Tag Archive for: St Leger

Monday Musings: It’s Aidan Again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • TS

Scandinavia and Lambourn lead 26 St Leger hopefuls

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Goodwood Cup winner Scandinavia heads 26 entries for the Betfred St Leger, the final Classic of the season to be run at Doncaster on September 13.

Aidan O’Brien dominates the potential field numerically with 11 possible runners hailing from his Ballydoyle yard.

Justify colt Scandinavia has been a relatively late bloomer, finishing fifth to Carmers in the Queen’s Vase at Ascot before winning the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket.

He stepped into open company at Goodwood last week and despite being overlooked by Ryan Moore in favour of Illinois, ran out the winner.

His dual Derby-winning stablemate Lambourn would be another huge player if he turns up, as would Whirl, winner of last week’s Nassau Stakes over 10 furlongs at Goodwood.

Galveston, Oaks victor Minnie Hauk, Mount Kilimanjaro, Puppet Master, Saratoga, Shackleton, Stay True and Thrice are other Ballydoyle possibles.

Carmers could have a trip to Yorkshire before his big day, with Paddy Twomey considering the Great Voltigeur Stakes for his prep – or he could stay closer to home.

“if he runs (beforehand) it will be either in the Great Voltigeur or the Vinnie Roe (at Leopardstown) and then the Leger,” said Twomey.

“Those two races are within a day of each other so we’ll see which race looks more suitable.”

Other notable entries include Charlie Johnston’s Lazy Griff, placed in the Derby at Epsom and the Irish equivalent, Tennessee Stud and Arabian Force.

Gordon Stakes victor Merchant was not entered by William Haggas.

Lazy Griff’s route to Doncaster still open to discussion

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Connections of Lazy Griff have yet to decide whether to give the top-class colt another run ahead of a planned third tilt at Classic glory in the Betfred St Leger.

Charlie Johnston’s three-year-old has bumped into the Aidan O’Brien-trained Lambourn on each of his three previous starts this season, finishing second in the Chester Vase and the Derby at Epsom before making late gains into third place in the Irish Derby.

A fourth clash could be on the cards at Doncaster in September, with Lambourn the 15-8 favourite and Lazy Griff a 7-1 shot for the Leger with Paddy Power – but whether the latter will be seen in action before the Town Moor showpiece remains to be seen.

“He’s fine and back cantering now and I need to have a chat with Mike Prince and the Middleham Park team, just to thrash out what route we’re going to go down,” said Johnston.

“We haven’t come to any firm decisions on that yet, but whatever we do it will all revolve around the Leger, that’s for sure.

“I think we’re probably looking for him to have two more runs this year and it’s just a question of whether we run him somewhere between now and the Leger or we go straight to the Leger and have another run after that at the back-end of the season. That is the conversation that needs to be had.

“He had a couple of easy weeks as the main priority was to get the horse out of Ireland in good shape and back cantering and we’ve done that, so the tough bit now is deciding what to do next.

“They’re nice decisions to have to make, I wouldn’t mind plenty more of them.”

Doncaster Classic firmly on the agenda for unbeaten Carmers

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Paddy Twomey and connections of Carmers are working back from the Betfred St Leger with their Queen’s Vase hero, as they plot the best route to Doncaster in September.

Unraced at two, the Wootton Bassett colt is a perfect three from three this season, most latterly in the Group Three at Royal Ascot, where he showed his stamina for a mile and six furlongs.

“Carmers is in good form. The plan is to go for the Leger and how we get there remains to be seen,” said Twomey.

“The owners are keen on going for the Voltigeur (at York) and there is also the Vinnie Roe in Leopardstown. We could stay at home and just go straight there, so we’ll see.”

Twomey – who said his beaten Ribblesdale Stakes favourite Catalina Delcarpio would be coming back to 10 furlongs – added: “He’s a grand horse and doesn’t show you much at home.

“He went to Ballinrobe and won, eight days later went to Navan and won, a month later went to Ascot and won. It’s hard to find a horse like him.”

Roving Reports: And so it begins…

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I suppose of all the places a new venture could begin there are worse ones than Doncaster, particularly as it doesn't mean a near four-hour commute from my house (that will come next week) and I'm on familiar territory, writes David Massey. St Leger Day almost didn't happen, with the morning drive to the track narrowly averting disaster as I fail to spot a flotilla of police motorbikes and Range Rovers tracking up the outside line of the M18, and I just barely avoid absent-mindedly pulling out in front of them as I try and change the station on the radio. As it turns out, this won't be the last time I find myself just in front of the Prime Minister (for it was he) on the day.

I'm with new work partner Vicki today, who has parents that live nearby and, God bless her mum, she's made me a cheese sandwich with a bag of cheese and onion crisps as an accompaniment. I am delighted to report the sandwich was delicious. Mums, eh? I miss mine, but I think I've found a spirit one with Vicki's as that's exactly the sort of thing mine would have done. "You don't need to, Mum, there will be food there." "Well, I've done you a pack-up now anyway. You never know." And even though you do know, you take the sandwich, and it's brilliant.

