Cape Cross: The Timeform View

As well as being an excellent stallion, Cape Cross was a most game and reliable miler who was first past the post in two Celebration Miles at Goodwood, and also won the Queen Anne at Ascot and the Lockinge at Newbury. The following is taken from his essay in Racehorses 1999...

Those who think that England's sporting woes, most notably in cricket and football, will be solved if the old guard are replaced with young blood, might reflect on the racing record of Cape Cross in 1999. Twice he was expected to defer to younger, more fancied stable-mates but on both occasions it was Cape Cross who stood in the winner's enclosure, taking the plaudits, none more so than after a career-best effort in the Celebration Mile at Goodwood. Cape Cross went off at 5/2 in the Group 2 contest, a race in which he was disqualified after passing the post first as a three-year-old. John Reid was in the saddle, Frankie Dettori riding odds-on stable-companion Josr Algarhoud. Cape Cross, conceding more than weight-for-age all round, showed that proven ability was more than a match for expected potential on this occasion with a length-and-a-half beating of his younger stable-mate. In a race run at a steady pace, Cape Cross was allowed to dictate affairs and never looked like being caught by Josr Algarhoud.

The result should not have been a big surprise to anyone who had seen the performance of Cape Cross in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot two months earlier. Godolphin was aiming for its fourth consecutive victory in the Queen Anne and the betting, added to the booking of Frankie Dettori, seemed to suggest that, of Godolphin's trio in the race, Fa-Eq was the most fancied, followed by Fly To The Stars, the winner of the Lockinge Stakes, the race Cape Cross had won as a four-year-old. Despite being the longest-priced of the three, Cape Cross was proven on good to firm ground, had the assistance of Gary Stevens and had shown that he retained his ability with a very smart run behind Lend A Hand and Muhtathir at Nad Al Sheba in March. In the race itself, Cape Cross put up a very game performance. Allowed to dictate, he battled hard to regain the lead in the last twenty yards after Docksider passed him around two furlongs out. By the end of the season, giving Docksider 5 lb and a short-head beating would look to be high-class form indeed.

Cape Cross was sent to Canada in September for what turned out to be his final appearance in the Grade 1 Atto Mile at Woodbine. He finished only sixth of the fifteen runners behind the subsequently-demoted Hawksley Hill. Possible engagements in the Breeders' Cup Mile and the Hong Kong Mile were never fulfilled and Cape Cross was retired to Sheikh Mohammed's Kildangan Stud in Ireland where he will stand at a fee of IR £8,000. Cape Cross should have appeal as a stallion, not least because he is a member of a most consistent pattern-winning family. His dam Park Appeal won the Cheveley Park, as did her half-sister Desirable, the latter going on to find further fame as the dam of Shadayid. Another half-sister, Alydaress, added the Irish Oaks to the family's Group 1 tally, improving the remarkable record of their dam Balidaress. Park Appeal herself is also proving to be a good broodmare, producing not only Cape Cross, but also Pastorale and Arvola, the dams of Kareymah and dual Group 1 winner Diktat respectively. Park Appeal's 1999 two-year-old colt Samood (by Caerleon) was unraced when with David Loder, but she also has a colt foal by Sadler's Wells and visited Cape Cross's sire Green Desert in 1999. Cape Cross is a big horse who carried condition and had a somewhat lethargic disposition. He won on firm ground as a two-year-old but showed his best form between good to firm and good to soft going and he probably stayed nine furlongs, the longest distance he tackled. All in all he was not only a high-class performer but a game and reliable one, who performed with credit at the highest level for three seasons_in a stable full of stars his presence will still be missed.