With the first two from the Eclipse locking horns again at York, John Ingles looks back at Giant's Causeway and Kalanisi's rivalry 25 years ago.
There have been some unexpected Group 1 results this summer but, on paper at least, next Wednesday’s Juddmonte International is principally looking like a rematch between Delacroix and the horse he narrowly beat in last month’s Eclipse, Ombudsman.
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This has echoes of the same race 25 years ago. Then too, a leading three-year-old from Ballydoyle locked horns again with the top-class older horse he’d beaten at Sandown. Back then, the Delacroix role was filled by Giant’s Causeway, with Kalanisi playing the part of Ombudsman.
The two colts were a couple of the stars of that millennium season, both having top-class Timeform ratings of 132, but there was a vintage crop of middle-distance performers that season and neither the three-year-old Giant’s Causeway nor the four-year-old Kalanisi were the leaders of their respective generations.
The top three-year-old was Sinndar (rated 134) who excelled at a mile and a half and won his last five starts, including the Derby, Irish Derby and Arc. Giant’s Causeway shared second spot behind him in the three-year-old ratings with the colt who had ended his unbeaten record when beating him in the 2000 Guineas, King’s Best, who suffered a career-ending injury in the Irish Derby.
Competition among the four-year-olds was fiercer still. The Aga Khan’s Kalanisi, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, was only third-best in Europe behind a tip-top colt in Montjeu (137) and an even better one in Dubai Millennium (140). The previous season’s Arc winner Montjeu completed a hat-trick of Group 1 hat-trick in the King George where he was barely out of a canter, while Dubai Millennium followed a stunning win in the Dubai World Cup with another exhilarating display back on turf in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes to take his career record to nine out of ten.
There was brief talk that summer of a multi-million-dollar match race between Dubai Millennium and Montjeu, with the last day of the Ebor meeting being one of three potential dates for it to take place, but no sooner had Sheikh Mohammed proposed the idea than Dubai Millennium fractured a leg on the gallops, ending any hope the pair would meet.
Instead, it was Giant’s Causeway and Kalanisi who went head-to-head that summer, serving up pulsating finishes first of all at Sandown and then again at York.
When they met for the first time in the Eclipse, both colts were stepping up to a mile and a quarter for the first time, both having won over a mile at Royal Ascot on their previous starts. Giant’s Causeway had also finished second in the Irish 2000 Guineas after his defeat to King’s Best at Newmarket, but he showed he was a tough horse to pass when finding extra after being headed to get up for a head win in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
Meanwhile, the lightly-raced Kalanisi, who had been trained by Luca Cumani at three when making his debut at Folkestone, took his career record to four wins from five starts when keeping on strongly to win the Queen Anne Stakes, which was then still a Group 2 contest, earlier on the card. Like Giant’s Causeway, Kalanisi promised to be suited by the longer trip of the Eclipse for which he was a supplementary entry.
Both colts had new jockeys at Sandown. Pat Eddery was on board Kalanisi for the first time, replacing Kieren Fallon who was nursing a shoulder injury. Giant’s Causeway’s regular rider Mick Kinane was also sidelined by injury, suffering back problems, resulting in Aidan O’Brien calling up 53-year-old George Duffield for the ride.
Neither started favourite, that honour going to Sakhee who had been runner-up to Sinndar in the Derby. Sakhee duly looked Giant’s Causeway main threat when moving ahead in the straight but no sooner had the idling Giant’s Causeway seen off the favourite on his inside around a furlong out than Eddery delivered the more patiently-ridden Kalanisi on Giant’s Causeway’s outer. Kalanisi briefly got his head as the pair engaged in a tremendous duel, but Giant’s Causeway battled back on the rail to force his head in front at the line.
Some gloss was taken off one of the most thrilling races of the season when both jockeys involved were referred to the Jockey Club for excessive use of the whip, resulting in a ten-day suspension for both, with Eddery picking up an additional day for careless riding after tightening up the third, Shiva, in the final furlong.