So anyway, Doncaster is packed with racegoers, which is good, but it does mean our route down to the parade ring from the press room (which is up top) is hard to navigate. We decide a better option is to go the back way, down the stairs, and come out by the weighing room. This works well for much of the afternoon, until the Leger comes around. We want to head to the pre-parade ring but for some reason we can't turn left, the route totally fenced off, and we have to head between the cordon to the parade ring. Everyone is crowding around the barriers as if they're waiting for someone. Imagine their disappointment as Vicki and myself loom into view. It's at this point I realise the PM is probably about thirty seconds behind me, as there are security men surrounding us. "Keep walking, and don't look back!" I shout to Vicki, just behind me. Sure enough, it's not long after we enter the parade ring that Sir Keir makes his appearance. I'm only glad that we didn't get booed as well.

Vicki is on her own on the Sunday at Doncaster. I warn her early there may be a few drops of rain, but not much. I lose count of the number of photos she sends me throughout the day of her in her transparent waterproof poncho, looking more miserable in each one as the day passes, as my weather forecasting skills prove about as accurate as my race-reading ones. I don't think sending her a photo of the roast dinner I'd made for me and the good lady helped matters, either. Still, I was at Leicester on the Monday before and it threw it down all day there when it wasn't supposed to, so let's call it a soggy score-draw on the week and move on.

And so to Yarmouth and the Eastern Festival. All sounds very exotic, doesn't it: an Eastern Festival? Those of a certain age will be reminded of Turkish Delight at this point. I'm reminded exactly how exotic things will be when I swing onto the Road To Kings Lynn (one of Bing and Bob's lesser-known adventures) and a whopping great potato lorry pulls out in front of me. Game over. Just sit tight and enjoy the finest flat scenery Lincolnshire has to offer for the next forty miles. Sadly, the African Violet Centre is still closed. There will be no streptococcus for me this year.

There will, however, be the more common Mcdonaldsus Drivethru'us on the way. As I arrive, the queue in front of me is one car. In the three minutes it takes to get my food, a dozen cars pile in behind me. I take this as a good sign and one that says luck will be on my side this week. I get back on the main road just as another potato wagon pulls in front of me, the good fortune lasting all of thirty seconds.

I'm in my usual B&B at Yarmouth and so are all the others that stayed there last year. It's like time hasn't moved on at all. Which seems appropriate, as there are parts of the town that don't feel like they have evolved much either, probably for about fifty years. Yarmouth is what it is, but it's badly in need of some modernisation. Even Skeggy has upgraded, for crying out loud.

I'll be at the dogs Monday night (I always go early) and Wednesday night and, on Tuesday, I have a meal with Arthur Cooper and Vicki to discuss further business. Many of you will recognise Arthur's Aussie tones - he commentates on the French racing for Sky on occasions - and he has tales to tell, and racing politics to discuss. We put the racing world to rights over a sticky toffee pudding, which is how it should be. It's a pleasure chatting to him, and I look forward to our next meet.

Tuesday's card is probably the least interesting of the three days. The weather is kind, more so than the results, which are a disaster for bookmakers. Yarmouth is a strong ring too - shop around and you'll be betting to less than one percent a runner. The stretchers are out for the books as the fourth favourite on the bounce goes in mid-afternoon. Trade at Fallen Angels could well see a downturn this year. (Google it, this is a family column.)

Vicki is with me on the Wednesday and I introduce her to the bookmaker who goes by the name of Billy Bongo. Vicki has already asked if that's his real name, which caused much mirth. She's disappointed to find out he's actually called Simon, but when I tell her his surname is "Pieman", it takes her a minute to decide that that's also bull. I give her a little quiz on bookies' names and whether they are real or fake, which she fails badly. She has a lot to learn about the layers, although I notice she has her favourites she likes to deal with. They tend to be the younger, better-looking ones. I shall leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide whether this is purely coincidental or not.

It's the East Anglian Derby at the dogs on the Wednesday night and the place is heaving. Luckily I'm on a table upstairs and have Viv Stingray (also not her real name) with us. Viv works at Southwell and has never been to the dogs before. This means I can easily impress her with my limited dog knowledge but by the end of the night she's a convert, even watching old vids of Scurlogue Champ on YouTube, and of course, loving them. How could you not? He's still the most amazing dog I'll ever clap eyes on. (If you've not watched the recordings or heard of him before, go and have a look. And be amazed.) Viv has already decided she's coming again next year.

Thursday, and the 3lb I lost weight-wise last week is all put back on with the final cooked breakfast of the trip. I tell myself I'll be back on the Ryvita tomorrow as I tuck into a third rasher. My luck this week hasn't been so great and I'm down so far, but a decent bet on Redorange at 3-1 helps the bank balance bounce back a bit. At least it's stayed dry this year, if windy. The drive back is a better one than the one coming down; no 'tater wagons on the route at 7pm, see? One last McDonald's for the road, and I'm home for half nine. I've an email when I get back asking me for a ten-to-follow for the jumps season. I've enjoyed the Flat this year but, I have to say, I can't wait to get stuck into the timber-toppers this time around. Especially now I'll actually be able to see them in the flesh rather than just viewing them going to post from the rails. An exciting winter lies ahead...

- DM

Monday Musings: The Jugglers

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The second Saturday in September illustrated how trainers and jockeys’ agents need to be expert jugglers at this time of year, writes Tony Stafford. We had the Irish Champion Stakes, worth a total €£1.15 million (€712k to the winner) and the Betfred St Leger, £830k and £421k to the winner, yet three UK champion jockeys were riding more than 3,000 miles away from either venue.

