Classic Answers

By Bill Oppenheim

The GI Kentucky Oaks isn't officially a Classic, nonetheless last Friday's edition was one of four Classic or (shall we say) Classic-standard races run last weekend: the Oaks and GI Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, and England's one-mile Guineas Classics, the G1 English 2000 Guineas for colts on Saturday, and the G1 English 1000 Guineas for fillies on Sunday. Michael Tabor's colors were carried to victory for the Coolmore triumvirate by Ryan Moore in both the Newmarket Guineas races, while rumors abound that a certain farm in Kentucky which bought into four consecutive North American Two-Year-Old champions has already secured GI Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah(Pioneerof The Nile) for stud duty.

But, like they say, let's begin at the beginning, which was Friday's GI Kentucky Oaks. As happens fairly frequently–probably because trainer Larry Jones winters at Fair Grounds–the road to Kentucky's Oaks ran through New Orleans this year. In fact, the first three finishers Friday had all run in the Feb. 21 GIII Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds. I'm A Chatterbox, the Munnings filly trained by Jones for Grayson Farm, had won both the Rachel Alexandra and the GII Fair Grounds Oaks Mar. 28, but she was only third on Friday to two fillies who had finished behind her in the Rachel Alexandra. Brereton Jones's Lovely Maria, from the first crop by Airdrie stallion Majesticperfection, and also trained by Larry Jones, had been second in the Rachel Alexandra. She shipped to Keeneland and won the GI Ashland on opening weekend there, then followed up by winning the Kentucky Oaks over Shook Up, a Tapit filly trained by Steve Asmussen for Regis Racing. Shook Up had been only fifth in the Rachel Alexandra, then improved to second, behind I'm A Chatterbox, in the Fair Grounds Oaks. So the Kentucky Oaks was a 1-2-3 for Louisiana form, and a 1-3 for first-crop sires, split by a Tapit filly. This result is of course a big part of the reason why Majesticperfection and Munnings are currently one-two on the TDN YTD Second-Crop Sire List (click here).

Chronologically, the next Classic of the weekend was the G1 English 2000 Guineas, run Saturday morning U.S. time. This race proved a triumph for the form of last season's G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, run at seven furlongs on Arc weekend at the beginning of Oct.. As detailed in our Guineas preview on Apr. 22 (click here), circumstances were such that the French 2-year-old races on Arc weekend were more significant pointers to this year's Guineas than were the English equivalents, the G1 Dewhurst and G1 Fillies' Mile. Last year the supremos of British racing were still trying to shoehorn all the big two-year-old races into the day before British Champions Day. The two-year-old races ('Future Champions Day') were run at Newmarket on soft ground on Friday, Oct. 17; the actual British Champions Day was run at Ascot on Saturday, Oct. 18 – heavy ground. Meanwhile the Lagardere and G1 Marcel Boussac were run on Arc day, Oct. 5, on good ground. Comparative times: Oct. 5, Longchamp–Lagardare 1:20.11 (1400m), Boussac 1:37.45 (1600m); Oct. 17, Newmarket–Dewhurst 1:27.31 (7f), Fillies' Mile 1:41.01 (1m). Big difference. This year the British will run 'Future Champions Weekend' on Oct. 9-10 at Newmarket, one week after Arc day at Longchamp, which will be Sunday, Oct. 4. Just to further confuse things, the Lagardere will go back to the previous G1 Grand Criterium distance of 1600m. So the Lagardere and Boussac, now both 1600m., will be run on Sunday, Oct. 4; the Fillies' Mile will be on Friday, Oct. 9, and the Dewhurst (7f) on Saturday, Oct. 10. Got all that?

Anyway, the point was that last Saturday's G1 English 2000 Guineas reflected more the 2014 Lagardere form (and, to be fair, the G1 Vincent O'Brien National S., now a part of Irish Champions Weekend) than the 2014 Dewhurst form. Coolmore's Gleneagles, in Michael Tabor's colors, had won the National S., then the Lagardere, but was disqualified to third in the latter. Full Mast (Mizzen Mast) inherited the race, with Territories (Invincible Spirit) moving up to second, and Gleneagles demoted to third. Saturday at Newmarket, Gleneagles, who is by Galileo out of Giant's Causeway's Group-winning full sister, You'resothrilling, confirmed the form with a decisive win in the Guineas, with Territories second, and last year's top 2-year-old sprinter, Ivawood, from the first crop by Invincible Spirit's son Zebedee, third. It turned out to be a very formful race. The first two are likely to have a rematch at Royal Ascot; Full Mast would have been the favorite for this coming Sunday's French version of the 2000 Guineas, the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains, but misses the race and is due to reappear next month. But the Lagardere form was golden in the 2000 Guineas.

