Weekly Wrap for July 25

Albeit the perennial yearning for Saratoga will always cause a degree of personal restlessness, in every other respect this has always been an especially engaging phase of the European season. On the one hand, having established a pecking order in the Classics, the 3-year-olds can start to answer a new set of questions against their seniors. At the same time, the next generation is coming into ever sharper relief. As a result, even those who complain of a perceived dulling in the historic lustre of the G1 King George & Queen Elizabeth S. could not fail to register a quickening pulse over recent days.

For it does not seem at all churlish to propose that we may already have seen a lasting standard set for the juvenile fillies in both Britain and Ireland, by Fair Eva (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Promise To Be True (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), respectively.

Fair Eva moves like a spinnaker cutting through light swell, using her physical buoyancy to complement external forces rather than overcome them. That balance between freedom and control, looseness and purpose, is strongly evocative of her sire, who has now consolidated his extraordinarily promising start with a first group success. And while there was a clear premium on speed in the G3 Princess Margaret Juddmonte S. at Ascot on Saturday, Fair Eva clearing away on fast ground in a lightning time, her pedigree gives her every right to extend her brilliance over a mile in time.

Only the racing record of her mother, a Group 1 winner at 6f, but a full-sister to a Group 1 runner-up at 8f, permits the faintest reservations about the stamina likely to have been stored by next two dams, respectively daughters of Quest For Fame (GB) (Rainbow Quest) and Nijinsky (Northern Dancer). And while her sire notoriously took his time to understand how to channel his energies, a crossed noseband does not alter the impression that Fair Eva is an absolute natural, a born professional in terms of her outlook on life and her response to its challenges.

To that extent, she might be said to have borrowed directly from her trainer. If Roger Charlton began his career in incongruously sensational fashion, over the quarter-century since we have learned to value its more sustainable hallmarks: that dispassionate acuity, and a corresponding immunity to haste. It would have been entirely pardonable, if wholly uncharacteristic, for Charlton to nurse a quiet resentment that her son did not follow Kind (Ire) (Danehill) to Beckhampton, but instead went to the trainer of her dam, Rainbow Lake (GB) (Rainbow Quest). But the same might have occurred to Henry Cecil, when Kind did not go to Warren Place. In each case, there were perfectly coherent reasons–and, of course, nobody could begin to quibble with the net dividends. At the same time, it could only be gratifying for everyone concerned, should Charlton proceed to weave something exceptional from a filly uniting Kind and Quest For Fame on different sides of her pedigree.

Macarther on the March…

No doubt her owner-breeder's racing manager, wearing his Knavesmire hat, would be delighted to see Fair Eva run at the Ebor meeting next. Regardless, you can only hope that nothing diminishes the appeal of a Group 1 showdown, somewhere along the road, between this filly and Promise To Be True–whose performance at Leopardstown on Thursday evening amply vindicated the hopes expressed here after her striking debut at Tipperary.

Once again, she could be seen rather scratching her head before the bulb came on. As ever, Ryan Moore made a commendable priority of her education, asking her to pick up between rivals and never resorting to the whip as she cottoned on and won going away. As things stand, after a maiden and a Group 3 apiece, her graph line is much less smooth than that of Fair Eva–and it may yet prove that an eighth furlong might give her a better chance of beating that filly than in the G1 Moyglare Stud S., a race once won by her sister Maybe (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

Maybe did not quite live up to expectations in her Classic season, not least in finishing fifth in that dreadfully messy race for the 2012 G1 Oaks won by her stablemate, Was (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). As it happens, the latter's brother 'TDN Rising Star' Douglas Macarthur (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was one of two other Ballydoyle juveniles to give new depth, in turn, to the colts' division on the same Leopardstown card.

Having grievously disappointed connections with his debut there the previous month, this time Douglas Macarthur lived up to his billing with a runaway success in the same maiden won by Camelot (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}) five years previously. Asked to test out what Aidan O'Brien describes as “a massive engine” from the front, he was still so gawky that he jumped nervously onto a path early in the race. For now he is doing everything on raw instinct. He could very well prove of elite calibre.

Mind you, much the same seemed true of Churchill (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) after his win at Royal Ascot, being another youngster evidently held in high esteem at Ballydoyle, but he hardly took the most inspiring step forward when scrambling home by a neck in a Group 3 race the same evening. While everyone knows that Galileo can draw unaccountable reserves from his progeny, it would seem a trifle premature in every respect to be talking up this son of that precocious sprinter Meow (Ire) (Storm Cat) as a G1 Derby colt.

A Perfectly Worthy Winner–But other Questions Still Valid…

There was plenty of faint praise for Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) after his success in the big race of the week, credited sooner to his rider's skill and the absence of Postponed (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) than to his own inherent superiority. To a degree, such ungenerous verdicts reflect the unsparing way this colt has hitherto been campaigned as an international pot-hunter. He is due more respect from everyone now, and with luck his brother 'TDN Rising Star' Idaho (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will also benefit from a programme that gives both maximum opportunity to heighten their glamour at stud.

For now Idaho is listed as clear favourite for the G1 Ladbrokes St Leger, a race that would play infinitely more to the strengths of Harzand (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) than to the colt who showed such relative flair in their scraps at both Epsom and The Curragh. It seems a crying shame that Harzand has not even been given an entry for Doncaster, not least in view of the wholesome evangelism associated with his owner-breeder for those assets–stamina, constitution etc–so under-valued by more commercial operations.

As for Highland Reel, anyone who saw him in Hong Kong last autumn must have doubted that the same horse showed up against Postponed in Dubai–and, to that end, O'Brien was perfectly willing to have another go until the late defection of last year's winner.

Lest we forget, Postponed was himself said to have done little last year to redeem the decline of the King George. His subsequent progress notwithstanding, it is hard to deny that the principal all-aged middle distance races of midsummer continue to be stretched thin by the perceived need to give 3-year-olds a break before regrouping for the big international prizes of the autumn–or 3-year-olds, at any rate, less tough than Highland Reel, who this time last year won the G3 Gordon S. at Goodwood and then the GI Secretariat S. just 17 days later. Significantly, one trainer with sufficient independence of mind to keep persevering with 3-year-olds is John Gosden, who duly won the race with Nathaniel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) and Taghrooda (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and was again rewarded on Saturday by an excellent second place for Wings Of Desire (GB) {Pivotal {GB}).

Nonetheless the underlying trends persist, not just for this race but also, to however uneven an extent, for the all-aged championships over 10f at Sandown, York and Leopardstown. Here, yet again, is a problem compounded rather than solved by QIPCO British Champions' Day. If ever the bloodstock and racing professionals regain control from the sandwich-board makers, then perhaps they will be allowed a more constructive use for all that commendable ambition and sponsorship. Perhaps they could even devise a programme that fills gaps rather than creates them; that brings nations together, rather than divides them.