The trio - Oisin Murphy, William Buick and Frankie Dettori - all lined up in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes for 2yo fillies over a mile and worth £177k at the Woodbine racetrack in Toronto, Canada. Buick was on the 4/5 favourite for Godolphin and Charlie Appleby, the dual early-season winner Mountain Breeze, but she could only manage eighth place.

Ahead of her were Murphy, fifth on 65/1 shot Ready To Battle, for dominant local trainer Mark Casse despite being the outsider of his trio; and Dettori was one place behind on the Christophe Clement filly Annascaul, the race second favourite.

He was the only one of our itinerant trio to have a ride in the next Graded race, the Ontario Matron (G3) on the Tapeta track. He finished fourth for Casse who again had three runners without securing the win.

Only five turned up for the E P Taylor Stakes for fillies and mares, run on the turf track. In the past the E P Taylor was a frequent target for UK and especially French runners. It honours the Canadian breeder Eddie Taylor. He stood Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Northern Dancer, the stallion who first tickled the fancy of Vincent O’Brien and led, with Robert Sangster and John Magnier’s help, to the legacy of Sadler’s Wells and, through him, to his even more influential son Galileo.

This year, the E P Taylor was a tame affair considering there was £266k for the winner. Oisin got a ride here but could do no better than fourth of five on Blush for French-based trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias. All three of the visiting riders had been previous winners of the race.

Charlie Appleby and Andrew Balding staged a rematch from a Listed race on King George Day at Ascot in July, with Al Qudra, the winner of that race for Charlie and Will, going into the bet365 <they get in everywhere!> Summer Plate over a mile on the turf as favourite, having beaten New Century by just over two lengths then.

Here Oisin turned the form around on identical terms, winning by one and a quarter lengths from Al Qudra in another Grade 1 again worth £177k, as with the juvenile fillies earlier. The share of the spoils made Oisin’s awayday worthwhile and even in defeat Buick got his mitts on a portion of the 60 grand for second.

The principal reason for the Appleby/Godolphin attack was presumably the featured Rogers Woodbine Mile, with a hefty £355,000 to the winner. The Buick mount, Naval Power, was the 11/20 favourite but finished only fourth to a couple of Mark Casse runners, siphoning up between them a good deal more than half a million Canadian bucks. Naval Power had been a very close second on his previous start when Dettori had the mount in a valuable supporting race on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs in early May.

If you feel sorry for Frankie, the pensioner (in jockey terms) started out the previous weekend looking forward to a hatful of Aidan O’Brien mounts at Kentucky Downs, but only Greenfinch, who finished fourth, ran, the others being withdrawn. But then, a week yesterday at the same track, May Day Ready won a £483k first prize and that was supplemented by a double at the same track on Wednesday. Dettori won the £238k Gold Cup with Limited Liability and then the Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational with Kathymarissa and another £720k.

His win prizes amounted to £1,323,000 over the week. No wonder he loves being in the US!

What did they miss while waiting for Saturday in Canada? At Doncaster there was an eighth St Leger win for Aidan O’Brien as the inexperienced and in some ways still green Jan Bruegel edged out Illinois in a thrilling tussle up the Doncaster straight. Both colts are by Galileo and at the final opportunity, his sons dominated yet another English Classic.

Impossible to separate in the market, it looked like a potential dead-heat in the race until Sean Levey, who started out life as an O’Brien apprentice before relocating to the UK, forced his mount’s head in front close to the line.

Behind in third and fourth, also locked together, were Deira Mile and Sunway who crossed the line only a nose apart. I thought it a mealy-mouthed decision by the stewards to turn the form around, denying Deira Mile’s ever-adventurous Ahmed Al Sheikh of Green Team Racing another placed run in the English Classics of which he is so enamoured.

Bay City Roller was a good winner of the Champagne Stakes that opened the card, but it might have been a different story had not Chancellor prematurely burst out of the gate. The Gosden colt, a smart scorer at the track last time, was third at Ascot in the race where Al Qudra beat New Century.

The raft of unlikely horse/trainer/jockey partnerships on this unusual day continued in the Portland Handicap, one of my favourite races with its intermediate sprint distance of around five and a half furlongs.

Here, the unluckiest horse in training, Peter Charalambous’s Apollo One, got the services of no less a partner than Christophe Soumillon. The Belgian, a multiple champion jockey in France, had just got his mount’s brave head in front of a gaggle of horses on the far side when the favourite American Affair flew down under the stands rail under Paul Mulrennan to beat him by a nose.

It was a notable win for Jim Goldie and, given the way he finished on Saturday, the Ayr Gold Cup in five days’ time must have its appeal. Peter Charalambous is adamant he would never ask Apollo One to run in the likely soft ground at Ayr, but it would be nice to think he would win a big sprint handicap before too long.

Over the past two seasons he has finished second in four big sprints, the Wokingham and Stewards’ Cup last year and the Stewards’ Cup and Portland in 2024. His total losing distance is barely two and a half lengths in those races.

Irish Champions Weekend featured a fine return to form by the slightly unpredictable but undeniably ultra-talented Auguste Rodin. He ran a great race in the Irish Champion Stakes but just failed to cope with the tenacious favourite Economics.

It had been a brave decision by William Haggas to resist running his colt in the Derby after his sensational <I use the word advisedly> Dante Stakes romp at York and, nicely rested, Haggas had given him an ideal warm-up run at Deauville last month for his main target here.

