shake-up on Saturday – tried again.

It would be eminently understandable should either or both the big two miss the Preakness in four weeks’ time. A great shame too as if they did clash they would surely provide another proper shoot-out. Considering, though, how much money is on offer for the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the autumn and how easily future stallion fees can be affected by reverses, maybe it’s more likely that we’ll have to wait for a definitive verdict of the Horse of the Year - Covid19 edition!

*

While the Kentucky Derby was taking all the attention over the water, Enable was fulfilling presumably her last public duties in the UK (she still has entries on British Champions’ Day – here’s hoping) before embarking on her final act of an epic career when easily landing the odds (1-14 are hardly odds!) in the September Stakes at Kempton Park.

She was quickly into the lead under Frankie Dettori and won easily from Kirstenbosch, owned by Luca Cumani’s Fittocks Stud. Lightly-raced and on the comeback trail after an interrupted career, Kirstenbosch looks sure to win more races for the James Fanshawe stable.

Meanwhile Enable will be preparing for her ultimate quest, aiming to add a third Arc win after last year’s agonising second to Waldgeist, interestingly on the same weekend as the Preakness. Dettori has been a fitting co-respondent in the mare’s final glorious chapter along with trainer John Gosden. How typical in sport that a younger rival has come along from out of nowhere – well, Ballydoyle! - to make this possibly the toughest of all her four challenges for the famed French race that has become the true European championship.

Love stands in her way, gloriously after three authoritative and sometimes wide margin wins at Group 1 level in the 1,000 Guineas, the Oaks and the Yorkshire Oaks. I suppose there will be other challengers, but nobody loves a two-man (or woman) sporting tussle more than the viewing public. I’d love Enable to win but I don’t think Love will enable her to do so. If you see what I mean!

On an otherwise quiet weekend domestically, Haydock Park’s Group 1 race, the Betfair Sprint Cup, developed into a battle of the six-year-old geldings. The 5-2 favourite Dream Of Dreams, ridden by Oisin Murphy for the Sir Michael Stoute stable, got up in the closing stages to beat the Archie Watson-trained and Hollie Doyle-ridden 25-1 chance Glen Shiel, the pair leaving the three-year-olds Golden Horde, Art Power and Lope Y Fernandez well behind. The same went for two previous winners, The Tin Man and Hello Youmzain.

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A race with rather more significance for the future was Yesterday’s Prix du Moulin de Longchamp on the first weekend since the racing roadshow decamped back from Deauville and its chewed-up terrain to the capital. Only six turned out, but it was a high-class affair. The Andre Fabre-trained Persian King (by Kingman) turned away Pinatubo by just over a length, with Circus Maximus a long way back in third but still ahead of Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Siskin who seems a shadow of the early-season version.

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Persian King had been three lengths in arrears to Circus Maximus when they were third and fourth behind unbeaten Palace Pier in the Prix Jacques le Marois (also Group 1) three weeks earlier over the same trip at Deauville. This performance requires some re-alignment among the division, but it is clear that Palace Pier stands alone at the top of the mile rankings. Those three Irish fillies, Fancy Blue, Alpine Star and Peaceful, who dominated the finish of the Prix de Diane over the extended mile and a quarter at Chantilly, might prove more of a test to Palace Pier than any of yesterday’s Moulin contestants should they be given the opportunity to tackle him.

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