All set for Paris

THE IRISH CHAMPION STAKES has grown steadily in prestige and influence this century and is now arguably the premier Arc trial. But those hoping to witness the emergence from it this year of any serious challenger to the imperious Enable are probably going to meet with disappointment.

The Irish Champion may have the venue to match its status, but this year’s renewal really didn’t seem to have the field.

Or did it? This is a puzzle of the sort that often trails in the wake of great horses. Was there anything in there who will trouble Her? All right then, was there anything in the field who might reveal itself as a rival who might even fluster her?

Not the red hot, fully deserved favourite and winner Magical, that’s for sure. She’s an outstanding racehorse in her own right – the winner of three Group 1s and runner-up in five – but she’s been seen off so many times and with so little fuss by the empress.

Magical now seems to stand in relation to Her rather in the same way that the original Cape Of Good Hope (not the one now in training) used to stand to the great Silent Witness. COGH had to be sent from Hong Kong to Royal Ascot to win the Golden Jubilee in order to avoid the almost ritual view of the same receding tail that awaited him every time he stepped out on a racecourse with the one who was simply too good for him. But the figures just aren’t there.

The second-placed Magic Wand is another admirable four-year-old filly from the O’Brien academy but, in 13 starts since taking the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes last year, she has not won. She seems an habitual runner-up with seven second spots to her name now.

At Leopardstown, this year’s Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck was a head back in third, his first outing since he beat just one – Magic Wand – in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

It was a far better performance from him, and he should finish closer at ParisLongchamp to Her than he did at Ascot, but he does not look capable of taking Her on.

Ghaiyyath looks a good one in the making, but at distances up to 1m2f rather than beyond. Sottsass won the Group 2 Prix Niel last time over 1m4f and the 1m2f Jockey-Club earlier in the year, but I can’t see him being up to the task either.

Put simply, the three-year-old challenge to the best horse in the world doesn’t seem to have materialised. Sadly – we might even say “tragically” if there weren’t so many even more tragic deaths overtaking human beings these days – the horse many thought should have been Her main danger died of colic earlier this year.

The Arc trials at ParisLongchamp seem to have declined in stature and, while Treve used them as a warm-up, we no longer expect to see something startling leap from the Prix Foy, the Prix Niel or even the Prix Vermeille and demand attention for the world’s premier horserace.

Japan?

He must have a chance as he is the best 1m4f three-year-old around. But there shouldn’t be any real reason to get too excited about his narrow defeat of Crystal Ocean in the Juddmonte International.

For one thing it was an “on the nod” result. For another the distance was short of Crystal Ocean’s best.

For a third, Enable, running from an awful draw and never getting a look at the rail until near the end, beat him much more easily in the King George, in which everything went perfectly for the horse the handicappers were trying to sell us as the world’s best.

The unforeseen could intervene. Appalling weather. Really bad ground. An even worse draw than the one She had at Ascot. Clipped heels. A collision in running. A gap that refuses to open.

But if none of these occur there seems no reason at all to oppose Her. Once you have eliminated lesser possiblities the most obvious thing to do is to accept the likelihood of the probable. She wins. That’s what she does. She doesn’t do it in the spectacular fashion of a Frankel or a Secretariat. She does it in the fashion of an Enable.

This leaves us space to go back to the much chewed-over question of whether she is even the greatest mare of the last however many years you want to make it or in the whole history of the sport.

The magnificent Winx firmly occupies that place in the minds of all Australasians. She would certainly have widened the geographical range of her idolisation if she’d be asked to show herself off abroad, but her connections chose not to do that.

Their reward was an unbeaten run that lasted twice a long as Enable’s and a dazzling talent that never looked as though it might decline. Mares of her age just aren’t supposed to keep reproducing their form the way Winx did.

The decision to protect her does, however, leave the door open just a crack for those who want to, not denigrate, but question her record. The easy shot, the cheap shot, is ‘Oh but nearly all of those she beat were Australians.

Those who weren’t were horses who’d travelled miles to come and take her on or those whose own connections didn’t think it would do their stud value too much harm if they tried and failed. Besides, everyone knows Australian middle-distance horses just aren’t as good as those in the northern-hemisphere. That’s not opinion. It’s just fact’.

Who would have won if they’d ever met in battle on neutral ground? It’s quite impossible to say. The hunch says that at 1m2f on fast ground it might be Winx, until the mind rebels when trying to imagine any horse going past Enable the way Winx used to go past her rivals.

The point where the cognitive dissonance really does kick in though is when you think of the quality of the races Enable has already won.

The two Arcs, the two King Georges, the Breeders’ Cup Turf, The Eclipse, any number of Oaks. That is just a ridiculous record. No horse in the history of the game has ever won three.

Frankie Dettori with his favourite racehorse at York