20th October 2014
It was a huge and exciting day for us at Ascot's Champions Day on Saturday.
A day full of emotion and quiet satisfaction, as a result of Al Kazeem's brave and determined effort to beat Noble Mission. It was a great race to watch and there was a huge roar from the crowd as they raced head to head up the straight. Hearing highly regarded commentators on the sport, such as Brough Scott say that it was similar to Grundy and Bustino in 1975, shows how much the race captured the imagination. It had looked as if he might have been past his very best, but thirteen days after a credible effort on quick ground at Longchamp in the Arc he turned in a performance that rates just as high on Timeform figures as his Group One hat trick last year. It will be interesting what the official handicapper does tomorrow, as both warriors went in to the race on 117. Racing on much more testing ground than he had encounted, he showed how versatile he is on any ground between 10-12f. Noble Mission is a magnificent animal, and its nice to know that even though he beat us, we played an additional part in the spectacle, in training his dam Kind, who is fast becoming the best broodmare in the world. I am not sure my wife will be giving James Doyle his 'special' Smoked Salmon breakfast on Wednesday and Saturday morning for at least a week....
We will consider going to Hong Kong with him in Mid December to run in either the Longines Hong Kong Cup over 10f with a first prize of nearly £1.1m or the Longines Hong Kong Vase over 12f. I have always been of the opinion that he is better suited going right handed, as his record suggests. He is likely to remain in training next year and races like the Ganay and the Tattersalls Gold Cup could be on his agenda in the spring.
Al Kazeem happily led the string out this morning, as he always does, and his regular rider James Horton reported him to be in fine form, and suggested that you wouldn't know that he had had a race! What a remarkable horse.
Captain Cat ran a very good race in the QEII finishing 5th behind some very decent horses, with some equally talented ones, some way behind him. He and Night of Thunder sat last off an ordinary pace and did well to pick up. James Doyle reported that he had never travelled so easily over so many good horses in a Group 1, but that he couldn't quicken on the heavy ground. He is a huge horse and will get better next year. He has had a remarkable year, and risen from a rating of 84 to at least 115. He will have earned his owner, close to £230k this year which is some achievement in the UK.