The 2015 Flat season draws to a close on Saturday.
It’s been a roller coaster season, benefiting from a number of headline acts who’ve strutted their stuff in style, but Jamie Lynch digs a little deeper to unearth his top 10 unsung heroes of 2015…
‘We’re concerned about the welfare of all animals. My wife has had monkeys and parrots in the furniture store.’
The some-of-my-best-friends-are-black line of defence showed that Mattress Mack wasn’t taking the criticism lying down on one of his Mack-O-Pedic beds, but his sacking of Maria Borell, before the dust had resettled on the dirt track that Runhappy tore up, left everyone unhappy with the Runhappy saga, including Sheikh Obaid, whose lucrative role as pantomime villain has just been cancelled.
A comforting crumb, Borell’s heroine status was enhanced by the villainous act against her, and, by and large, the heroes of the Flat in 2015 have been easily identifiable, with some unusually big guns firing some unusually plentiful shots. But what of those that did great service who’ll get only a footnote in the annual awards: the unsung heroes.
So here we go with ten of the unsungest heroes of the season…
1. FROSTED
When the quizmaster gives the answer as Keen Ice, you have to stand up and stand up for Frosted. Who was the only horse to defeat American Pharoah in 2015? Keen Ice got all the glory but Frosted did all the work, playing Pharoah at his own game that day in the Travers, making a bruised fruit softer still. But the true heroism of Frosted, and Keen Ice for that matter, is the context they provide when it comes to appreciating American Pharoah, as they fought the same lengthy war and many of the same dirty battles: to paraphrase, if American Pharoah has gone further than others, it was by standing on the shoulder of giants.
2. LOPE DE VEGA
He’s no Bremner, nor McGowan, nor even – one for the teenagers – Yarwood, but you’ll have seen Wajeez doing a fair impression of Golden Horn on his debut at Nottingham through the week. And you might also have enjoyed Blue de Vega posing as a future classic winner in the Killavullan Stakes in late-October. The common denominator: Lope de Vega.
From his first crop, Belardo, Endless Drama and Consort were all been placed in Group 1s this year, but both Wajeez and Blue de Vega have something about them, an X-factor, that could make the old man prouder still in 2016, and they are just two of five Lope de Vega juveniles rated 100+ by Timeform. Most Group 1s can be permed and spermed amongst the big daddies such as Galileo and Dubawi, the established stallion stars, but Lope de Vega is the next generation, and his next generation – led by Wajeez and Blue de Vega – is hugely exciting.
3. GABRIAL
When Mondialiste flashed home for second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, it was the final touch-up in another heroic makeover in another heroic year for an increasingly heroic trainer. The renovation began in the Lincoln, and, knowing what we do now, it’s a wonder anything could beat him off 105 at Doncaster, but one did, only one, the one and only Gabrial.
Call it pot-hunting, call it opportunity-taking, but certainly call it high-flying, as Gabrial subsequently racked up the air miles and rare smiles with Group 1 placings in the QEII and Sussex Stakes, some three years after he’d filled the same position behind Frankel at Goodwood. As a result, Gabrial ends the season in the top-ten home-trained earners for British prize-money, a wondrous achievement for a horse aged six with 45 races behind him, and for a trainer – Richard Fahey – who would himself be an unsung hero but for the wins total singing so loudly. Gabrial is just what the doctor ordered.
4. ERVEDYA
In racing’s fair city, this year’s girls were so pretty, they all had their eyes on seats colts sat on thrones.
Arabian Queen and Found did for Golden Horn on occasion, while Legatissimo, Beholder, Treve, Mecca’s Angel, Songbird and Esoterique all had big stories to tell, as did another O’Meara makeover masterclass, Amazing Maria, who also has the record of being the only horse in 2015 to beat an overshadowed and underappreciated star filly, namely Ervedya.
She hasn’t got the recognition she deserves for a brilliant season including three Group 1 wins, bagging the French Guineas and Prix du Moulin either side of lighting up Royal Ascot in the Coronation, itself an unsung heroine amongst top-level races in 2015, as thrilling as it was classy, involving Found and Arabian Queen amongst others. The French were mob-handed in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but they might have left the best-fitted one at home, though there’s always next year for Ervedya, set to stay in training and raise her unglorified profile.
