Graeme North reflects on the Breeders' Cup and what the clock told us about Chantry House's performance at Sandown on Sunday
I must admit I don’t follow American racing as closely as I used to when I was tasked with overhauling Timeform’s internal American auto-handicapping processes, on top of calibrating the rating scales with those proposed by the newly-inaugurated TimeformUS, but if there is one Stateside venue I still try and keep in with it is Del Mar, one of only three tracks there I have visited (the other two are Gulfstream Park and Calder, the latter now known as Gulfstream Park West).
Famous for being founded by Bing Crosby, having its own official song (‘Where The Turf Meets the Surf’) and being where Robert Kardashian charmed Kris Jenner away from professional golfer Cesar Sanudo, I was at Del Mar for the 2012 Pacific Classic when Dullahan upset the hot favourite Game On Dude in the brief period their dirt surface was replaced by polytrack.
Like most tracks you visit for the first time, the impression you get in person is often very different to that you get from television pictures (for example, anyone who hasn’t been to Hamilton will be unaware just how steep the drop from the six-furlong start to the four-furlong pole is) and the first thing to strike you at Del Mar, other than the sheer beauty of the place, is the incredibly tight inside turf oval the like of which I’ve not seen anywhere else since the Flat turf track at Southwell was (sadly) mothballed.
Whether it’s the right venue to be hosting the Breeders’ Cup is a question for another day, but the configuration of the track certainly lends itself to results that might not be reproduced elsewhere. Unfortunately, the GPS tracking system used to return sectional times, lengths back and average stride length among other things went rogue on Saturday evening, meaning data covering the races most of interest to European viewers went uncollected.
Timeform doesn’t return timefigures for Del Mar, or any other American meeting for that matter, but using a universal sectional timing model adapted for Del Mar allows us to highlight a few performances that were a bit better than they looked. Chief of those came from Derrynane who finished just over a length fourth in the Juvenile Turf Sprint won by the Queen Mary runner-up and Timeform TV Focus tip Twilight Gleaming.
Taken back to the rear after being hampered by another horse soon after the start, Derrynane was six lengths back with two furlongs to run but rattled home much faster than the winner or runner-up Go Bears Go and emerged as the ‘moral winner’ on sectionals. Superlative Stakes winner Modern Games, whose own victory wasn’t without drama after he was allowed to run for prize money only, had to work hard to win the Juvenile Turf but sectionals suggest he would have struggled to hold off the far-less experienced runner-up Tiz The Bomb had the second not been set so much to do after being allowed to drop back to the rear.
Plenty of the other results seemed the ‘right’ ones but if there was one winner whose superiority wasn’t reflected in the result it was the ex-Irish Going Global who won the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes by a length and a half when sectionals suggest she was value for more like four. No more than fairly useful when with Mick Halford in Ireland, she’s clearly now verging on high class.
One of the other things Del Mar is well known for is that it hosted the first nationally broadcast thoroughbred horse race in 1938 when Horse Of The Year Seabiscuit edged out the top-class Argentinian horse Ligaroti – part-owned by Bing Crosby – in a $25,000-dollar winner-take-all match which saw both jockeys suspended for rough riding after a whip-thrashing finish.
A match closer to home that attracted headlines of a different kind took place at Sandown on Sunday. Chantry House was shortened for both the King George (supposedly his next target) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup after beating The Big Breakaway by a distance, prices which represent good value according to some observations I saw on social media. I doubt Chantry House’s Sandown romp told us anything else other than the horse is fit and well, and it certainly didn’t provide a pointer to his Gold Cup prospects. His rider Nico de Boinville was quoted afterwards as saying that cat-and-mouse races are always difficult for jockeys, but there was never any doubt that, on a horse 14lb clear on official ratings facing a rival who’d not completed in his previous two outings, he was going to do anything other than ride the race to suit himself and that’s exactly what transpired.
Chantry House’s trainer Nicky Henderson seemed convinced afterwards that the race proved Chantry House’s stamina for three miles, but that is a moot point given that Chantry House covered the distance from the first of the Railway fences to the final fence on the first circuit almost two seconds slower than the vastly-inferior ‘veteran’ Wandrin Star in the following chase, effectively rendering the race more of a two-and-a-half mile contest rather than a three-mile one, circumstance reflected in his ordinary winning 131 timefigure. Credit where credit’s due, though, and it was a smart tactical ride from De Boinville as a marked quickening of the pace running into the back straight played a big part in The Big Breakaway’s jumping going to pieces, turning the race into a non-event. Whether Chantry House has improved much, if at all, since last season when both his Grade 1 wins were fortuitously gained remains to be seen, but if nothing else his presence at Kempton will make up for the disappointing news that Shan Blue (who might well have finished ahead of him in the Marsh at Cheltenham last March had he not been given such a kamikaze ride) will be missing the race.
As usual, however, most of the more informative action over jumps at the weekend took place in Ireland where Sunday’s Navan card was particularly good on quality. Highlight of the card over fences was Notebook’s win over the increasingly fragile Samcro (travelled the better of the pair but went to nothing on the run-in) in the Tote Fortria Chase. Notebook’s winning timefigure of 159 was nearly up there with the 163 he posted when second to Chacun Pour Soi at last year’s Leopardstown Christmas Festival, suggesting he’s as good as ever, but he’s never shown his form outside Ireland and I’m not sure there is a suitable race for him at Cheltenham anyway. Last year’s Arkle third Captain Guinness made a satisfactory comeback at Naas the previous day, jumping well on his way to posting a 146 timefigure in the Grade 3 Poplar Square Chase. Though the runner-up Andy Dufresne emerges marginally the best horse at the weights - at least in theory as he conceded 7lb – the result undercooks Captain Guinness’ superiority as the race didn’t begin in earnest until the second last. Darasso took the honours over hurdles in Ireland at the weekend running a 148 in the Grade 2 Lismullen Hurdle thanks to a very strong pace set by Flooring Porter who had still to be asked for his effort when coming down two out. Form figures of PF might on the face of it suggest the Stayers’ Hurdle winner has something to prove right now, but there was much to like about his exuberant-as-usual performance until his exit and I’m sure all the ability is still there.
The best timefigure of the week over hurdles in Britain – 149 - came from Koshari in a Pertemps Network Qualifier at Aintree on his first start since leaving Willie Mullins and joining David Christie. Unlucky when sixteenth in the Coral Cup (set far too much to do and then met significant late trouble) before winning at the Punchestown Festival, Koshari appreciated the strong gallop back over a more suitable trip having not really taken to chasing over the summer, bizarrely sent off at 80-1 in a race in which fitness and stamina won the day.
Sceau Royal ran a 144 when seeing off a weakish Irish challenge in the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton. He’s run in the Champion Chase for the last three years, finishing third in 2019, but he might be better off campaigned at the Champion Hurdle this time around given the lack of strength in depth in the two-mile hurdle division. Eldorado Allen posted the biggest figure over fences in Britain last week - 150 - in the Haldon Gold Cup, improving on the 148 he put up when brushed aside easily by Shishkin at Doncaster last season. He hasn’t yet proved it but shapes as though a bit further will eke out more improvement.