Flat season review: David Ord reflections including Frankie Dettori and Auguste Rodin

You may or may not have noticed but it’s awards season in the great game of horse racing.

The Cartiers were first off the block – well you have to let them go first don’t you? Then we have the HWPA in London next month, Go Racing In Yorkshire and the HRI are among others who are polishing their own gongs as we speak.

There may even be a new awards series hitting a website very near you in the coming weeks but for now can I please present the Flat Season Ords or FSOs as the kids call them.

No need to wear black tie for this one, or even leave the sanctuary of your front room. We were unable to agree a deal for it to be broadcast live and to be fair there are no actual awards.

But if any of the below would like to join me for a Greggs Festive Bake before December 20 (or a savoury product to the same monetary value), well that is within budget.

So without any further ado we move onto the opening award.

HORSE OF THE YEAR

Should probably have ended with this one really. But hey ho. Big Evs you were close my friend, so was Mostahdaf for Ascot and York. Auguste Rodin yep you had a good one. I’ll let the ratings guys fight over Equinox and Ace Impact – or should that be brief impact – but the first festive bake goes to the connections of PADDINGTON.

Yes he faded after the break and bowed out with a whimper on the muddy fields of Berkshire but he did so much to give momentum to a campaign that was sorely lacking through the early summer months. From a Naas handicap to Sussex Stakes glory via the Irish 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes and Coral-Eclipse he came, he saw and he conquered. He wasn’t the next Giant’s Causeway, just a very good colt who thrived on racing and competition. We need more like him.

TRAINER OF THE YEAR

Well not this year Charlie but these awards are going so well I’m very optimistic of them returning in 2024 when you’re usual firepower might as well.

Aidan, yes, ridiculously good, but you already have your fingers on a pasty, John and Thady, champions together for the first time but you know what I’m going for RALPH BECKETT. 132 winners in a calendar year was bettered only by Andrew Balding (137 from 280 more runners) and William Haggas (134 from three more).

A prize-money haul of just over £4million was no mean feat despite a frustrating flurry of seconds at the top level. A very good year.

JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

Well…William Buick was champion again, Oisin Murphy quietly returned and was back in the groove and among the winners. Billy ‘The Kid’ Loughnane is a talent and a half and James Doyle had some big days and snared a new job to keep him warm over the winter.

But nobody rode more winners this calendar year than ROSSA RYAN. You can learn a lot more about him on Sunday as he’s the star of episode two of Taking The Reins and it’s well worth a watch. It was filmed in the summer but he was a man for all seasons in 2023.

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

Difficult one this. I’d like to give it to Frankie but instead of a pasty he’s about to chow down on creepy crawlies and the nether regions of various antipodean beasts. No wonder he’s heading to the Californian sun straight after that lot. And to be fair he never went away in the first place.

AUGUSTE RODIN did – twice, bombing out in the 2000 Guineas and King George but roaring back to win the Betfred Derby and Irish Champion Stakes next time. It’s for Epsom that more pastry is heading your way messrs Tabor, Smith and Magnier. A Derby like no other with a build-up like no other and in many ways a winner like no other. To bounce back from the horror show of Newmarket to win the world’s premier flat race in the space of only four weeks. As the late, great, David Coleman would have observed, ‘quite remarkable’

USE OF THE EXPULSION TOOL

Jim Crowley nearly handed this one on a plate to the Ascot stewards in a King George of the ages in July. Amo Racing are again shortlisted but despite a slow start to the year the award is once again heading the way of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum.

Congratulations sir. The autumn switcheroos that saw your horses depart the Crisfords and Andrew Balding for the Middleham base of Karl Burke mean it’s yours to enjoy for another 12 months.

MOMENT OF THE YEAR

Equinox in Dubai, Ace Impact the Arc, City Of Troy’s final furlong in the Dewhurst, Auguste Rodin at Epsom, Live In The Dream at York, Big Evs in California. You were all very good. But it’s that man in the jungle – no not Nigel Farage who will be keeping him company it seems – but FRANKIE DETTORI and KING OF STEEL.

Yep the perfect ending to what wasn’t quite the story we expected it to be. But that QIPCO Champion Stakes was a race that had it all – from start to well past the finish. The reception the pair received was special even if MC Mike Cattermole (by that I mean he was master of ceremonies not rapping) couldn't quite whip them into a further frenzy with his microphone failing him in a plea for three cheers. Dave Yates responded manfully to the call to action and for all the furore in the build-up surrounding his decision to ride on in America, it genuinely felt like a significant moment.

Yes he’ll probably be back over to these shores at Royal Ascot, yep, you’re right, he’ll try and win a July Cup too no doubt. But we’ll always have King Of Steel and the day we said our first goodbye.

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