Mike Cattermole on the St Leger, Arc trials and retiring stars
Mike Cattermole reflects on the key action from Doncaster and ParisLongchamp last weekend and pays tribute to two retiring stars.
KEW GARDENS SO PROFESSIONAL
Kew Gardens has gone about his business with a quiet efficiency over the past few months and everything he did to win Saturday’s St Leger had an aura of professionalism about it.
From the moment he came into the paddock and was taken down quietly by Ryan Moore to the St Leger start, which is just a few yards away from the grandstand, Kew Gardens remained in total control and saved his energy for his relentless gallop at the business end. It was too much for a gallant Lah Ti Dar.
I thought it was noticeable that Frankie Dettori kept Lah Ti Dar on Kew Gardens’s tail for much of the race but her inexperience caught up with her when the chips were down. As Kew Gardens drove on, she took a while to get organised.
That said, she didn’t half give it her best and would have been an impressive winner of the race without Kew Gardens as she pulled four and a half lengths clear of the third Southern France, who is a fine stamp of a horse.
Derby runner-up Dee Ex Bee gave the form a nice balanced look in fourth (Old Persian clearly didn’t stay in fifth) and I wonder how this race will work out compared to last year’s vintage renewal when Capri beat Crystal Ocean, Stradivarius and Rekindling?
Perhaps Southern France and Dee Ex Bee will end up going for Cup glory next summer. Meanwhile, I have a feeling that Kew Gardens and Lah Ti Dar may meet again some time, perhaps in next year’s King George?
TOO DARN HOT AND QUORTO ON A COLLISION COURSE
These may be changing times.
Two sons of Dubawi, Too Darn Hot and Quorto, lit up Doncaster and the Curragh at the weekend as both maintained their unbeaten records in tremendous style.
The mouth-watering aspect about both of these colts is that they are out of good middle distance dams and they look set to play a huge part in both the Guineas and Derby next year.
Seeing Too Darn Hot in the flesh for the first time at Doncaster was interesting, especially compared to older sister, Lah Ti Dar, who obviously looked more of the finished article being a year older.
Lah Ti Dar never made it to the racecourse at two of course but her younger brother has cracked on and is now unbeaten in three starts.
Judged on the evidence of his win in the Champagne Stakes on Saturday - when he came with an impressive sustained run to overpower some talented rivals - he could be suited by a mile already.
I am always fascinated to see how long it takes them to pull up after a race and Too Darn Hot didn’t disappoint, covering a good couple of furlongs down the back before Frankie stopped him and brought him back.
A return to Town Moor for the Group One Vertem Futurity Stakes next month over an extra furlong is not the preferred choice of connections, however. He will only return there if the ground is considered unsuitable, ie too quick, for the Dewhurst at Newmarket.
The Dewhurst is where Quorto will definitely be heading after he dismissed Anthony Van Dyck in the National Stakes, thereby beating Too Darn Hot to a first Group One.
The way things are right now, especially after big sister was second in the Leger, I would fancy Too Darn Hot more for the Derby (best priced 5-1) than the Guineas for which he is as short as 7-2.
Quorto, who has won twice over the undulations at Newmarket (July Course) already, is generally 8-1 for the Guineas and 16-1 for the Derby. Given what they have achieved so far, it does seem odd that Quorto is trading at much bigger prices.
Overall, the two-year-old scene is getting amazingly exciting and Sangarius, winner of the Flying Scotsman Stakes on the Friday at Doncaster, also got the tongues wagging.
On Saturday, over at Chantilly, it was a case of “ooh la la” as Persian King, a son of Kingman, bolted up by five lengths in a good time for Andre Fabre. He looks set to reoppose his Deauville conqueror, the Freddie Head-trained Anodor, in the Prix Jean Luc Lagardere on the Arc card in just over two weeks.
Considering that Calyx remains sidelined, these highly promising two-year-olds are spoiling us rotten.
ARC TRIALS
Monsieur Fabre, of course, mopped up two of the three Arc trials at Longchamp on Sunday.
Waldgeist, off since landing the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud back in July, looked better than ever in the Prix Foy and is getting the perfect Arc prep.
However, it was his stablemate Kitesurf, the three-year-old filly who took the Vermeille, that really impressed.
She was given an amazingly confident ride by Mikel Barzalona to come from last to first in the Prix Vermeille and in a time over two seconds quicker than Waldgeist.
She is a daughter of Dubawi who really did have a fabulous week. And the Niel winner? Brundtland, yes, another son of Dubawi. This, though, was a weaker-looking affair.
FAREWELL TO TWO TOP RACEHORSES
The top class card at Leopardstown on Saturday proved one race too many for both Saxon Warrior and Alpha Centauri, who were both defeated and promptly retired due to injuries sustained in the Champion and Matron Stakes respectively. It can be a tough game.
Saxon Warrior looked back to his best on Saturday for 99.9% of the race but did you see him changing his legs a few strides from the finish? That was probably where the tendon buckled under the strain.
Where Alpha Centauri sustained her injury was harder to say but her usual brilliance was missing because she had chipped a bone in her fetlock. Retirement made total sense, even if some on social media thought otherwise.
First to Saxon Warrior whose career may not have reached the heights predicted by some but it was still one that was particularly noteworthy.
The son of Deep Impact never dodged a challenge and you have to admire his connections who campaigned him pretty aggressively – and also probably out of his comfort zone in two Derby’s – and were rewarded by a colt trying his heart out every single time, even if he was defeated on his last five starts.
He faced Roaring Lion on six occasions, winning the first two in the Racing Post Trophy and the 2,000 Guineas, but coming off second best in the Derby, Eclipse, Juddmonte International and Irish Champion.
In truth, there was little between them at their best and “The Warrior” never got the chance to prove that a mile may have suited him best. After all, he was unbeaten in four starts at that trip.
Alpha Centauri was a very good filly at two but came into her own as she filled out her huge frame this summer. She was truly outstanding and more than lived up to her starry name as she blitzed her way to a Group One four-timer.
She only ever took on the colts once but smashed them up too in the Prix Jacques le Marois. Pure stardust.
LAURENS MARCHES ON
Take nothing away from Laurens, though, who once again did Karl Burke proud as she came back from her disappointing run in the Yorkshire Oaks only three weeks before. Laurens has also now won four Group One’s - in three different countries - and it is great to hear that she may stay in training next year.
Her owner John Dance got caught up in a bit of social media aggro right after the race, provoked by what he felt was a lack of respect beforehand to the chances of his superb filly, who may not have the gears of a peak-form Alpha but has a heart to match anything.
I don’t blame Dance for being sensitive to this and for being caught up in the moment. He soon deleted his tweet post-race – “racecourse vet finding Laurens too f***ing good” which playfully mocked the vet’s immediate post-race report on Alpha Centauri, which had described her as “clinically abnormal”.
At that time, the extent of Alpha’s injury was unknown and Dance meant no offence by it and immediately apologised.
The Laurens team could have a tough decision to make about whether to go to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, for which she is qualified. But, she was clearly a non-stayer in the Yorkshire Oaks.
There is no hurry and it looks like the Sun Chariot at Newmarket on October 6 is next.
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