By Adam Houghton
It's usually the jockeys who dominate the headlines at Ascot's Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup fixture, but the Jim Goldie-trained Jordan Electrics (GB) will be well worth a few column inches of his own should the eight-year-old continue his remarkable winning sequence when he teams up with the British-born, Australian-based Rachel King in Saturday's 'Dash' run over five furlongs.
When Jordan Electrics made his first appearance of 2024 at Musselburgh in April, he did so as an admirable sprinter–the sort of horse anybody would love to own as the winner of nine races–but one whose ceiling appeared to be fairly well established, never having won from a BHA rating above 74.
However, nearly four months on from that ninth-place finish at Musselburgh, it's fair to say that the remains of that ceiling now lie shattered on the Hamilton turf, the scene of five of the seven wins he's accumulated so far this season. For good measure, when he gained his fourth straight success at the South Lanarkshire track last Saturday, he clocked a rapid time of 56.96s, lowering the five-furlong course record to go with the six-furlong record he'd broken a couple of weeks earlier.
Now up to a rating of 102, having started the calendar year off 72, Jordan Electrics is no doubt in the conversation when it comes to the most-improved horse of the season. What the son of Dandy Man (Ire) has achieved is quite simply extraordinary, so too the where–he's now the winningmost horse at Hamilton with nine career victories–but the only way to start the conversation with Goldie when it comes to the arc of this horse's improvement is the simple question of 'How?'.
“I wish I knew!” laughs the trainer based at Libohill Farm in Uplawmoor, located roughly 45 minutes away from the course Jordan Electrics has made his own. Not too far to go then, although a small change to the travel routine of “the wee horse” is identified as one of the reasons why he's seemingly an improved model this year.
“He used to get angry if you travelled him with other horses,” Goldie explains. “He would be kicking the partition and carrying on. We just don't travel him with other horses now. We've put him in a stable on his own and in his own wee world he's quite happy and saves all of his energy for the racecourse.
“I've studied sprinters for years and I used to be fascinated with Dandy Nicholls. He was a master with them and David Chapman was before him. It's just about finding what works for certain horses and to keep doing it.”
He adds, “It's quite a remarkable achievement for the wee horse. He's not a big horse but very well balanced, well put together and very sound, touch wood. That's the main thing and he comes out of his races very well.”
Jordan Electrics's robust constitution should stand him in good stead at Ascot on Saturday when he faces his toughest test yet, stepping up further in grade after only seven days off. Is it possible that he could still have more to offer? Goldie is as eager to find out as the rest of us.
“I'll be curious to see how far the graph goes because if you're carrying top weight and still breaking course records, it's not as if you're scraping home, is it?” he points out. “He's in sparkling form and hopefully we can keep the ball rolling.
“Paul Mulrennan has won a good few races on him and it will be interesting going to a Shergar Cup. He's a straightforward horse and hopefully the jockey [King] gets a good tune out of him.
“If there's a tailwind, we're laughing. He's very fast and he breaks well, so he'll be on the pace I would imagine. If there's a headwind, it makes it difficult for front-runners. He doesn't need to make the running but he's sharp.
“Whatever he does, it seems to work perfectly at Hamilton. Ascot is a different ball game, but I've done quite well at the meeting over the years and we're looking forward to it.”
Jordan Electrics takes his name after his owner's family business in Lanarkshire and is quickly developing a cult following according to Goldie, who explains, “Brian Jordan, it's his family who own him. Brian has been retired for a few years now, but the business is still going. You can imagine all the workers back him, so he's most popular horse in Scotland at the moment! He's got a huge fan base.”
Similar comments apply to stable-mate Euchen Glen (GB) (Authorized {Ire}), who was just a four-year-old when Dutch rider Adrie De Vries partnered him to victory at the Shergar Cup back in 2017.
The winner of the John Smith's Cup, Old Borough Cup, Cumberland Lodge Stakes, St Simon Stakes, Brigadier Gerard Stakes and Gala Stakes in the interim, Euchen Glen is still going strong at the age of 11 and no conversation with Goldie would be complete without mention of the much-loved veteran.
“He's in great order,” Goldie says of the 13-time winner. “I wouldn't say he was unlucky at Goodwood [when finishing fourth last time], but Joe Fanning is a master at getting to the front and stacking them up and we were sitting out the back. But that's the risk you take when you drop in. You just hope the race is run to suit you.
“We're probably heading to York. That's where he had one of his most famous victories when he beat the St Leger winner Logician in the Cumberland Lodge [the rescheduled race after the original Ascot fixture was abandoned]. There's a mile-and-a-half race on the Friday of the Ebor Festival he might go for.”
The Goldie team can embark on the long journey to Ascot on Saturday and to York in under a fortnight safe in the knowledge that the stable seems to be in rude health. From 20 runners so far in August, only four have finished outside of the first four places.
“Midsummer is usually our time of the year,” says the trainer, before revealing one of the possible reasons why. “Probably one of our secrets is that we grow our own organic haylage for the horses. We don't have enough to do them all year, so we purposely put them on the organic haylage at this time of year.
“It's made the news this morning that the scientists can tell how good a racehorse is going to be when they're a month old from the bacteria in their gut. Maybe that's a big factor. If you're feeding them organic haylage, you're not going to have the same chemicals and what not.
“We do that with them all and one or two of them are having a good season–but they're not all improving 30lb anyway!”
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