Arrogate on top of the world
Arrogate, the winner of the Dubai World Cup in March, was named as the World’s Best Racehorse in 2017 at a Longines-sponsored ceremony in London on Tuesday, despite having finished fourth, second and fifth on his three subsequent starts last year.
Winx, the undisputed star of Australian racing and the winner of her last 22 starts including nine in 2017, was still rated 2lb inferior to Arrogate in the final rankings on 132, with Cracksman, the Champion Stakes winner, a further 2lb away on a mark of 130 alongside Gun Runner, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner.
Winx could yet get a chance to enhance her status on a global stage, as a run at Royal Ascot in June is still under consideration. Arrogate, though, has now retired to stud and does so as a dual winner of the World’s Best Racehorse award, thanks to an astonishing performance at Meydan in the early stages of the season.
Bob Baffert’s runner was slowly away, many lengths off the lead with a circuit to run and caught wide for much of the race, but still chased down Gun Runner with ease in the straight to win by two-and-a-quarter lengths.
It was, Baffert said on Tuesday, Arrogate’s “drop the mike” race: such an immense performance that he would never be able to reach that level again. “He gave so much that night, spotting those horses eight or 10 lengths,” Baffer said. “He just could never come back to that form. It was the single best performance that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in [racing] since 1989.
“I don’t think I’ll ever witness another race like that, and that’s why they’re honouring him. As my boys would say, it was sick what he did. He showed so much heart and determination, it was off the chart. After that, he was never the same. He was healthy, but he’d just said, that’s it.”
The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly, which was won by John Gosden’s Enable, was named the best individual race of 2017 with an average rating for the first four horses home of 126.25. However, Enable herself was only the fifth-highted rated horse of the year, with a mark of 128.
The classifications for last year’s best Flat juveniles in Europe were also published, when Aidan O’Brien’s U S Navy Flag, the first horse since Diesis in 1982 to complete the double in the Middle Park and the Dewhurst Stakes, emerged on top of the list with a rating of 122.
Best bets
Leicester offers £30,000 in the prize fund for the Listed Charnwood Forest Mares’ Chase on Tuesday but it has succeeded only in buying runners at the rate of £10,000 each with just three going to post for a race that attracted eight when it was launched 12 months ago. They could be forgiven for wondering why they bother, but one crumb of consolation is that the all three should attract some support and the market leader, at the moment at least, is odds-against.
That favourite is Lastbutnotleast, who burst a blood vessel and was pulled up on her first start over fences at Carlisle in December but got back on track with a 36-length success in heavy ground at Haydock a few weeks later.
Whether that form entitles her to head the market today is debateable, however, as the conditions were desperate, even by Haydock’s standards. She also faces a very stern opponent in Antartica De Thaix (2.40), who has winning form at this level and was running well under top weight before falling two out at Wincanton last time. At the prices, she looks much the better bet at around 6-4.
Dontminddboys (3.15) should also go well on the same card, while at Wetherby – which came through an 8am inspection this morning – Catamaran Du Seuil (3.30) is well worth backing in the four-runner handicap chase. Richard Newland’s six-year-old ran an excellent race to finish a six-length second in the Tommy Whittle Handicap Chase last time and can race off the same mark here.
Leicester 1.00 Don Des Fosses 1.30 Optimus Prime 2.05 Arian 2.40 Antartica De Thaix 3.15 Dontminddboys 3.50 Georgieshore 4.20 Shroughmore Lass
Southwell 1.20 Isoletta 1.55 Blistering Dancer 2.30 Piazon 3.05 Midnight Malibu (nb) 3.40 Lean On Pete 4.10 Unnoticed
Wetherby 1.10 Solo Saxophone 1.45 Cafe Au Lait 2.20 Bassarabad 2.55 Ben Arthur 3.30 Catamaran Du Seuil (nap) 4.00 Destrier
