Greatness only Postponed
A change of trainer and illness interrupted progress, but Varian’s charge is now ready to fulfil his promise with victory in the Arc. By Paul Wheeler
IT was the offer everyone would dream about. No question about it. It came a year ago when Sheikh Mohammed Obaid al Maktoum contacted Roger Varian to take over more than 30 of his horses that had been previously trained by one of Varian’s neighbours in Newmarket, Luca Cumani.
At the top of the list was Postponed who was already a champion and an answer to any young trainer’s prayers but that in itself brought one, niggling question.
Cumani had already taken this horse to the top, so what more could Varian do? Answer, turn the good horse into the great one he can become if he wins the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly this afternoon.
“Anyone with any reasonable amount of ambition would want to train a horse like Postponed,” Varian said. “But the starting priority was for him not to regress and, at the very least, show the level of form that he showed last year.”
Varian learned plenty in his 10 years as assistant to the late Michael Jarvis, before taking over the yard in 2011. The list of lessons included patience and he was in no rush to ask early questions of Postponed. “A horse has to have time to settle in and get used to our style and diet – even though we’re in the same town everyone does things slightly differently,” he said. “There was definitely a bedding in period for the horse but likewise for us. We knew of him and about his racecourse exploits but we had to get to know him and work him out for ourselves.
“He’s fairly uncomplicated. He’s a bit bolshie in his box – you wouldn’t send a kid in with him – but he’s not a bad guy. He loves his exercise and he works well.”
The plan was also working well as Postponed won twice in Dubai and then demolished the field when he won the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June. But then a virus which plagued Newmarket yards for much of the summer took a wrecking ball to Varian’s hopes that Postponed could win the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot for a second time in late July. And time was now the enemy if he was to make the Juddmonte International at York three weeks later.
“He’d worked like a train 10 days out but his final strong work midweek before the race, he just worked a bit flat,” Varian recalled. “He didn’t look right to me and he didn’t feel right to Andrea [Atzenim the jockey]. Tests showed him not 100 per cent healthy. It would have been unfair to the horse and the owner to run, so we had to sit out and watch from the sidelines.”
Now Varian, right, needed that patience even more as he performed the most delicate of balancing acts. Push too soon and he could set the horse back even further, go too easy and he risked sending his stable star into his toughest race yet under-prepared.
“He returned to health fairly quickly but it was far from ideal preparation leading into York,” Varian went on. “He’d had an interrupted training schedule and if you’d asked me seven days before I wouldn’t have known if we’d be lining up. It was a huge relief when he came through that race.”
Postponed came through that race to beat Highland Reel, who had won the King George in his absence, and cement his position as one of the best in the world. The Arc could push him to the top of the list. It is being run at Chantilly this year while its usual home at Longchamp is being redeveloped but the course poses much the same test. A 16-runner field
means a clear run from the home turn is not a given, but Postponed is aided by being drawn in stall seven.
For every Mill Reef there is a Troy, for each Dancing Brave a Generous in the list of British champions who travelled on the first Sunday in October in pursuit of the prize. They came, they saw, but not all managed to conquer in a race that poses one of the stiffest examinations asked of a Thoroughbred.
“He’s in good form. We need luck on the day, but I think he does tick all the boxes,” Varian said. “Number one, his ability – you can’t install ability – they have it. All his other attributes come a close second. He has the most level temperament, that’s a real quality.
“I should have thought he’s got the most level heartbeat of any horse at the start – he takes any situation in his stride. He can operate off a fast pace or a slow pace and in different ground conditions. He really is the ultimate.”
If he is, Varian will have answered that question.