Horse racing analysis: Graham Cunningham on the big issues
Glorious Goodwood is over and York’s Ebor Festival is on the horizon. Ascot and Haydock fill the gap this weekend, but GC also has his eye on various topics from at home and abroad in this week’s Cunningham File.
Family still matters as training stars align
The year is 2040.
Frankie is still riding G1 winners aged 69. The Racing League strikes gold when Team GB (powered by Swish Cocktails) edges out the USA and China (powered by Amazon and Huawei) as horse racing makes a barnstorming debut at the Dubai Olympics.
And trainers’ tables on both sides of the Irish Sea are dominated for the umpteenth year running by fathers and sons from the Balding, Gosden, Hannon, Johnston and O’Brien clans.
Two of those three predictions may be far-fetched but the other is perfectly plausible as the offspring of famous fathers exert an increasingly tight grip on the reins handed to them.
Last week’s Qatar Goodwood Festival proved a notably fertile hunting ground for those born into racing, Andrew Balding sparking title talk with five winners headed by Alcohol Free in the Sussex and Richard Hannon jnr saddling three including star youngster Armor.
William Jarvis, Richard Hughes, Michael Dods, Amanda Perrett and Ed Crisford (in conjunction with father Simon) added to the family theme, so what is it that makes so many trainers’ sons and daughters follow in parental footsteps?
Eve Johnson Houghton, who has trained over 400 winners since taking over from her father Fulke in 2007, is a third-generation handler who has no doubt that being immersed in the sport and its characters from day one has a lasting impact.
“Training wasn’t something I planned to do initially but you can’t help but absorb a lot of information when you are in a racing yard every day, especially when Lester Piggott, Steve Cauthen, John Reid and Wille Carson are at your breakfast table,” she says.
“There’s no doubt that having a parent who has trained is a huge advantage. The fact that you start out with a base to work from and gallops you know inside out is hugely valuable and, although he never interferes, how can it be a minus to be able to call on the support and knowledge of a dad who achieved so much?”
Johnson Houghton’s former Queen Anne hero Accidental Agent is back up to a mark of 107 after winning for the first time in three years at Newmarket last month, while next week’s BetVictor Hungerford Stakes at Newbury is an option for smart sprinter Jumby,
“Racing could definitely do with being more accessible on various levels,” she adds. “And we could also do with encouraging ambitious young trainers by giving them the chance to set up small yards on racecourse sites like they do in the States.”
Meanwhile, sons and daughters of famous training fathers tend to fall into one of four categories that reflect what happens the world over when a family firm passes down the line.
Some like Balding and Hannon inherit a proven business and thrive; others like Charlie Hills take on an elite yard and hold their own with big wins along the way; some like Grant Tuer and Edward Bethell inherit a smaller operation and take things up a notch or three; and, to show breeding isn’t everything, the berry can occasionally fall far from the tree to turn a first division outfit into relegation fodder.
Different dynamics are at work (and play) in all such transitions but the ongoing presence of dynastic racing names like Balding, Hannon, Gosden, Hills, Jarvis and Easterby among the top 30 shows that trainers have a vastly better chance if they start with a functioning yard full of capable horses and established owners to pay for them.
Like it or not, and some people love it, family connections play an even bigger part in the racing bubble than they do outside it.
The growing trend towards joint licences suggests the influence of those connections won’t fade anytime soon. But it’s hard not to wonder how many excellent trainers never get the chance to shine simply because they didn’t draw a lucky ticket in the sperm raffle.
Aidan’s Youth Team off the pace as Lonsdale leads the way
Three months since Guineas weekend and just three more until the 2021 Flat season on turf draws to a close.
You wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall for a Ballydoyle half time team talk and, while the senior pros are speaking for themselves, the fabled O’Brien youth academy is making far less noise than usual.
True, there is ample time for normal service to be resumed but consider the following ahead of what is traditionally one of the more significant juvenile weekends in the Irish calendar.