Unlike Delacroix, this year, however, Giant’s Causeway didn’t go straight from Sandown to York. In between he dropped back to a mile for the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood. Handy throughout as he had been at Sandown and with Kinane back on board, Giant’s Causeway tended to idle again in front but held off Dansili, who had been second to Kalanisi in the Queen Anne, by three quarters of a length.
It was by this time, having completed a gritty hat-trick of Group 1 victories in the space of not much more than a month, that Giant’s Causeway acquired his ‘Iron Horse’ nickname. Popular it might have been, but it got short shrift in his essay in Racehorses which said it ‘should have been consigned to the scrapheap as soon as it appeared’. The essay cited recent examples of handicappers who had run more than thirty times in a season and top horses from the past who had thrived on still tougher campaigns than Giant’s Causeway’s.
A more recent rival to Giant’s Causeway’s exploits is another Ballydoyle colt Paddington who won the Irish 2000 Guineas before completing the same St James’s Palace-Eclipse-Sussex treble but then came unstuck in the Juddmonte International.
Not so Giant’s Causeway who shaded favouritism at York at 10/11 ahead of Kalanisi at 5/4. In a race with less strength in depth than the Eclipse, they dominated the betting with the other four starting at 14/1 or bigger, one of those a pacemaker for Giant’s Causeway.
Shoal Creek did his job in front until the straight with Giant’s Causeway tracking him and Kalanisi in turn stalking his chief rival. Once in line for home, the pacemaker peeled a little wider allowing Giant’s Causeway to make the best of his way home up the rail from three furlongs out.
Clearly keen not to ‘eyeball’ Giant’s Causeway as closely as he had done at Sandown, Eddery initially produced Kalanisi with his challenge much wider on the track. But deep inside the final furlong the pair ended up side by side again after Kalanisi had edged over to his left and they fought out another stirring finish, flashing past the post almost together. But the verdict was the same as at Sandown, a head in Giant’s Causeway’s favour, with seven lengths back to the third.
While Eddery was found in breach of the whip rules again, the York stewards took their own action rather than referring the case to Portman Square and suspended him for two days. Whip rules are even more stringent these days, and it reflects well on both Ryan Moore and William Buick that they avoided any transgressions despite the tight finish to the Eclipse where Delacroix seized an unlikely victory late on by a neck.
There have been only two editions of the Juddmonte International this century to have rivalled the closeness of the finish in 2000, with Ryan Moore victorious both times. Riding for Sir Michael Stoute in 2006, he was successful on Notnowcato who got the better of stablemate Maraahel by a short head, while in 2019 he was aboard the Ballydoyle three-year-old Japan who denied the Stoute-trained five-year-old Crystal Ocean by a head.
The post-script to the Juddmonte International of 2000 was how well the principals fared afterwards, neither showing any lasting effects of their two epic encounters. Giant’s Causeway steamed on to a fifth consecutive Group 1 victory – all of them gained by less than a length – less than three weeks later in the Irish Champion Stakes, while Kalanisi gained a deserved Group 1 win in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket when digging deep to hold off the odds-on Montjeu.
Both Kalanisi and Giant’s Causeway ended the year at the Breeders’ Cup, this time in different races. Kalanisi had Montjeu further down the field this time when winning the Turf, while Giant’s Causeway, whose winning streak had been ended by Observatory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in the meantime, contested the Classic on dirt. This was another close battle, but Giant’s Causeway came off the worse this time, beaten a neck by the tremendously resolute Tiznow but faring best of the many Ballydoyle colts over the years who have tried to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the latest being last year’s Juddmonte International winner City of Troy.
As the Eclipse result would suggest, there’s precious little between Delacroix and Ombudsman on Timeform ratings and the pair can hardly be split in the Juddmonte International betting.
Everything is in place, therefore, for memories of Giant’s Causeway and Kalanisi to come flooding back at around 3.35 on Wednesday afternoon.
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