Varian’s Defiance could be one to watch in classic trial
THE Lingfield classic trials can be good guides to what will happen at Epsom next month, even though the Dante meeting’s races are generally regarded as where the best UK contenders head for these days.
Aidan O’Brien’s form in Britain this year was dismal until winning a maiden at Chester on Wednesday. Up to then, only one of his eight runners had managed a place. That yard can never be written off but Roger Varian’s Defiance may be the one to concentrate on. He is bred to get the trip, coped with the undulations of Epsom in the Blue Riband Trial last time, and Varian is having a good start to the season.
Ralph Beckett is renowned for his training of fillies and in the Oaks Trial Treasure, owned by the King and Queen, is prominent in the betting on the basis of victory in her sole start at Nottingham in October. It was heavy going there, so the extent the Lingfield ground dries out is a complicating factor. The stable second string You Got To Me has each-way prospects. The Gosdens’ Danielle is favourite after thrashing her rivals in a Wetherby maiden by 12 lengths, but the form may not amount to much.
Beckett can also take the Chartwell Stakes for older fillies with Remarquee, who aims to win first time out for the third season in a row
Looking back 50 years, the 1974 Derby Trial form was completely turned over in the Derby itself. Carrying Lady Beaverbrook’s wellknown brown and green colours, Bustino was the winner at Lingfield. Snow Knight was third, beaten one length and a length-and-a-half at level weights. Bustino had already finished five lengths ahead of Snow Knight in the Sandown Classic Trial, giving him five pounds.
Three-and-a-half weeks later Snow Knight won at 50/1, with Bustino three lengths back in fourth. In hindsight Snow Knight had improved between the two trials by five pounds plus two-and-a-half lengths, so on the basis that an upward curve might be maintained those odds were generous considering his old rival was returned at 8/1.
Bustino redeemed himself by winning the St Leger and the following year’s Coronation Cup. He was then one half of the Race of the Century in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, when just outpointed by Grundy an epic battle. Two-and-a-half seconds were knocked off the course record, which stood for 35 years.
Snow Knight has been pretty well forgotten, due to running only twice more after the Derby and finishing sixth and third before being sold to Canada. He had always been an awkward customer, often badly behaved at the start (“highly strung” to his admirers) and his new handler could not get any reward from him. He was passed on to an American trainer, Mack Miller, who was frustrated with his antics but spent a lot of time calming him down – so successfully that he won five big races in the States in 1975 and was voted the Male Turf Horse of the Year. Coincidentally, on this side of the Atlantic, Bustino was nominated the British Champion Older Horse that year.