Equinties - non-runners

Gm Equinauts

Well, it all kicked off on air yesterday between Eve Johnson Houghton and presenter Lydia Hislop:

In short, the Pattern committee, which Lydia is a part of, are changing Royal Ascot’s Windsor Castle Stakes to 6f from 5f and making it eligible only to horses by winning sires of over 7f at 2yo and a mile plus at 3yo. This is in line with the new changes to the Chesham over 7f too.

And so begins the ‘debate’.

Lydia (and the Pattern Committee) have made these changes so as to reward the upper echelons of the UK and Irish middle distance breeding programmes by effectively ruling out any ‘cheap speed’ horses renowned for their early precocity.

At a quick glance, only 3 or 4 horses running in last years Windsor would be eligible to run and more, some winners of it in recent years (SOUTHERN HILLS, SOLDIER CALL and ARDAD) wouldn’t not be able to enter.

As of next year, horses by rocket sires such as DARK ANGEL, MEHMAS, KODIAC and HAVANA GREY - all out, not allowed to run!

This has huge, huge consequences for a whole host of highly important facets in horse racing.

Eve, who perhaps didn’t deliver on her points as succinctly as she’d like to, is bang on the money. The majority of owners, both new and old, will have quite limited budgets and will buy a ‘cheap speed’ horse with the Windsor being only the viable option if their horse has any ability.

Yes okay, there is the Norfolk and the Queen Mary over 5f too but they’re a higher grade so realistically if a small owner is going to dream of anything, it’ll be the Windsor, of which that door has been firmly closed shut on them.

Eve is right when she says racing will lose a huge market of ‘dream big, little owners’. Let’s use Basher Watts as an example - his first past the post in the French Guineas was by far bigger for racing in attracting a new audience than MINNIE HAUK and LAMBOURN winning the Epsom Derby/Oaks double for the same billionaire connections.

The change gives chance to sires such as CRACKSMAN (who sired an Arc winner) but as Eve echoed, most of the progeny from these sires need time and June will simply come way too fast! Eve should have really drilled down on that point. It’s a nice idea to give less fashionable but good stallions platform but this is the wrong time, 100%.

This change will also massively impact the breeze up markets too, with DARK ANGEL’s and especially MEHMAS being all the rage now not eligible to compete.

We spoke to top breeze-up consigner Mark Grant who said without a doubt this change works directly against the breeze-up model.

So what does this mean for the future of breeders?

Well, the emphasis is all on middle distance and taking away from an area we’re struggling with on the world stage anyway.

We might be looking at the Aussies now and laughing at them over the likes of ZAAKI and VIA SISTINA mopping up all their big races and setting new track records, even at 5,6 & 7 years old, but are they not laughing at us. ASFOORA is no where near the best sprinter down under yet came here and blitzed our big sprint and will probably come back for more this year!

The way things are going, the Aussie’s will have the last laugh in the world of sprinting.

Purely on the basis of keeping new and young ownership attracted to the sport, we think the Windsor should have been left well alone.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUND UP

GUNG-HO FOR ALLAHO

There was a bidding war in the ring and we’re not talking about something that will feature at Royal Ascot next week. Yep, sorry, we know it’s June but we have a little bit of jumps news for you.

Dan Skelton was the final bid for a three-year-old son of NO RISK AT ALL for €165,000, and his dam, CLARE GLENS, is a LIMNOS half-sister to the two-time Ryanair Chase winner ALLAHO.

Set to run in the pink and blue colours of Stephen Bough, silks that were carried to success at Cheltenham last season thanks to FORTUNE DE MER, Skelton, for obvious reasons, highlighted this youngster as a main target, so to pick him up is a win for the yard.

On the horse, Skelton said: “Bidding sort of stalled around €140,000 but we loved him. He’s obviously a great sire but we’ve not had many horses by him in the yard so hopefully he’s a big name for us going forward.

“We just loved him. Everything checks out well; he’s got a big pedigree, he compares favourably with the other horses we have seen here and we had him right near the top of the list.

“We do everything at home. We’ll have him up at the stud farm [Alne Park], break him in and get him going. We will probably do five or six weeks with him, get him going and then have him out in the field.

“He’ll come in with all the other three-year-olds at the end of September and we try to get two racecourse gallops into them; one around December and one in March. If they thrive off that much work, we will run them, and if they don’t, we will leave them till the autumn.”

