Gosden roars to more success
JOHN GOSDEN capped a brilliant season on the Flat by dominating horse racing’s Oscars last night.
The highlight for the trainer – who won five of the eight gongs – was Roaring Lion being named Cartier Horse Of The Year.
Enable, Stradivarius and Too Darn Hot were other award winners for the Newmarket handler. Roaring Lion, who won four Group Ones in a stellar campaign, gave Gosden his fourth Horse Of The Year crown in five years following Kingman (2014), Golden Horn
(2015) and Enable (2017).
After coming third in the Epsom
Derby, Roaring Lion’s career took off. He won the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown after a titanic tussle with
Saxon Warrior before scooting clear of a strong field to win the Juddmonte International at York.
He then produced a fantastic effort to win the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown despite not having the run of the race.
Roaring Lion, who also won the Cartier Three-Year-Old colt award, secured a fourth straight Group
One success when dropped to a mile in the Queen Elizabeth II
Stakes on Champions Day.
Not even a poor run in his swansong, the Breeders’ Cup Classic – when he failed to handle the dirt surface – could detract from what was a great season.
Enable, the Cartier Horse Of The Year in 2017, narrowly lost out on becoming the third horse following Frankel and Ouija Board to win the award twice.
But the brilliant filly did win the award for 2018 Cartier Older Horse. The Khalid Abdullah-owned four-year-old was on the sidelines for much of the year, but made a stunning winning return in the September Stakes at Kempton.
A month later the daughter of Nathaniel became the eighth horse to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe twice.
She created more history as the first horse ever to follow up success in the Longchamp feature with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs.
At the 28th annual Cartier Racing Awards, Gosden’s Stradivarius took the Cartier Stayer Award, while his brilliant two-year-old Too Darn Hot bagged the Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt Award.
Prix de l’Abbaye heroine Mabs Cross won the Cartier Sprinter Division while Alpha Centauri netted the Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly Award.