Churchill lays out Classic credentials
Colt continues Group One winning streak for O’Brien Crowley all but assured of first jockeys’ championship
Given Aidan O’Brien’s form, it was perhaps no surprise that the trainer not only notched up his 20th Group One Flat winner of the season yesterday – and his fourth in eight days – when Churchill landed the Dubai Dewhurst Stakes, but that the colt’s pacemaker, the 66-1 shot Lancaster Bomber, followed him home in second.
The good news, for those who care about these things, is that it is no ordinary horse which has been saddled with the name Churchill – which would have been wasted on a selling plater. An imposing, strong son of Galileo, the sire of the moment, Churchill should provide his trainer with some serious raw material to work with in his Classic year. That is more than can be said for the middle three of O’Brien’s five Dewhurst winners. Air Force Blue (2015) and War Command (2013), both by War Front, never won another race between them, while Beethoven (2009) eventually wound up in Qatar, where they failed to get much of a tune out of him.
There must be a good chance, however, with his sire’s influence that Churchill turns out more like O’Brien’s first Dewhurst winner, Rock of Gibraltar or, indeed, the last son of Galileo to win the race, Frankel.
Yesterday, the 8-11 favourite was just hitting his stride in the dip two out when Ryan Moore had to switch him round Thunder Snow, but he still managed to win by a length and a quarter with the minimum of fuss.
Middle Park runner-up Blue Point, built more like a sprinter, just flattened out in the last furlong to allow Lancaster Bomber to stay on back past him.
The ground might have been a bit quick for South Seas, while despite many different attempts to keep a lid on Frankel’s representative in the race, Seven Heavens – a hood in the preparade, a cross-noseband, the saddle on late, taken down slowly – the colt, who can clearly go a bit, still ran the first half-mile a bit like a headless chicken before finishing last.
O’Brien, who is closing in on American trainer Bobby Frankel’s world record of 25 Group Ones in a Flat season, was unstinting in his praise of Churchill. “He’s a beautiful horse and we couldn’t be happier,” he said. “They went a sensible pace and he didn’t do a lot [in front], and he never will. It got a bit tight but the experience will have done him real good. There’s a massive engine in there.”
He added: “He has tons up his sleeve. Physically he’s very imposing, more imposing than any two-year-old we’ve ever trained, he’s relaxed, he sleeps. The qualities are all there in abundance. He’s very special and has done everything from day one. Everyone associated with him gets a special feeling. We’ve always regarded him as a miler [2,000 Guineas] but he’s so relaxed – and he’s by Galileo – that you wouldn’t rule anything [Derby] out.”
Moore was equally effusive. “He’s such a strong colt,” he pointed out. “He travelled so easy – they went too slow for him. He only does what you ask of him. He’s a great mind, a great mover and a great athlete.”
Churchill is now 7-4 favourite for the Guineas and 6-1 favourite for the Derby, and it is hard to see any other two-yearold coming out of the woodwork to usurp his position as winter favourite for next season’s Classics, even with the Racing Post Trophy still to come.
O’Brien has been champion trainerelect for a while, but the unassuming former jump jockey Jim Crowley virtually assured himself a first jockeys’ championship when guiding David Simcock’s Island Vision to success in the Dubai Business Internships Fillies’ Nursery. The victory took him to 138 winners for the season, 15 in front of the defending champion Silvestre de Sousa. Crowley rode 38 winners in August and topped that in September with 46. The ‘season’ finishes at Ascot next Saturday on British Champions Day.
Crowley said his jump jockey’s background meant that he was trying not to think about being champion Flat jockey even though it was almost touchable. “I don’t want to tempt fate,” he said. “There’s another week to go. My original dream was to be champion jump jockey but this has been the aim for the last few seasons.”
De Sousa did get one back when he rode Hughie Morrison’s Sweet Selection to victory in the Betfred Cesarewitch. The 7-1 shot, who could not win until stepped up to long distances, looked the likely winner from where they crossed the border back into Suffolk. With nothing else able to go with her, she enjoyed the company of the loose horse Seismos, who had lost his jockey somewhere in the Cambridgeshire part of the 2¼-mile handicap.