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Waldgeist conquers
Waldgeist conquers
And the vanquished filly Enable stays in training for another year, writesPaul Haigh
FIRST, AN APOLOGY. The Sherlock Holmes approach to calculation of the likely identity of the Arc winner did not work – though only because of the sticky going which found the bottom of Enable’s stamina. But that’s almost standard Arc ground, you say.
Yes, but we haven’t had standard Arc ground for a year or two – or three – and anyway the possibility of the rain-gods tampering with the going was mentioned as one of the possibilities that might have prevented her from continuing her winning streak in the world’s greatest race.
To be fair to Enable her lifetime record, even if she has been less prolific, still looks at least the equal of Australia’s darling, now retired.
The Arc winner Waldgeist has seen so much of Enable’s backside in his own career that it’s hard to believe he’s the better horse, unless you’re also prepared to believe in the mystical powers of André Fabre.
He just got conditions that suited him better than they suited her, and the additional help of an inspired Pierre-Charles Boudot.
Enable did nothing wrong and neither did Frankie Dettori, although in retrospect he may have gone for home a shade too early. But it was a fair and square defeat. And that we thought was that.
Or was it? If she’d won to give us the unprecedented three in a row, the general assumption that we’d seen the last of her might have been right, because after all what was there left for her to achieve?
There was talk of the Champion Stakes, but John Gosden, correctly and perhaps even referring way back to precedent that may date from even beyond the misguided retrieval mission that saw Nijinsky beaten by his inferior Lorenzaccio after a hard race at Longchamp, probably vetoed that. Asking Enable to reproduce her best again at the Breeders’ Cup might have been equally ill-advised.
So off she goes to the paddocks and a rendezvous with one of the best stallions in the world.
Then someone, Lord Teddy Grimthorpe perhaps, may have said “She lost a race. Just one. And she certainly isn’t the worse for wear. Why not keep her in training?”
And Prince Khalid, perhaps thinking about the pleasure she gives him, perhaps wondering how long he’d have to wait for another who might match her, perhaps only subconsciously thinking about settling this Winx argument forever, said “Yes”.
It would have been so much fun to have sat in on the discussion. We can only guess at the way it went and rejoice at the sporting decision.
It’s the approximate opposite of one that might have been taken by, just for example, The Aga Khan, who seems to get his pleasure from breeding from new champions as soon as one has proved him or herself excellent.
That’s not to accuse His Highness of being in any way unsporting: it’s just the way he likes to get his kicks. But are we witnessing the beginning of a general change of policy, perhaps provoked by Winx? Just imagine if we’d been treated to five racing seasons of the great Zarkava.
If Enable had gone to Ascot where even stickier ground awaited – is this meeting ever going to be run on good racing ground? – would she have resumed her imperious progress anyway?
ONE THING’S CERTAIN: we wouldn’t have been subjected to the fusillade of encomia for her regular deputy, Magical, who has had the opportunity to examine Enable’s receding rear even more often than Waldgeist?
And would she have proved anything? In Britain’s richest race, the Qipco British Champion Stakes, Magical managed to hold off the very good handicapper Addeybb who improves by at least a stone when he gets soft going.
That was a highly creditable performance, but not the performance of a champion. It was the performance of a very good horse taking advantage of the champion’s understandable absence.
Magical has seen more of Enable’s tail than even Waldgeist, and yet someone very close to her even went so far as to refer to this admirable but perennial understudy as “the ultimate racehorse”.
The day that was supposed to identify Champions began inauspiciously (for most) when Donjuan Triumphant romped home at 33/1 in the Qipco British Champions Sprint.
Have you ever had one of those horses who really impressed you once on a – by Flat racing standards – quagmire, and then after you’ve followed him and followed him on ground you think must be soft enough but isn’t, up he pops like Goldilocks on what even the clerk of the course officially deems “Heavy” and says “Mmm, this is just right”.
Step forward Don. You’re the subject of this paragraph. Here’s a huge prize for your connections and, one hopes, a happy future for you at stud in France, which is not overly famous for its sprinters.
What the race proved was nothing much about whether Donjuan was champion sprinter of Britain. It just gave us a reminder that Silvestre De Sousa is a terrific rider, particularly of sprinters, and that Andrew Balding is headed for many years in the top flight of trainers.
Then came the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup, which for reasons known only to the people who decide these things is a Group 2 rather than a Group 1.
Well, everyone knows Stradivarius is the champion stayer, or at least everyone who hadn’t noticed that as a St Leger and Grand Prix de Paris winner Kew Gardens is probably the best horse he’s met in the two years he has been bullying his fellow stayers.
EVEN SO STRADIVARIUS should have won a race he hardly needed to have contested if he hadn’t floundered occasionally in the boggiest parts of the track.
What can we say about this race? Only that Donnacha O’Brien, who is nearly six feet tall, and whose father himself says he can’t have many years in the saddle, rode a great finish to get the better of the rightful champ by the width of a violin string.
Was John Gosden, who this season really hasn’t suffered too much, going to have to tolerate a hat-trick of defeats for his stars on ground that doesn’t suit?
No, because Star Catcher just wasn’t having it. The Irish Oaks and Prix Vermeille winner fought like a tigress on ground now upgraded to “soft” to squeak home from Delphinia and the not-yet-distinguished Sun Maiden to keep her streak intact and provide Frankie Dettori with his 18th (!) Group 1 winner of the season in The Fillies and Mares.
It seems barely credible that many of us were thinking only a few years ago that Mr. Exuberance was in the twilight of his riding career.
Donnacha, who was himself on a treble, will not be showing himself replays of Fleeting’s run unless he has a masochistic streak. Magical came next to restore his morale.
So let’s get to the point on this. Mid-autumn is not the time to be holding a championship meeting in Britain, because in Britain in October it almost always rains, and not just lightly but in a way that would have Noah himself checking the bilges.
A month earlier would have been perfect. Remember the last week or two of the Cricket World Cup? That’s when Qipco British Champions Day should take place. That’s when it would provide a preview of, or even one day come to surpass, the Arc weekend. Politically it can’t happen.
Not least because we all know who sponsors the Arc. But that’s when it would enable the meeting to identify true champions. And yes that’s (just about) a quip.