Economics came from some way back, as did Auguste Rodin. Tom Marquand sent his mount into the lead halfway up the short Leopardstown straight, when it appeared that Ryan Moore on the dual Derby winner was going marginally the easier, even getting his head in front in the last hundred yards. Economics, to his credit, pulled out extra and, despite battling all the way to the line, Auguste Rodin had to be content with an honourable second place.

The path for both horses is set in stone. Economics will now go to the Qipco Champion Stakes for what will be only his sixth career start. Auguste Rodin has the Breeders’ Cup Turf, which he won last year, as his autumn objective.

Just behind in third and fourth were the Japanese horse Shin Emperor, who should make a bold attempt at being the first from Japan to win the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, and fast-finishing Los Angeles, who probably would have fully extended his two stablemates at Doncaster.

His range of entries, from the Champion Stakes (ten furlongs) at Ascot to the British Champion Long Distance Cup (two miles) the same day and, a fortnight earlier, the Arc over one mile and a half reflect his untapped potential and versatility. I’d go the stayers’ route if he were mine – wishful thinking in the extreme!

Yesterday, Messrs Buick and Murphy made it back to the Curragh for the second day of the Irish Champions Weekend. They might not have won as they rode respectively Vauban and Giavellotto into second and third in the Irish St Leger, but at least they got a close-up view of the remarkable Kyprios.

Aidan O'Brien's six-year-old entire was taking his earnings past £2 million with an authoritative performance under Ryan Moore. It was Kyprios' 13th win in 17 career starts. After last year's injury problems and a curtailed season of only two second places, he has now repeated the same first five victories of his unbeaten four-year-old campaign and in the same  races.

That year (2022) he ended the season with victory in the Prix Du Cadran over two and a half miles - by twenty lengths! If he goes there and wins in three weeks it would be a double unbeaten six-timer, four of them at Group 1 level, surely a record, and one that will be exceptionally difficult to match in the future. He deserves to be regarded as at least the equal of Yeats as a stayer. Many will think him superior.

- TS

Monday Musings: Continuous Relentlessness

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If you enjoy perfection, as I am certain it’s something for which the British Horseracing Authority’s handicappers strive for every day, then the St Leger was something of a disappointment, writes Tony Stafford. It will have been doubly so I’m sure for Mr Michael Harris, the gentleman responsible for flat races over 11 furlongs and above.

The ratings for the nine runners (four from the redoubtable O’Brien team) were, in finishing order, Conspicuous 115, Arrest 114, Desert Hero 110, Tower Of London 109, Gregory 111, Chesspiece 109, Middle Earth 102, pacemaker Denmark 102, and Alexandropolis 101.

What was wrong with him? On his rating, surely Gregory should have been third, but maybe a clue to why he wasn’t: John Gosden came over to Aidan before the race and told him he thought the Golden Horns do not like soft ground. It seemed Gregory didn’t.

Obviously, it was a major triumph for Mr Harris, who no doubt will push up the winner into the 120’s and therefore offer hope that he can go to the Arc in a fortnight’s time with a chance of emulating the trainer’s so far only two wins (Dylan Thomas 2007) and Found (2016) in the great French race at ParisLongchamp – see I remembered!

That has been the immediate target for the last four Coolmore St Leger winners but to no avail. The best candidate in 2023 of course would probably have been Auguste Rodin, dual Derby and Irish Champion Stakes hero who, as Ryan reminded me emphatically after yesterday’s win, is firmly online for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

O’Brien has won 16 races at that late autumn extravaganza, and he is sure to have another formidable team to represent himself and his owners who have kept him supplied with high-class material in the entirety of his career. But it’s what you do with raw material.

The numbers are even more mind-boggling for the five Classic races on either side of the Irish Sea. Saturday’s triumph put him on 43 Classic wins in the UK over the 26 seasons since King Of Kings, 1998 2000 Guineas and Shahtoush (Oaks) gave him a double right at the start of his time as master of Ballydoyle.

He got going a year earlier at home, where he has 50 domestic Classic wins so far with 15 in the Irish Derby leading the way. Here it’s seven in the 1000 Guineas, 10 in the 2000 Guineas, nine in the Derby, ten in the Oaks and seven in the St Leger. The relative home scores are 10, 12, 15, seven and six.

It seems O’Brien has more respect for the status of the Doncaster version, a race that has survived many questions as to three considerations; that it should remain the province of three-year-olds, that they should be only entire colts or fillies; and that it should remain at the one mile, six furlongs and 115 yards of yore. The Irish race has kept its trip of one mile six, but has long been open to geldings and older horses.

Continuous was an appropriate name for a Coolmore winner and there was also much delight, especially from Christy Grassick, in the immediate aftermath. He was doubly delighted, as he celebrated a second Japanese-bred winner this year after Auguste Rodin, while glorying in the identity of the maternal grand-sire, you guessed it, that late but unquestionably very great Galileo.

That champion’s victory in the 2001 Derby was Aidan’s first at Epsom and also marked the arrival on the Ballydoyle scene of Michael Tabor. Start as you intend to go on might well be his mantra. John Magnier and his formidable back-up team – son M V was busily shopping at Keeneland September last week with sire sensation Into Mischief the latest to attract his attention – have no mind to ease off.

