It’s been over three-and-a-half years now since I began writing for GG, and it continues to be an absolute pleasure to produce content about this wonderful sport. This week, we begin something a tad different as the powers that be have enabled me to produce a more personal column, discussing the key topical talking points in horse racing.
Now, as the proverb goes, us British love a moan. But no one wants another column focusing on the negatives of the sport. Yes, there are a number of mitigating factors as to why British racing doesn’t hold as strong a stance in the sporting canon as it once did. Crowd sizes, fields sizes, prize money, betting restrictions, public perception, just to name a few.
Undoubtedly, they are all issues that need to be addressed, and it would be incredibly naive to ignore crucial talking points related to the sports present and future state. However, I am keen to predominantly structure the column in a positive manner. We mustn’t forget that for all its frailties, horse racing continues to be one of the most unique disciplines in sporting entertainment and can capture emotion unlike no other.
The impact of Urban Sea on the thoroughbred breed
It was an historic weekend in Paris as Daryz became the first colt to win back-to-back Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes since Alleged in 1978 for Vincent O’Brien and Robert Sangster. Very few have attempted the feat as a stallion career beckons, but the likes of Hurricane Run and Workforce have failed to emulate the feat in recent years.
I think that among the external chaos we love to moan about in racing, we tend to forget the sole most important thing that fundamentally enables it to work, and that’s the thoroughbred. Daryz’s Arc triumph got me thinking, could you imagine how different the sport would look without the broodmare Urban Sea?
Trained by Jean Lesbordes, Urban Sea had a memorable racing career in her own right, peaking with success in the 1993 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. However, her legacy as a Broodmare is unlike no other.
In 2006, she foaled a Cape Cross colt by the name of Sea The Stars. Trained by John Oxx, he would go on to become one of the greatest thoroughbreds in the history of the sport, with an unblemished three year old campaign culminating in the 2009 Arc. As a sire, he’s gone on to produce the likes of Baaeed, Crystal Ocean, Stradivarius, Taghrooda, Harland, just to name a few, and of course, Sunday’s Arc winner Daryz.
Eight years prior to the birth of Sea The Stars was Galileo, also via Urban Sea. A Derby winner, and a subsequent Champion stallion that had gone on to shape the breed and become a huge part in making Coolmore the most formidable breeding operation in the game.
His most notable success at stud was of course Frankel. I could go on forever about the intricacies of breeding and progeny’s, but long story short – No Urban Sea, no Sea The Stars and Galileo. No Sea The Stars and Galileo, no dual Arc winner and Frankel. For one moment, could you even begin to imagine how different the sport would be?
Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
There is an old conspiracy theory that Simpsons producer Matt Groening is a time traveller and filled the show with hidden predictions for the future. I wonder whether Creedence Clearwater Revival wrote their famous hit to predict this unprecedented dry spell that’s currently wreaking havoc for National Hunt trainers.
The BHA have (surprisingly) already thought ahead and enforced measures to the beginning of the National Hunt season to combat the climate due to some courses unable to produce racing ground for the returning winter horses. Chepstow’s opening fixture has seen its chase contests removed and given to Worcester and Ffos Las next week, who’ll stage all chase cards. Warwick and Ludlow are others to have lost their meetings due to un-raceable going of late.
Financially, the ramifications on these tracks will be substantial as many rely on their opening meetings as a strong source of funds. Not only that, but trainers have the issue of not even being able to gallop their horses, thus falling short in their preparation for the new season.
The knock on effect of this is that most ‘winter’ type horses will likely not be seen until mid November, and there’s going to be a severe lack of time to prepare for some of the bigger targets when the season ramps up in December.
I’d be inclined to suggest this National Hunt season could take an entirely fragmented shape, particularly with a view to the spring festivals. National Hunt horses are typically bred and purchased with the view of soft, winter going, so I’d be heavily against the idea of even contemplating the ante-post markets any time soon.
There is some solace for the discipline though, as the Met Office have warned of the ‘El Nino’ phenomenon that could enforce heightened storms and downpours throughout the late Autumn and early winter. Though I’m not sure what Fernando Torres has to do with anything.
Aidan O’Brien’s concerning form – or is it?
It’s been nearly a month since Aidan O’Brien stated a ‘low-grade infection’ has swept through the yard, affecting the performances of his string.
By his standards, it feels as if he’s had an underwhelming season. Albert Einstein was the best thing since sliced bread coming into this but has been remarkably underwhelming, Constitution River was hailed as one of his best three year olds ever, hasn’t quite kicked on from his Eclipse success, Gstaad failed to master Bow Echo, and the pacemaker tactics have become something of a disaster.
The Ballydoyle maestro went just 1-22 at Longchamp last weekend, and while he has had 11 winners in the last two weeks, only three of those weren’t in maiden company, and one was the ‘freakishly’ talented Sun Goddess.
However, only 15 of his last 67 runners were sent off the SP favourites, with over half going off double figures. Not only that, but despite the general consensus he hasn’t quite scaled the heights of previous seasons, he’s won the same Group 1’s at this stage as he had this time last year and is on track to break his record.
He’s still won a 1,000 Guineas, the Derby, an Irish Derby, a French Derby, a Gold Cup, among several other coveted events and he’s produced several juveniles of late with classic hopes for next seasons. If there was one notable difference in years gone by, it’s that his fillies have done the heavy lifting this season, and there doesn’t appear to be a standout 10F-12F colt to retire to stud this year.
It does prove how fortunate we are to have the yard in the game though, and how at times we take his brilliance for granted, as even during a season that most would describe as below standard, he’s still won nearly a quarter of the European Group 1’s thus far this season.
Eyecatcher of the week – Carbine Country (Saturday 3rd October 1:00 Newmarket)
The final section of this column going forward will be a homage to our original GG.co.uk column, which included several eye-catchers from the previous week – albeit we’ll just narrow this down to one.
With Longchamp on everyone’s minds, I think the performance of Carbine Country in the Tattersalls Auction Stakes at Newmarket could go under the radar and he certainly will be one for the notebooks.
Gelded in March, and not seen until October, he’s evidently not been the easiest to deal with at home. However, he made an excellent debut despite looking all at sea throughout, beaten five lengths into fifth. He raced keenly under Rossa Ryan from the off, and didn’t appear to handle the dip all that well. However he finished off with plenty of running, beaten only two lengths behind the 92 rated A Bear Affair.
That was a highly promising debut, and I suggest there’s plenty more to come from the William Haggas trained son of Territories.