Fortune shines on special day

By Ian Carnaby

The Ladbrokes St Leger has reached the stage where the purists line up to take a cheap shot. If the Pattern scheme was designed to create just that - a pattern where top-class horses would move from one test to the next, stepping up in distance all the while - the scheme no longer works.

Or, more correctly, it no longer applies. Nijinsky, ringworm and all, played his part but that was 37 years ago. In a way, the filly Oh So Sharp’s 1985 Triple Crown was an even greater achievement, because she prevailed, in a finish of short heads, in one of the best post-war 1,000 Guineas and it was sheer determination that got her home at Doncaster. The Oaks, by contrast, was a piece of cake.

It is very hard to imagine horses being campaigned in that way now, for the simple reason that winning over a mile and three-quarters is anathema to most breeders. As John Gosden remarked after winning the final Classic with Lucarno, “In the US, even a mile and a half race is regarded as a marathon”. Gosden knows what he is talking about, because he trained n the States for several years. He is rather superior in manner, slightly impatient and a little abrasive at times but he makes many valid points.

(Just as an aside, he is correct, for example, about more money coming into the sport if racecourses offered other gambling opportunities. Don’t get me wrong: the last thing I want to see is slot machines at the track and I am certain the HRA will not countenance them. But never be in any doubt that people, especially YOUNG people, would play them. It is an outright certainty, and if you doubt it just have a glance inside your local betting shop, where one or two newcomers will be more interested in the roulette than the racing.)

But I digress. Gosden knows that a diet of American-style racing - similar trips, left-hand tracks, mostly dirt, no stayers - would soon bore a British audience. We need the Persian Punches and the Sergeant Cecils to spice things up. And it is not too great a leap from there to the acknowledgement that we need the St Leger, as well. What a pity Henry Cecil is not the force of old, or imagine Clive Brittain’s mood if he had a horse anywhere near capable of winning a Triple Crown. So, let’s be grateful for Gosden and Lucarno’s owner-breeder George Strawbridge.

I also thought it was a very good race to watch last week and one which underlined how much Jimmy Fortune has improved as a jockey. People will say the serious back injury which almost ended his career also made him determined to show what he could do when he returned, but that would not account for his greater tactical awareness.

In the St Leger, Mick Kinane rode a very intelligent race from in front, well aware that Mahler would keep galloping without quickening very much. He had to go just fast enough to test Lucarno’s stamina whilst conserving enough energy for the final battle. Ballydoyle has used horses, even Group 1 horses, in a tactical way in at least two top races this summer, the Coronation Cup and the King George. But Mahler was ridden entirely on his merits and would have won, but for Fortune’s calmness in holding on to Lucarno for as long as possible, then delivering his short, sharp thrust at precisely the right moment.

Gosden described it as ‘Classic speed’ and it was certainly gratifying that Lucarno, well held in fourth behind Authorized in the Derby, showed too much pace for the upgraded handicappers in the Leger. As I mentioned last week, as far as the breakfast pundits are concerned, nothing is forgotten as quickly as the previous Saturday’s losers. On to the Ayr Gold Cup, and never mind how many of us thought Honolulu was a good thing.

Times change, I suppose, and so do circumstances. But I never thought I’d see a horse beaten in the Ebor start at 13 to 8 in a Group 1 race. 13 to 8! A lot of people back trainers and jockeys, of course, as opposed to horses, especially on Saturdays. But it beggars belief, really, doesn’t it? If you could regularly lay horses beaten in a top mile and three-quarters handicap at 13 to 8 in a Classic, and the queues were still forming to get on, how long would it take you to buy your bijou little place in Juan les Pins or your cosy walk-up in Pavones? Not too long, perhaps.