Their perennial search is to identify and secure from the major racing and breeding establishments around the world suitable outcross stallions to prolong the potency of the Northern Dancer/ Sadler’s Wells/ Galileo legend. I don’t think they will go far wrong if history is anything to go by.

Continuous in a way exemplified the manner of O’Brien’s training, one of continuous improvement.  The son of Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence) did win his only two races at two, including a Group 3, but when third to The Foxes in the Dante at York and eighth in the Prix du Jockey Club, his limitations seemed there for all to see.

Next though, in finishing a four-length Royal Ascot runner-up to Epsom Derby second King Of Speed he moved up a notch in the hierarchy in Tipperary. An easy success in that most informative of all St Leger trials, York’s Great Voltigeur, should have been enough to convince the sceptics, as it established him as an obvious candidate.

He needed to nudge ahead of the filly Savethelastdance, but when the Epsom runner-up and Irish Oaks winner was beaten into third behind emerging stable-companion Warm Heart in the Yorkshire Oaks on fast ground, her challenge lost some of its impetus. Warm Heart’s victory in the Prix Vermeille last weekend only solidified Savethelastdance’s credentials.

Ironically, had she turned up on Saturday, she would have had the ground to her liking and been worthy of her place in the field against the colts. With the chance of easy ground for her remaining potential targets, she should be fine and O’Brien should be able to find another big target for her before the end of the year.

Continuous had one ingredient that the other eight runners on Town Moor lacked, an instant turn of speed which should make him a threat at 12 furlongs in Paris. No doubt the major Japanese studs, especially Shadai Farm, will be having their eyes on at least a shared stallion deal if not an outright buy. It would take many, many millions of yen to secure him at 183 yen to the £.

It was nice to feel close to the action on Saturday. We had lunch in a room next door to the Royal Box, which unusually for Doncaster had two attendees (the King and Queen) giving veracity to its title. The snag was the corridors were thronged with security people at every turn.

We left the room before they did, but without an escort, I got sidetracked, neither getting into the paddock until the horses had left for the start, and didn’t see them either, unlike most of the crowd who enjoyed their presence and the performance of his horse Desert Hero, trained by William Haggas for a creditable third behind Frankie Dettori on runner-up Arrest.

At least, going to watch by the winning line, it was easy to enjoy Ryan’s clockwork ride from ground level and then to be involved in the post-race photo upon Aidan’s “Come on Tony” exhortation.

So we were left to marvel at the skill of the man with 93 UK and Irish Classic winners to his credit and yet still only in his mid-50’s. To gauge what it means in modern terms, the late Sir Henry Cecil managed 25, saving the best for last with Galileo’s son Frankel in the 2000 Guineas. Sir Michael Stoute has 16 to his credit and John Gosden (with or without Thady) a round dozen. In statistical terms, of the 260 Classic races in that time, he has won getting on for 40% of them and of the UK, just about 35%.

All that was left was to wonder whether Howard Wright was there? My former colleague at the Daily Telegraph had indeed trekked up from Surrey to his birth town and while I neglected to poke my nose in the press room, he was in attendance.

“Yes, I missed the first three,” said Howard yesterday, “But this was my 75th anniversary, so I’ve seen the last 76.” As I said, I should have called in, but greed got the better of me. A few yards from the far end of the main car park is a fantastic fish and chip shop. I can’t manage chips yet, but as my neuralgia seems to be responding to treatment, the famed scampi was fine.

I always used to say that I could make a portion of this delicious concoction last me all the way down to Grantham. I called for the larger (ten) option, but it barely got me to Bawtry. On second thoughts, I must have been a double-ten portion man. Figures! I love the St Leger, almost as much as Aidan, Ryan and the Coolmore boys.

  • TS

Monday Musings: Doncaster Pays its Respects

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They stood in the owners’ lunchroom at Doncaster yesterday on Mike Cattermole’s cue and perfectly observed the requested two minutes’ silence, writes Tony Stafford. Then, on the big screen behind the excellent cold and hot buffet, was the unforgettable image of Her Late Majesty’s greatest moment as a racehorse owner – never mind winning the Gold Cup with Estimate – the grainy St Leger victory of her home-bred filly Dunfermline in 1977, her Silver Jubilee.

Alone now of the principals of that moment, the indefatigable Willie Carson is still very much with us. With that distinctive head looking down style, along with the rhythmic punching action, he kept Dunfermline in touch with the super horse that was the previously unbeaten and never again vanquished dual Arc winner, Alleged, and Lester Piggott.

Unbelievably, the filly can be seen closing the gap that Lester began to extend once taking the lead at the four-furlong pole. In the last furlong, the filly joined her rival and inexorably gained the advantage. You can see Lester pointedly easing Alleged in the last few strides – no sign of a rat-tat-tat response once he knew the Vincent O’Brien colt was beaten.

Seven years earlier, the same peerless pair, O’Brien and Piggott, had arrived at Doncaster with a similarly unbeaten American-bred colt in the shape of Nijinsky. In his case he did indeed win the St Leger but his exertions in becoming the first (and last) Triple Crown winner since Bahram in 1935 prefaced defeats in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Champion Stakes.

Alleged, a late developer whose fragile forelegs had persuaded connections to race him in Europe despite his dirt pedigree, did not contest either of the earlier UK Classics. Piggott’s restraint on Town Moor left him fresh enough to win his first Arc three weeks later when Dunfermline did well to finish fourth. He followed up impressively in Europe’s Championship race twelve months later before retiring to stud in Kentucky.

