Don’t miss High Chaparral
To my way of thinking he is the bet of a meeting which is going to hold Racing Channel viewers spellbound for some five hours.
There are eight Breeders’ Cup races, starting at 6.20 and finishing with the Classic at 10.35.
High Chaparral’s contest is the second last and is due off at 9.55. We are going to have to have a half-decent dig at him!
Yes, yes I know we were mildly pessimistic regarding his prospects in the ’Arc at Longchamp just 18 days ago.
But that had to do with him being a hold-up price and also to the fact he was having a first outing for over three months.
Everything is relative and here’s one who would much prefer to take 7-4 about him being successful at Arlington than the 5-2, or even 11-4, which was available for the ’Arc.
Speaking to Aidan O’Brien on Tuesday, I formed the opinion he was confident High Chaparral was set to do the business.
Aidan never makes predictions about his horses, but a simple few words, such as “he has gone the right way since the ’Arc’’, is often worth a thousand utterings from lesser mortals.
High Chaparral went to Longchamp ring-rusty. He didn’t even have a day away from Ballydoyle and, ultimately, one suspects, simply wasn’t at a sufficiently high pitch to deliver in France.
The likelihood is we will see a sharper, meaner High Chaparral in two days time.
We don’t have as much information about the opposition as we would like and that, admittedly, is a drawback.
Golan is second favourite and you would have to respect him. He’s only had two races this season and will strip a fresh horse.
He does, however, take a long time to hit top gear and while he’s moving into fifth there has to be the possibility of the contest being, literally, over.
We are aware the American challenge isn’t very strong, numerically, and one of their challengers, Ballingarry, is well known to us.
He was trained by Aidan O’Brien when taking a Grade One at Woodbine in Canada at the end of last month. Racing Channel patrons saw that contest live and it was a decent effort on the part of the Sadler’s Wells colt.
But he has never been mentioned in the same breath as High Chaparral at Ballydoyle and, indeed, finished a well beaten third behind him in the Irish Derby at the Curragh.
A year ago Milan almost won the Breeders’ Cup Turf for O’Brien, finishing like a train to get within three parts of a length of Fantastic Light.
Trust High Chaparral to make no mistake this time round.
ALL the codswallop about Rock Of Gibraltar, mainly fuelled by some silly stuff in the Racing Post, ended yesterday and, as expected, he goes for the Mile, rather than the Classic, at Arlington.
The Post is a superb paper, most of the time, but there are occasions when it treats its readers as if they were stupid.
Take the lead-story on Monday and the opening paragraph. This is what it said: “Speculation that Rock Of Gibraltar could make a dramatic switch to the Breeders’ Cup Classic increased yesterday when the Tote installed the brilliant miler as their 3-1 favourite for the contest.’’
The Tote, I ask you. I mean, so what?
Then on Tuesday the lead-story told us that Rock Of Gibraltar had drifted markedly in the betting for the Mile with William Hill and Coral. This was further evidence, apparently, that, what the Post had called a “dramatic switch’’ the previous day, was about to take place.
Markedly my arse. One of them eased him from 5-4 to 6-4 and the other from 5-4 to 13-8. From one hold up price to a marginally better hold up price.
If those firms truly believed there was a real possibility he wasn’t going to run in the Mile then why didn’t they ease him out to say 3-1?
The Post would probably argue that Aidan O’Brien’s comments to a US teleconference that “there definitely is a chance Rock Of Gibraltar will run in the Classic’’, was part of the basis for their articles.
But did anyone ask Aidan if it was a 10-1 chance, a 100-1 chance or a snowball’s chance in hell?
There’s a chance I might win the lottery, so now I’m off to buy some tickets!
