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You can never grudge the cheery Charlie Appleby success, but thank heaven there are a few more yards with the resources to compete and it was Andrew Balding’s Chaldean, sired by Frankel, who took the big one, the Group One Dewhurst Stakes. The sight would have gladdened the hearts of the purchasers of the 25 yearlings by the same sire that fetched 18,745,000 guineas at the Tattersalls sales last week. Everyone wants a Frankel now.
Frankie Dettori, who rode Chaldean, had taken a painful tumble in the first race when Liftoff stumbled and fell. ‘I don’t envy the jump jockeys,’ said Frankie. ‘I’ve got a headache and a couple of knocks but there’s nothing like a Group One to put you right.’ Even with his bruises he demonstrated why he remains the go-to jockey for big races. Making much of the running he injected a burst of speed two furlongs out and then held on to the line under a strong challenge from Royal Scotsman to win by a head. Frankie felt he might have gone a little too early but Andrew declared: ‘It was probably a race-winning move. He didn’t have to make the running but it didn’t look like there was any obvious pace. What we didn’t want was for it to turn into a sprint and for us to be out of our ground.’ Chaldean, whom Andrew says will be well suited to a big field in the 2,000 Guineas next Spring, is the first horse he has trained in the pink and green colours of Juddmonte and there will clearly be plenty more for that big team.
His only sadness was that the horse which went down by a head to Chaldean is owned by Jim and Fitri Hay who have long been big supporters of his. I shared Andrew’s regret: having not forgotten Royal Scotsman’s track record performance at Goodwood when Derby-winning co-trainer Paul Cole said he was as good as anything he has trained, I had backed him each way at a generous 20-1. Co-trainer Oliver Cole said after the Dewhurst that he had been telling everyone at the sales that their horse would win and I certainly won’t be leaving him friendless in the 2,000 Guineas.
It wasn’t my betting day. I was fully convinced that the Cesarewitch, the second half of the Autumn Double, would be won by a jumps trainer with a clearly improving horse put by for the race. The one I had in mind was Nicky Henderson’s Ahorsewithnoname and I had invested rather heavily. The 21-runner handicap over two miles-plus was indeed won by a jumps trainer with a horse put by for the race but the horse who took the £103,000 first prize was Run For Oscar, trained in Ireland by the canny Charles Byrnes. With the horse backed down from 10-1 to 4-1 in the last two days, it was a brilliantly executed coup. Run For Oscar travelled so sweetly that jockey David Egan took a pull three furlongs out to stop getting to the lead too soon and the pair swept away from the field when he chose to win by three lengths.
For me, and I hope for some readers, the day was rescued only by Azure Blue later winning the Listed sprint at 9-2. It was his fourth victory this summer for our Twelve to Follow.
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