5. THE SUPPLEMENTARY SYSTEM
The ultimate unsung hero, providing outstanding service with no acclaim, we have the supplementary system, which has been brought into brilliantly sharp focus in 2015, turning a good season into a memorable one, where no less than four classic winners bought in and cashed out: Golden Horn in the Derby, Simple Verse in the St Leger, and Jack Hobbs and Covert Love in the Irish Derby and Oaks. Throw in Trip To Paris in the Gold Cup and a second addendum for Golden Horn in the Arc, and it’s clear that 2015 has been the year of the supplementary star, and it’s been so much better for it. Racing’s default setting is to moan and groan at what we’re missing, but imagine what we’d be missing without this cool rule.
6. CLEVER COOKIE
Oh how we laughed. Especially after. Clever Cookie, sir! 4/1, sir! For the King George, sir!
Yes, the cold, hard facts, even under the cold, hard conditions, were that Clever Cookie didn’t merit being so far towards the front of the market at Ascot, but, replacing the cold, hard analytical hat with a warm, fuzzy Cossack cap, the very fact that an unfashionable horse from an unfashionable yard was there at all was reason to celebrate. And, lest we forget, he had put up two of the best staying performances of the year, beating Tac de Boistron in his own muddy back yard at Chester before giving away lumps of weight to a field that included Big Orange at York, while he could (and perhaps should) have won on Champions Day last month. He’s big, and clever, and still a fairy-tale horse, and for that, Clever Cookie, we salute you.
7. ALL-WEATHER
All-weather racing is in the same snobbery-suffering therapy group as Clever Cookie. You could say that, unlike Clever Cookie, the all-weather is pretending to be something it isn’t, but it’s an easy target, and to focus on its daily grind of daily grinders is to underestimates its improvements and importance. The improvements can be seen vividly in the championship structure that leads all the way to an increasingly good Friday, and you need look no further than Jack Hobbs, Simple Verse, Hit It A Bomb, Limato and Covert Love for the importance of all-weather for providing foundation steps that might not otherwise be available.
8. COLM O’DONOGHUE
The ‘that can’t be right’ stats tend to be the most powerful, and it amazed me to discover that Colm O’Donoghue has ridden just ten winners in Britain and Ireland combined this year. But they included one classic, with 50/1-shot Qualify in the Oaks, and for a week or so it was two after an that Oscar-winning performance in front of a small, select audience of Doncaster stewards.
Like it or not, O’Donoghue played the inquiry game in a way the we peep-show viewers didn’t realise was possible, for his working knowledge of the rules and knowledge of working the rules to suit his impassioned plea. He left a mark on the bench and set a new benchmark amongst jockeys in the art of arguing a case, to be used as an educational video for all budding riders.
9. RAB HAVLIN
It’s easy to play the semi-patronising ‘cog in the wheel’ card with Colm O’Donoghue, just as it is with Rob – some say Rab – Havlin. Both would probably admit to being seat-warmers of sorts, but more often than not they have a crucial role to perform, part of the teachers’ union, and Havlin in particular is a master of that craft, the likes of – this year alone – Shalaa, Jack Hobbs, Journey, Flying Officer, Foundation and Gretchen all benefiting no end from the Havlin touch in their formative races. It’s perhaps an underappreciated talent, certainly unsung, which qualifies him as a hero for these purposes.
10. GODOLPHIN
A controversial one, as it’s easy to snipe at Godolphin – trust me, I know whereof I speak in that regard – for their influence around the racing world, but they make the racing world go round. Beyond that, though, Godolphin has made for stories on the track and not just off it this year, hitting points 1, 5 and 7 on this unsung list, and even briefly throwing new petrol on the old flame with Ballydoyle courtesy of Emotionless. When will we see him next? A conditions race at Nottingham next autumn is the standard, hackneyed response, but, like I said, it’s easy to snipe at Godolphin; it’s much harder to appreciate all they give.