In another uncanny moment, as the Dunfermline race was being shown, and the Royal hearse was making its six-hour roadside-packed way from Balmoral to Edinburgh, trainer Ben Hanbury happened to sit down at the next table to myself. We showed our respective respects without talking and I’m not sure quite how I recognised the former Newmarket trainer, soberly dressed, without the colourful trousers he always wore at Keeneland where Midway Lady was bought.

She won five of her six races and was unbeaten at three in 1986 when she won both the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks. Injury prevented any further active involvement but she bred an Oaks winner in Eswarah, trained by Michael Jarvis, in 2005. You guessed it, Midway Lady was a daughter – the best daughter – of Alleged.

Earlier, on my way to the track, I listened to a Radio 5 Live broadcast where I’m sure I heard that Dunfermline, situated between Perth and Edinburgh, was to be one of the towns where the car could be seen.

I bumped into fellow Arsenal fan and Derby-winning jockey Willie Ryan (Benny The Dip, 1997) in the seats outside the Press Room as they milled around before the start of the big race. He had driven Frankie Dettori to the races, laughing as he related the former champion had cried off riding Emily Dickinson for the Coolmore team to partner another filly, Ralph Beckett’s Haskoy, for whom a £50,000 supplementary entry fee was paid.

“I’ve backed Emily”, said Willie. “Frankie keeps switching off winners”, he laughed. Ryan agreed that to consider the St Leger in any ground as a mile and three-quarters race was mistaken. “It’s a long 14 furlongs anyway, but here with that five-furlong run-in it’s really a two-mile grind”, he said.

Ryan works for Charlie Appleby in his day job – “From the floor, not on top anymore”, but went on to say that the trip on that track would be the worry for New London, the favourite for the race. His stamina appeared to run out in much the way of Alleged all those 45 years ago as he finished third behind the Roger Varian-trained Eldar Eldarov.

Frankie got one thing right, Haskoy going past the post three places ahead of Emily Dickinson in second, but what he didn’t do correctly was to satisfy the stewards that there was nothing wrong with his riding. They found he had caused interference to fourth home Giavellotto, trained by Marco Botti and ridden by Neil Callan.

They demoted Haskoy to fourth, promoting Giavellotto to third and also giving New London a knock-on promotion to second. It’s quite a big deal in prizemoney terms, second and third both doubling up their original earnings while Haskoy, far from gaining a profit on the deal after the £50k supplementary fee, is now in deficit. No wonder Beckett, “under the interference rules”, is planning an appeal.

If the last few days have been a changing of the guard in terms of the Monarch, it was very much a similar situation in the race itself. The previous five winners had all either been sons or grandsons of Galileo. Yesterday he didn’t have a representative and the only second generation runners were sixth-placed 150-1 shot El Habeeb, by Al Rifai, and last home Lizzie Jean (100-1), by Nathaniel. He died last summer, so a maximum of two more crops of three-year-olds can represent him as Classic contenders.

The winner, third-placed over the line New London and fifth home Emily Dickinson were all by Dubawi, Galileo’s sparring partner for the past decade. Now, with a freer field for a few years at least, he can enjoy a King Charles III-like interregnum at the top of the stallion charts until the next King of the Sires comes along.

For Varian it was a second St Leger triumph, following Kingston Hill eight years ago, but a first for David Egan, the highly personable and talented son of weighing room legend and shrewd bloodstock dealer, John.

I had the good fortune to be representing Jonathan Barnett, one of the owners in Varian’s sprinter Dusky Lord, along with part-owner Jennie Allen at her home course. We stood in the paddock together with trainer and rider before the race. Dusky Lord had a near impossible draw but ran well. I was delighted for both trainer and rider, for whom Eldar Eldarov looks a stayer to follow.

Over in Ireland Kyprios kept up the pressure in the staying ranks, the four-year-old seeing off fellow older gentleman Hamish in the Irish St Leger. By then his Goodwood Cup victim Trueshan had failed to deliver odds of 9-2 laid on in the Doncaster Cup, his erratic steering in the last 100 yards viewed low down from right on the winning line as Hollie tried to straighten him for a final flourish. Coltrane, expertly ridden by one of this site’s ambassadors, David Probert, was a deserved beneficiary of what Alan King clearly believes is the memory of Trueshan’s hard race at Goodwood behind Kyprios and Stradivarius on faster than ideal ground.

It was gloom all round for the Trueshan team of owners. Their best-known member, Andrew Gemmell, had taken the 10.30 train from King’s Cross, travel time 90 minutes and arrived via a taxi five minutes before Trueshan’s race – scheduled off time 2.45.

All through what remained of the afternoon, Tony Hunt, Andrew’s “eyes” for the day monitored the denuded Sunday service which promised delays and cancellations, so I thought it appropriate on such a day to offer a lift to Central London.

We had a lovely three hours listening to the Test match, reminiscing about the Queen – yes, I did meet her and shared a few words when she visited the Daily Telegraph and talked about reading the racing page every day! – and learning the latest about Andrew’s great staying hurdler, Paisley Park. What a day!

- TS

Monday Musings: Quelle Weekend!

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Compacting the 2020 racing season in Europe’s three major nations has caused some difficulties, but when weekends like the one we’ve just witnessed happen, then assuredly it will be remembered for many years, writes Tony Stafford.

