Sea Of Grace beats an Aga Khan owned rival to land Group 3© Photo Healy Racing
Internationalisation has been an ambition for ‘Irish Champions Weekend’ from the start and in the third year of Irish flat racing’s shop-window event it is the unlikely figure of top French trainer Jean-Claude Rouget who promises to deliver that vital element. Rouget’s ambition to run his Prix Du Jockey Club winner Almanzor in the Champion Stakes, and his star fillies Qemah and Ervedya in the Matron, indicate how this €4.5 million concept has already carved out a niche for itself. Reward for Rouget now could significantly reward the event in the long term.
If Almanzor and Qemah in particular were kept for races in France no one would bat an eyelid. For all that he has saddled over 6,000 winners Rouget isn’t renowned for raiding abroad. Most Irish racegoers wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a line-up. Yet ‘Champions Weekend’ is luring him here in force, no doubt a decision containing loads of factors but which ultimately highlights the impact this comparatively fledgling concept has already had at the top-level.
Luring Japanese or US runners is always a long-shot, good for headlines rather than real likelihood. But after two years when four of the 10 Group 1 prizes have been won by cross-channel runners, and four others going to Ballydoyle, the profile boost that can come from a strong and successful raid from France this time can’t be underestimated. And from a competition viewpoint it is obviously to be welcomed.
Quarter of a century after Suave Dancer last landed the Champion Stakes for the French there would be a nice symmetry if Almanzor could win and even his presence alone alongside Harzand would provide a clash-of-the-Derby-winners theme around which everything else could hang. Of course a lot can happen in less than two weeks. The weather — again — is likely to be a major factor in every line-up. But one certainty is that Monsieur Rouget is unlikely to want for attention from Ireland over the coming days.
Still on the weather, but on a different topic, given the notorious unpredictability of Ireland’s climate there is a logic to how stewards panels use their discretion when it comes imposing penalties on horses being declared non-runners due to changes in ground conditions from when declarations are made. Discretion however should hardly be an invitation to do nothing and there is a sense out there that too often it is the case.
If the theory is sound, too often the practicality isn’t. Last week, Capri, widely believed to be the main threat to his stable companion Churchill for the Group 2 Futurity, was declared a non-runner due to the change in going from declaration time. The Curragh ground had changed to yielding to soft on the straight course.
Except Capri had impressively won his previous race, a Listed contest at Tipperary, on yielding to soft going. Prior to that, the colt had won on yielding ground at Galway. There was no evidence that the change in going would have impinged on Capri’s performance. He might be better on a different surface but as a reason not to run it was weak. No penalties were imposed.
Of course the Ballydoyle team, like anyone else, can only play with the system that operates. There’s also the reality that interpreting ground is a subjective exercise which lies behind the discretionary element to stewards’ interpretation of rules that theoretically allows them fine connections €200 and ban the horse from running for two days if they feel the circumstances merit.
Nothing has changed since that memorable 2013 Galway Plate won by Carlingford Lough, the first reserve getting a run because another JP McManus owned horse, Like Your Style, was declared a non-runner due to the change in going. The ground that day was soft and when the handicapper pointed out Like Your Style’s best form had come on soft or heavy, the horse’s trainer Eddie Harty came out with the beauty about how that was “more circumstantial than anything.”
Later that year a skirmish between Gigginstown and the Turf Club over the Devil’s Bride case at Fairyhouse - on the back of a widespread belief that Michael O’Leary was effectively employing his own ‘reserve’ system — ultimately had the heat taken out of it. But the dangers of allowing a perception develop that circumstances can allow some connections play the system to their advantage is obvious.
So is it good enough that nothing has changed since that 2013 Galway Plate shone some uncomfortable light on the declaration rules? Are the current penalties sufficient or has the rule been reduced one of many ‘pat’ excuses open to connections who simply don’t want to run? Have many stewards panels simply concluded it is best both to say and do nothing? .
Quite often a simple examination of the formbook undermines the logic of a ‘change in going’ withdrawal and that information is available to everyone. On the ground realities might make all of it an exercise in optics. But optics matter and if operating the system doesn’t look good then it’s time for the system to change even if it doesn’t suit some.
John Oxx took his juvenile Born To Be out of Sunday’s Round Tower Stakes at the Curragh due to the change in going. His decision to leave another of Born To Sea’s progeny, Sea Of Grace, take her chance in the Group 3 Flame Of Tara Stakes paid off handsomely however although the trainer’s conclusion that the ground was as quick as she’d like it is interesting in terms of her future prospects.
As of now however Sea Of Grace looks a real Moyglare contender and there is no doubt at all about the widespread satisfaction for Oxx that he saddled a first Group winner in almost three years. The man himself will undoubtedly hate such a focus but it is that same reasonable, low-key and utterly professional perspective which makes Oxx such a widely popular figure as well as one of the legendary figures in modern Irish racing history.
It is almost seven years since Alandi provided him with the last of 37 Group 1 victories, just an hour after Sea The Stars’ Arc win for the ages. The idea that Oxx would still be waiting to add to that tally by 2016 would have seemed ludicrous at the time. The idea that Sea Of Grace might bridge the gap will be a ‘Champions Weekend’ reward for many.
