The year of Golden Horn?
Uncomplicated and small as they are, they provide convenient shorthand for locating competitions and competitors instantly in their time and place.
1956: The year of Ronnie Delany.
1982: The year of Seamus Darby.
1985: The year of Barry McGuigan.
1990: The year of Teddy McCarthy.
2015: The year of Aidan O’Shea (okay, this one is still only a ‘maybe,’ but who knows!) You see how it works.
A season or a summer is separated from all others by a performance or pattern of performances that eventually aggregate to a lingering association with that year forever.
Which is exactly why marketing Flat racing is such a relentlessly unforgiving challenge.
To elevate the sport from the sameness of the year before and the probable sameness of the year to come needs performances, on track or off, that are by definition extraordinarily rare.
For instance, the three most recent Irish Derby winners, Camelot, Trading Leather and Australia were all top class race horses, beautifully prepared and competently ridden most of the time, but none of these colts possessed the charisma that would pin their name forever to a summer.
Timeform publications, the closest thing to science in an opinion driven sport, has been trying to put this ability into objective numbers for almost 70 years.
On their scale a rating of 140+ classifies an ‘outstanding horse’, 130-139 an ‘above average Group One winner’, 125-129 an ‘average Group One’ winner it cascades all the way down to slow handicappers that grace Southwell or Sligo on summer Sunday afternoons.
Only 14 horses have ever touched 140 or above, creating a rough expectation that a good ‘un will come along every five years or so. In the last decade two remarkable colts who have met the top level criteria.
Frankel in 2011/12 was rated 147, the highest ever, and Sea the Stars in 2009 was awarded 140. As a result these particular seasons will forever be recalled as ‘the years of’ Frankel or Sea the Stars.
Hopes for 2015, at least on this side of the Atlantic, now rest on the well-toned shoulders of Golden Horn who returns to the track at York on Wednesday for the Juddmonte International Stakes following a longish break since winning both the Epsom Derby and Eclipse earlier in the summer.
John Gosden’s lightly raced colt has already clocked a Timeform rating of 133 and is a short priced favourite for what could well be the defining race of the year, especially as it is increasingly likely that both Gleneagles and Time Test will turn up to test his mettle.
ver in the States they have already solved their 2015 ‘year of’ problem.
When American Pharoah won the Belmont Stakes in early June, he became the first Triple Crown winner since Steve Cauthen steered Affirmed to the same treble 37 years ago. Bob Baffert’s colt also recently returned after a break to win the Haskel International Stakes at Monmouth Park in a canter and his reputation is rocketing far beyond the immediacy of the racing community.
His off track backstory is not doing the cause any harm either.His owner, Ahmed Zayat, lives a life that is routinely described as colourful and controversial in the States or as we might say here — he sounds like a bit of a chancer.
An orthodox Jew with a Muslim name, Cairo-born Zayat reportedly tells friends “When I deal with Jewish customers, I’m Ephraim from Englewood; when I deal with Arab customers, I’m Ahmed from Egypt.”
A sizable gambler, he’s currently fighting some tasty lawsuits from disgruntled creditors who allege he hasn’t coughed up the several millions of betting dollars that he owes them.
He was embarrassed again recently when he accused the US Jockey Club for mucking up the spelling of his beloved colt’s name, leading them to release documentary proof that he is one of the very few Egyptians that can’t spell ‘Pharaoh.’
This combustible combination of equine brilliance and owner eccentricity has driven racing to both the front and back pages of American newspapers this summer.
In contrast, Golden Horn’s owner, Anthony Oppenheimer is a relic of old Anglo-South African decency. A former president of the De Beer’s mining company his Establishment family are the long standing sponsors of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot as well as running the small but relatively successful breeding operation.
In June his horse became the first unbeaten Derby winner since Nashwan in 1989 to follow up in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown but, having since side-stepped the King George, the race on Wednesday fires the first shots of an autumn campaign that will define his place in history and conclude whether this domestic Flat season is worthy of uniquely special memory.
t is certainly the most interesting Flat race run in Europe this season with several fascinating ingredients in the blender. A Derby winner staying down in distance, Europe’s best three-year-old miler moving up to 10 furlongs and an unexposed improver who some informed judges expect to be the best of them all in the long run.
The value of Golden Horn’s Derby form has been validated since both by the runner-up Jack Hobb’s subsequent stroll in the Irish Derby and his own victory against decent older horses in the Eclipse.
Aidan O’Brien is on more of a wing and a prayer with Gleneagles (Timeform 130), both in terms of his ability to stay the extra two furlongs and his preference for the good ground which is, as yet, uncertain. If the ground is good and his stamina does hold he brings intriguing possibilities to the contest.
The third intriguing element is the presence of Roger Charlton’s easy Ascot Group Three winner, Time Test.
By far the most underexposed of the principal contestants he is incredibly highly rated (130) for what he has so far achieved, but then no horse race has ever been diminished by the presence of ‘unknown unknowns.’
American Pharoah will never to run on grass and Golden Horn’s owner has already discounted the Breeders Cup on dirt, so the transatlantic celebrity death match is unlikely to occur, which means the history will remember the domestic season largely on what happens on the Knavesmire on Wednesday afternoon.
If Golden Horn dispatches his high-class rivals with aplomb and then goes on to win the Arc unbeaten it will be a memorable body of work.
Anything less and it is just another season of ‘what ifs.’
