Glorious shot at racing history for Big Orange
Where to put your money at the Qatar Goodwood Festival
Trainer Michael Bell tells Marcus Armytage of his gelding’s unlikely route to brink of Goodwood treble
For a trainer whose Newmarket yard boasts only 90 boxes, Michael Bell has a pretty impressive record for someone who is not big league when it comes to numbers; the 2005 Derby with Motivator, the 2009 Oaks with Sariska and, last month, the Gold Cup with Big Orange.
Motivator and Sariska are now at stud but that is not an option for his Gold Cup hero, the six-year-old gelding Big Orange that Bell likens to a “Flat National Hunt horse” – if that is not a contradiction in terms – because of his popularity with the racing public.
This is due to that time-honoured attractiveness in a racehorse; the combination of longevity, success and a heart-on-sleeve style of racing.
There is none of the fly-by-night about Big Orange that you might associate with the Flat’s normal high achievers.
On Tuesday, he gets his shot at racing history when he attempts to become the first to win three Qatar Goodwood Cups on the bounce. In 210 years, only Double Trigger has won the race three times but there was a gap between his first victory and his second. Big Orange’s epic duel with Order Of St George – a short head separated them after 2½ miles – in the Gold Cup was the highlight of Royal Ascot and Bell believes that, given a fair wind and a following sea, there is no reason why Big Orange should not stay at the top for another couple of years.
“He was peaking last year,” he said, “and unless he gets a niggling injury which means you then have to throttle back on training, then he has been pretty easy to train. He’s clean winded and is a box walker so does a bit of his own personal training.
“We’ve found the key to him. My head man Tyrone Lloyd-Jones rides him every day. With a saddle, he’s probably 12½ stone, but Big Orange needs that – it does him good.”
Such a stellar career, however, looked unlikely when Bell first set eyes on Bill Gredley’s gigantic two-year-old shortly after he had been broken in by Ed Peate just outside Newmarket.
“I didn’t think it was the plan to send him into training,” admitted the trainer. “He’d been gelded as a yearling, he was a big, ugly, backward box walker without a great pedigree. Bill, Ed and I stood watching him canter past and he just floated by. It The first things to note about this year’s Qatar Goodwood Festival are the programme changes; the Goodwood Cup, now run as a Group One for the first time, moves to the opening day on Tuesday, the Sussex Stakes retains its position as the highlight on Wednesday, while the Nassau Stakes, the meeting’s third Group One, moves from Saturday to Thursday.
Backing winners in big-field handicaps at Goodwood is notoriously hard because the topographical nature of the Duke of Richmond’s racecourse brings luck into play on a more regular basis than perhaps any other track in Britain.
Otherwise, Richard Hannon and Mark Johnston are very often the trainers to follow at this meeting. If Johnston has multiple runners in handicaps, it is probably worth backing them all, not just the shortest priced.
It would be a surprise if
Big Orange were not to kick off the meeting with a third Goodwood Cup. Now that the race is a Group One, it means he does not have to carry a penalty for his Ascot victory which has so often proved a stumbling block for Gold Cup winners.
Nowhere dries better than Goodwood, so the ground should not be a worry, but if it were to come up soft, it might be worth a saver on Sheikhzayedroad.
Librisa Breeze was flying at the death of the Golden Jubilee over six furlongs and a return to seven should see him home to good effect in the Lennox Stakes, while a repeat of his Newmarket effort allow Nebo to go close in the Vintage Stakes for Charlie Hills. An outsider to keep an eye on in this race is George Scott’s James Garfield. On Wednesday, dualGuineas winner Churchill attempts to put a below-par effort in the St James’s Palace Stakes behind him, but he will need to be on his game to beat Richard Fahey’s Ribchester, who is putting together a pretty smart portfolio of the top mile races.
It would be a surprise if Barney Roy, also owned by Godolphin, lines up against Ribchester as he is considered better on a flatter track.
The American-trained Happy Like A Fool might not know what has hit him in the Bombay Sapphire Molecomb, going uphill and down-dale, so that gives
Havana Grey a leading chance. Revived is the subject of good reports from Newmarket for the Markel Insurance Fillies Maiden the same day and Three
Duchesses in the EBF Fillies’ Handicap is on a steep upward curve of improvement if her past two starts are anything to go by.
Winter has not put a foot wrong all spring and summer and even stepping up to a mile and a quarter for the first time is unlikely to stop her in Thursday’s Nassau Stakes, though Queen’s Trust, Nezwaah and So Mi Dar are three smart older fillies.
On Friday, the highlight should be the Hills-trained
Battaash, a highly progressive sprinter, in the Group Two King George Stakes. He won his last start by three and a quarter lengths – a big margin in sprinting terms – and looks on his way to the top, while
Projection has a good profile for Saturday’s Stewards’ Cup. was totally unexpected and, like a gangly teenager, he has now filled his frame. We still haven’t totally cured his box-walking [a nervous trait in horses which makes them walk round their stable rather than relaxing]. We put mirrors in his box and, though he has got much better with age, if there is something different in the yard he still gets in a state.
“We never send him overnight to the races in Britain. In Melbourne and Dubai, he was pretty bad. When he spiked a temperature in Dubai and effectively had to go into solitary confinement, I went and sat with him in his stable. He likes contact.”
Ironically, Bell reckons that Goodwood is not Big Orange’s favourite track. “Jamie Spencer, who used to ride him, says he is not completely at home on the track because of the undulations,” he said.
“But, then, maybe no horses are truly at home at Goodwood. What suits him is a flat, galloping track and the reason he is so good is that he has the speed of a decent a mile-and-a-half horse and yet can stay 2½ miles. I’m not sure anything else in Tuesday’s race could win two Princess of Wales’s Stakes [a mile and a half ].
“He’s not got raw speed but he has a high cruising speed. He gets into a rhythm in front which takes other horses out of their comfort zone early. Five out in the Gold Cup, Order of St George was being punched along while James Doyle was still swinging off Big Orange.”
The ground is Bell’s only slight concern for Tuesday. “It’s easy to become neurotic watching the forecast,” he said. “When he was young, we thought he wanted soft because of his size. But now it’s the faster the better which, I think, is all to do with the length of his stride – it’s horses with choppy strides that need cut in the ground.”
It would be invidious to ask Bell, whose 35 winners at a 20 per cent strike rate this season include five winners for the Queen, to compare him to his Classic winners but, since he took out a licence 28 years ago, he does not believe he has had one horse which has given so many people so much pleasure.
“The Gredleys have had a ball following him and he’s been a rollercoaster of emotion,” he added. “He’s given them so much satisfaction and that’s what it’s all about. Most trainers only ever have one swallow – we’re very lucky ours keeps coming back.”
The future’s bright: Michael Bell says Big Orange is still peaking and can stay at the top for several years