It looked like it was happening again. Three weeks ago, hot favourite Field Of Gold’s 150-1 pacemaker, Qirat, escaped his pursuers to win the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. Into the straight in Wednesday’s Juddmonte International and Ombudsman’s “domestique”, Birr Castle, was nearly 100 yards clear and didn’t look like stopping.
But this time the greyhound caught the hare, Birr Castle (150-1) folding in the last quarter-mile and Ombudsman producing a hugely impressive burst of speed to cut him down half a furlong out to run home a three-and-a-half length winner from his Sandown conqueror, Delacroix, with Birr Castle earning a totally unexpected, but splendidly enterprising, £140,000 for finishing third in front of the filly See The Fire. The Japanese hope, Danon Decile, and the hitherto unbeaten French challenger, Daryz, were a disappointing fifth and sixth respectively.
The massive £748,000 first prize and the kudos of what is currently rated as ‘the world’s best horse race’ was duly landed, so we should congratulate the winning jockey, William Buick, and pacemaker, Rab Havlin, even if we aren’t convinced things rolled out exactly as intended. First comments are often the most telling. “I didn’t expect Danon Decile to take back, I thought he wanted to chase the pace,” Buick said from the saddle. It told a lot.
As so often, the fractions were the story. The Race IQ figures show that for the second, third, fourth and fifth furlongs, Birr Castle was going either a full second, or almost a full second, faster than Ombudsman as Buick kept behind Danon Decile at the head of the pack. At Sandown he and Ombudsman had hit the front only to be cut down by Delacroix at the death. He didn’t want to launch the pursuit and land himself a target long before the finish. But letting a decent horse loose had worked out badly at Goodwood. The crowd were beginning to mutter.
Buick could be forgiven for being surprised by jockey Keita Tosaki as Danon Decile had beaten top French horse Calandagan over a mile and a half in Dubai last time in March, and so even after a long absence a slow pace over a mile and a quarter would surely not suit. The Japanese star was edgy and jig-jogging in the paddock, pulled Tosaki’s arms out on the way to the start, and was under huge restraint at the head of the pursuit.
However, credit where it’s due. When Ombudsman was finally let loose he was terrific, posting final three furlong times of 10.94sec, 11.22sec and 11.99sec, and hitting a top speed of 41mph as the fastest horse in the race. Trainer John Gosden called him “a proper horse” and confirmed that the logical targets would be the Irish Champion Stakes and Ascot for Champions Day, with the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe over a mile and a half only feasible if there is an unusually dry autumn and fast ground in Paris.
Buick had a few anxious moments before Ombudsman pulled clear to win the Juddmonte International at York
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“He’s getting better and better,” Gosden said, before adding cryptically, “I did say to William that if he’d sat four lengths off the pacemaker he’d have won by ten lengths, but there we go.”
Delacroix was disappointing, only running on late and losing a full three lengths on Ombudsman from the Eclipse form. Trainer Aidan O’Brien had equal disappointment in the previous race when English and Irish Derby winner Lambourn could only finish fifth in the Great Voltigeur behind the 12-1 winner Pride Of Arras, who was rekindling the brilliance of his Dante Stakes victory on this track in May after extremely modest showings at Epsom and the Curragh.
O’Brien’s four runners in the seven-strong field filled the last four places, but the world’s most positive, as well as most successful, trainer was as usual anything but downcast in defeat.
“All of them ran grand,” he said, adding that Lambourn had the option of the Arc, or the St Leger, in the latter of which Stay True — who was one-length fourth in the Voltigeur — is likely to join his stablemate and present favourite, Scandinavia, next month.
But the training performance of the day goes to Ralph Beckett for bringing Pride Of Arras back from oblivion, albeit by the unkindest cut of all.
“He needed gelding,” Beckett said, before noting respiratory problems that the horse also had to overcome. As a gelding, Pride Of Arras is absurdly not eligible for either the St Leger or the Arc, but all sorts of international pots beckon. Best of all, for him everyone would love it if it happened again and again.