Value is hard to find in the Bois

By Ian Carnaby

Well, if you’re going to be wrong, it might as well be in spades. We can all see that Sea The Stars is unquestionably one of the best racehorses to have graced the turf, so querying the value in backing him now seems somewhat misguided, though I still believe he was very short indeed for a horse facing a wholly different task.

Inevitably, there will be comparisons with the greats of the past, though such debates always seem fairly pointless to me. What we can say for sure is that he beat the luckless Youmzain and Vision d’Etat far more comfortably than Zarkava did last year. Vision d’Etat was the big disappointment this time, given that Fame And Glory needed easier ground.

There comes a point where the spectacle matters much more than the betting and this was one of those days. It is a pity Sea The Stars is so close to retirement because the general public wants to see more of him. The BBC, as we know, can make occasions like this seem very special indeed, but there will be no follow-up. At a time when the sport’s navel-gazing indicates clearly enough that finding a new, younger audience is of paramount importance, it is galling to see a magnificent contest and an undisputed superstar hinting at possibilities which will gradually drift away again.

Upon arrival at Longchamp, where there were not so many British visitors this year, I realised fairly quickly that value would be very hard to find. There were no hard-luck stories in the Arc, though those with pari-mutuel tickets on Conduit, beaten a head into fourth, will be wondering what the place might have paid, given that he was 14 to 1 to win on the machine but only 8 to 1 with British bookmakers. Of course, layers this side of the Channel will point out that they offered truly exotic prices about the no-hopers but if you look at those with some sort of chance, the pari-mutuel beat the
British and Irish firms pointless, with the single exception of Stacelita, popular with the Parisian crowd at 10 to 1 but double the price here.

As far as my own betting was concerned, everything - or nearly everything - rested on Fleeting Spirit in the Prix de l’Abbaye. The disconcerting thing was that quite a few people seemed to feel even more strongly than I did, because she was backed down to 11/8 favourite on the books (8 to 5 and therefore slightly better on the pari-mutuel) before finishing a neck runner-up to Total Gallery. She ran well but always seemed to be just too far off the pace. Fleeting Spirit does most things effortlessly, but not this time.

It was a long, long while before the firms opened up ante-post on the Abbaye, although 5 to 2 was quoted early the day before. That was probably the very shortest price anyone should have entertained because, even at her very best and taking into account that she has often looked best over five furlongs, she had very little to spare. Sometimes the desire to start the day in style can take over altogether and I must say, as one of Fleeting Spirit’s greatest supporters, the odds as the runners cantered down stopped me in my tracks. Arc day is a great occasion, but no prisoners are taken by our old friends and NINE of the 11 British sprinters taking part in this started at a price shorter than the pari-mutuel. Yes, I realise everyone has a choice but I wonder how many people take advantage of it? The shrewdest British punters on course wait for a short-priced favourite, popular with French racegoers, then check the odds back home. Rosanara in the Prix Marcel Boussac was the best example of this, starting at a very skinny 9 to 10 on the machine but sent off the 2 to 1 favourite here. She won well.

With 450,000 euros in the pot, the Qatar Arabian World Cup for Arab pure-breds deserved rather more attention and actually produced a good story because the full brothers General and Al Dahma fought out the finish. The British press might have taken more notice, even if only because Rod Simpson had a runner - Fryvolous, who flattered briefly as they turned for home.

Very careful study of the previous day’s Paris Turf revealed that Gerald Mosse was due to take over from a relatively inexperienced jockey on Sirocco De Pame in the second division of the mile and a half handicap, the Prix Barzan. Just to prove once and for all that distance and location have no bearing on habit, I thought this might be in the nature of a ‘job’.

It very nearly was, too, with Gerald doing his level best in third and the pari-mutuel paying 5.70 for a place on the machine. Even twenty times the dividend was not enough to pay for dinner in the Petrus restaurant in the 17th arrondissement, but it was close. Maybe everything worked out for the best. With the air full of Sea The Stars, Mick and the lovely John Oxx, I don’t think I could have murmured that I got out of bother in the second division of the handicap. Still, to thine own self, etc etc.