Equinties - a tribute to Jack de Bromhead

Gm Equinauts 

I’ve been dreading writing this newsletter.

The weekend’s events are such a tragedy, and with a family left so heartbroken, I questioned whether I had any right to talk about it. Equally, ignoring it would be wrong.

Jack de Bromhead’s life deserves to be celebrated and with the little platform we have, that’s what we’ll do.

Jack de Bromhead

Just as Henry did with his father Harry, Jack de Bromhead was always going to follow his father's footsteps in the racing world. At the age of 10, Jack was already capable of running the family farm; looking after the cattle, riding out every day and helping train the home yard superstars like HONEYSUCKLE.

Jack ‘loved racing, loved horses, loved ponies…he lived for it’ and he was good too. This year he not only bagged his first pony riding win but started to run up a small sequence of wins. I mean, his dad is one of the best trainers in the world – he was always going to be good, wasn’t he!?

Tragically, Jack died Saturday after suffering fatal injuries when falling from his pony at Glenbeigh. He was 13 and died doing what he lived for.

Two parents have lost a ‘perfect, funny, loving’ son, two sisters have lost an ‘incredible loving brother’ and the racing world has lost a phenomenal talent. Jack’s tribute, released by his family yesterday describes how Jack will always be cherished, always loved, frozen in time with a beautiful young soul. A perfect, perfect way to remember him.

From the bottom of our hearts, from everyone at BGP - our thoughts are with the de Bromhead family. Rest in peace, Jack.

Headline roundup

Burrowing into the Group scene

It’s been a fucking bullish few months for Owen Burrows as ANMAAT and ALFLAILA scored in the big Group races at Haydock and York respectively, but the Lambourn trainer tasted further Group victory as MINZAAL picked up a well-deserved maiden Group 1 when bolting up in the Betfair Sprint Cup.  

This four-year-old by MEHMAS handed Burrows his second-ever Gr1 trophy following HUKUM’s triumph in the Coronation Cup earlier this year – incredible stuff for a relatively new yard.  

Third in the contest last year, MINZAAL could return to the Qipco British Champions Sprint at Ascot next month – Burrows believes that even if it turned up soft, he would be able to handle it. 

Three is the magic number 

BGP’s Saturday NAP, TRIPLE TIME returned to the track for the first time after more than 300 days off to make it a hattrick of successes, hosing up in the Gr3 Superior Mile Stakes.

Once a potential Guineas horse for his trainer Kevin Ryan, this FRANKEL colt drifted in the market prior to the off after a plethora of non-runners due to the rattling quick ground, including The Queen’s REACH FOR THE MOON, but TRIPLE TIME had had no issues putting his three other rivals to bed over the mile-long distance.  

The Gr1 Qatar Prix Daniel Wildenstein at Longchamp on Arc weekend could be the target if he remains at a mile, though Ryan believes he could get 10 furlongs in time as he is quite relaxed in his races. 

Jockey Andrea Atzeni’s thoughts post-race: 

Big dreams for Ed Walker but a sad nightmare for Appleby

To add to what was already the most desperately horrible weekend of sadness, the death of a proper, proper horse made the world of racing even darker. One of the best horses in the world, COROEBUS broke down in yesterday’s Longchamp Gr 1, leaving everyone either speechless or in tears.

A poster horse for many, he trotted home in the Guineas and went on to win what was probably one of the best finished Royal Ascot has seen for some years in the St James’ Palace Stakes. I’m sick of saying this, but again, our thoughts are with all connected to COROEBUS.  

Here’s him at his best: 

Ed Walker’s DREAMLOPER ended up winning the Gr1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp to beat ORDER OF AUSTRALIA by five lengths, a victory I’m sure no one was celebrating.

That makes it two French Group 1s now for this five-year-old mare by LOPE DE VEGA, though this one seems to be the best field she has beaten to date.  

A first trip over to the States has been floated up as an idea by her jockey Kieran Shoemark, who rode WEST WIND BLOWS to Group 2 success later on the card after William Buick was stood down for the rest of the day (the COROEBUS fall) – if she went to the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, it would be Shoemark’s “best chance” of the weekend.  

DREAMLOPER won well and didn’t seem to be hampered by the horrific incident, so she will be remembered for that, but unfortunately this race will be forever overshadowed by the tragic death of Charlie Appleby’s 2000 Guineas hero.

