Top broadcaster Mike Cattermole reflects on Paul Nicholls' remarkable eight-timer on Saturday and a welcome big winner for John Best at St Moritz.
A statement of intent from Nicholls
Paul Nicholls has always said that it would take time to fill the gaps left by superstars such as Kauto Star, Denman, Big Buck’s and Master Minded.
All of a sudden, three horses in particular have emerged this season from the large pool of talent at Ditcheat who can now claim to be mentioned in the same breath as those “equine galacticos”.
These are Frodon, Clan Des Obeaux and Cyrname.
And, after another spectacular performance at Ascot, Cyrname has been elevated 13lb – 3lb above even Altior – onto a whopping 178. I think that is fully merited. More of this undoubted superstar in a moment.
Meanwhile, Nicholls’s impression that Clan Des Obeaux was a superstar waiting to happen has been fully realised. Saturday’s class-riddled performance at Ascot was part of an amazing eight-timer on the day by the former champion trainer.
Clan Des Obeaux’s King George win had come in his fifth go at Grade One company (the first was when sixth in that extraordinary Triumph Hurdle won by Ivanovich Gorbatov which I wrote about last week) but this latest performance was even better.
Clan Des Obeaux confirmed last Saturday that the King George was no fluke. He treated a very good horse in Terrefort with utter contempt. He is there now – right there at the top table - and has to be taken very seriously indeed as a Gold Cup contender.
Some might point out that he has been beaten in four attempts at Cheltenham but he wasn’t anything like the horse he has matured into now. His last attempt resulted in a good second to Guitar Pete in the December Gold Cup 14 months ago, when trying to give the winner 21lb.
I think that Clan Des Obeaux is very special and yet he is officially 5lb inferior to Cyrname who undoubtedly put up the performance of the season with his 17-length smashing up of Waiting Patiently in the Ascot Chase. I didn’t think that any horse, bar Altior, could treat Waiting Patiently with such disdain, although there is the suspicion that Waiting Patiently has got a problem as he tended to hang, not for the first time, up the home straight.
That said, he himself still held Fox Norton, Politologue and Charbel, three high-class chasers in their own right. This is a race that had some real depth to it and that’s why Cyrname fully deserves his new mark.
It will be fascinating to see how Nicholls campaigns him as going right-handed suits him so well and we all know that he has never won going the other way. Will Nicholls be tempted to have a crack at the Ryanair and supplement him? It might be too much to resist.
Whatever happens, his price for the King George VI Chase at Kempton next December was slashed to around 6/1 joint-favourite with Altior and he is also unbeaten in two starts around the gravel pits.
Cyrname and Clan Des Obeaux – could we be about to see the beginnings of a new Kauto/Denman rivalry? Bring it on!
John Best's up and down week
John Best has long been one of the most personable men in the training ranks and also one of the most hard-working, so it was good to see him land the big race on the White Turf at St Moritz on Sunday with Berrahri.
Fair play to him as the 72-rated gelding picked up a first prize not far short of £40,000 to add to the £5,000 he had won a week earlier for soccer agent Mark Curtis.
Best has been heading down to Switzerland at this time of the year for over a decade now and loves extolling the virtues of the racing on the frozen lake on what is, when the sun shines, probably the most beautiful racecourse in the world.
Berrahri was driven down to St Moritz in the horsebox by Best himself, with a space in there too for Paul Webber’s New Agenda who was a bitter disappointment on Sunday but was found to be a very sick horse with a high temperature right after the race.
It is a long way to go for a horse to get ill and Webber was understandably gutted, especially as New Agenda had won so well on the opening day of the meeting a fortnight earlier.
For Best, it was a reason to smile again after the blow last week of hearing about the demise of the Layezy Racing Owners Club, which had nine horses with the Kent trainer. Reassurances to Best were forthcoming from Mike Stanley, who ran the club, but they amounted to nothing while he was filing for bankruptcy. Those horses are now banned from running.
Best’s career has not yet reached the sustained heights it once promised and I guess getting involved with the likes of Stanley would not help.
But that is no reflection on his talent which has seen him gain Group One wins in the Diamond Jubilee and Nunthorpe Stakes with Kingsgate Native and even the Grade One Breeders’ Futurity Stakes at Keeneland (in 2008) with Square Eddie.
Best would have been forgiven if he had gone for it and celebrated in style on Sunday night at the legendary La Barracca restaurant in downtown St Moritz, where there were some sights, I can tell you!
But he knew he had an early start on the long drive home the next morning. No ordinary drive, either, over 700 miles in fact and most of it on the wrong side of the road of course. There were a few mountains to negotiate first, with many a twist and slippery turn.
Best would appreciate the allegory.
Stable staff shortage
It’s well known that many trainers are short of staff and nobody can see the problem being solved any time soon. This is a massive issue for our racing industry.
People of smaller stature with a talent to ride fast and temperamental racehorses are not easy to find, especially in Europe, and it might be that the subcontinent – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh - and South America are the places that need to be focused on in the post-Brexit era.
Meanwhile, although the news that Honda is pulling out of Swindon in the next year or two is a devastating blow to the town, it might end up doing racing a favour.
Some left to join the giant car manufacturer a few years ago but may find themselves forced into looking for work again back in the Lambourn Valley just a few miles down the road.