Dubai: Luck deserted Team Godolphin on a day when they won a 12th British Owner’s Championship with stable flag-bearers Ribchester, Harry Angel and Barney Roy, all suffering agonising defeats on racing’s biggest stage.
The Dubai-owned stable were widely expected to crown another epic year in Europe at British Champions Day, the glittering season finale at Ascot on Saturday. However, it was not to be.
Only Ribchester, the leading miler in Europe, secured their best finish on the day, when coming home second to the John Gosden-trained Persuasive in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
Gosden capped an outstanding season with a brace of wins, after Cracksman stormed home an imperious winner of the British Champions Stakes.
Richard Fahey, who trains Ribchester at his North Yorkshire yard, blamed the ground for his stars defeat, just as it had happed when he suffered a shock defeat in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, “It’s déjà vu, the ground has beaten him again,” declared Fahey.
“He’s a horse that’s won on soft ground, but he’s such a good moving horse. William (Buick) felt he came there to win and win well and he just gets blunted in the dead ground.
“He just doesn’t put it to bed and the winner coped with the conditions better. That’s twice he’s been beaten in desperate conditions, but we’re happy enough — I’m not really, but I’ll have to say that.”
“I’m proud of him, but disappointed really. For me his best run of the season was Royal Ascot when the ground was quick and he broke the track record,” he added.
“He hasn’t lost anything in defeat and he hasn’t devalued himself in any way. He’s come back bright as a button. Frustrated rather than disappointed.”
Earlier, Godolphin’s Harry Angel, the world’s top-rated sprinter and scintillating winner of the Haydock Sprint Cup and Commonwealth Cup earlier in the season, had to settle for fourth place behind Labrisa Breeze in the British Champions Sprint Stakes (Group 1).
Regular rider Adam Kirby employed hold-up tactics given the heaving ground at Ascot and Harry Angel appeared to be moving smoothly, if a bit keenly at times, heading into the final two furlongs.
With the post in his sights Kirby asked the Godolphin star to change gears but the customary acceleration was conspicuously absent and he could find no extra as the winner, with an exuberant Robert Winston in the saddle, Jim Crowley’s Tasleet and Irish speedball Caravagion, all swept past him.
Kirby, looking gutted, told Racing UK: “He’s still the best sprinter in the country when things go right.
“He’s done nothing wrong. It turned into a slog and the ground was far from to his liking. I just fee sorry for the horse. He’s an absolute aeroplane most times, but this was not his day.
Trainer Clive Cox took the defeat in his stride and “It wasn’t his day, but I still think he showed his usual zip and class when he went to the front here on much more testing ground than at Haydock.
“Great credit to the runners that finished in front of him, he was just coming to the end of his run.
“I don’t think anyone has lost any confidence. We know on a different day, on better ground, he will be back.
William Haggas, representing Tasleet’s owner Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, said: “He’s run another great race and I’d say he just got outstayed this time.
“I’m very proud of him. He’s been on the go all year and has run very well.”
Crowley added: “He ran a great race. I always had Harry Angel beat. The horse has run super — apart from his blip in the July Cup [where he finished 10th of 10] he has run great all year.”
