O’Brien hails the ultimate racehorse as mighty Magical lands Champion crown
You do not need to be the very best to be very marvellous.
Never was that more true than in the case of the mighty Magical, who sometimes wins and sometimes loses but never gives less than her all, which she gave once again when delivering Aidan O’Brien a first success in the Qipco Champion Stakes and prompting the master trainer to hail her “the ultimate racehorse”.
With son Donnacha in the saddle, as he had been when lowering the colours of Stradivarius on Kew Gardens earlier in the afternoon, O’Brien watched with pride as Magical shrugged off the exertions of running fifth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe just 13 days earlier to post her most valuable success.
The trip to Longchamp had been preceded by victory in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, where she set up a Champion Stakes double that was completed in beautifully straightforward fashion.
For most of the £1,358,750 feature Coolmore’s first lady sat in second but when asked to assert halfway up the home straight she responded in style, beating Addeybb by threequarters of a length, with Japanese raider Deirdre completing her European stay with an excellent third.
Magical’s ninth outing of 2019 – and the 21st of her career – took place in front of 29,029 racegoers, under a bright autumn sun and on Ascot’s “inner Flat course”, one that until this day had only ever played host to hurdlers.
A constant hurdle in Magical’s life has been Enable, a rival she has yet to overcome in five meetings, but while Galileo’s four-year-old daughter has a nemesis she also has a record to envy. Moreover, according to her trainer, she’s just a girl who can’t say no.
“When you ask Magical a question she always says yes,” said O’Brien. “She says yes to everything. Mentally she has never carried a grudge. She is unique. She gives her all and really is the most unbelievable filly.
“The Arc was a strongly-run race and she has come out of that and won here. She handles ease in the ground and goes on fast ground. What can you say? She is the ultimate racehorse – that’s what she is.”
O’Brien – who has now captured every British Group 1 except for the King’s Stand Stakes and Haydock Sprint Cup – heaped praise on the job done by groom Jamie Gillespie, while he also told us Donnacha rides Magical in all her work.
“He said today he didn’t think she felt in top gear at all,” said the jockey’s father. The jockey himself offered his own words of praise and noted he was merely standing in for Ryan Moore, who missed out on two big Ascot wins having been at Randwick, where Ten Sovereigns finished last in The Everest.
The hero of the world’s most valuable turf race, Yes Yes Yes, earned £3,645,856.35. Given he is part-owned by Coolmore, ‘the lads’ are still unlikely to be seen in a Travelodge any time soon.
“She is a trainer’s dream and a jockey’s dream,” said Donnacha O’Brien, while for the connections of Addeybb, honourable defeat was clearly no nightmare.
“He has run a fantastic race,” said trainer William Haggas. “We have to take our hat off to the filly. She is better than him but he has run a really great race – he was just threequarters of a length not fast enough.”
Nor was Deirdre fast enough, but having also won the Nassau Stakes and finished fourth in the Irish Champion, Oisin Murphy’s mount has represented her country most admirably.
“She is so tough and we are so proud of her,” said trainer Mitsuru Hashida’s son and assistant Yoshi. “We can not say thank you enough to this amazing horse. She has opened the gate for everyone in Japan.
“All of our team love Britain and British racing. It is so special. Every race has given us unforgettable memories. It has been a life-changing experience for us all. We are almost crying.”
For Deirdre there could next be a trip to Hong Kong in December. For Magical, all roads and freeways surely lead to California and, in particular, Santa Anita.
Aidan O’Brien added: “I would say the Breeders’ Cup is definitely a strong possibility and if she does go I would imagine she’ll run in the Fillies & Mares because Anthony Van Dyck has been going to the Turf for a good while.
“It would be unbelievable if she stayed in training – and she would be delighted!
“The lads haven’t kept fillies in training at five before but it doesn’t mean that won’t change as nothing is ever written in stone. It would be a dream for us if she did stay in training – but it has also been a privilege to have her for this long.”
