Winx the No 1 story spinner of 2017, a year of highlights
RECORD: THE AUSSIE SUPERSTAR WILL STAY IN TRAINING FOR A POSSIBLE FOURTH COX PLATE Europe’s top horse Enable will also race as a four-year-old.
The chapter closes on another year on Sunday, and what a wonderful 2017 racing season we have enjoyed. There were so many highlights, but phenomenal Winx in Australia has to take pride and place, being complemented by a brilliant summer both for Europe’s Horse of the Year Enabled and the incomparable Aidan O’Brien, who clocked up a world record 28 Grade or Group 1 winners.
The Aussies have never shirked a challenge so it is no surprise that Winx’s trip to the breeding shed has been postponed until she has surpassed the feat of the legendary Kingston Town and won a fourth Cox Plate.
And Khalid Abdullah displayed similar sportsmanship by giving the green light for John Gosden to race on Enable at four.
The Saudi Arabian ownerbreeder took the same plunge with the mighty Frankel with sensational results as Europe’s horse of the century won all 14 races – so there is plenty for racing fans to look forward to in 2018.
However, as we look ahead to the final Derby of the year, the $500,000 Qatar version at Doha on Saturday, it’s worth taking time out to reflect on what might have been had the 12th Earl of Derby lost the toss of a coin with his house guest Sir Charles Bunbury, president of the Jockey Club, back in 1778.
History relates that the pair, having wined and dined together into the early hours on Derby’s Surrey estate, came up with the idea to run a sweepstake horse race for fillies only the following year.
The race, the Oaks, was named after Derby’s estate and fittingly he won the first running himself with Bridget, so buoyed with the success, the duo agreed to stage a similar race for colts and to flip a coin to decide whether what has become the most famous Flat race on the globe would be called the Derby Stakes or the Bunbury Stakes.
Derby emerged triumphant, but ironically the winning owner of Diomed, who landed the inaugural running of THE Derby on 4 May 1780 was none other than Bunbury.
Some 237 years later virtually every racing nation in the world has their own Derby – several countries have one in different states – and I think you’ll agree that the Kentucky Bunbury and the UAE Bunbury don’t have quite the same ring.
We don’t associate Qatar with rain, so connections of fivelength Italian Derby winner Mac Mahon might need a miracle for their wish of a wet festive period in the Middle East as his colt has proved “more than useful” when the mud is flying.
The classic field also includes two German challengers, Northsea Star and Parviz.
And while the latter’s limitations were exposed in his own domestic Derby, he is rated 3kg superior to his countryman.
However, the home team are optimistic about repelling the raiders, Qatar having improved enormously as a racing nation these last few years.
The former Aidan O’Brientrained Dewhurst Stakes winner Beethoven, sold to Qatar at the end of his three-year-old season, won this Derby in 2010, since when the quality has improved steadily.
Meanwhile, back in Britain Gosden’s other smart three-yearold filly Shutter Speed, the only horse to have so far beaten Enable, has been transferred from Newmarket to continue her racing career in the USA.
Shutter Speed, who was more tuned up than Enable when beating her stable companion at Newbury last April, did progress to win a Group 3 at York, but 2000m proved to be her maximum distance which lessened her options in Britain.
Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Abdullah, said: “We haven’t decided who will take over the training in America.
“But Shutter Speed is a filly who enjoys fast ground and racing around a bend, so it makes sense to try her out there, especially as the Dansili progeny have an excellent strike rate on the USA tracks.”
It’s worth recalling that both Gosden and Frankie Dettori were adamant last spring that Shutter Speed was their No 1 classic filly and one could easily see her becoming a real money-spinner on American shores, maybe even being one for the notebook for the Breeders’ Cup Filly And Mare Turf.
Christmas can be an expensive time, but I have a couple on the allweather this week who might pay for both the turkey and the Hogmanay celebrations.
STELLAR SURPRISE, from the in-form Stuart Williams yard, is a strong fancy for the fillies handicap over 1700m at Wolverhampton today.
She had some smart form on the turf last year and was unlucky not to get off the mark at the first time of asking on her all-weather debut at Lingfield in November.
Defying odds of 20-1 that day, Stellar Surprise passed the post first, but, though she was the best filly on the day, she lost the race in the stewards room, having hampered two rivals by going left and right up the straight.
Compensation awaits Stellar Surprise, and we might play up our winnings with a speculative punt on Hugo Palmer’s newcomer BREAKING RECORDS should he make his debut in the novice at Lingfield tomorrow.
He is a Kodiac colt who has shown smart speed on the gallops at Newmarket.