Stradivarius digs deep for Dettori to collect £1m bonus
Stayer shows guts for remarkable fourth win Battaash flops as 40-1 shot takes Nunthorpe
They said it could not be done, but little chestnut colt Stradivarius – half the size, twice the stride – landed the inaugural Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million, a £1million bonus prize, here yesterday when he won the fourth race in an “impossible” series, which included the Ascot Gold Cup and the Goodwood Cup.
Bjorn Nielsen’s homebred fouryear-old may not have been at his brilliant best in yesterday’s Lonsdale Cup, indeed there was a moment three furlongs out when he looked in deep trouble, but all is well that ends well; he was in front with a furlong to run and, although Count Octave kept him up to his work, Stradivarius and Frankie Dettori passed the post a length and a half to the good.
Ironically, with his owner’s 70 per cent of the bonus, 7.5 per cent for the breeder and the race’s prizemoney, Nielsen earned more in this race than he would have done had he won the Derby, which is what he bred Stradivarius to do.
“I hope they double it next year,” said trainer John Gosden. “It is all down to the horse. He is not big, but he has tremendous determination and a lot of class. I wouldn’t say he was at his sparkling best. Ascot was quite the toughest race of the four, it was a magnificent race. It is a great achievement. It was a fantastic promotion and we all supported it.”
Nielsen said that, although entered in the Prix de l’arc de Triomphe, if Stradivarius ran again this year it would probably be at Champions Day. “I’ve no inclination to take him to Australia [for the Melbourne Cup]. It puts wear and tear on the wheels. Touch wood, he’ll go round the clock again next year,” he said.
Dettori, a hard man to keep out of the headline acts this week having ridden Mark Johnston’s record 4,194th winner on Thursday, said: “Throughout the race he wasn’t carrying me as well as he has done in the past. I had to get really serious in the last 2½ furlongs. It wasn’t his best performance but, hey, we’re millionaires now.”
James Hamilton, for the sponsors, confirmed the bonus was not a one-off. “We shouldn’t underestimate how difficult it is to win four long races over four months, to stay sound and retain your enthusiasm,” he said.
Battaash, the 4-5 favourite, did nothing to dispel accusations that he is racing’s most mercurial talent when he could finish only an ordinary fourth in the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes. The race went to Bryan Smart’s 40-1 shot Alpha Delphini, ridden by Graham Lee, who beat Mabs Cross by such a small margin that it took the judge five minutes to determine the result.
It was a masterstroke by Smart and Lee to take the sheepskin cheekpieces off the winner. “He is as game as a pebble and has been rallying when headed,” explained Lee, a Grand National and Ascot Gold Cup winner. “I thought if we took them off he’d see them coming. The hardest part of riding him in the past was getting to the start, but today he was very relaxed.”
Yorkshire-based Smart, who is no stranger to training high-class sprinters, said: “He saw it all today. He is treated like a king at home and was more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him. Now I’ve landed the one I always wanted. Kevin Ryan [who earlier won the Gimcrack Stakes with Emaraaty Ana] lives next door – Hambleton will be on fire tonight.”
Alpha Delphini will now contest the Prix de l’abbaye, a race Smart won with Tangerine Trees in 2011.
Battaash went well to halfway but there was nothing there when push came to shove. “You can’t blame the track,” said Sheikh Hamdan’s racing manager, Angus Gold. “He got very worked up here last year but was very relaxed this time. It was just a flat run.”
The meeting, the best of the summer so far in my view, concludes today with the Sky Bet Ebor (3.40), which can go to the Willie Mullinstrained Stratum, a facile winner at Newbury last time. He is drawn well, has the class and it is probably worth a few pounds that he belongs to Tony Bloom, a lucky owner if ever there was one.