Morrison has a point

By Ian Carnaby

The Betfred Sprint Cup worked out well enough for me, with Red Clubs and Balthazaar’s Gift finishing first and third, but I still feel Hughie Morrison, Sakhee’s Secret’s trainer, made some fair, if fiery, points about Haydock’s decision to water.

I suppose a great deal depends on how quickly you think ground will recover from a comprehensive ravaging. Not so long ago, Haydock lost four meetings following incessant rain and the course was virtually under water. If a general improvement in weather conditions turned things round to the extent that there was the genuine good to firm ground we might expect at this time of year, watering may have been viable.

But I can’t quite see it myself. Haydock absorbs a lot of water at the best of times and it is the one worrying aspect at a well-run track which has made enormous strides in recent years. The course was making a good recovery but probably did not need any extra moisture. I don’t quite understand where the ‘safety’ angle comes in. This was a straight, six-furlong affair with no bend involved. If you take the decision to water, and the ground changes to a degree (which it did, from apparently ‘good to firm’ to ‘good to firm, good in places’) you have effectively lessened the chances of fast-ground performers.

It’s not as if it was ever ‘hard’ or even ‘firm’, and all Morrison wanted was for Haydock to stay much the same as Newmarket when Sakhee’s Secret won the July Cup. If he was indeed told that there would be no watering, he has every right to feel aggrieved. And it is not irrelevant that the winner, Red Clubs, failed to get inside the standard time for six furlongs, even though he is a proven Group 1 sprinter and was driven right out to score. When even the winning trainer opines that the ground has been over-watered, you know you have a problem.

Just coming back to the race itself, Sakhee’s Secret was very poor value for another reason, namely the draw. I have been to every Haydock meeting this summer and the jockeys have invariably wanted to come up the middle of the track. Therefore, from stall 2 the 11 to 8 favourite was always going to have to work that bit harder. Actually, it says plenty for French challenger Marchand d’Or that he overcame his stall one berth and came across far enough to lead at the furlong pole before being run out of it.

He was a shade unlucky and so was Balthazaar’s Gift, who had only one behind him running to two out but finished best of all in third. At least he proved he is a genuine Group 1 sprinter and it remains my opinion that he was a good thing in the Stewards’ Cup, even with 9st 12lb. Still, we’re not always paid out when correct.

Just staying with the sprinters for a moment, Frankie Dettori finessed Dandy Nicholls’ Indian Trail into the lead in the opener last Saturday and won with a bit in hand, even though the winning margin was only a head. Clearly, this rejuvenated individual, who was supposed to win a Portland or an Ayr Gold Cup in his David Elsworth days the better part of three years ago, will have to be taken very seriously in Scotland later this month.

But, of course, you always need to look at the wider picture where Nicholls is concerned. Whish is why, when you consider the trap-to-line sprinter Buachaill Dona for this Saturday’s Portland, your eye is automatically drawn to former Stewards’ Cup winner Gift Horse lower down the weights. It’s not a question of whether Gift Horse will recover his best form, as you well know. It’s a question of when.