Kew Gardens beats Stradivarius by a nose in thrilling Long Distance Cup
Different track, different result was the outcome of the Long Distance Cup in which Kew Gardens brought the successful ten-race run of last year’s winner Stradivarius to an end – but only just.
The marathon contest was the first of three races to be run on what is the jumps track but there were no winter-type winning margins as just a nose separated the front two at the line after a battle royal from the furlong pole.
Kew Gardens, on whom Donnacha O’Brien was standing in for the absent Ryan Moore, sat off the pace for much of the journey before striking for home early in the straight.
Frankie Dettori, who was untroubled in fifth for much of the journey on Stradivarius, followed last year’s St Leger winner through before moving ahead inside the final furlong.
In the end, the ground, which was changed to soft from good to soft, soft in places after the race, proved the familiar chestnut’s undoing and he floundered and allowed Kew Gardens to get back up.
A 7-2 chance, Kew Gardens was making up for lost time having had to miss the Gold Cup at the royal meeting in the summer due to injury.
The winning jockey said: “I thought when Frankie came to me he was going to go past me but this fellow found another gear and battled hard. I felt he was the one horse in the race where you could not be sure that Stradivarius is better than him.”
Aidan O’Brien, who was winning the Long Distance Cup for a third time, said: “We were training Kew Gardens for the Gold Cup here but he got injured and it all went pear-shaped. He barely made it back to run in the Irish St Leger and this was a step forward from that. The lads will decide if he stays in training but if he does we’ll hopefully be back here next June.”
As for Stradivarius, Dettori said: “It was much too soft for him. He couldn’t use his turn of foot and the other horse outstayed him in the ground.”
Owner Bjorn Nielsen said: “He’s had a great season and they all get beaten sometime. He’ll be back next season and he’s had a great ten-race sequence. He’s had a great run and hasn’t let us down.”
John Gosden said: “We were brave to run him but that’s not his ground. I’ll take nothing away from the winner, but he’s a top of the ground horse and has run an absolute blinder. There’s no disgrace in going down by a nose.”
King Of Change sets the record straight with cosy QEII win
King Of Change settled an old score with 2,000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia and eclipsed 14 others when landing his first win at the highest level in the mile championship.
Six months on from finishing second to the O’Brien runner at 66-1 in the Newmarket Classic, the 12-1 chance gained compensation in style to hand Richard Hannon a first win in the feature with old foe Magna Grecia only 14th.
Off a generous early pace set by eventual fourth Veracious, King Of Change appeared from the pack two furlongs out, but jockey Sean Levey looked to have gone for home plenty early enough considering the conditions when going to the front below the distance.
Through a slow-motion final furlong, Levey had enough up his sleeve to hold the late surge of fancied French raider The Revenant by a length and a quarter with 40-1 chance Safe Voyage in third.
The victory was a third Group 1 success for Levey and his second in two weeks after landing the Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket on Billesdon Brook.
Hannon said: “People thought I was a little bit petulant after the 2,000 Guineas for not celebrating being second, but we’ve always thought the world of this horse and to be second in the Guineas is a great run, but you don’t remember those. Now he’ll be remembered and it was all about next year anyway.”
A son of Farhh, who won the Champion Stakes in the mud on the same card in 2013, King Of Change reappeared from a summer break only last month to win a Listed race at Sandown, which was all part of the plan.
Hannon revealed: “We gave him the summer off as he’d had a hard race at Newmarket and we thought the ground would be too firm at Royal Ascot. Although it was soft there, which was a bit annoying, we stuck to our plan and he went to Sandown last month and then here. I’m not going to lie, I thought he’d win or go very close today.”
Owned by Rabbah associate Ali Abdulla Saeed, King Of Change will have races such as the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes and another crack at the QEII Stakes on the agenda next year.
After receiving his trophy from the Queen, Levey said: “That was a massive performance and he’s gone through the race like a different class of animal.
