Riding the Pine
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By Ryan Goldberg squeezed between horses set a course record for six a furlong and a half out and, and a half furlongs. Two On Aug. 11, the Prix with an acceleration that course records in a single Jacques le Marois at took your breath away, burst week. sun-drenched Deauville clear for what looked certain The horses in her wake, Racecourse on the Norman to be a comfortable victory. too, were not strangers to coast was billed as the race But Olympic Glory left the OQ?DODKNPH=UKBBO1DAłHHU of the season in Europe. Six pack and with a bold charge "HQOERA(=PA SDKłJEODA@ Group 1 winners graced its nearly caught Moonlight seventh, had won Deauville’s marquee, and as so often Cloud. She held on by a short Group 1 Prix Rothschild two happens in Europe, trainers head. weeks earlier. This was her went out of their way to The time went up, and third race in 30 days. Aidan łCQNA KQP SDK D=@ PDA >AOP the Deauville habitués O’Brien trainee Declaration of – in this case the best miler, rejoiced. Moonlight Cloud War, a respectable fourth, had regardless of gender or age. had lowered a course record łJEODA@ PDEN@ EJ PDA 0QOOAT It did not disappoint. held by Goldikova, another Stakes at Goodwood 11 days Moonlight Cloud, the French heroine and her earlier. Godolphin’s Dawn @EIEJQPERAłRAUA=NKH@I=NA former stablemate in trainer Approach, a disappointing with a truckload of courage, Freddy Head’s barn. It was łBPD=OPDAB=RKNEPA =HOK unanimously voiced that here came from the Sussex, losing there by a narrow margin. was a legendary performance, reinforced by this fact: Moonlight Cloud had raced one week before, triumphing in Deauville’s Group 1 Prix Mauricede Gheest for the third time as she 0RRQOLJKW&ORXG OHIW ZRQWKH*3UL[-DFTXHVOH0DURLVVHYHQGD\VDIWHUKHUZLQLQWKH*3UL[0DXULFHGH*KHHVWERWKLQ FRXUVHUHFRUGWLPH7KHUHZHUHVL[*ZLQQHUVLQWKHILHOGIRXURIZKLFKKDGUDFHGWZRZHHNVRUOHVVSULRUWRWKH0DURLV October 2013 | 1 Horses Raced in 11 Horses in Europe EUROPE Were Champions and/or SWs They won 17 Stakes Races, 11 Group Races, 2 Championships including Champion Older Staying Filly or Mare in England G1 Prix Vermeille winner SWEET STREAM Champion Filly at 2 in Ireland TORGAU G2 Futurity winner FIRST CORNERSTONE G2 Prix Eugene Adam winner TRIPLE THREAT G2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier winner BRIGANTIN Barry Irwin Bradley Weisbord INTERNATIONAL www.teamvalor.com The Jacques le Marois was enters the Breeders’ Cup Look at the human athletes. DEOłBPD?KJOA?QPERA$NKQL Classic after winning the They don’t dehydrate race in 99 days. Both horses -=?Eł? H=OOE?IKNAPD=JPSK themselves before the race.” D=@ŃKSJ months ago. What explains Lasix is one explanation to that question, and there from Ireland to England for this major divergence? are several. The particular the Sussex, back to Ireland George Strawbridge Jr., and later to France. nature of horse racing makes who bred and owns Moonlight anecdote and logic a clear Declaration of War showed Cloud, races in Europe frontrunner to the normally no wear and tear. Ten days and America and keenly O?=JP O?EAJPEł? ARE@AJ?A later, O’Brien saddled him observes both landscapes. He So for this article, the in the Group 1 Juddmonte immediately points to Lasix opinions of some of the most International at York. With as the main offender. “The successful trainers in Europe an added two and a half recovery time would not allow were solicited, plus American furlongs in front of him, trainers and owners. What it,” he says. “Whenever you he triumphed over the best follows is what they had to dehydrate a horse t o middle-distance horses in say. Britain – his third race in that extent, it is According to statistics three weeks. Only soft ground not possible. compiled by the kept him from headlining International Federal the Group 1 Irish Champion of Horseracing Authorities, horses Stakes at Leopardstown 17 in Europe average days after that. about the same This state of affairs number of starts, seems unthinkable in six per year, American racing. Two as horses races in a week? An domestically. extended campaign with a start every two and a half weeks? The best American horses routinely race every six weeks, save for the Triple Crown; Game on Dude, for instance, D=O N=?A@ łRA PEIAO since early February, his average layoff 49 days, = łCQNA OAP PK NEOA KJ?A DA 7KH-DFTXHVOH0DURLVZDV'HFODUDWLRQ RI:DU¶VILIWKFRQVHFXWLYH*URXSUDF LQGD\VZKLFKLQFOXGHGVWRSVLQ (QJODQG,UHODQGDQG)UDQFH SKRWR0DUWLQ/\QFK October 2013 | 2 four times – on turf, like his European peers – since then. “When you handle a horse that can run like this the temptation is to run him every couple of weeks,” Morton Fink, Wise Dan’s owner, said after the six-year- old gelding’s record-setting Woodbine Mile performance on Sept. 15. “He is a money machine. It will never happen as long as Charlie [Lopresti, his trainer] and I have