Keith Melrose gives a full appraisal of Champions Day, as well as some absent champions.
As was pointed out by Jamie Lynch in the first iteration of his new, regular Friday column, the problem with British Champions Day is purely a semantic one. “Champions are determined through the season, not on an afternoon” was how Jamie put it; so Champions Day, regardless of time of year or which horses are fit, can never live up to its name in the strictest terms.
Still, few complained when Novak Djokovic and his devastating two-handed backhand won the ‘All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Championship of The World’, or when Jim Furyk, Major-less since 2003, contested the ‘Grand Slam of Golf’. Sport and semantics aren’t meant to be conjoined.
With that qualifier in, we can look at Champions Day without politics. That we’re going to compare Saturday’s winners with the divisional leaders isn’t any sort of point-making exercise. It’s simply a convenient time to compare Champions with champions. The former are a fixed snapshot of a moment; the latter are more broadly-defined recipients, who the likes of Timeform put forward to be argued about for years to come.
Future Champions Day
Champion: Belardo (119) champion: Limato (121p)
A slew of upsets led quite a few to doubt the predictive powers of Future Champions Day. They’re probably right, though the advice is not to get carried too far down that road.
The Cornwallis threw up substandard form for a Group 3, winner Royal Razalma managing just a 105 performance. Third-placed Volatile (100p) from Sweden could be one to watch. He looked notably quick and might achieve smart form once placed in circumstances that favour his raw pace.
The Middle Park Stakes wasn’t as poor a renewal as some are making out. Ivawood wasn’t at his sparkling best and has been pulled down to 118p, the same as Charming Thought whose success is the only surprising aspect of the result. He has such a promising profile that we’ve not seen him as a reason to mark the race down.
The Fillies’ Mile could easily have been a race too many for Lucida (112) and she remains the highest-rated filly in the race. Together Forever has been rated 108, reflecting the muddling nature of the race and her relatively charmed passage.
We’re not particularly sweet on Belardo for next year’s Guineas, though perhaps not for the reasons you’d imagine. His performance to win the Dewhurst was perfectly explicable, admirable even given he met trouble, and he’s now rated 119, higher than any of his (admittedly under-performing) rivals on Friday. Still, as a compact sort who has hinted at quirks we see quotes around 20/1 for the Guineas as fair.
Long Distance Cup
Champion: Forgotten Rules (121p) champion: Leading Light (125)
Future champions Day? Forgotten Rules has reached a very smart level in just three starts (one of them in bumpers) and would be expected to become a serious challenger for Leading Light’s crown next year, both at Royal Ascot and for the overall status of number one stayer, though reports suggest that this year’s Gold Cup winner has run his last race.
The shortcomings of Saturday’s form are obvious, both Leading Light and Estimate floundering in conditions, though the decisiveness of Forgotten Rules’ win and the power of his profile drown out cries of a substandard renewal.
Sprint Stakes
Champion: Gordon Lord Byron (124) champion: Slade Power (130)
G Force and Viztoria were forced wide and frozen out. Otherwise this was a solid result and it would be far from the first top-level sprint to go to a horse rated in the mid-120s. Gordon Lord Byron (124), Tropics (121), Jack Dexter (121) and Maarek (123, performance 119 from an unpromising position) have all featured prominently in other top sprints over the last 12 months and therefore this doesn’t require much further discussion in terms of the ratings.
Fillies & Mares
Champion: Madame Chiang (117) champion: Taghrooda (128)
To achieve what Madame Chiang has this year takes a smart filly, though you can’t help but feel opportunism has also played a part in her success. Hers was a weak Musidora (she could easily have faced Taghrooda) and her win at Group 1 level on Saturday owed more to circumstance than form.
The ground and the pace of the Filles & Mares Stakes really set things up for Madame Chiang, who had been in rear with runner-up Silk Sari early on. It’s likely she’ll never add to her Group 1 tally, though if she were to return next year you’d like to see her stamina tested more fully.
Other ratings news from the Fillies & Mares comes from third-placed Chicquita, who was finally branded with the Timeform ‘squiggle’ after hanging violently left when she looked to be in pole-position.
Queen Elizabeth II
Champion: Charm Spirit (127) champion: Kingman (133p)
Charm Spirit’s retirement in the immediate aftermath of the QEII scotches one of racing’s burgeoning rivalries, between himself and Night of Thunder. A perfect race between the two would be very hard to call and that’s reflected in their respective ratings: both are now 127. Third-placed Toormore (125) did enough to become the Night of Thunder’s de facto challenger for next year. In the context of the race, with dependable Tullius (124) in close attendance and a gap to the rest, we can be fairly sure that Toormore has put up a career-best effort at this late stage of the season.
A rating of 127 is actually the lowest for this race since it took up its slot on Champions Day. Though it’s maybe a touch unfair to compare with Frankel, Excelebration and Olympic Glory, it does serve to demonstrate that an above-average group of three-year-olds next year would have little trouble in overcoming Night of Thunder and Toormore.
Champion Stakes
Champion: Noble Mission (128) Champion: Australia (132+)
We’ve taken a relatively high view of the form, rating both Noble Mission and Al Kazeem 128 (a return to his best for the latter) and leaving third-placed Free Eagle on 128p (performance 125). This is chiefly on the basis of times, as explained already by Simon Rowlands, and the derivative point that the winner in particular should have suffered for going at such a searching pace early on.
In the immediate aftermath of the race the easy story to tell was a familial one, of Noble Mission following big brother Frankel onto the Champion Stakes roll of honour. It was, if anything, too easy and draws some of the attention away from Saturday’s achievement. The 2014 Champion Stakes was a story of promise (Free Eagle, who is surely nominal favourite for the 2015 renewal) and most significantly of redemption- almost reinvention. Noble Mission has gone from a renowned shirker, the horse that threw away multiple minor Group races, to putting up one of the gamest displays of recent years, a 140 performance if guts were quantifiable.
Stories like Noble Mission’s are what make Champions Day, what makes good its reason for existing, whether or not it happens to attract the very best performers year on year.
