Following the victory of Highfield Princess in the Prix Maurice de Gheest, Adam Houghton highlights a few more Group One winners who came from humble beginnings.
Highfield Princess gives everyone hope
“Highfield Princess got back on the up to show form bordering on smart, having all the advantages going, but her progress has been remarkable over the last nine months, this her sixth win in that time, the first of which came from a mark of just 58.”
That is how Timeform summed up Highfield Princess and what she achieved in winning last year’s Buckingham Palace Handicap at Royal Ascot. "Other races like this will be harder to dominate,” the report continued. “But connections will surely start aiming for black type soon, her rating now suggesting she's pattern class in her own sex."
Another 14 months on and it’s very hard not to be impressed by the “remarkable” progress which Highfield Princess continues to make.
Indeed, having followed her Ascot victory last season with a first black type success in a Listed race at Chelmsford, Highfield Princess has improved again in 2022 to add three more wins to her tally, culminating with a breakthrough Group One triumph in the Prix Maurice de Gheest.
In terms of Timeform’s figures, Highfield Princess began her four-year-old campaign on a rating of 93 and her five-year-old campaign on a rating of 109. She is now up to 119 and didn’t need to improve on the form she showed when winning the Duke of York Stakes to gain her biggest success yet at Deauville on Sunday.
The fact Highfield Princess is now a Group One winner having made her handicap debut from a BHA mark of just 57 puts her in some rare company. Indeed, only two horses in the last 30 years have won a Group One having previously run in a handicap in Britain or Ireland from a lower mark than she did.
From Sligo to Longchamp
The first horse in question is San Sebastian, who won twice at Royal Ascot when trained in Ireland by Michael Grassick, first winning the 1998 Ascot Stakes and then the 1999 Queen Alexandra Stakes. He was also placed in the Prix du Cadran in both those years before joining the John Dunlop stable and finally gaining a deserved victory in that Group One in 2000.
That achievement was particularly noteworthy when you consider that San Sebastian had lined up from a mark of just 47 when registering his first win for Grassick in a Sligo handicap back in June 1997.
Incidentally, the Prix du Cadran is a race which has gone the way of several horses who came from relatively humble beginnings. Just in the last 20 years, Give Notice (2002), Sergeant Cecil (2006) and Princess Zoe (2020) have emulated San Sebastian by winning that staying contest having raced from marks of 62, 63 and 64, respectively.
Plenty of rags to riches stories among the sprinters
At the other end of the distance spectrum, Benbaun developed into a high-class sprinter for Mark Wallace earlier this century, notably winning the 2007 edition of the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. He also won three consecutive renewals of the Flying Five Stakes (which now holds Group One status) between 2005 and 2007.
It’s fair to say that Benbaun didn’t start his career at the very top, though, and he was given a mark of just 56 for his nursery debut at Chepstow back in August 2003. Incidentally, that was his first try over five furlongs – the trip he excelled at later in his career – and he duly showed much improved form to open his account.
Tangerine Trees achieved something similar when he won the 2011 Prix de l’Abbaye, that victory coming around two and a half years after he was successful in a Hamilton handicap from an official mark of 63. His was another remarkable rise through the ranks and in very quick time as he won no fewer than 11 races during that period.
Like the Prix du Cadran, the Prix de l’Abbaye has been won by several big improvers in the last 30 years. The others include My Best Valentine (1998) and Maarek (2013), who gained their first handicap wins from marks of 65 and 69, respectively, and Patavellian (2003), who was beaten once from a mark of 64.
Even the great Lochsong, who remains the last horse to win the Nunthorpe Stakes and Prix de l’Abbaye in the same year in 1993, was beaten from a mark of 70 in an apprentice handicap at Newbury back in October 1991.
Nunthorpe not always a race for bluebloods
The Nunthorpe – another Group One run over five furlongs – has itself gone the way of several horses who graduated from basement handicaps.
Bahamian Pirate, for example, enjoyed his biggest day at the age of nine when winning the 2004 Nunthorpe, in the process becoming the oldest winner of a British Group One on the Flat for more than a century. That all happened around four years after he had won a Southwell handicap from a BHA mark of 58.
The Nunthorpe was won in both 2008 and 2009 by Borderlescott, who beat none other than Benbaun when defending his crown on the Knavesmire. Like the runner-up, Borderlescott had started his career from a lowly base, with his first win in a Hamilton nursery in July 2004 coming from a BHA mark of 62.
Other winners to mention include Reverence (2006), who was once beaten from a mark of 73, and Alpha Delphini (2018) and Winter Power (2021), who registered their first handicap victories from marks of 79 and 76, respectively.
Could Raasel complete his rise with York glory?
As for this year’s Nunthorpe, perhaps the biggest story would be if Raasel could continue his climb up the sprinting ladder with a first Group One success.
Raasel has made rapid progress since making the breakthrough in handicaps from a mark of 73 at Goodwood in September, the first of his five wins in a row towards the end of last year. He has taken his form up another notch in 2022 for his astute connections, notably winning a Listed race at Haydock and the Group Three Coral Charge at Sandown.
In terms of Timeform’s figures, Raasel started his four-year-old campaign on a rating of 90 and his five-year-old campaign on a rating of 100. He is now up to 118 after filling the runner-up spot in the King George Stakes at Goodwood last month, showing form which suggests he is no forlorn hope to gain his biggest success yet in the Nunthorpe.
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