British Champions Day has rolled around again with its prodigious title and all the same issues it has carried since its inception, the biggest one being the belief that Britain needed such a day to round up the season. To have the day this title bills it to be, you need the best racehorses.
In Flat racing, to make it a champions day when you are in Europe, that means the best Ireland and France have to offer, along with some German participants. You are aiming for championship fare, and the billing requires fields to match.
Many great minds seem to want to take an axe to the National Hunt programme because of the diluted or perceived dilution of its programme. Yet all one has to do is look at where the National Hunt season builds to, and the realisation is there that at least it has a climax. Where is that on the Flat? Where do Royal Ascot, Goodwood and York lead to? Some will say nowhere, and they are stand-alone highlights, but I don’t buy that because sports fans always want to know where winners are going next and who will oppose them.
The obvious answer is Irish Champions Weekend and Prix de l’Arc weekend in Paris, which leads the best on to the Breeders’ Cup and further global travel if they so wish. Yet this day hangs in the background like a safety parachute, giving those at the top options to keep ducking D-Day. I fully understand the programme and its need to provide options to create winners, which in turn develop clashes, but at some point, that has come to a head.
It does so for the long-distance brigade, who clash in June at Ascot, and reoppose at Goodwood or York, divide for Doncaster or the Curragh, go to France and come here if the tank still has fuel. Kyprios, Trueshan, Coltrane and Sweet William are in the opening stayers’ race today, where Kyprios’s injury-plagued season could mean he has the freshest legs now.
As for the sprint, Kinross could go back-to-back in this event because of the ground, but please don’t even attempt to argue that this is a vintage Group 1 sprint. Of those who has finished in the first three in any of Britain’s other four six-furlong Group 1 sprints this season, only he lines up today.
The Fillies’ & Mares’ have Free Wind, Bluestocking and Time Lock for the home team; Jackie Oh, Above The Curve and Term Of Endearment for Ireland; and Rue Boissonade for France. Still, it lacks Blue Rose Cen, Warm Heart, Soul Sister, Al Husn, and Savethelastdance for strength, and the vote, on a soggy surface, goes to Bluestocking.
The QEII probably trumps the Champion Stakes in terms of quality, with our Paddington and Tahiyra lining up alongside Big Rock and Facteur Cheval from France and Nashwa, Chaldean and Triple Time from the home team.
Can the star three-year-old filly Tahiyra down Paddington, the best mile colt of the season? Or will Nashwa make up for an unlucky run in the Irish Champion stakes? Could Chaldean return to his 2000 Guineas form, or can Triple Time repeat his Queen Anne heroics? Perhaps I am overlooking the French, but either way, this is a belter and is what this day is meant to be about. Then again, before the day was created, the Queen Elizabeth II was a cracking contest on its own.
Tahiyra is the one for me, and then normality returns, ‘normality’ being a feature race without the ones you want. Ace Impact and Auguste Rodin are not here, neither are Luxembourg or Onesto. Westover is injured, and Hukum is retired, so we have a small, slightly underwhelming field, and George Boughey thinks so too because he runs Via Sistina here instead of against the females earlier on the card.
Mostahdaf is the star name, but his participation hangs in the balance because of Storm Babet, and now his absence from Leopardstown looks like an even bigger miss. Today’s race, instead of a trip across the Irish Sea, was chosen for him after York … options, options, options!
Kevin Stott lost the Amo racing job two days after Leopardstown, which left the ride on King Of Steel up for grabs, and Frankie is the one who claimed it. It is also easy to argue Frankie, riding Onesto at Leopardstown, was the one who sat too far off Auguste Rodin, thus leaving King Of Steel and Nashwa too far back - the plight jockeys face when making split-second decisions.
Kevin and Hollie chose the wrong option in following Frankie instead of Ryan, which is hardly a crime in sport, but Kevin lost out, and now the ball falls at Frankie’s feet as he has a shot on King Of Steel. But this is not a penalty kick. His form on a slow surface is uninspiring, and Bay Bridge is a hardened, older performer who loves to hear the ground squelch.
Great British Racing - yes, they have such a body in the UK - had built this whole day, this year, on Frankie’s swansong. His final ride is in the Champion Stakes, but it’s only his last as a licence holder with the BHA.
When the runners go to post for the final race, the Balmoral handicap at 4.25, Lanfranco will be holding a press conference. The catch is that most questions will relate to his future rather than his past. I am sure that will interest many, but it will lack the emotion and finality that such billing was intended to have - unless the Italian maestro pulls a rabbit from the hat. I bet even the greatest showman is not looking forward to that gig.
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