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14-day ban for Dettori 

Frankie Dettori collected a mammoth 14-day ban for his ride on TORQUATOR TASSO in defeat yesterday, as MENDOCINO, ridden by TORQUATOR TASSO’s regular pilot Rene Piechulek (lol), caused a shock in the Gr1 152nd Wettstar Grosser Preis von Baden.  

The reigning Prix l’Arc de Triomphe champion was turned over at long odds-on by a fellow son of ALDERFLUG despite Lanfranco dishing out six strikes of the whip to his mount in second place, one more than the maximum limit – if you thought the new whip rules that we will have in place are going to be strict, this hopefully puts it into perspective. 

Dettori blamed the track, the lack of pace in the race, and the firmer ground for the disappointing run of Marcel Weiss’ five-year-old – a return to Longchamp and on potentially softer ground will definitely see the best out of him next month.  

As for the winner, he may also be shipped over to France for flat racing’s grand prize, as trainer Sarah Steinburg said: “This is a very emotional moment for me - he's supposed to come home before we commit to anything, but of course, the Arc is a very likely destination.” 

Detailed debrief of the race: 

Hanagan knew what he was doing, just didn’t care

Big comments published in the Racing Post yesterday by Paul Hanagan. He was commenting on his ride on THE RIDLER, the winner of this year’s Norfolk Stakes. His ride drifted across the whole field in the last 100yds causing considerable interference to the horses behind him. The stewards reached for the claxon and a lengthy enquiry was held where it was found that Paul Hanagan had indeed committed interference and will receive a 10-day ban but the horse should keep the race.

His comments yesterday in the Racing Post, “This sort of thing is happening on a daily basis. The reason why is simple. Jockeys have been getting away with too much for too long.

A lot of us have pushed the rules right to their boundaries, sometimes by accident, sometimes intentionally. We have done so in the knowledge we can get away with it”

These views echo the likes of Sir Mark Prescott who has been a big supporter and voice for stricter rules and bans. In simple terms, if the ban on careless riding is more severe than it is now, then the crime simply wouldn’t be committed. The rules at the moment aren’t strict enough and aren’t consistent enough for the jockeys to respect them. In football, if someone commits a serious foul play in the penalty box (similar to the last furlong) to interfere with a goal, say like a handball, it’s likely that that player committing the foul will be seeing red. Therefore, the foul is very rarely, if ever, seen and the respect for the matter is universally cemented. The BHA really need to start waking up to this, in fact they’ve got a few things to wake up on but this is certainly up there.

FLIGHTLINE takes off

Apples and oranges, or pears… whatever the saying is. SECRETARIAT’s Belmont Stakes win was out of this world good. It was a complete domination. It secured the Triple Crown, which is the holy grail of racing.

SECRETARIAT ran 21 times, won the Triple Crown, was a two-time Horse of the Year and had his picture on the magazine covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. There is even a movie on him.

FLIGHTLINE has ran just the 5 times. Granted he has dominated every time, every time he has put 10, 12, 13 lengths on the field and he put 19 lengths on the Pacific Classic field, these are Group 1 races as well. He had solid Grade 1 older horses in behind on Saturday.

You’ve got to remember how valuable these horses are as stallion prospects. BAAEED for instance could stand next year for £125,000 and cover 150 mares plus, netting nearly £19 million and he’ll be only a 5yo. FRANKEL has stood at stud for 10 years; 5 years he stood at £125,000, 4 years at £175,000 and he is currently standing for £200,000. He has covered more than 150 mares each season, but as an example, calculate those numbers with 150 and the figures are coming out around £200 million. That’s also just one slice of the pie, you’re also upgrading your families, his progeny have won major races on the track and his progeny fetch 6 and 7 figures in the sales ring.

All in all, Flightline’s win was the most impressive since Secretariats Belmont win. Period.

Whether its SECRETARIAT, FRANKEL, FLIGHTLINE or BAAEED, you can’t really be comparing them, you’ve just gotta enjoy shit like this: 

It was stunning. FLIGHTLINE made multiple 115-rated horses look like non-triers trying to get a handicap mark at Lingfield – this view was shared by Timeform USA who rated him 143, six pounds clear of BAAEED and just four pounds below FRANKEL. Don’t argue the ratings, just be happy you’re alive to see shit like this.

Plenty are saying that this performance had shades of SECRETARIAT in the 1973 Belmont about it, as he clocked a time that was just .17 seconds slower CANDY RIDE’s track record set in the 2003 renewal of this race – whatever the case, this was truly breath-taking. 

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Risk On

With BGP Capital launching this week, we’re a little behind with the racing - any bets will be posted on Twitter.