Mile Cattermole on the Breeders' Cup fall-out including is it the end for Ryan Moore at Ballydoyle?

BRITS ON THE MARK AT KEENELAND

To see the joy on James and Jacko Fanshawe’s faces as Audarya battled on to take the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf under the excellent Pierre-Charles Boudot was one of the highlights of the season.

I bet James and Jacko won’t mind a bit about doing quarantine when they return. Audarya looked held but kept digging and digging. It was never going to happen and then it did - so dramatic.

The daughter of Wootton Bassett is owned by Alison Swinburn, former wife to the late Walter who also made his mark on the Breeders’ Cup landscape.

Alison couldn’t travel as she has to take her children to school but she was watching at home with her father, the former trainer Peter Harris, from whom she inherited the famous colours. They were both over the moon and particularly impressed with Monsieur Boudot!

And wasn’t Tom Eaves just brilliant on Glass Slippers in the Turf Sprint? What a no-nonsense balls-of-steel ride that was and a great result for him, Kevin Ryan and Terry and Margaret Holdcroft’s Bearstone Stud.

It was another Group 1 sprint winner this autumn for Dream Ahead, also responsible for Dream Of Dreams, winner of the Haydock Sprint Cup.

RYAN MISSES OUT YET AGAIN

Aidan O’Brien has sent out 14 Group or Grade 1 winners across the globe during this troubled year, and just four of those were ridden by Ryan Moore.

For reasons largely beyond his control, the most recent part of the season has seen Moore unable to ride Van Gogh in the Criterium International and Mogul in the Grand Prix de Paris, with Pierre-Charles Boudot the beneficiary on both occasions.

Even when he has been able to take part, he has been on the receiving end. Who knows whether Ryan, if given the benefit of sitting on them at home, would have ridden St Mark’s Basilica to victory the Dewhurst rather than partnering runner-up Wembley?

But the final straw must have been at Keeneland on Saturday when the seemingly exposed Order Of Australia found the form, from who knows where, to beat him on Circus Maximus in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The 73-1 winner only took part because One Master didn’t.

Looking beyond 2020, you do wonder whether the incredibly successful partnership Moore has had with Team Ballydoyle will be continued, even if things get back to something nearer normality next summer.

Has the time come for both sides to think about their future commitments? Has the pandemic exposed the flaws of retaining a rider who is based overseas? I don’t know the answers but I bet both sides have been mulling things over and that would only be natural.

Certainly some bookmakers have already stoked up the rumour mill with short-priced quotes about Colin Keane getting the job, although Ger Lyons’s stable jockey has only had 11 rides and three wins from O’Brien this year.

By the way, Seamie Heffernan, the Ballydoyle stalwart, has also won four Group 1’s for the yard this year.

TERRIFIC TARNAWA

Keane, recently crowned champion jockey in Ireland for the second time, certainly announced his arrival on the world stage by bringing home Tarnawa from an unlikely position in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

In an ideal world perhaps Keane would not have wanted to be so wide turning in, but Tarnawa was still able to get past Magical and seal the deal, once again displaying that extraordinary burst of speed to notch up a brilliant Group/Grade 1 hat-trick.

So now Dermot Weld is a Breeders’ Cup-winning trainer too. He really does have an extraordinary CV in world racing, one that stands out on its own with a US Classic (Belmont), a Derby and two Melbourne Cups all sharing top billing with his latest triumph.

All he needs now is an Arc and prices for the 2021 running were soon being offered with SkyBet’s 12-1 about Tarnawa looking far from unreasonable, although there has been no news yet about her staying in training.

She was a good filly at the start of this year but she has taken huge steps forward this year so let’s hope she stays around.

Keane earned more fans with his classy post-race comments as he offered his sympathies to Christophe Soumillon who had to miss out after a positive Covid test.

ROOTING FOR THE NORTH

The latest forfeit stage for the Ladbrokes Trophy revealed an exciting list of names for the Newbury spectacle at the end of the month.

But what was noticeable was the lack of any northern-trained challengers.

In fact, there is just one, Aye Right, trained in Jedburgh, Scotland, by Harriet Graham. I will be rooting for him to become the first trained in Scotland to win this great race since Ken Oliver’s Fighting Fit in 1979. Gordon Richards’ One Man was the last northern-trained winner, way back in 1994.

I was on the road north, in fact, last week with stops at Sedgefield, Hexham and Kelso, and, I got lucky, as all three of them looked at their best with some really pleasant weather around.

Kelso is Graham’s local course but although she didn’t have a winner on the day, another local trainer, Sandy Thomson, notched up a superb treble, all ridden by Ryan Mania, his son-in-law and assistant and former Grand National-winning jockey.

Thomson, formerly a useful rugby player who represented Scotland South many times, began training in 2012 and has made an impression with dual Grade 2 winner Seeyouatmidnight and Rendlesham Hurdle winner Shades Of Midnight. Thomson has also won the Borders National four times.

Of his treble on Saturday, The Ferry Master caught the eye with an easy win in the novices’ handicap chase.

However, without a doubt the most impressive winner I saw through my three days away was McGinty’s Dream who barely broke sweat in the Class 5 Handicap Chase over three miles at Hexham on Friday for trainer Nick Alexander.

McGinty’s Dream is nine and has been around for a bit and is certainly no superstar, but at his level when the ground is bordering on desperate, he has done very well.

However, after finishing tailed off at Sedgefield in February, he had a wind operation and has since won his last two at Hexham, looking like a completely different horse.

He looked good there last month but looked even better last Friday off an 8lb higher mark and has now been raised another 8lb. I promise you, he won with any amount in hand so I would think that that is highly unlikely to stop him.

It doesn’t half help when you can breath!