Our man at the track Cornelius Lysaght reflects on Baaeed extending his unbeaten record in the Sussex Stakes and the inevitable comparisons with Frankel.
Baaeed may have again done what comes naturally with a storming defeat of Modern Games in the Qatar Sussex Stakes but there was one thing that was different to the previous eight successes. Well, two actually.
Inside the final furlong of the Glorious Goodwood’s one-mile centrepiece, such was the distracting nature of the cacophony of noise from the 16,000 crowd as top gear was reached that for the first time on this horse jockey Jim Crowley reached for his ProCush whip to give him two “flicks”.
Crowley, riding Baaeed to victory for the seventh time – Dane O’Neill was on board early on – said: “As a jockey you don’t normally hear the crowd, but I could hear them today.
“It really hit you – there was a massive roar when we hit the front – and he just pricked his ears a little bit and thought he’d done enough. He’s got a really laidback attitude but when I did give him a couple of flicks the response was instant and he went again.
“Then I liked the way he was in the winners’ enclosure afterwards, it was like he hadn’t had a race – I’ve never known a horse like that.”
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A year on from contesting a Group Three-level race here, the Thoroughbred Stakes, Baaeed, trained by William Haggas for the late Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell breeding and racing operation, was emulating some of flat racing’s greats by adding the Sussex Stakes to his CV, notably Frankel, a two-time winner.
With both able to use the U-word – unbeaten – a magic word in every part of the sporting world, there are inevitable comparisons made between the current highest rated horse on the globe and Frankel, seen by many as the most outstanding of all time.
However, the one way in which Baaeed cannot hold a candle to the winner of fourteen races from fourteen career starts is the way in which he has captured the imagination of the public as a whole.
To this day people ask me about Frankel, and when I was at the BBC trying to ‘sell’ a story to the news desk about Frankel – and to be fair I know the same applies to the unbeaten Irish hurdler Honeysuckle – was never too major a challenge.
Although the response here today was terrific, it is puzzling really considering the flawless nature of Baaeed’s performances, until I think that you take into account some of those closest to Frankel and Honeysuckle.
In the case of Frankel it was about the trainer, the late Sir Henry Cecil, while with Honeysuckle, the fact that on board is Rachael Blackmore, jump racing’s foremost female practitioner, only adds to the narrative.
Haggas acknowledged the lesser profile, but said it does not bother him. As to why, he added: “Don’t forget the Frankel story also was very much about his trainer, a legendary trainer who had this great horse but was poorly and sadly fading, and that made the story for everyone.
“I don’t think you can compare the two horses – his rating compared to Frankel doesn’t bother me.”
While guiding Baaeed with consummate skill, Haggas with wife Maureen and the Somerville Lodge team have determined to keep their feet on the ground, and as we gathered around the trainer jokingly asked whether we were still after “that [catchy] quote”.
But today he went further than before when taking the view that for Crowley riding in the Sussex Stakes must have been “like doing the Tour de France on a motorbike [against bicycles]”.
How we scribbled, and that scribbling will only get more intense for Baaeed’s final two races, at York and at Ascot on Champions’ Day. Can’t wait.
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