Jan_113_Tony_Morris2_Owner 13/12/2013 16:18 Page 24
THE MAN YOU CAN’T IGNORE COMMENT
Tony Morris W
e had to expect that the British racing scene in 2013 would not match its immediate predecessors. It was always going to have an ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ feel about it, if only because after three seasons when we were blessed with Frankel he was now going to be an absentee. We naturally hoped there would be some compensating factors, but now that the season is history, what can we look back on to remember 2013 for? The quality of the sport was average – from the perspective of Britishtrained horses, rather below average – and it was the gloomy news that dominated. The loss of Sir Henry Cecil, undoubtedly one of the greatest trainers of our era, united the sport in grief, and the steroid scandals involving two other prominent members of that profession showed racing in an appalling light. We had watched the damage done to other sports by evidence of corrupt practices, but if we imagined we were entitled to adopt a ‘holier than thou’ attitude, 2013 told us that we were sorely mistaken. The revelation that one of the miscreants trained for the hugely respected Godolphin operation came as a bombshell, ensuring that it would attract the widest publicity in every form of media. Racing was off the sports pages, instead filling countless column inches on the news pages. Our game was no cleaner than athletics, cycling, tennis or any of the other sports in which abuse had been detected. (Incidentally, some months after that story erupted, Facebook asked me whether I would care to become a friend of Mahmood Al Zarooni, as we had three friends in common. I
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declined, but I couldn’t help wondering about the identities of that trio.) Of course, we have to hope that the severe sentences handed down in the cases of Al Zarooni and Gerard Butler have the desired effect of deterring others from adopting corrupt methods in order to gain an edge – and that the authorities become ever more vigilant
Sir Henry Cecil, Novellist and Thierry Jarnet (below) made the headlines in 2013
in policing the sport. Racing can ill afford to suffer further instances of such wrongdoing. The year was by no means all bad for Godolphin, whose five-year-old Farhh notched Group 1 victories in both his starts and probably put up the best performance on a British racecourse when accounting for Cirrus Des Aigles in the Champion Stakes. An admirable athlete, who overcame more than his share of problems in training, he proved equally effective over a mile and a mile and a quarter, though it was hard to forget that he had suffered comprehensive defeats by Frankel at both distances in 2012. Farhh certainly looked good in his autumn outing at Ascot, though many might argue that the visually more impressive display by Novellist over the same course in midsummer was an equally fine performance. The four-yearold son of Monsun, previously unproven on a surface faster than good, positively revelled on the firm ground in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, trouncing his field by five lengths and more while lowering the course record. It was desperately disappointing that the German-trained colt had to miss the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in which he would surely have proved a worthy foe for Treve. Longchamp’s Arc weekend is now so well established as Europe’s autumn championship that imitations such as those planned for Newmarket/Ascot and in Ireland – featuring ten pattern events – in 2014 can hardly hope to compete. Britain and Ireland shouldn’t even try. The European Pattern is a partnership of nations and trying to score points off one another is not what it’s supposed to be about. Okay, so the French did pull a fast one when they decided to concentrate so many important events into their two-day festival, but they have made a magnificent job of it. We Brits know how good it is, not least because in 2013 our stables came away from Arc weekend with nothing. As mentioned above, an Arc de Triomphe without Europe’s best colt at the distance was a shame, but it would be hard to take anything away from Treve, the three-year-old Motivator
THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER
GEORGE SELWYN
British racing has endured some low blows over the past 12 months, yet potential stars abound and bloodstock prices remain buoyant so let’s look forward to an exciting 2014