If he turns out to be anywhere near as good as his successful family relation, Skelton could have a rather exciting one on his hands.

As for some other notable purchases at yesterday’s Goffs Arkle Sale, Jonjo & AJ O’Neill picked up the WALK IN THE PARK half-brother to LABAIK for €140,000, but these two sales were not the top lot on the day.

That title went to Ellmarie Holden and her father, Paul, who were the same daughter-dad partnership that picked up JONBON for €140,000 at this very sale six years ago.

This time, they bought a NO RISK AT ALL gelding out of the POLIGLOTE mare GARMERITA, making him a half-brother to the Listed French winner SYRITA.
If they’re bang on the money again, this horse could well be worth a second look going forward.

THE GROUND

In the run up to last weekend’s Epsom Derby, it almost seemed like all we were talking about was the ground.

Actually, it was the only thing we were talking about, because, for a meeting of that size, it was pretty crucial.

The Downs received plenty of rain in the few days before the Derby to add to the watering that commenced a couple of days previously. That, ultimately, saw conditions turn to the softer side.

It seems like Ascot has no worries of conditions worsening ahead of next week’s Royal Meeting, as the Berkshire track is watering.

Chris Stickels, clerk of the course, said: "We're good, good to firm in places. We watered today on the straight course with ten millimetres, and we'll water round the bends tonight with three [millimetres].

“We're dry until Thursday, but from then until Saturday there's the possibility of the odd thunderstorm. As for Ascot week, it's going to be largely dry until at least Wednesday.

"We're a week away, however, so I'm not entirely confident the weather is going to play out like that. If I had to give a ground prediction for the opening day's racing, it would be a mixture of good and good to firm.

"It has been quite dry since the beginning of March, but we've just been irrigating when we've needed to."
Good to firm ground at Royal Ascot is honestly perfect. Connections plot their horses towards Ascot with the hope of these kinds of conditions, and soft ground can easily ruin things, even if it can make punting a bit easier from time to time.

A quick look at the Met Office reveals that Ascot is predicted showers on Thursday, but every day before and after that until Monday is clear. Roll on.

NON-RUNNERS

Non-runners, it seems to be todays theme!

We had a few fairly big-time non-runners confirmed yesterday.

To keep it short and sweet, ECONOMICS will not go to Royal Ascot for the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, and FALAKEYAH will miss this weekend’s Prix de Diane.
These two horses are quickly becoming slight enigmas. ECONOMICS is a horse of so much talent, but he’s had his issues, and he has shown himself to be a bleeder on track.

As for FALAKEYAH, she was mightily impressive in the Pretty Polly at the start of the season but, we haven’t seen her since because Burrows didn’t want to go to the Oaks, and now, luckily for a certain syndicate group, she’ll miss the Diane.

This does leave this weekend’s French Oaks looking fairly open, and Charlie Fellowes will be wanting to make up for their French 1000 Guineas heartbreak with SHES PERFECT.

But, could there be another English hope to look at further down the market?

That’s because Ed Walker is pitching AMERICAN GAL, the Listed Prix des Lilas winner, into deep waters by running her in the Diane.

By KAMEKO, who has had a flying start to his career at stud, she is a half-sister to the Group 3 winner GRANNY’S KITTEN and the Group 1 winner KITTEN’S DUMPLINGS. Furthermore, it seems as if Walker is going against the comments of Christophe Soumillion, who rode her to that Listed success last month.

He said: "Christophe felt the Diane would be a step too far for her, and I respect Christophe's opinion enormously, but I'm not worried about that.

"It might be a bit too much too soon in her career, but she's already a Listed winner and we were very much eyeing this up afterwards, and it's her only chance to run in a Classic.

"The owners and I are very keen to go and if she's not good enough on the day, then so be it – most of them won't be – and she'll tell us if she is. We're certainly up for having a go."

Who is to say Walker’s wrong right now? He hasn’t left the winners enclosure recently!

Good luck to them for trying - some times you have to take a swing at the stumps from the boundary!

RISK ON

Another lovely winner from Eve’s yard yesterday, there are more to come.

The only horse we think deserves a small wager is:

16.30 AMBUNDANCE

Trainer Portman is in good form and we think this lad can finally get his head in front in a weak novice. He gets weight from the Haggas filly owed to his sales price and the form of his last two starts are good enough to win this. He’ll also enjoy the small cut in the ground more than the Haggas horse too. Other market rival for Burrows might need further. 15/8.

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