anything to do with him.” Fink however signaled that Wise Dan would likely SKRWR3DWULFN0F&DQQ race in the Shadwell Mile at Keeneland three weeks It is well a regular “I’d have to say that later, his same setup for the known that participant Breeders’ Cup Mile as last American in the best many of the best year. horses used mile races, Declaration of War, a four- to race horses we’ve had Bolger’s year-old son of War Front almost twice three-year- bred in Kentucky by Joe as frequently here, like Giant’s old homebred Allen, raced seven times in before the Trading Causeway, Galileo, @=UO =HH>QPKJAKBPDAI introduction Leather has Group 1 races. O’Brien said of Lasix in Rock of Gibraltar kept longer the 1970s. distances; he does not make any hard In group or were able to show he began and fast rules on the spacing graded races, his season of races; with some horses, however, up for the big races on May 16 the next day he would hardly horses in time after time.” at York and know they’d had a race, while Europe raced three others can take longer to appear to —Aidan O’Brien PEIAO EJ recover. In other words, the compete days. Then individual horse tells you. with greater he won the “As I’ve said many times frequency than their Irish Derby at the Curragh before Declaration of War has American counterparts, even KJ 'QJA NA?AERA@ = BKQN an unbelievable constitution, though the latter – or perhaps SAAG NAOP =J@ D=O łJEODA@ so I don’t think it’s entirely because of this – encounter second or third against older fair on the American-trained year-round racing, as horses in three Group 1 races horses to use him as a basis compared to the spring-to- since then. for comparison,” O’Brien says. fall European calendar. By comparison, reigning “But I’d have to say that many This season, trainers Aidan American champion Wise of the best horses we’ve had O’Brien and Jim Bolger have Dan made his seasonal bow here, like Giant’s Causeway, become models for running a month before Trading Galileo, Rock of Gibraltar their hardier horses time and Leather, in the Maker’s Mile were able to show up for the again. With Dawn Approach at Keeneland, and has raced big races time after time.” October 2013 | 3 GRADE 1 EXACTA /$8*+,1* ,5( DQG 7$11(5< ,5( %RWKIRUPHUO\WUDLQHGLQ,UHODQGWKH\ JDYHRZQHU5LFKDUG6DQWXOOLD LQODVW6DWXUGD\¶V*UDGH)ORZHU %RZO,QYLWDWLRQDO6WDNHVDW%HOPRQW 3DUN7KLVZDV/$8*+,1*¶VIRXUWK VWUDLJKW*UDGHG6WDNHVVXFFHVVZKLOH 7$11(5<DOVRVFRUHGLQD*UDGH VLQFHPRYLQJVWDWHVLGH G1SW & FIVE-TIME GSW 2%9,286/< ,5( $QRWKHUJUDGXDWHRIWKH,ULVKUDFHFRXUVH KHZRQWKH*UDGH6KRHPDNHU0LOH DW+ROO\ZRRG3DUNKLVIRXUWKRIILYH *UDGHG6WDNHVZLQV+HDOVRKROGVWKH WUDFNUHFRUGIRUDPLOHRQWKHWXUIDW 'HO0DU )RULQIRUPDWLRQRQSXUFKDVLQJKRUVHVLQWUDLQLQJLQ,UHODQGDQGGHWDLOV RIRXU,QZDUG%X\HU3URJUDPPHFRQWDFW,70WRGD\ THINK THOROUGHBRED… THINK IRELAND! 3OHDVHFRQWDFW,70RQRULQIR#LWPLH YLVLWXVRQOLQHDWZZZLWPLH SKRWR(GZDUG:KLWDNHU “Obviously a lot of the horses are pretty tough here... But it’s a strange thing. It’s slightly like saying the ϐǤ” —Trainer John Gosden The season, too, is shorter. list as the principal reason two of Gosden’s stars, are O’Brien pointed out that for these short layoffs. proper examples. The Fugue, there are no Group 1 races in “Obviously a lot of the horses a four-year-old daughter Britain and Ireland until the are pretty tough here,” he of Dansili, easily defeated IKJPD KB *=U 1DA łTPQNA says. “But it’s a strange her own sex in the Group 1 list, as they call it, shoe-horns thing. It’s slightly like 6KNGODENA,=GOKJQC =O the big races from April to O=UEJCPDABKKPEO>AEJCłPPA@ part of the British Champion mid-fall, and they often lay to the shoe.” He continues: Series, and so returned close to one another, as in “The program is becoming the 13 days separating the increasingly crowded with quickly against the boys in Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at major festival races. And the Irish Champion Stakes on Longchamp and Champions we have the highest quality Sept. 7, where she outstayed Day at Ascot. of turf racing here….People Al Kazeem, a winner of three John Gosden, one of want to compete.” Group 1 races this season Europe’s most successful The aforementioned who was making his sixth PN=EJANO ?EPAO PDA łTPQNA Elusive Kate and The Fugue, start since late April. October 2013 | 4 Gosden suggested however But, Gosden adds, “We would So much purse money is that short layoffs generally say that you run your Triple concentrated in races for demand a longer one Crown in a little bit of a two and three-year-olds, thereafter. Moonlight Cloud, DQNNU &PO =HH KRAN EJ łRA which offers disincentives for instance, will return to weeks, isn’t it?” for hanging around, but this the races about seven weeks Indeed, the Triple Crown OPEHH @AłAO >AHEAB OEJ?A PDA older horses should better after her course-record reveals a lesson that when handle the rigors of frequent double, in the Prix de la Foret their hands are forced, racing.