But sanity prevailed. I remembered another solid racing adage: there simply could not be three or four champions, as the hype suggested; it just doesn t happen. Something was wrong. Something had got to give.
 |
| Mujahid |
It did. None of the "champions" finished in the first two! There were the same old excuses. The ground. The pace. The time. The tactics. But the truth is that the winner, Mujahid, finished two lengths - "going away" and "running on strongly" - clear of the rest of the field, headed by the Acomb Stakes and Champagne Stakes winner, Auction House. Those quotes are from the Raceform notes on the race in the official English form-book.
Yet, once again, Press and pundits hammered the winner for destroying their illusions. Mujahid was not made favourite for the 1999 2,000 Guineas (and there was plenty of 10-1 available for those who believed their own eyes) but the plain truth is that he deserved to be.
My good friend, the racing historian Richard Onslow, one of the last true gentlemen of the turf, believes that Mujahid may be a really good horse, having beaten not one but three highly-regarded rivals in Lujain, Enrique and Stravinksy. He is prepared to overlook his running in the Gimcrack Stakes at York, where he was hopelessly unsuited by the firm going.
"If one does that," says Richard, "one can say that he went to post for the Dewhurst as a completely unknown quantity in top-class company, being the unbeaten winner of two minor races.
 |
| Enrique |
"Generous also won the Dewhurst as a rank outsider and proved that was his right form, and some of his (and others ) earlier performances hopelessly misleading." I couldn t agree more.
It s a long wait until next year s Classics, and there are a lot of heavier horses jumping about in fields to distract the attention if they can, so I had a little each-way on Persian Punch at 33-1 for the Melbourne Cup (also tipped to you in this column when that price was available) and then sat back to wait for Swain i n the Breeders Cup.
David Elsworth had a cracking season, and deserves great credit for getting Persian Punch to within a neck and half a length of victory in Flemington - so does jockey Richard Quinn - when you consider that his five-year-old had an interrupted preparation due to ringworm, not to mention having to travel to the other side of the world. Have another go next year, David, and start preparing now!
The Aussies won t like it if you win. Their feelings, or the feelings of some of them, at least, were made perfectly clear after Taufan s Melody and Ray Cochrane had won the Caulfield Cup for Lady Herries a fortnight earlier.
Fourth in the Caulfield was the Godolphin hope for the Melbourne Cup, Faithful Son, though it was never on the cards for me, and so it proved, that he would last the two-mile trip at a breakneck pace on firm ground at Flemington. Which brings me to another Godolphin disaster, Swain.
Where Persian Punch can try again, Swain cannot. What an awful way to bow off the world stage which you deserve to dominate by swerving away two-million dollars in the Breeders Cup! His jockey, Frankie Dettori, too embarassed afterwards to answer questions as to why he was whipping with his left hand as the horse veered to the right, was at last contrite when he was finally made to blush on camera as he went on stage in London in November to collect an award on behalf of the leading older horse of the season. That horse was none other than Swain.
With nothing to write home about themselves, the English contingent at Churchill Downs was left reflecting on what genius they had lost to the States after defector extraordinary Michael Dickinson produced Da Hoss to win his second Breeders Cup Mile.
The so-methodical Michael is best remembered here for training the first five home in a Cheltenham Gold Cup. Martin Pipe, our jumps-racing champion trainer, must be glad that Michael switched rules from jumps to Flat -- and switched countries, too.
That leaves Martin clear for another great steeplechase season, I m sure. But I sigh for Malta and a bit of sunshine. So I ll hand over this column until the 1999 Flat season. Take care. And believe what you see with your own eyes.
| All photographs in this article by Lesley I Sampson Comprehensive library of Colour Prints available. MAIL ORDER SERVICE (Send SAE for Price List and indicate any horses of specific interest) All 5 Classic Races covered annually and major meetings at the following courses: Ascot, Epsom, Newmarket, Doncaster, Kempton, Sandown and York plus the winter all-weather racing at Lingfield. Well known horses on file include: Dancing Brave, Nashwan, Lammtarra, Sadlers Wells, Pebbles, El Gran Senor, Oh So Sharp and Xaar plus many others less famous! Photographs available for advertising and editorial purposes including extensive stud visits, well known horses as Stallions, or even as foals and yearlings. Tattersalls Sales covered. Standard reproduction rates. Commissions undertaken Blue Riband Photos, 5 London Road Cottages, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 0TW Tel: 01638 661256 |
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