The last of four days of the St Leger meeting started on Wednesday with a trial gathering of 2,500 spectators and then neutered back again to selected insiders only by rising Covid-19 infections, if not deaths, both locally and nationally. France, meanwhile, had its customary trials day on Sunday, three weeks ahead of the Arc meeting itself, and Irish Champions Weekend, at Leopardstown on Saturday and the Curragh yesterday, completed the puzzle.

Normally the trainers associated with the big winners would have wanted to be there to witness their achievements. That wasn’t the case for Joseph O’Brien, who completed an astonishing feat in his 28th year by becoming the only man since the great Harry Wragg to first ride and then train a St Leger winner when Galileo Chrome got the better of Berkshire Rocco under Tom Marquand on Town Moor.

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As has been widely reported, Marquand fortuitously got the ride on his first Classic winner because his proposed mount, English King, was re-routed to Longchamp’s Grand Prix de Paris yesterday - where he ran disappointingly. Original booked rider Shane Crosse was in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19 despite showing no symptoms and “feeling on top of the world”.

Harry Wragg, born in Sheffield in 1902, was one of the leading jockeys between the wars. Known as the Head Waiter for his preferred style of leaving his challenge late – a 1930’s prototype of Jamie Spencer - he won two St Legers, although only the first was truly authentic. Sandwich, in 1931, was trained at Newmarket by Jack Jarvis for the 6th Earl of Rosebery, once captain of Surrey CCC. The 1943 winner, Herringbone, trained by Walter Earl for the 17th Earl of Derby, the last of his six St Legers and twenty Classics in all, was a war-time substitute run at Newmarket.

Wragg’s sole training success in the St Leger was in the 1969 race when Intermezzo won under the Australian jockey Ron Hutchinson for Gerry Oldham. Thus Wragg, who began his training career in 1947, took 38 years between riding the winner of the Classic and training one.

Joseph O’Brien had retired from riding by the age of 23 having been a triple champion jockey in Ireland. He was 20 years old when Landing Light won the St Leger. Compared with Wragg he certainly isn’t any kind of “waiter” with just seven years between the two events.

Back in 1980, a year before Wragg’s retirement from training and only five before he died aged 82, I visited him at his Abington Place stables in Newmarket’s Bury Road, accompanied by his son Geoff who would take over the stable with continued success in 1982.

I went there with Prestatyn-born Bryn Crossley, who sadly died two years ago, as at the time I was helping book his rides. We worked together for only that season, when he was apprenticed to Geoff Huffer at Cheveley Park, the racing stables now the location for Cheveley Park Stud. It was mutually satisfying when that very popular and personable young Welshman became Champion Apprentice that year.

Harry Wragg had booked Bryn for his three-year-old filly Popaway, a sound stayer who from (questionable) memory had 6st9lb in the long handicap. The old master, a true innovator, and one of the first trainers to weigh his horses regularly, wanted to go through the race with Crossley and it was quite an experience for us both. Bryn claimed 5lb and was planning to get down to 7st2lb – which he comfortably managed - for only the second time in 1980. The first was on Jim Bolger’s Lynconwise at Leicester, a race he won very easily on Whit Monday.

There was a chance that if the original Cesarewitch top-weight were to come out at the overnight stage as was rumoured, there would be a big hike in the weights, but he stayed in and that left the very tough Popsi’s Joy, owned and bred by the bearded solicitor Victor Morley Lawson and trained by Michael Haynes at Epsom, to run almost loose on 8st6lb.

Haynes shrewdly booked Lester Piggott, still at the height of his powers in his mid-forties, for the ride at his minimum weight. Two furlongs out Crossley took Popaway to the front, but Lester and Popsi’s Joy were always going easily and soon joined the filly. The two horses quickly drew away from the other 25 runners which included Sir Michael, who had won for Huffer the previous year and John Cherry, successful four years previously under Piggott. Popsi’s Joy won comfortably by a couple of lengths with Popaway around five lengths clear of the rest.

Popsi’s Joy won eight races in 1980 and 17 in all, culminating in a four-length victory as a 10-year-old in the Tote Cesarewitch Trial at Warwick. He survived at Michael Haynes’ stables until dying, aged 25, in 2000.

There was a post-script, as the top-weight, who did eventually miss the race despite having been kept in until the final declaration stage, was to make one further minor footnote in his career.

In those days, the Press Association, where I worked for three years in the early 1970’s, used to issue for Weatherbys a daily bulletin of Official Scratchings in a system far removed from the instant technical processes of today. At the bottom was a sorry final section entitled, “All engagements – dead”. There within a few days of the race, while we were still bemoaning Popaway’s bad luck to be so far out of the weights, was the name of the absent top-weight. If that had happened in 2020, the conspiracy theorists would have had a field day. I think at the time I was just about the only person who noticed.

Incidentally, Morley Lawson had already owned a Cesarewitch winner, the Arthur Pitt-trained Ocean King, ridden by lightweight Tommy Carter in 1974. The previous year, Morley Lawson, then aged 67, won an amateur riders’ Flat race on that horse. I’ve mentioned here a million times about my part-time additional job as Editor of the old Racehorse newspaper. In the first front page piece I wrote for that still revered weekly, I happened to select Ocean King, who won at a long price.

