Jet Setting beats Minding in a thriller© Photo Healy Racing
Has it come to this, that flat racing, populated by Sheikhs, royalty and billionaires, is actually more of an open shop than the salt-of-the-earth National Hunt game? Can it be true? An awful lot of egalitarian notions will have to be binned if it is. But ponder this — could a trio of top-flight prizes have been spread around over jumps to the extent, and the manner, in which the Curragh’s Guineas weekend features were?
It’s always dangerous to draw definitive conclusions from snapshot evidence. And if predicting such things was easy we’d all be billionaire tax exiles with snappy titles to our names. But it’s not just a single weekend which is leading plenty sane and sensible people to view the jumps as much more of a closed shop these days.
As always there are necessary qualifications to be made here in terms of pointing this out not being a criticism of those with the keys to the National Hunt shop.
Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott have created this position on their own initiative, largely by attracting the patronage, and the spending power, of an oligarch of elite owners who snap up the vast majority of the best talent.
And there’s no disputing that even their wealth can pale in comparison to some elite flat owners who have near-limitless resources being pumped out of the ground or the breeding shed.
But there’s no escaping how much of the winter action in particular has become a very closed shop indeed with a handful of trainers and owners basically carving the Grade 1 pie up between them.
Coolmore’s overarching influence in Ireland is famous, and there have been seasons when that strength in depth has made tackling them seem an exercise in hope rather than realistic expectation. But it has rarely been the solo that it can appear to be when the Mullins team are in full swing, or when Gigginstown, Rich Ricci and Martinstown start swinging with a vengeance.
The international element on the flat is a contributory factor but over the years Jim Bolger, Dermot Weld and John Oxx in particular, equipped with their own major owners, have taken up the challenge and the net result is a competitive environment that mightn’t fire the popular imagination in terms of racecourse attendance figures but is nevertheless a reality.
By any measure though the weekend Guineas festival was remarkable. Calling Awtaad’s 2,000 a victory for the ‘little guy’ is a stretch considering he’s owned by Sheikh Hamdan but Kevin Prendergast was a hugely popular winner. Only in racing could Maurice Regan’s Newton Anner Stud be filed under ‘little guy’ but Fascinating Rock did vary things up . However Jet Setting’s 1,000 was astounding.
A 12,000 Gns purchase out Richard Hannon’s yard, handled by a 33 year old training for barely over two years, and owned by a syndicate which hardly calls Monte Carlo home for tax purposes, this really was ‘fairytale stuff.’ One onlooker likened it to Jer’s Girl over hurdles, except of course she had been snapped up by JP McManus by the time she was winning Grade 1’s.
No doubt it was a blip in overall terms. But on its own terms it was still a refreshing blip that reflected a level of variety which mostly used to be the preserve of the jumps sphere but not anymore.
Admittedly such things aren’t set in stone although the Derby’s status as racing’s greatest classic has been engraved for over two centuries. Even so it was hardly a great weekend for the great race.
Awtaad wins the Irish Guineas in style, possesses a pedigree that already makes ten furlongs look a piece of cake and is immediately targeted at the St James’s Palace Stakes. Air Force Blue runs a shocker in the Irish Guineas so The Gurkha gets rerouted to the James’s Palace. Frankie Dettori says Galileo Gold will get a mile and a quarter and no prizes for guessing where he’s going too.
The Galileo Gold matter has been well aired. Ballydoyle have a squad of Derby contenders although there was a time when even the scintilla of a sniff of Derby glory would have had even Coolmore going to Epsom with every gun blazing. But it was the rationale behind Awtaad that reflects commercial realities.
“Hopefully he’s going to be a stallion for the stud and he’d look and even more attractive proposition if he were to win the St James’s Palace,” Shadwell’s Angus Gold was quoted as saying.
No doubt it is logical and makes economic sense. But the idea of Awtaad not being an even more attractive stallion prospect if he were to become a Guineas and Derby winner says a lot.
Summer isn’t the best time for winter stars to receive their due but last week’s Anglo-Irish National Hunt classifications rubber-stamped Faugheen’s status as an outstanding champion, one that somehow has yet to fully grab the public imagination.
Maybe that might have something to do with how Willie Mullins has maintained a steady reserve in relation to the 2015 Champion Hurdle winner compared for instance to his public pronouncements on Douvan, Annie Power and Hurricane Fly.
Since the last decade provides ample evidence that Mullins’ judgement is pretty good, his opinion is by definition tough to argue. But it is also by definition coloured by what he sees every day whereas the handicappers view is dispassionate.
And cold analysis of Faugheen’s 15 length demolition in January’s Irish Champion Hurdle has resulted in a 176 rating that places him equal to Istabraq at his 2001 peak, and ahead of Hurricane Fly.
Different handicapping criteria are used for the hurdling division compared to steeplechasing so Don Cossack tops the figures for a second year running. The Gold Cup winner is a true champion. But Faugheen is exceptional by any measure. Fingers-crossed he comes back from injury as good as ever.
And finally, the Curragh may be facing into its brave new world but there’s a long way to go judged on the Guineas attendance figures. Weather conditions didn’t help but 5,804 on Saturday (down 384 on 2015) and 5,903 on Sunday (down 715) is pretty paltry stuff. And it leaves open the most vital question of all — did Joanna Lumley pay in?
