Earthlight proved himself a star but the keenly anticipated Middle Park Stakes did not provide the hoped-for battle, one of the key runners, Siskin, having been backed out of the stalls about a second before they opened. There might have been a feeling of deflation had it not been for the bit of vaudeville put on by Frankie Dettori half an hour later as he won the Cambridgeshire on the heavily backed Lord North.
It has been a poor year for French racing, with most of its major trophies being boxed up for export over the summer. But the unbeaten Earthlight, trained in Chantilly by André Fabre, is a genuine star and broke the juvenile course record that had been set in the previous race.
That the placed horses were Golden Horde and Summer Sands, priced at 16-1 and 100-1, means the race threw up as many questions as answers. Was there a faster strip of ground up the near rail, where those outsiders raced? Is the Mums Tipple bubble burst, since he beat just one rival? Most of all, what happened to Siskin, who reared so alarmingly in the stalls that his jockey jumped off and helped reverse him out?
“We’ve got no really good explanation,” said Lord Grimthorpe, spokesman for the colt’s owner, Khalid Abdullah, who also sponsors the race. “He went into the stalls fine. He’s got the most laid-back attitude of almost any horse of Prince Khalid’s. For that suddenly to happen is bizarre, really. We’re as shocked as most people. I don’t know whether it was the wind, there was no obvious trigger. It wasn’t like somebody got kicked or something rattled. He just flipped. This game tames tigers.” Siskin scraped himself but the wounds were thought to be superficial. “It’s a pity but he’s still unbeaten,” said his trainer, Ger Lyons, finding the upside.
Earthlight was cut to 8-1 with most firms for the 2,000 Guineas but he carries the same blue colours of Godolphin as the hot favourite, Pinatubo, trained by Charlie Appleby. Does Fabre expect he will be allowed to run his horse in the Classic if Pinatubo is also fit to line up?
“It has to be discussed,” the Frenchman said. “But Sheikh Mohammed is a sportsman, he wouldn’t mind running one against his other one.”
There might have been an element of wishful thinking to that reply and there was an element of counter revolutionary thinking in Fabre’s response when asked why France has been short of top horses in the past couple of years. “It relies very much on the breeding. When you’ve got the socialist country, you don’t have enough rich people. It’s dead simple.”
Musselburgh 1.40 Chica Buena 2.10 Marie’s Gem 2.40 Summer Heights 3.15 Warning Fire 3.45 Lomu 4.20 Kemmeridge Bay (nap)
4.55 Lagenda 5.25 Kaizer
Epsom 2.00 Lost In Time 2.30 King’s Caper 3.05 Mordred 3.35 Hot Team 4.10 Ocala 4.45 Edinburgh Castle
5.15 Young Bernie (nb)
That was not the only pointed comment made in the winner’s enclosure. Jessie Harrington was delighted to win the Cheveley Park Stakes with Millisle but noted that her filly had not, this time, been subjected to a late blood test by the British Horseracing Authority vet, in contrast to what happened to the filly at Salisbury recently, when she was narrowly beaten. “She was definitely much more relaxed today,” the Irish trainer said.
At 16-1, Millisle had few supporters in the stand but there was a lot more cheering when Lord North finally emerged from the pack in the Cambridgeshire after having to weave among tiring rivals. John Gosden’s charge had been backed from 10-1 to 9-2 in less than a day and briefly seemed to have left his challenge too late but quickened so smartly that he was in front with yards to spare.
Dettori even had time to give a cheeky look across at Thore Hansen on Beringer before going past. “I was just laughing,” he said. “At my age, you’ve got to enjoy stuff like that.”
Many will hope he has time for something similar aboard Enable in next Sunday’s Arc.
