The shortest-priced favourite on Champions Day here failed to deliver as Jack Hobbs could finish only third to Fascinating Rock in the Champion Stakes, but Solow, a horse who seems to have forgotten how to lose, did not disappoint. From Dubai in March to Ascot in October, he ends the season with five Group One wins and a perfect six-from-six record after taking the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
Solow is a strong, handsome grey five-year-old, but an unassuming champion all the same. He rarely explodes away from his field, but there is little need for theatrics when an honest, no-nonsense approach keeps getting the job done. Freddy Head’s gelding has now won his last nine starts, and 12 of his last 13. In an uncertain world, Solow is as steadfast as they come.
Gleneagles, the 2,000 Guineas winner, was the focus of all the attention in the run-up to the QEII, as Aidan O’Brien, his trainer, wavered over running him on easy ground. The decision to send Gleneagles to post was finally confirmed less than an hour before the race, but the bookmakers could not lay him at any price as the punters kept faith with Solow.
Maxime Guyon settled Solow in third behind a strong gallop, and the grey was the only runner to race close to the lead and stay on to the line. Gleneagles never threatened to finish any closer than sixth, while two outsiders, Belardo and Gabrial, came through from well off the pace to fill the places.
“This horse is very special,” Head, who also took the QEII 12 months ago with Charm Spirit, said. “To be able to keep his form all year with the journeys he’s made, I’ve never had a moment’s bother with him. He is sound, easy to train, always fit and just very easy. We can look forward to doing it all again next year.”
Gleneagles remains a possible runner in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in two weeks’ time, though O’Brien suggested afterwards that he regretted the decision to run.
“We knew it would be tough to come here,” O’Brien said. “He’d not had a break from training all summer and with the benefit of hindsight, I should have said we won’t run. He’s a high-class, fast-ground miler and we took a chance today and it didn’t pay off. About the Breeders’ Cup Classic, we’ll have to go home and see how he is, to see whether he runs there.”
If the pace was strong in the QEII, it appeared fiercer still in the Champion Stakes as Jack Hobbs and Maverick Wave, his pacemaker, forced their way to the front from wide draws to sit second and first respectively after a furlong and a half. Jack Hobbs seemed to pay the price in the closing stages as Fascinating Rock and Found, who was last early on, came through to finish first and second, with Fascinating Rock in particular stepping up significantly on previous form.
“Fascinating Rock has always had the potential to do what he did today, and I had this race planned for about six months,” Dermot Weld, the winner’s trainer, said. “We knew it would be softer in the autumn and he loves soft ground.
“The plan was to ride him off the pace and I told Pat [Smullen] to give him time and hunt away on him. Ascot has been very lucky for me, I’ve won Gold Cups, the St James’s Palace Stakes and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, but this day is also very special.”
Jack Hobbs’s third place ensured that John Gosden became the first British trainer to win £5m in prize money in a domestic season, and the colt will be a key member of his team in 2016 too.
“We were forced to commit and had to use him a lot early which would not normally be the plan,” Gosden said. “He’s all about next year, he’s a big overgrown kid and I couldn’t be more thrilled with him today. His dad [Halling] got good at four and five and this one is no exception. To me, it’s not a surprise. The draw was the only negative.”
Simple Verse, who was controversially demoted from first place in the St Leger before being reinstated on appeal, left no room for doubt in the British Champions Fillies & Mares’ Stakes as she came with a strong late run to catch Journey in a few strides from the line.
The filly’s victory was also the first on Champions Day for a runner in the colours of Sheikh Fahad al-Thani, whose private investment fund Qipco sponsors the card.
“This means a lot to us,” Sheikh Fahad said. “Having a winner on Champions Day is wonderful, and we’ve waited five years. Doncaster was Doncaster, and it makes this all the sweeter. She will stay in training and will be in all the top mile-and-a-half races. She might even be a King George filly.”
Muharaar will retire to stud as an outstanding stallion prospect after his fourth Group One win of the year in the British Champions Sprint Stakes, while Flying Officer, in the opening Group Two Long Distance Cup, gave Gosden a winner on a day when his status as the record-breaking championship winner was confirmed.
