Prix De L’Arc de Triomphe: Don’t disrespect bog standard maidens!

On an overcast Kilkenny afternoon about this time last year a seemingly bog standard two-year old maiden race was run at Gowran Park. Of the sixteen starters, most were unexposed types and although they represented many of our high profile training operations it didn’t quite feel like one of those golden maidens that hid unrevealed secrets for a sparkling future. Looks can sometimes deceive.

The winner was Newsman, last seen competing off a rating of 85 in a Curragh handicap and the runner up, Mittersill, hasn’t been seen winning an early season Cork maiden off 82. In less bureaucratic language – these horses are about three stone short of classic ability.

But time has proved that were was indeed a secret in the race, a big fat one. It was the colt that finished a tenderly handled fifth, running on well in the last couple of furlongs from a slow start and was, as the formbook prosaically described it, ‘closest at finish.’