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Sensible Decision from Canford Team
15/10/10
The temptation to run star miler Canford Cliffs in two high profile and extremely valuable races in the Far East this autumn must have been very hard to resist, but quite sensibly trainer Richard Hannon and the syndicate owners of the season’s star miler have decided to put him away for the season with a view to carrying on next year where they left off in 2010, writes Elliot Slater.
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An excellent bonus prize fund for the winner of the Sussex Stakes would have meant that any prize money would have been doubled, raising the prospect of as much as £1.5 million if Canford Cliffs were to win the Kyoto Mile in Japan on November 21. After giving it much thought however, and with the prospect of fast ground coming at the end of a long season for the son of Tagula, it was decided to play a waiting game and let the colt rest until next year.
Although Irish racing tips note that he tasted defeat in his first two outings of this season, (narrowly beaten by stable companion Dick Turpin in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes, before finishing a close third in the 2000 Guineas to Makfi), Canford Cliffs proved himself a very high-class performer with three successive victories at the highest level, first in the Irish 2000 Guineas, then the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, before memorably defeating Ballydoyle’s Rip Van Winkle by a very cheeky neck in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood in late July.
It is always easy for members of horse racing Ireland to go to the well once too often when the temptation is there to win big bucks with an outstanding racehorse, but in erring on the side of caution the Hannon team surely deserve to see Canford Cliffs mop up in the top mile events next season.
