A couple of days behind our normal schedule, thanks to editorial saturation from Chantilly and Park Paddocks – but at least that left to better judges the question whether Aidan O'Brien might be the greatest trainer of the postwar era, or not even its best O'Brien. Certainly what he did on Sunday was right up there with the most epoch-making deeds of his namesake and predecessor. Remember that the odds collectively gave his three runners, their attributes all thoroughly familiar, little more than a solid place chance in the most competitive race on the European Turf. In terms of priming a horse for a target, then, this Arc 1-2-3 is perhaps best compared – as an unmistakable stamp of genius – to Vincent winning three consecutive Grand Nationals.
No less than for Vincent, in his subsequent field of operation, much has depended on a sequence of great stallions: Northern Dancer, Sadler's Wells, now Galileo. And, to that extent, all you can say for certain is that Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) must build giddily even on the foundations he has laid this summer before he can begin to match his racetrack status in his second career. Because we all know who's the daddy…
This Arc will doubtless owe its place in the annals sooner to the Ballydoyle trifecta than to its inherent quality. No faint praise is thereby intended of a winner whose serial near-misses at G1 level might seem to have definitively established her limitations, but who had counted Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) himself among her victims in just four previous starts at the trip. And the runner-up, equally, becomes the second consecutive winner of a supposedly moribund King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. to rebuke an immediate (and tediously predictable) consensus that he had failed to match its historic standards. Both horses, of course, hardly diminish the reputation of Almanzor (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who beat them over 10f in Ireland last month. But Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was exposed to a hot gallop that day and also seems at his very best over this longer distance. Like Found (Ire) (Galileo {GB}) herself, Highland Reel finished his 3-year-old campaign with a transformative performance overseas. He was used pretty hard as a 3-year-old, in fact, pot-hunting in Chicago and Melbourne on his way to Sha Tin, and his first two starts this year, in Dubai and back in Hong Kong, made it pretty clear that he needed a chance to regroup. The way he has done so is a real credit to his own constitution as well as to the dexterity of his trainer.
As you have doubtless wearied of hearing by this stage, I think his brother Idaho (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) even better than he has so far been able to show. As such, it would make sense now for Found to stick with her own sex in California, so leaving the siblings potentially to square up for the Turf. Between them they are threatening to turn Hveger (Aus) (Danehill) into a legitimate blue hen, sharing a dam as she does with two Australian champions in Elvstroem (Aus) (Danehill) and Haradasun (Aus) (Fusaichi Pegasus). On that basis their little sister, sold for 625,000 gns at Tattersalls on Tuesday, could very well prove worth every penny even if she never wins a race.
A Welcome Return – And An Absent Friend…
If O'Brien does proceed to a new record for G1 wins in the calendar year, his unfailing modesty will doubtless prompt him to acknowledge that his path has been eased somewhat by viruses besetting some of the major training centres. No doubt this has also been a factor in the success of so many raiders sent out from his own outlying lair by Jean-Claude Rouget. Certainly it beggars belief that Criquette Head-Maarek should have saddled only her third winner of the year when National Defense (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) tore clear in the G1 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagadere. She argues that this colt had resented restraint when third in the G3 Prix des Chenes over course and distance on his previous start, and that's a defensible view given how energetically he flung himself at his task on the lead. On the other hand, you might argue that he's just too goofy to go about his business at all effectively in a field of greater depth than he found here. Certainly there was all the difference in the world about the way Akihiro (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) switched leads and threw his shoulder into a change of gear when going away at the end of the Prix des Chenes. Let's hope there were no long-term grounds for his absence on Sunday, because there's no doubt which of these two has set the more sustainable curve of development.
Leading Ladies In The Wings…
The other juvenile G1 on the card, the Total Prix Marcel Boussac, was barely more convincing as a piece of form, Signor Dettori having been granted the freedom of the royal parks on the lead with the eventual third, Dabyah (Ire) (Sepoy {Aus}). Nonetheless it would be no surprise to see a couple of these cut the mustard at Classic level next season. Like her stablemate Brave Anna (War Front), Promise To Be True (Ire) (Galileo) was evidently not quite at her best in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. and the way she was bearing down on Wuheida (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) after a brief stumble – ultimately going down by under a length – augurs very well for middle distances next year. Her sister Maybe (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) made only a single, inconclusive start at 12f but their dam is from the family of Dancing Rain (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and Dr Devious (Ire) (Ahonoora {GB}); while the way Promise To Be True only hit full stride late in her first two starts left a strong impression that she should be getting an Oaks trip next year.
But the real eye-catcher was clearly Senga (Blame), whose jockey had anchored her at the rear in a hapless attempt to settle her off the dawdling pace. For her to break through the field into fourth, after racing so freely, vividly confirmed the promise of her maiden success at Saint Cloud last month. It looks as though the Niarchos family has produced a pretty potent cocktail from a young dirt sire and Beta Leo (A P Indy), herself a grand-daughter of Coup De Genie (Mr Prospector). Her action matches the American flavours in her pedigree and some day she might be worth trying on dirt, but there's hardly a need to derail her from the Pouliches/Diane track just yet.
No Limits on Limato…
The longest of days for the French, the relief of Mme Head-Maarek's personal siege apart, with Rouget for once unable to man the breach single-handed. But even the greatest chauvinist could not resent Englishmen as deserving as the trio who exported the remaining G1 prizes across the Channel. Not that many of the week's biggest spenders at Tattersalls seem at all likely to recognise the masterly accomplishments, specific or cumulative, of James Fanshawe, Henry Candy and Sir Mark Prescott – all, as a rule, criminally confined to the middle market by the insecurities that unite the dedicated followers of fashion. (These latter, it seems safe to add, tend to be equally reluctant to entrust the steering of G1 horses to the likes of Messrs Tylicki, Bentley and Morris…)
Prescott and Candy go back a very long way together and have all the “old school” virtues required to draw out the very best from a proper middle-distance horse. But the best blood in that category is seldom terribly practical these days. Candy has duly relied exclusively on sprinters for all his G1 wins from Kyllachy (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) onwards; while here was Prescott pulling an Abbaye winner, no less, out of his hat. Having said which, the way Limato (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}) dominated his rivals over 7f confirmed Candy in his instinct to go for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile rather than the Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. Paradoxically, that appealed as the right call even when Limato coped so well with the drop to 5f on his previous start. Though apparently something of a hooligan at home, he always seem to channel his energy very professionally on the track. Granted two turns on fast ground, he will have the push-button resources to deal with any draw in the Mile. I wouldn't envy the guy who shares his coop on the plane over – but just watch him take wing once they land.
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