BRIDGE TOO FAR
Baaeed is kept at bay but his legacy is safe
IT was supposed to be a stage for an outstanding champion to gallop into retirement with a final virtuoso performance, but for Baaeed the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot proved a bridge too far.
More precisely it was Sir Michael Stoute-trained Bay Bridge who ended Baaeed’s unbeaten record as he swept to victory in the £1.3million centrepiece of British Champions Day.
Compounding the shock win of the Richard Kingscote-ridden 10-1 shot was the fact Baaeed did not even make the first three, passing the winning line in fourth, a length and three-quarters behind.
Baaeed did not even beat his William Haggas-trained stablemate My Prospero, who finished third, a nose behind the runner-up Adayar.
The snap reaction from jockey Jim Crowley was that Baaeed got stuck in the soft ground. He said: ‘That kick which is normally there just wasn’t. Simple as that. It was heavy weather. Every time I have gone for him in the past, the response has been instant but I pressed the button and it wasn’t there.’
Haggas said: ‘It’s a bit deflating but he is still a very good horse. I am sad for him and all his connections and everyone at the yard who have worked tirelessly to get him there.
It just hasn’t happened but that is horseracing. Jim thought it was the ground but I need to look at it again. I tend not to make assessments straight after. All I know is he didn’t win. Let’s hope this is eradicated from people’s minds quite quickly.’
No matter how you cut it, Baaeed ran way below his best. The initial reaction of BHA handicapper Dominic Gardiner-Hill, whose assessments had made him the best horse since Frankel 10 years ago, was that Baaeed had run at least 14lb below his best form.
The suggestion that the ground was effecting results — an annual issue at this autumn meeting — was backed up by winners at odds of 80-1 and 33-1 and placed horses with prices of 50-1, 80-1 and 150-1.
Having swept into a challenging position on the home turn, Baaeed came up the home straight like a Ford Fiesta rather than the Ferrari he had looked like when winning his previous 10 starts.
The defeat means Baaeed, who will now be retired to the Shadwell Stud which bred and raced him, will not stand alongside the mighty Frankel as unbeatable. But he can still justifiably be mentioned alongside Turf greats like Brigadier Gerard, Dancing Brave, Shergar and his sire Sea The Stars, whose reputation was not sullied by a blemish on their records.
For Bay Bridge, it was a second major win of the season for Kingscote and Stoute after their Derby success with Desert Crown. Stoute said: ‘We thought the favourite was unbeatable —or I did — but I thought he had a great chance of being second.’
The rest of Qipco Champions Day largely belonged to Frankie Dettori, who won the Fillies & Mares Stakes with John and Thady Gosden-trained Emily Upjohn and the Champions Sprint Stakes with Ralph Beckett-trained Kinross, who is Breeders’ Cup bound.
It has been an up-and-down season for the 51-year-old Italian, who had a disappointing Royal Ascot, lost the ride on great stayer Stradivarius and briefly split from the Gosden stable. But he has finished strongly and said: ‘Overall I can’t complain. You can never have the perfect season. I’m not retiring yet!’
Emily Upjohn will be back next season as will Dettori-ridden Inspiral, who blew the start in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes won by Roger Varian-trained Bayside Boy.
The winning trophies, presented last year by the late Queen on her final appearance on a British racecourse, were handed over with enthusiasm by the Queen Consort.
A sign, the sport will hope, that the royal passion for the sport lives on.