In that issue, it was attributed to The Editor, and on the following Monday morning, my colleague Roger Jackson passed on a letter from Peter O’Sullevan noting the great tip and wishing him a successful career in the future. Understandably Roger’s name, alongside his greyhound selections, was the only one the always very gracious future Sir Peter could find to congratulate.

***

This past weekend was one of tremendous success for Irish stables, not least for the evergreen Dermot Weld who sent over his improving filly Tarnawa to beat Jean-Claude Rouget’s self-professed “champion filly” Raabibah by three lengths in the Prix Vermeille a couple of hours before his Search For A Song repeated last year’s success in the Irish St Leger. Amazingly – and I’d be willing to bet he never expected it to happen – that took him level on nine wins with Aidan O’Brien in that Classic’s long history.

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Weld is 72, but he was not the oldest winning trainer at the meeting. Both Jessica Harrington, born a year before Weld, and Jim Bolger, her senior by a hardly-believable five years when you see him, were on the scorecard yesterday. The only notable non-celebrant on the day was Kevin Prendergast, still going strong and training winners. Kevin was born in 1932, the year after Harry Wragg’s first St Leger win as a jockey!

Harrington’s Cayenne Pepper won the Group 2 Blandford Stakes, but it was the exuberant triumph of her two-year-old colt Cadillac in Saturday’s mile Group 2, a win and you’re in ticket to the Breeders’ Cup, that caused most eyebrows to rise.

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Over the weekend, British-based – or more accurately Yorkshire-based – trainers won four races, three of them yesterday. The single link is that John Quinn, who won a Group 2 race with the ultra-tough seven-year-old Safe Voyage on Saturday;  Richard Fahey, with a Sunday double, and Kevin Ryan, who won a sprint with Glass Slippers, are all Irish.

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Mrs Harrington needs to get somebody, presumably her daughter Kate who often works as an expert – which she surely is! - on Racing TV’s Irish coverage as well as an important cog in mum’s operation, to talk to Wikipedia. That fount of sometimes accurate knowledge, says she is “principally a trainer of National Hunt horses but has had some success in Flat racing”. Well said, Wikipedia.

One of the features of this behind-closed-doors season, which started in Ireland with Naas on June 8, has been the astounding success of the irrepressible Johnny Murtagh. He has already won 41 races, gaining a career-defining Group 1 win in Saturday’s Matron Stakes with the ever-improving Champers Elysees who came from last to first to see off the Group 1-winning  Coolmore pair of Peaceful (Aidan) and Fancy Blue (Donnacha). Johnny, highly successful in his time at Ballydoyle of course, continued riding when he first took out a training licence and was in the saddle in 2013 for his first four stakes winners, three at Group level. Champers Elysees was his first Group 1 and a memorable one.

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Murtagh also concluded the two-day and two-venue extravaganza with a spectacular handicap win with his 99-rated (up from 68 three runs ago) Sonnyboyliston, who drew almost five lengths clear of the other 21 runners. Talk about a Group winner in handicapper’s clothing!

Meanwhile Dad and the two precocious sons more than did their bit to keep the family firm in the ascendant. Donnacha had only a handful of runners over the two days but yesterday his Galileo filly, Shale, carrying the Derrick Smith silks, reversed Debutante Stakes form with Joseph’s Pretty Gorgeous when making all in the Group 1 Moyglare Stakes.

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Joseph wasn’t content with just the one Group 1 winner over the weekend, though. In a high-class renewal of the National Stakes his once-raced Thunder Moon produced a sensational burst from an unpromising position in the colours of Mrs Chantal Regalo-Gonzalez. Aidan’s duo of Wembley and St Mark’s Basilica avoided trouble in that congested affair to take second and third. It would be more than interesting to see Thunder Moon and Cadillac line up in competition before the end of the year, maybe in Kentucky.

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And as ever there was Aidan. His two 2020 Derby winners, Santiago from the Curragh and Serpentine, who made such a mess of the Derby field at Epsom, reappeared, although to be pedantic Santiago had run third to Stradivarius in the Goodwood Cup in between.

Serpentine went across to France for the Grand Prix de Paris and could finish no nearer than fourth to his hitherto disappointing stable-companion Mogul, who had gone into Epsom as the Ballydoyle number one. This was Mogul’s third run since Epsom and he took advantage of his subsequent race-hardening to suggest that those earlier high hopes for him were not illusory. Serpentine, foregoing front-running this time, will have plenty to say in the future, I’m sure.

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The two 2019 Derby winners were also out over the weekend. While Curragh hero Sovereign could not keep up the gallop after setting the pace in the Irish St Leger, Anthony Van Dyck avenged that Goodwood Cup reverse for his stable by holding Stradivarius all the way to the line in the Prix Foy at Longchamp. He has not always been able to replicate the form that won him last year’s Derby but on his day, and given fast ground, he’s a formidable Group 1 performer.

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Sorry Aidan, it’s not going to get any easier keeping that armada of middle-distance Classic colts apart, especially when you add to the mix Tiger Moth, a four-length Group 3 winner on Saturday in his first race since a strong-finishing second in the Irish Derby. And that’s not to forget where Magical comes into the picture. Good enough to stay close to Ghaiyyath before outpointing her York nemesis memorably in Saturday’s Irish Champion Stakes, this insatiable five-year-old phenomenon will keep her male companions in the shadows for as long as she wants to continue.

- TS