You’d be Crackers not to go for Arc
I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch for a while. It must be over two years now since my letter imploring you to run Golden Horn in the Derby — and what a handsome victory that was!
It seems that you are, once again, on the horns of a dilemma — this time over whether to send your colt Cracksman for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly a fortnight tomorrow. I think I can help. Back in the spring, we all bought into the notion that Cracksman was a horse who would benefit from time.
He ran a fine third in the Derby at Epsom and he still looked rough hewn — or in the words of my next-door neighbour (himself no sophisticate), “as thick as two short planks” — when second in the Irish version at the Curragh.
Not much surprises Mr Gosden, but I’d wager even Cracksman’s master trainer was — if only in private — taken aback by the authority of his victories in the Great Voltigeur at York and Chantilly’s Prix Niel last Sunday.
To win the trial by three and a half lengths and yet not contest the Arc itself would amount to an eccentric piece of placing.
With the notable exception of Cracksman’s stablemate, Enable, the 2017 Arc will be thin on stars — even the Japanese raider Satono Diamond blew out in the Prix Foy last weekend.
This year, the threeyear-old Cracksman is the beneficiary of the weight allowance. Not so in 12 months’ time.
You’ve spoken of your desire to keep Frankie Dettori aboard your horse, and he’s committed to partner Enable.
But every jockey in Europe will be knocking on your door for the ride, so you’re not exactly short of options. Cracksman may indeed progress again at four, but would two and a half minutes’ exercise in front of the Grandes Ecuries really place his 2018 programme in jeopardy?
Things seldom go to plan in a thoroughbred’s life — those closest to Jack Hobbs, beaten by Golden Horn in the 2015 Derby, thought he would need a fourth year to fulfil his potential, but his three-year-old campaign remains emphatically his stand-out season.
Looking beyond our sport’s boundaries, with Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un spoiling for a fight, you’ll struggle to get better than 11-8 about there even being a 2018 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
So why not take the bull by the horns — or prenez le taureau par les cornes, as our French cousins would say?
See you in France!