Mike Cattermole column following British Champions Day at Ascot

GELDINGS RULE AT ASCOT!

Champions Day may have its critics but it invariably throws up some feelgood stories and Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle deservedly shared top billing on that front at Ascot this year.

This outstanding card of course presents a massive opportunity to celebrate the equine champions – and who could not be enchanted by the continuing exploits of the now world famous Addeybb, or indeed The Revenant, as both went one better than they had done a year earlier.

But there was little to smile about from the breeding industry’s point of view in a sense that we didn’t see the making of a future stallion, with one race being exclusive to fillies and mares and the other five all dominated by geldings.

There are no complaints from me on that score, but the “full” horses seemed to struggle in the conditions and the pattern was soon set in the opening Long Distance Cup where Stradivarius performed way below his best and ultimately beat just one home.

The impressive winner, Trueshan, was gelded before he even saw a racecourse, as indeed was the third home Fujaira Prince. They were split by the filly Search For A Song and the first entire horse home was Sovereign in fifth.

Then in the Champions Sprint, Glen Shiel and Brando, long since gelded, beat the mare One Master, with Art Power doing best of the colts in fourth and Lope Y Fernandez the next full horse back in seventh.

Roseman and Palace Pier, second and third to The Revenant in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, did best of all the colts on Saturday and were not at all disgraced – to the delight of the Juddmonte breeding operation, no doubt, as they are both by Kingman who can do little wrong right now.

Then in the showpiece Champion Stakes, Addeybb and Skalletti were pushed hardest by the mare Magical with her stable companion, the runaway Derby winner Serpentine, back in fourth.

I would say that Serpentine added to his reputation with this performance over a mile and a quarter or, if that is going too far, it certainly did him no harm.

The likes of Addeybb and The Revenant will have added to their considerable fan base on Saturday and that is no bad thing. Because of their longevity, we can celebrate the best geldings as well as those that will be given the opportunity to produce more champions in the future.

GODOLPHIN YEAR PETERING OUT

We say farewell then to both Pinatubo and Ghaiyyath who have now been retired to stud - and Earthlight too – so the Godolphin team will be missing good opportunities to round off a very decent year in the Breeders’ Cup in Keeneland in just over two weeks’ time.

Pinatubo was a horse that really caught the imagination and while he was undoubtedly a brilliant two-year-old, we probably didn’t get the chance to see how good he could have been at three.

I am sure he would have taken all the beating in something like the July Cup and could have won a top race at a mile, too. I watched the Prix du Moulin again recently and that was definitely one that slipped away. He had a devastating turn of foot.

Ghaiyyath, on the other hand, was a relentless galloper and brilliantly managed by Charlie Appleby through his Group One hat-trick in the Coronation Cup, Eclipse and Juddmonte International.

However, there was always the hint of vulnerability about the gifted son of Dubawi and it is no surprise that he was retired after showing signs of a long season.

Ultimately, he took more after his grandsire Dubai Millennium who was famously known as a no-holds-barred front-runner who would destroy his rivals with a sustained high-octane gallop.

Both are excellent additions to the Darley stallion roster but although the consensus is that 2020 was a good year for the boys in blue, it is finishing off rather quietly.

Just one runner carried the famous royal blue silks at Ascot last Saturday – Dark Vision – and he started at 80/1 before finishing a far from disgraced seventh in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

PRINCESS ZOE GOES AGAIN

On Sunday, the remarkable Princess Zoe returns to France, three weeks after her famous win in the Prix du Cadran, to have a crack at the Prix Royal-Oak, AKA the French St Leger.

Her rise to fame and fortune has been one of the highlights of the season and I have been privileged to be provided with some background information on how she has got there.

German bred and raced, she was spotted by Irish racing analyst Bernard Cullinane after finding he had to frequently double check his stopwatch while following her.

Cullinane, whose formula for finding horses has been influenced by ex- Sporting Lifer Nick Mordin, as well as Michael Dickinson, spent the next year trying to buy her, but without success.

She only became available in the autumn of 2019 after failing to win that year, and, rising five, looked seemingly well exposed after 15 starts.

Cullinane was far from deterred. His friend Sean Daly told me: “Bernard trusted his own eyes – and speed figures – and bought the mare on October 13, lucky for some, in 2019.”

Two trainers turned down the chance to take on Princess Zoe but Cullinane convinced Tony Mullins, who had enjoyed the benefit of his expertise before, having been sold 10-time winner Coolefighter, Erlkonig and Party Playboy, who was runner-up in the 2019 Cesarewitch.

Princess Zoe was now in the ownership of Patrick Kehoe and his sister Philomena Crampton. However, the new trainer was far from convinced.

Neither her work, nor her physical appearance impressed - she was light, didn’t have the best set of front legs and didn’t move so well.

Mullins even called Cullinane and asked: "What have you bought me here?" But Cullinane insisted that Princess Zoe needed to do her talking on the track.

There was massive disappointment, then, on her first run for Mullins when she was beaten off a mark of 64 at Navan in June.

But Cullinane analysed the sectional times of her run, especially the final sectional, and insisted that Mullins had a Group One mare on his hands.

Cullinane said: “My own personal highlight, outside of buying her, was intimating to Tony Mullins after the Ladies Derby that she was a possible Prix du Cadran hopeful. She had dipped under 11 seconds for fun before and would go on to do so again at Galway in the two-mile handicap, so I knew she had the speed as well as the stamina.”

And now she bids to win a second Group One and a Classic, too, on Sunday. Cullinane added: “I hope she will have recovered in time. It is a big ask."