Why Baaeed can be the horse of 2022
Baaeed, last season’s champion miler and potentially the most exciting horse of 2022, makes his eagerly awaited reappearance in the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury today.
Why is Baaeed so exciting?
Based on what he achieved last year, he is very fast and being unbeaten gives him extra kudos. He does not seem to be ground-dependent either and, on top of a high cruising speed, has a devastating finishing kick. That is all very well but you need a good attitude to bring it all together and there is nothing wrong with his: he likes winning.
Has he done anything special?
This time last year he had not run and it was June before William Haggas took him to Leicester as an unraced maiden. “We’d always liked him, but we like a lot of them,” he said. “Most go the wrong way but this one went the right way.” In six starts and four months he went from unraced maiden to champion miler – that is good going by anyone’s standards and, if not unique, rare.
When did it become evident he might be very special last year?
There was already a lot of hype around the colt when he won the Sir Henry Cecil Stakes at Newmarket, his third start, by four lengths. The handicapper told Haggas that from the runner-up to the last, the horses behind him ran to their ratings. He
was given a rating of 119 – anything in the 120s is exceptional. At that point they even toyed supplementing him for the Sussex Stakes but he won a Group Three at Goodwood instead by 6½ lengths. “When he won that so easily, I knew we’d got one,” Haggas said.
What is the aim this season?
After what he did on Champions Day, beating the top older horse, Palace Pier, a head in the QEII, at Ascot
in October, the programme is now pretty much mapped out. Today’s Lockinge is a good starting point and, timing-wise, leads into the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. I imagine he will take on this year’s crop of three-year-olds in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood with the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes the end target, unless he is going further by then in which case it will be the Champion Stakes. If they are bold he might end up at the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
How high can he go?
The benchmark for the 21st century is set by Frankel, who was unbeaten in 14 starts and ended up with a rating of 140. He had a head start having raced at two and won a Classic, the 2,000 Guineas in eye-catching style, before Baaeed had even seen a racecourse. Officially, with a rating of 125, Baaeed has to post a number of wide-margin wins in the biggest races this summer to start getting mentioned in the same sentence.
Could it go pear-shaped today?
He is an odds-on shot but the Lockinge might not be a cakewalk. His two main rivals appear to be the fillies Mother Earth, last year’s 1,000 Guineas winner, and Alcohol Free, who won last year’s Sussex Stakes. They have both had a run. But Baaeed has had a racecourse gallop at Chelmsford, which seemed to please everyone that mattered, and the vibes are good. Jockey Jim Crowley even smiled – which is a very good sign.