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Racing News |
A Season of Stars at Newmarket
17/10/09
From the daffodil days of spring to the first frosts of autumn it has been a season of stars at Newmarket’s two racecourses - a Sea The Stars season.
In early May, just a few weeks after Mon Mome had become a rare 100-1 winner of the John Smith’s Grand National, Flat racing needed a class act to wrest the limelight from its jumping counterpart. It sought a star and found one, the great Sea The Stars, who lined up for Newmarket’s stanjames.com 2000 Guineas as a colt of promise, but comfortably conquered his peers and teed up one of one of racing’s great journeys.
His one-a-month romp through some of Europe’s most famous contests started with that Rowley Mile rout of Delegator and Gan Amhras, was followed by a day to remember at the Vodafone Derby, included memorable beatings of ten-furlong specialists and finally the hammering of all-comers in Europe’s richest race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It surely won’t be long before his sons and daughters come to Newmarket to follow in his famous footsteps.
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In mid-April Sea The Stars was still limbering up at John Oxx’s Curragh stables, and Fantasia was the talk of the town following her win in Newmarket’s Leslie Harrison Memorial Nell Gwyn Stakes. Victory by seven lengths in a leading trial slaked the thirst of Flat devotees, and when Delegator took the banshahousestables.com Craven Stakes it was game on for the Guineas - in hindsight, finishing second to Sea The Stars was a fine effort.
Ghanaati, a twice-raced filly from Barry Hills’ Lambourn stable, beat Cuis Ghaire and Super Sleuth in the stanjames.com 1000 Guineas and later won Royal Ascot’s Coronation Stakes, while an early test of the country’s leading sprinters saw Amour Propre win the stanjames.com Palace House Stakes.
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Back in third was Fleeting Spirit, who became the darling of the July course when racing switched from the Rowley Mile. Lining up in the Darley July Cup, the Jeremy Noseda-trained Fleeting Spirit jinked a little when bursting clear of the pack, but straightened for the line and won comfortably. Main Aim, who runs in today’s Victor Chandler Challenge Stakes, finished runner-up ahead of South African representative JJ The Jet Plane. Australian star Scenic Blast, who had been so impressive when winning Royal Ascot’s King’s Stand Stakes, could do no better than tenth.
This was not the only top-class performer in action at the July meeting, for Goldikova’s Etihad Airways Falmouth Stakes victory bore the hallmark of a brilliant filly, while Arcano’s TNT July Stakes win and Silver Grecian’s success in the Meydan Superlative Stakes stamped them as leading juveniles. Arcano’s subsequent victory in the Darley Prix Morny was narrowly gaineds but boosted when Rowley Mile action resumed at the Cambridgeshire meeting.
Special Duty, who had been second to Arcano in France, took the Electrolux Cheveley Park Stakes in the manner of a filly who will take some stopping in next year’s Guineas, while Awzaan’s Shadwell Middle Park Stakes win was his fourth in succession and suggests he will be back at Newmarket on the first weekend in May.
FOND MEMORIES OF A FABULOUS YEAR
Champions’ Day marks the culmination of another year at Newmarket involving memorable races on the Rowley Mile and joyous occasions on the July Course.
Managing director Stephen Wallis describes his role as a “privilege and pleasure” and adds: “It’s made inspiring by the horses and the people who work here. The staff at Newmarket are a fantastic team and they make my job so much easier.”
Asked about his personal highlights from the 2009 season, Wallis says: “Sea The Stars and Ghanaati, the winners of our classic races, must top the list, and Goldikova’s victory on the July Course was very special, but one thing I’ve learned in my second year as MD is how good the two-year-old racing is at Newmarket.
“Two Godolphin juveniles, Poet’s Voice and Alzeer, who won Saturday afternoon maiden races on the July Course, and Treble Jig, who did the same for Sir Michael Stoute’s stable, stand out - they are the sort of horses to sustain you through the winter.”
For clerk of the course Michael Prosser, ‘green shoots of recovery’ refer to grass growth not the economy. He says: “It’s been an unusual year in terms of the weather. We watered for the Craven Meeting, then right through the spring and even the first meetings on the July Course, yet we had no need to irrigate for the July Festival - which is rare - nor for the first six of eight days on that track in August. That was a bizarre and unusual scenario, and then we had a very dry September.
“I’ve been clerk here for nine seasons and there have been two years that were particularly tough due to climatic conditions. In 2003 it was dry throughout, but in some respects that was easier than this year, because all the weather forecasts were accurate - there was no rain coming so we just watered.
“This year there have never been any easy decisions to make, but fortunately we have an excellent team who can respond to the conditions that present themselves. In the last eight seasons we have spent a lot of money upgrading machinery, on staff training and the irrigation system, which is now the best in the country. A succession plan means that if any member of staff is sick or off work someone else is trained to step into their shoes.”
As the Newmarket season nears its conclusion - there is one more two-day meeting at the end of October - Prosser’s work load shows no sign of abating. He says: “It’s been a fascinating week because I have received more phone calls about the ground and weather than for the previous 34 race meetings. It’s been hectic and pressurised, which I admit I enjoy, and the staff have done a marvellous job with the ground.”
Asked for a racing highlight to savour, Prosser says: “If you look at the horses Sea The Stars beat this year’s Guineas was a vintage. The Darley July Cup fills me with joy because we have worked very hard to become involved in the Global Sprint Challenge - we have international aspirations and we attracted Scenic Blast and Takeover Target from Australia, JJ The Jet Plane from South Africa and a fine winner in Fleeting Spirit.
“The two-year-old races on the July Course were very strong - Arcano, Silver Grecian and Misheer will take high-rank in the juvenile ratings - while the Cheveley and Middle Park Stakes were top-class, and in the same year that is rare.
“One horse that particularly caught my eye was Al Zir, who won a maiden for unraced two-year-olds in early August. In nine seasons the only horse I’ve seen win a maiden with that ease was Motivator.” Praise indeed.
