Future Champions Festival, they call it. Two days at Newmarket, Friday and Saturday, with the G1 Fillies Mile followed a day later by the race that often crowns Britain’s champion two-year-old, the G1 Dewhurst Stakes. Both are juvenile races full of hope for the future.
That emergence of a precocious talent with classic potential brings a buzz of expectation through Europe’s autumn term when the possible stars of the future gild their juvenile reputations.
The Dewhurst has been a key race since 1875 and the first four winners went on to win classics the following season. Its reputation was established quickly and its honour roll is impressive.
This Dewhurst has been reduced down to seven runners and six of those are owned by either Godolphin or Coolmore, the outlier being the Qatari-owned Gentle Hurricane.
Godolphin’s number one contender is the unbeaten Desert Castle, already touted as favourite for next year’s first colts’ classic, the G1 2,000 Guineas. Coolmore’s picks are the G1 Golden Fleece Stakes winner Darkness Falls and G2 Coventry Stakes hero Great Barrier Reef. The Dewhurst is a ‘stallion-making race’ so expect hype to build around whatever wins.
But two-year-old races don’t make champions. As the Newmarket marketing people suggest, this is about ‘Future Champions’. A champion, after all, must be a proven mature athlete competing against and defeating other proven mature athletes.
That’s what we saw last Sunday in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe: Daryz as a strong four-year-old, at his athletic peak, quickening away from race-smart, battle-hardened, top-class opponents gathered from across multiple generations and countries.
In Japan, it’s normal for generation-leading three-year-old colts to race on at four, some even at five. In Europe, retiring a star three-year-old colt has so often been the normal way – sometimes even a two-year-old – the lure of the money to be made from stallion fees is too strong and the aversion to defeat or risk of injury is apparently too great. Stallion value must be maintained and met.
That being so, the sport and its fans should be grateful to Princess Zahra Aga Khan and her team that they kept Daryz in training beyond his three-year-old season. It was a move that few would have made. If history is anything to go by, the late Aga Khan himself would most likely have sent Daryz to stud a year ago.
It was interesting then to hear Daryz’s trainer Francis-Henri Graffard state after Sunday’s Arc win, “I wish I could be allowed to win the race with him for a third time but I don’t think I will be allowed to.”
The hope was he might. The feeling was always that he wouldn’t. But there is no question Daryz’s second Arc win marks him as a rare colt anyway, because what sets apart a great champion is coming out as a four-year-old, conceding weight-for-age and showing you’re better than the younger classic generation, too.
Look through the long list of Dewhurst winners and certain names pop: New Approach, Shamardal, Rock Of Gibraltar, Pennekamp, Zafonic, Generous. And that’s just the last 35 years; go further back and there’s El Gran Senor, Grundy and the incredible Nijinsky.
But with the exception of Nijinsky, perhaps, none of the Dewhurst winners pop from the list quite like Frankel, Mill Reef, Bayardo, Hyperion and Ormonde. Why? Because those six greats had the extra kudos of being rock solid champions who raced on after their classic season: Mill Reef aside (injury robbed him of that chance after two early wins at four), they all carried the heavier burden in weight-for-age contests, they linked the years and the formlines; they proved their mettle and their brilliance at four, enhanced their story and cemented their legend, and the fans connected and loved them for it. The question of “What might have been?” was erased or reduced.
The line often heard when a standout three-year-old retires goes along the lines of “They’ve got nothing left to prove.” It’s a hollow statement. Return at four, show they can maintain their form as a fully mature athlete, that they can keep their head and meet the measures of almost all of history’s great colts.
Daryz has proven he is one of those champions and the sport is better for it. His two Arcs, his brilliance in his four-year-old spring and autumn will ensure he is remembered. If only all owners and owner-breeders were as sporting as Princess Zahra has been.
The dream now is that this year’s Dewhurst winner will live up to the ‘Future Champion’ billing. But the greatest hope, and what the sport needs, is for such a colt to race on at four, prove their champion status beyond doubt and most importantly in this age of waning interest, keep the fans engaged.
