Newmarket Saturday reaction: Adam Houghton from the course
Our man at the track Adam Houghton reflects on the drama of bet365 Cambridgeshire day at Newmarket.
As you were in the trainers’ championship
Andrew Balding remains the one to catch in the trainers’ championship after Saturday’s racing at Newmarket, but that position briefly looked a precarious one with about a furlong to run in the Royal Lodge Stakes, a Group 2 worth £56,710 to the winner.
At the start of the day, Balding’s advantage over Charlie Appleby stood at around £42,000, so when the Appleby-trained Coroebus moved clear of the field in the Royal Lodge – trading at the basement price of 1.01 on the Betfair Exchange in doing so – it seemed inevitable that we would be looking at a new leader in the race to be crowned champion trainer.
In the event, however, it was Mark Johnston – the winning-most trainer in British racing but yet to land the top prize – who came to Balding’s rescue as the improving Royal Patronage rallied strongly to overhaul Coroebus on the uphill climb to the line.
Royal Patronage had set out to make all but looked likely to play second fiddle to Coroebus when passed by that rival entering the final three furlongs, soon having around four lengths to make up before being galvanised by Jason Hart to eat up the deficit in gutsy and likeable fashion.
The Balding-trained Masekela, sent off the 85/40 joint favourite along with Coroebus, was the big disappointment of the Royal Lodge in fourth, but he still picked up £5,360 for his troubles. Throw in another £30,532 for Sandrine finishing third in the Cheveley Park Stakes and Balding’s position at the top seems safe for at least one more day.
Not just a two-horse race?
With eight Group 1 races still to be run in Britain this autumn, there remains plenty of prize money to play for in the trainers’ championship and the stage is set for what could be a titanic tussle.
It’s entirely possible that the biggest danger to Balding might not be the powerful Appleby string, either, but rather that of John and Thady Gosden, who began the day over £400,000 behind the leader in third but still have plenty of ammunition to fire in the coming weeks.
The Gosden yard certainly looks best equipped for the top-level contests still to come. Of the eight Group 1s yet to be run in Britain, there are leading contenders for at least four of them housed at Clarehaven Stables, namely Inspiral in the Fillies’ Mile (worth £283,550 to the winner), Free Wind in the Fillies’ and Mares’ Stakes (£283,550), Palace Pier in the Queen Elizabeth (£623,810) and Mishriff in the Champion Stakes (£680,520).
Stradivarius would also be a key player if lining up in the Group 2 Long Distance Cup (£283,550), while Reach For The Moon remains a two-year-old of serious potential if lining up in a race such as the Dewhurst Stakes (£283,550).
By contrast, Balding is likely to be relying heavily on star miler Alcohol Free, a general 8/1 shot for the QEII. Alcohol Free has provided Balding with his only two Group 1 wins this year, in the Coronation Stakes and Sussex Stakes, and it’s hard to nominate any other obvious candidates to step up to the plate before the end of the campaign.
As for Appleby, he can call upon the red-hot favourite for the Dewhurst in the shape of Native Trail, while Creative Force in the Champions Sprint Stakes (£283,550) and Master of The Seas in the QEII could lead the charge from Moulton Paddocks on Champions Day at Ascot.
The fact the likes of Adayar and Hurricane Lane (both in the Arc) and Space Blues (Prix de la Foret) are all heading to France next weekend could leave Appleby a bit short in some of the key battles in Britain, however. After all, there are only 13 days between the Arc and Champions Day this year, possibly too brief a gap for that talented trio to do both.
John and Thady Gosden will still need almost everything to go their way between now and the end of the year to prevail in the trainers’ championship, but the first-named has already pulled bigger rabbits out of the hat during his long and illustrious training career, one that has seen him crowned champion trainer four times since 2012.
Whether Thady can join him on the roll of honour in the immediate future remains to be seen, but it’s certainly too soon to be calling the trainers’ championship a two-horse race.
O’Brien reveals his two-year-old star
Back to Newmarket on Saturday and Aidan O’Brien served a timely reminder of his own training skills by winning the Cheveley Park Stakes with Tenebrism, a filly who was making her first appearance on a racecourse since making a winning debut in a Naas maiden in March.
Before Saturday, O’Brien had saddled only one two-year-old winner (from seven runners) in Britain this season, namely Point Lonsdale, a determined winner of the Chesham Stakes who followed up in the Tyros Stakes and Futurity Stakes back on Irish soil to extend his winning sequence to four.
Point Lonsdale had no excuses when suffering his first defeat in the National Stakes at the Curragh last time, however, simply having no response as Native Trail powered clear inside the final furlong. That only intensified the discussion surrounding the two-year-olds at Ballydoyle and the apparent lack of superstars compared to what we might typically expect.
It certainly seemed telling that O’Brien’s four contenders for the three pattern races on Saturday’s card at Newmarket returned SPs of 18/1, 14/1, 14/1 and 33/1. Three of them were duly stuffed, but it turns out that there was one star amongst them – she had simply spent the summer hiding at Ballydoyle whilst her stablemates were failing to uphold standards.
The most impressive aspect of Tenebrism’s debut performance on heavy going at Naas was the electric turn of foot she displayed to draw clear in the final furlong, something that was once again in evidence on very different ground at Newmarket.
The winning margin wasn’t quite so emphatic, but she still looked a filly potentially out of the very top drawer as she ran down Flotus, who had enjoyed the run of the race against the nearside rail, inside the final furlong, ultimately passing the post a length to the good.
Unbeaten in two starts and boasting a pedigree (by Caravaggio out of the multiple Group 1 winner Immortal Verse) as classy as she looks, Tenebrism now heads the ante-post betting for next year’s 1000 Guineas.
That is far from an unfamiliar position for a horse from Ballydoyle, but it will also be a welcome one for those closest to her given everything that has gone before in 2021.
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