Speaking of Zebedee: he won six of seven, all at five furlongs, as a 2-year-old in 2010, and was retired and covered his first mares as a 3-year-old in 2011, so foals of 2012. Ivawood is the flag bearer for his first crop, and he definitely looks as though he's trained on. Zebedee has already had five 2-year-old winners this year, and is the second-ranking European sire on the current NA/EU second-crop sire list, ranked at #19, behind only last year's leading European Freshman Sire, Lope de Vega, currently ranked #15 (click here again). It's very early in the year, of course, for the European second-crop sires, compared to the Americans, who have been going full tilt through the winter and spring. Another European second-crop sire, Newsells Park's Equiano, already has four 2-year-old winners this year himself.

The form for the Classics held up in Kentucky Saturday night as well. The Zayat stable had been runner-up three times in the GI Kentucky Derby (including with American Pharoah's sire, Pioneerof The Nile), and if you saw the pictures from Churchill Downs as American Pharoah crossed the wire in front of Firing Line, from the first crop by Spendthrift's Line of David, and previously undefeated Dortmund (Big Brown), like American Pharoah trained by Bob Baffert, the Zayat family was in a high state of elation, and who would begrudge them that? It was an all-California finish and, significantly, the first three after a furlong were the first three under the wire: Dortmund controlled the pace, the other two were close up the whole way, and the only horse who came out of the pack was GI Wood Memorial winner Frosted (Tapit), who narrowly missed grabbing third. He surely gets extra credit for nearly overcoming the slow pace. I thought the other horse who ran a huge race was Danzig Moon (Malibu Moon), who finished fifth in spite of his having spent the first half-mile trying to pull Julien Leparoux's arms out.

Sunday's highlight was the G1 English 1000 Guineas, back at Newmarket. As Barry pointed out yesterday (click here), top horse racing at least can generate, in America just like everywhere else, a great buzz. It's a great accomplishment, and testimony to the enduring appeal of the sport, that there were over 300,000 people at Churchill Downs last weekend. Equally, though, there is a great buzz at tracks like Keeneland, and really, any place there is top racing. Newmarket last weekend had only a tenth the number that were at Churchill, but there was a great buzz about the place. I had a good walk around the stands before racing on Sunday and was struck by the number of young people, groups of singles and families. Newmarket on Guineas weekend hasn't always seemed like the hottest ticket in town, but the current management there has done a good job of making it a good day out for demographics beyond us white male 'olders'.

I noticed what I thought was another great PR brainwave at Newmarket also. Northern-based owner Andrew Tinkler runs a big trucking company named after its original founder, Eddie Stobart. Parked all around the Newmarket perimeter were Stobart trucks with huge pictures of the leading jockeys emblazoned on the sides of the trucks: Ryan Moore, Richard Hughes, Andrea Atzeni, for example. Through Tinkler's efforts, Stobart is sponsoring a jockeys' insurance scheme as well as sponsoring jockeys generally. It's a proven fact that jockeys are popular personalities who can do a lot to promote racing, and believe me (at least if you're in the business), when you see one of those Stobart trucks go rolling by with a 30-foot long picture of a leading jockey on the side of the truck, you do notice. Brilliant PR, and they are making an important contribution to jockeys' safety as well.

Michael Tabor's colors made it a Guineas double for Coolmore in the 1000 Guineas as Legatissimo, a Danehill Dancer filly trained by David Wachman, followed up a win over 9 1/2 furlongs in a Listed race in Ireland the previous Sunday by overtaking the lukewarm favorite Lucida, a Shamardal filly trained for Godolphin by Jim Bolger, with Tiggy Wiggy (Kodiac), like Ivawood the day before, finishing third for the Hannon team. I won't go into the ins and outs of the form again, except to say that Lucida's form was tied in with the form of last year's G1 Marcel Boussac (and the G1 Moyglare in Ireland, the fillies' equivalent of the National S.) rather than the form of the G1 Fillies' Mile, just as the 2000 Guineas form followed the Lagardere, not the Dewhurst. No doubt, the Tabor colors had about as good a weekend at Newmarket as it is possible to have, and the runners-up in both races were Godolphin horses shipped in by Fabre and Bolger, respectively.

Bill Oppenheim may be contacted at bopp@erb.com (please cc TDN management at suefinley@thoroughbreddailynews.com). Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/billoppenheim.