What people have been whispering in private but not daring to articulate publicly about Baaeed can now be shouted loudly from the rooftops.
In seeing off Palace Pier, the outstanding European miler, and the highly accomplished mare Lady Bowthorpe in a breathless finish to the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, the winner demonstrated he is indeed the sport’s newest roof-raiser, and potentially one of its most extraordinary.
To think that when Palace Pier and Lady Bowthorpe filled the first two placings in Newbury’s Lockinge Stakes in May, practically no one outside the stables of Baaeed’s trainer William Haggas or the late Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell racing operation, the owner and breeder, had ever heard of the then unraced son of Sea The Stars.
And certainly no one had yet contacted Shadwell to ask how Baaeed translated from Arabic to English – since you ask, the slightly unexceptional “over there” is the answer.
Yet four months after a racecourse debut success on a Tuesday in early June at Leicester – at odds of 6-1 – the bay colt has made unbeaten, shooting-star progress that saw him take Group One glory in France in September and then headline the 10th Birthday Party of British Champions Day.
Winning jockey Jim Crowley, completing a big-race treble with Eshaada (Fillies and Mares) and Aldaary (also trained by Team Haggas in the Balmoral Handicap), could hardly have been more effusive.
He said: “I think Baaeed could be a world champion. He’s just a beast and keeps getting better. There don’t seem to be any chinks in his armour.
“With a horse that’s come such a long way in a short space of time, it’s magical.
“He probably wasn’t 100% going into France, but he got the job done and it was nice to bring him here in tip-top condition.”
No decisions have been made about Baaeed’s future but a trip to southern California for the Breeders Cup at Del Mar has all but been ruled out.
Word from the respective training camps of John and Thady Gosden and William Jarvis is that retirement beckons for both Palace Pier and Lady Bowthorpe, the latter allowed to jump off, remarkably, as a 40-1 shot despite that Group One success at Glorious Goodwood. Each-way ‘faces’ filled their boots.
While the Queen Elizabeth Stakes – the trophies for which were again presented by the eponymous lady herself – has always been staged at Ascot, it was joined by the formerly Newmarket-located Champion Stakes to form QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot in 2011.
The original mission statement spoke of attempting to rival the prestige of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the US’s annual Breeders Cup fixtures, and while the Arc is the Arc and the Breeders Cup the Breeders Cup, this did feel as though Champions Day had finally ‘arrived’.
The various elements – the horses, the weather-dash-going and the crowds, have not always come together, but on good to soft going in front of 25,000 in the sunshine, they certainly did this time.
Particularly Baaeed, but also in the Champion Stakes the ridiculously overlooked Sealiway – 12-1 despite an eye-catching fifth in the Arc – and the irrepressible pairing of Trueshan and Hollie Doyle in the Long Distance Cup, made this a memorable British race-day.
Arc exertions after a long year took their toll on Adayar (fifth in the Champion Stakes) and Snowfall (third in the Fillies and Mares).
Only one thing could have improved it, but Oisin Murphy put pay to that on the meeting’s eve when sealing a third champion jockey’s title with a double at Haydock.
Technically the trainers’ title race continues until December 31 but the prize money from Charlie Appleby’s Sprint-win with Creative Force may make him hard to catch.
To my mind Appleby’s Adayar remains the season’s shiniest star, but if as expected he stays in training Team Baaeed will have something to say about any repeat in 2022.
