By Chris McGrath
To the book-burners and marketing apparatchiks trying to undo hundreds of years of English Turf history, the Craven meeting represents everything they most despise. In their absurd abbreviation of the jockeys' championship, in fact, they have decreed that it does not exist at all. They sneer at this small, shivering crowd–peering across a bleak plain as a group of distant specks slowly transform into a group of slightly larger specks–as the ultimate symbol of the elitism and arcane ritual securing the aficionado against any invitation to share his privileges more widely. The true arrogance, of course, is their own. But if this is not quite the place to elaborate why, then it is certainly worth recording how even some truly atrocious weather failed to dampen the delight of those who emulated so many generations past, last week, in welcoming the resumption of racing at Newmarket for yet another year.
Not that even these diehards have any problem adjusting to such changes as evolve, organically, through properly seasoned judgements. These days, for instance, they know that most of the leading Guineas candidates will sit out the trials that for so long gave the meeting its principal interest–not least those prepared by Aidan O'Brien, who once again has a hot favourite for both of the first two Classics. But three of the more plausible rivals to Air Force Blue (War Front) were at least glimpsed blowing away the cobwebs with a public breeze, in 'TDN Rising Star' Emotionless (Ire) (Shamardal), Massaat (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and Marcel (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}); while another colt made a fairly spectacular bid to prolong the pertinence of the G3 Novae Craven S. itself.
Stormy Antarctic (GB) (Stormy Atlantic) certainly evoked times past in galloping over the Rowley Mile with neither magnification nor amplification, a biblical thunderstorm having just knocked out both the big screen and the race commentary. And his performance fully matched its seismic portents.
If anything, he seemed rather too electric in the early stages of his comeback run. Certainly you can see why Ed Walker should have been eager to break with modern convention and give his breakthrough colt a prep race. Stormy Antarctic was so fresh that his trainer must have been reconciled even by halfway to seeing Stormy Antarctic flatten out late on. In the event, however, the colt proved able to bound three and a half lengths clear of the odds-on Foundation (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) with a seamless exuberance.
Having required three starts in maidens to learn his trade, Stormy Antarctic nonetheless managed to share a photo for the G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud on his final start last autumn. Quite a raw type at two, he has since developed a brawny, nearly leonine physique; and he punches long and smooth, rather than in the coiled jabs of a soft-ground specialist. Obviously his proven proficiency in such conditions would seem to make him especially eligible for the G1 2000 Guineas, should the spring remain so very wet, but he handled the dip slickly and looks a legitimate contender regardless of the going.
Certainly he must be counted another feather in the cap of Brendan Holland and his team at Grove Stud near Fermoy, who educated Stormy Antarctic sufficiently to put up a 200,000-guinea breeze this time last year–while still leaving him on the kind of curve of sustainable improvement that has already produced Group 1 winners such as The Grey Gatsby (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}). That colt's trainer, Kevin Ryan, will duly be rubbing his hands over the 320,000-guinea son of Zoffany (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) recruited from Holland's nursery on the first day of the meeting.
Minding the Gap…
The winner of the equivalent fillies' trial earned a similar promotion in the betting on the G1 1000 Guineas, while leaving the impression that her performance sooner served as a signpost to broader prospects–both within and beyond her own stable.
Like Stormy Antarctic, Nathra (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) showed a bright turn of foot into the teeth of a violent squall to win the G3 Lanwades Nell Gwyn S. She probably had rather more in hand than implied by a margin of a length and a half, having travelled strongly through the race and taken over readily before idling in front. Frankie Dettori will certainly aim to produce her somewhat later, restored to an eighth furlong next time, whether back at Newmarket for the Guineas or in the French equivalent.
The latter may well recommend itself to John Gosden, her trainer, judging from the candour of his pessimism that Nathra might reverse form with Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who trounced her by 4 1/2 lengths over the Guineas course last autumn. Gosden declared that his filly had paid “a huge compliment” to “the most impressive Fillies' Mile winner we've ever seen.”
Dettori sounds similarly convinced by the favourite's superiority, but both men could nonetheless take heart that that Nathra was only one of four 3-year-olds from their yard to win at the meeting–collectively taking up the gauntlet already thrown down, in early skirmishes in Ireland, by their contemporaries at Ballydoyle.
Castle Harbour (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}) looked conspicuously streetwise for a Gosden debutant, but there was no mistaking the scope for improvement in Swiss Range (GB) (Zamindar), who saw out her maiden very strongly despite remaining but a shell of the filly she will become with time and, as daughter of a G2 Ribblesdale S. winner, with distance as well. Gosden's willingness to entertain the G2 Dante S. for Linguistic (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) meanwhile commanded respect for a colt who broke his maiden in the last of the Tattersalls Millions series, which has never been easy to gauge in terms of form. But perhaps none of the emerging talents he ran at the meeting shaped with more promise, for the longer term, than Wings Of Desire (GB) (Pivotal {GB}).
Considered much more backward than the stablemate who started favourite for the same connections, Eagle Top (GB)'s full brother responded exceptionally well to the discovery that he is a racehorse, palpably learning as he went through a 10-furlong maiden and finishing with gusto for third. His sibling's predilection for faster ground suggests that Wings Of Desire can become another high achiever for Lady Bamford's boutique Daylesford Stud this summer.
Cut and Run…
If Gosden and O'Brien have shared an intimidating start to their domestic campaigns, then Ed Walker was not the only young trainer to make a bold stand at the Craven meeting. Charles Hills saddled three winners, notably a sprinter in Magical Memory (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}) eligible at least to contest the same races as his departed stablemate, Muharaar (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). And while nobody would pretend that even a pair of testicles might entitle Ibn Malik (Ire) (Raven's Pass) to revive the CSP European Free Handicap as a Classic trial, he does look far more focused now that he has been castrated.
Hills has the G3 Jersey S. at Royal Ascot in mind–and so, too, does another trainer who enjoyed a breakout season last year in Hugo Palmer. Gifted Master (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), yet to be headed since his own gelding operation, was placed with what already seems familiar astuteness to win the final sprint in the Tattersalls Millions series. Whether either of these geldings will have quite the class to win a Jersey may be doubted, however; while the other putative trials scheduled for Newbury on Saturday–though enterprisingly salvaged at short notice on the all-weather circuit at Chelmsford–yielded nothing whatsoever to alter the Guineas picture.
Majesty and Mud…
Much the most striking performance of the weekend came from Dee Majesty (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), albeit the visual impact of his acceleration in the G1 Satsuki Sho was perhaps a little exaggerated by those who had contested such a frantic pace up front. Regardless, he can be credited with a fairly spine-tingling start to his Japanese Triple Crown campaign, while his sire extended his epoch-making CV with a monopoly of the podium.
Certainly Dee Majesty requires less credulity than a series of winners by huge margins at Navan on Sunday, most of whom made all or most of the running along the far rail while their pursuers drowned in the middle of a boggy track. Certainly we will need another look at Pretty Perfect (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in an Oaks trial before judging the substance of her success in a listed race. And while her stablemate, The Gurkha (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), won a mile maiden by nine lengths, those taking the form at face value might care to say whether they are doing the same with the laboured performance of the favourite, who staggered home fifth. He had finished second to US Army Ranger (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) at The Curragh a fortnight previously, and that colt remains as short as 3-1 for the Derby. Something, clearly, does not quite add up.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