This Week In Horse Racing History
The previous year’s Triple Crown winner Affirmed and the season’s star three-year-old Spectacular Bid clashed for the one and only time in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on October 6, 1979. The four-year-old Affirmed came out the victor by three quarters of a length on his way to becoming the first US$2 million earner and being named Horse of the Year.
The great Italian champion Ribot won his second Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on October 7, 1956 and retired unbeaten in 16 races.
Secretariat stepped out on turf for the mile and a half Man o’ War Stakes on October 8 1973. He won the race by five lengths.
Global Blackbook
We look to Ireland and last Sunday’s Curragh card to find this week’s blackbooker, a daughter of Blackbeard named Pirate Anne Bonny. The Paddy Twomey-trained filly went into the seven-furlong maiden off one start, a promising second over six furlongs at Naas last month, in which she led two out, but showed immaturity, drifting and wandering under pressure.
There was none of that this time, though the juvenile still looked raw in appearance with plenty of upside to her. She broke sharply under Billy Lee, made all with her ears pricked and drew away easily under a hand-ride to win by six and a half lengths. The going was soft and she likely faced modest opposition, but the manner suggested there’s plenty more to come.
And then there’s her breeding. Pirate Anne Bonny hails from a top-class Moyglare Stud family: her second dam is Sapphire, Group 1-placed and winner of the G2 British Champions Fillies and Mares, who in turn is a half-sister to the champion stayer Kyprios, G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes hero Free Eagle, dual G1 Irish St Leger winner Search For A Song, G2 winner Custom Cut and Chester Cup winner Falcon Eight. And that impressive collection of siblings were all out of Polished Gem, a daughter of the G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Trusted Partner.
Her sire Blackbeard was top-class, winning the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Middle Park but never raced beyond his juvenile season. He is a speed influence, but Pirate Anne Bonny should get a mile, no trouble, and might well develop into a filly for the Guineas next spring.
What’s Coming Up?
Fillies Mile Day
Newmarket, England, October 9
Aidan O’Brien has won the Fillies Mile seven times, which is more than any other trainer in its 53-year history, and he’s won two of the last three. He could have half of the field this time with six of his left among the 12 at Monday’s confirmation stage: Dundalk maiden winner Haven looks to be the best of what seems to be a modest Ballydoyle team this year. Godolphin’s unbeaten Musical Times is the likely favourite after her impressive G2 May Hill Stakes win last time. Ed Bethell-trained Rogue Passion won a Group 2 in France last time defeating Amusingly, who last weekend eased past the colts in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. Andrew Balding-trained Forbidden Fire won a Listed race last time from Dewhurst Stakes candidate Rock Montreal.
Dewhurst Stakes Day
Newmarket, England, October 10
The Dewhurst Stakes is almost a straight match between owners Godolphin and Coolmore, with each having three remaining entries in the race. Godolphin’s main contender is recent G2 Champagne Stakes winner Desert Castle, the current favourite for the G1 2,000 Guineas, trained by Charlie Appleby. Coolmore’s top two candidates are the G1 Golden Fleece Stakes hero Darkness Falls and the G2 Coventry Stakes winner Great Barrier Reef, trained by Aidan O’Brien. Appleby has won the race three times in seven years, while O’Brien has won it eight times in total, including six of the last 13. Andrew Balding has won two of the last four, including last year, and has the only non-Godolphin or Coolmore runner, Gentle Hurricane, owned by Mrs Alanoud bint Hamad Al Thani of the Qatari royal family. Roger Varian, another past winner, could saddle Godolphin’s Rock Montreal.
Might And Power Stakes
Caulfield, Australia, October 10
This race was previously known as the Caulfield Stakes, dating back to 1886, and is traditionally a 2000m lead-up to the Cox Plate. This weekend’s field looks set to feature star mare Sheza Alibi en route to the Golden Eagle, attempting a distance beyond a mile for the first time. She’s set to face recent G1 Underwood Stakes winner Birdman, proven already at the distance in the G1 Doomben Cup. Another top-class mare, Treasurethe Moment, is also set to compete. ∎
