Coming full circle: Flat fireworks still to come

The evenings are growing darker, the leaves are starting to change colour and Champions League football is back. All sure-fire indicators that winter is on its way and more than enough to awaken National Hunt fans from their summer hibernation.

‘Only 170 days until Cheltenham,’ they can be heard muttering under their breath, briefly pausing to roll their eyes at the announcement of yet another three-year-old retirement on the Flat. Sadly, Saxon Warrior will not be amongst the latest batch of blue-bloods from Ballydoyle to join Joseph O’Brien for a crack at the Triumph Hurdle this season.

Those who champion jumps racing at the expense of the Flat often point to the fact that the same horses return year after year. You celebrate their triumphs and wallow in their disappointments, and the emotional journey that they take you on creates an attachment, which manifests itself on days like the one we saw at Sandown in April, when the retiring Cue Card – after 41 races spanning more than eight years – was paraded in front of his adoring public.

On the other hand, the riches involved in the bloodstock industry mean that very few horses ever gain such a following on the Flat, so brief is the window for them to do so. Indeed, a champion three-year-old colt is seldom kept in training for another campaign, with a far more profitable career awaiting them at stud, and it is long odds-on that Roaring Lion, the leading colt of his generation on Timeform ratings, will be retired to stand at his owners’ Tweenhills Stud operation for 2019.

Roaring Lion would undoubtedly be a huge loss to next season’s group of older horses, but the constant stream of new talent on the Flat is arguably one of its biggest selling points, too, and like an episode of The Generation Game, the conveyor belt really kicks into gear at this time of year, with the season’s most prestigious two-year-old races and Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale still to take place.

The two are inextricably linked, with a date at Tattersalls last autumn having preceded big-race success for many of this year’s leading juveniles so far, especially amongst the fillies. Admittedly, Godolphin are still to see a return on the four million guineas they paid for last year’s top lot at Book 1 – the John Gosden-trained Maria Dalinova (previously called Gloam) is as yet unraced – but Albany Stakes winner Main Edition (62,000 guineas) and the third from the same race Fairyland (925,000 guineas), who was last seen winning the Lowther Stakes at York in August, both came from the same sale, while another Royal Ascot winner Signora Cabello (Queen Mary) cost only 20,000 guineas at Book 3.

Pretty Pollyanna wins the Group 1 Darley Prix Morny for Michael Bell & Silvestre De Sousa in the famous Gredley colours. pic.twitter.com/gJxwv6q6ym

— Racing UK (@racing_uk) August 19, 2018

Pretty Pollyanna could only manage fifth in the Albany, but she has since gone on to establish herself as Timeform’s leading two-year-old filly with wins in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket and the Prix Morny at Deauville, beating Signora Cabello by three quarters of a length on the latter occasion. Pretty Pollyanna was bred by Bill and Tim Gredley, who paid just 50,000 guineas to retain ownership of her at Book 1 and now possess the hot favourite for Saturday’s Cheveley Park Stakes (and next season’s 1000 Guineas), a race in which Signora Cabello, Fairyland and Main Edition are all likely to feature amongst the opposition once again.

Godolphin’s purchase of Maria Dalinova represented a change in policy, of course, the daughter of Galileo being one of the first by a Coolmore sire that they had bought at public auction since 2005. They have enjoyed success with similar buys in 2018, too, with Beyond Reason (by Australia, cost 370,000 guineas at Book 1) winning a Group 2 in France and Art Du Val (by No Nay Never, cost 120,000 guineas at Book 2) looking a good prospect when making a winning debut at Sandown last month.

However, the pick of this season’s two-year-old colts has come from a source much closer to home, with Godolphin kingpin Dubawi being the sire of both the National Stakes winner Quorto and Too Darn Hot, who look destined for a clash in the Dewhurst Stakes that should keep talk of Altior and Native River on the back burner until at least October 13^th.

Too Darn Hot and Frankie Dettori too hot to handle in the Champagne!@OfficialALW has a winner here at @DoncasterRaces pic.twitter.com/E5Oii8kZwI

— ITV Racing (@itvracing) September 15, 2018

And before then, there will undoubtedly be fireworks when a full-brother to Too Darn Hot goes under the hammer as lot 325 at Book 1. Only a minor setback came between Too Darn Hot and his own date at the sales last autumn, with his victories in the Solario Stakes at Sandown and the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster instead coming in the colours of his breeders Lord and Lady Lloyd-Webber. The belated opportunity to buy into a yearling with one of the hottest pedigrees around at present – he is also a full-brother to last week’s St Leger runner-up Lah Ti Dar and Musidora Stakes winner So Mi Dar – will no doubt spark a bidding war amongst the sport’s superpowers.

Dubawi and Galileo both have 21 yearlings catalogued in total. The former is also responsible for the first foals out of Group 1-winning racemares Odeliz and Voleuse de Coeurs, while the pick of Galileo’s consignment could be the full-brother to Lah Ti Dar’s conqueror on Town Moor, Kew Gardens. Others to note include full-brothers to 2012 Oaks winner Was and the following year’s runner-up at Epsom, Secret Gesture.

Inevitably, all eyes will be on the latest batch of Frankel’s progeny to go through the ring – the first foal out of Prix Jean Romanet winner Ribbons has one of the smartest pedigrees of the 25 – though there will likely to plenty of interest in the second crop of his fellow Juddmonte stallion Kingman, too, so successful have his first runners been. Coventry Stakes winner Calyx and recent Doncaster listed winner Sangarius, another potential runner in an eagerly-anticipated renewal of the Dewhurst, have been his standout performers this term and there will no doubt be more to come in the years ahead, with a half-brother to recent Prix Foy winner and Arc contender, Waldgeist, featuring amongst a bumper consignment (31) of Kingman’s progeny at Book 1.

Redemption also awaits those who were left disappointed by the retirements of Gleneagles, Golden Horn and Muhaarar at the end of 2015. The trio were all members of an exceptionally strong crop of three-year-olds that season and part of what makes the next few weeks so exciting is seeing the conveyor belt come full circle, with their first crop of yearlings set to go through the ring.

The circle may be vastly different to that of National Hunt racing, but the joy for lovers of both is sitting firmly in the middle of the Venn diagram, at this time of year more than ever – bring on November 3^rd and the Charlie Hall/Breeders’ Cup double header.