- Aidan has already won 26 Group races in 2021 – but Point Lonsdale’s Tyros Stakes was the only one for two-year-olds.
- Aidan usually has seven or eight juveniles with a Timeform rating of 100 plus by early August - this year he has just two.
- Aidan has saddled ten 2000 Guineas winners and seven 1000 Guineas winners. And all bar four - Virginia Waters, Magna Grecia, Saxon Warrior and Footstepsinthesand - ran before August of their juvenile season.
Point Lonsdale is currently 10-1 favourite for next year’s 2000 Guineas after following his Chesham win with a commanding Tyros Stakes success but it’s hard to detect strong Classic potential among the other youngsters Aidan has run so far this season.
And, if you want further evidence that Coolmore’s young guns aren’t firing, check out Sunday’s Keeneland Phoenix Stakes.
The Curragh G1 is one of the jewels in Ireland’s juvenile crown – and Aidan has won it 16 times with stars like Johannesburg, George Washington, Mastercraftsman and Caravaggio – but his team for this year’s renewal look way below their standard.
Of course, things could look very different by mid-October and the next few weeks will almost certainly see the wraps taken off a host of blue-blooded sons and daughters of the peerless Galileo.
That fact alone means it is still too early to suggest that Aidan’s juvenile Class of ’21 will go down as underachievers. But it’s not too early to suggest that much will rest on the muscular shoulders of Point Lonsdale if the other Coolmore kids don’t follow his lead soon.
Magic Man mulls mental challenges
To most casual observers he is the smiling, charismatic face of HK racing with all the benefits and privileges that come with being a multiple champion jockey.
But recent events have shown that mental challenges have no respect for sporting status and Joao Moreira has revealed that he wanted to “hide in the darkness” as depression struck him.
The Brazilian sealed his fourth HK title with 157 successes worth around £20m in prize money last month but harked back to a tough period in the second half of the 2019-2020 campaign when talking to David Morgan of Asia Bloodstock News.
“It’s like a devil in your mind telling you you’re not capable, that whatever you try again, it’s not going to work,” he said. “You don’t feel like getting out of your home, you don’t feel like doing anything.”
Moreira’s issues surfaced during the early part of the Covid crisis in HK and, although he says he has been able to “push through” his problems, he insists the wider issue of mental health in racing needs more attention in the wake of the Simone Biles Olympic episode.
“I’ve been shouting about it but apparently my voice is quite small,” he added. “So I’m happy that a big person in the world of athletes is actually expressing it, doing it bigger and louder and making sure the world is listening.”
The BHA is listening to former HK star Neil Callan’s requests for a licence to resume his career in Britain but progress has been slow.
“The application has been in for over a week and my manager Shelley Dwyer (07949 612256) has been calling them to try and speed things up,” he said. “I’m raring to go and trainers and owners are calling me asking whether I’m available so let’s hope it gets sorted quickly.”
It’s not about the money….
But Alan King’s Flat earnings are catching those of his jumpers. The Barbury Castle boss had a fair 2020-21 winter campaign, collecting £792,000 from 54 winners, but a landmark Goodwood double means his 20 Flat winners in 2021 have already trousered £686,000.
The million mark isn’t impossible if Trueshan and Assymetric keep rolling – and his balance between twig hoppers and Flat runners looks sure to level up further as time goes on.
What about the rest of Goodwood?
Baaeed continues to look the most exciting young horse in training; Suesa is surely Nunthorpe bound after demolishing Dragon Symbol; Alcohol Free played leading lady in a week when Balding’s horses did him proud; and Wonderful Tonight and Lady Bowthorpe confirmed that this year’s fillies have plenty to say for themselves.
Armor and Assymetric are clearly among the cream of the juvenile crop, while the luckless Perfect Power has Gimcrack potential, but don’t sleep on Kinross for another big prize. Ralph Beckett’s gelding quickened smartly to land a strong Lennox Stakes and, although he’s done all his racing over seven furlongs plus, he could prove a live player for something like the Haydock Sprint Cup in September.
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