“When he ran in the Guineas people thought it was a bit of a fluke. But when he came in the autumn he was a massive stamp of a horse. We were worried about the ground but the way he’s been working all he had to do was handle it. I said to Richard that I’d ridden Toronado and Sky Lantern at home and neither of them gave me a feel like him.”
Levey thought his main danger was The Revenant and he was right. The latter’s trainer Francis-Henri Graffard said: “I hate being second. He came from the back and was staying on but he just got beaten.
“The winner won easily but we had to make up a lot of ground. He has run an excellent race and we are proud of him. He’s never been out of the first two in his career and he will stay in training.
Benbatl had been backed into 7-2 favourite but struggled in the latter stages and finished last.
It’s 250 Group 1 wins for Dettori as Star Catcher scraps her way to victory
Not this time you don’t!
One race earlier Frankie Dettori had been denied by Ballydoyle in a nose-bobbing showdown, but with the help of the extremely willing Star Catcher he ensured his party was not spoiled for a second time, narrowly landing a Champions Day success that gave him the 250th Group 1 triumph of his career.
It was on an autumn afternoon at Ascot 29 years ago that Dettori bagged his first Group 1 prize, victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes aboard Markofdistinction beginning what has become a frequently consummated love affair with the royal racecourse.
There have been many more good than bad moments here, but Long Distance Cup defeat on Stradivarius left him feeling, in his own words, sour. Altogether different was the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, in which the John Gosden-trained Star Catcher gave her all and then a bit more to deny Delphinia and Sun Maiden.
For Star Catcher this was a third Group 1 strike in 2019. For her 48-year-old jockey, who had been on her back for both those previous top-flight wins, it was his 18th taste of Group 1 glory in a year that has been consistently exceptional.
He had, of course, hoped the 250 milestone would be reached on Enable in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. That was not to be. Essentially, however, it has been one huge win after another. This was the latest.
“From crying to smiling in half an hour,” said Dettori.
“She is good and tough. It was a slog for everyone and I was definitely beaten a furlong out but she found a second wind. She is a wonderful filly and she has provided me with my 250th Group 1.
“It’s amazing, incredible. I knew I was on 249 before the Arc. I thought maybe that was going to be the one – but it wasn’t.”
This was the one – and the one on which it was gained is being kept in training by owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer. That is not the case with stable companion Anapurna, who finished 11th after slipping and falling when going out on to the track. She was also reported to have lost a shoe.
Gosden said of Star Catcher: “It was extraordinary to see the three of them fighting it out together and she was determined to get her head in front. You can have nothing but admiration for courage like that. She is a brave, wonderful filly and will now have a lovely winter off.”
The luckless Delphinia has been beaten into second by a different Gosden team member on her last three starts, but rider Seamie Heffernan took a philosophical approach, reasoning: “Second is better than third – but it’s not as good as winning.”
After a brief deviation from the norm, Dettori was a winner once again.
Escobar cruises clear to land Balmoral under Adam Kirby
Escobar cruised past his rivals to comfortably win the Balmoral Handicap by two and a quarter lengths, pulling the curtain down on Champions Day for 2019.
The 16-1 shot found an extra gear a furlong from home to down well-fancied 3-1 favourite Lord North, going one better on his effort behind Sharja Bridge in the mile contest last year.
The five-year-old had finished third in the bet365 Challenge Cup at Ascot only two weeks before and has been in the mix all season, and Adam Kirby was delighted to finally got it right aboard his mount.
“I usually have to ride him for a place, but today he got excited and kept going for me,” said Kirby. “I’ve always said when I first started riding him that here was a big one in him, and I’m really chuffed with him – he’s a proper horse.”
David O’Meara admitted he was worried Escobar would have too much going against him, but paid tribute to Kirby for giving the son of Famous Name a tremendous ride.
“We were worried about the ground and the draw (21) beforehand but he handled it well, and Adam gave him a lovely ride. He dropped him in and it’s come off.”
The 28-1 outsider Mitchum Swagger stayed on well to take third a length behind Lord North for Ralph Beckett, with Glen Shiel claiming fourth.
fonte : RacingPost
