Tactics are a crucial part of most sports – there’ll be countless discussions in pubs up and down the country about England’s formation in the World Cup in the coming weeks – but they are inherently more important in team events than individual sports, more moving parts giving greater scope for impact.
In horse racing, essentially an individual sport (even when badged as a team event like the Shergar Cup), there has been the odd instance over the years where lines between individual and team tactics become blurred.
Galileo and Fantastic Light fought out a thrilling finish in the 2001 Irish Champion Stakes, but would the result have been different had the Godolphin second string, Give The Slip, not allowed Fantastic Light up his inner entering the straight?
In today’s St James’s Palace Stakes, we saw a similar piece of race riding, and though in this instance it didn’t affect the result, the grey area surrounding this part of the sport again comes into focus.
Puerto Rico was a dual Group 1 winner at two who habitually races prominently, so he was hardly cast in the role of domestique for Gstaad, and such is Ballydoyle’s strength in depth they are often mob-handed in these top races, but his presence was still almost the deciding factor in a tight finish despite eventually finishing last, the manoeuvre by Christophe Soumillon to leave room on the inner for Gstaad, after a long look over his right shoulder at the three furlong pole, forcing Billy Loughnane’s hand on Bow Echo, who came wider than ideal into the straight and made his move earlier than intended.
Soumillon was later hit with an eight-day ban by the stewards after they ruled he had ridden Puerto Rico in a manner that assisted his stablemate.
In terms of ratings, the messy nature of the St James’s Palace Stakes – there was also some early scrimmaging – means things are pretty much a case of as you were. Bow Echo remains on 131p, Gstaad edges up to 124 and Talk of New York retains his pre-race figure of 119p, the feeling being that he’ll have learnt plenty from this first time in Group 1 company, getting warm beforehand then racing keenly in the opening stages but still right in the shake-up until late on.
Turning our attention to the other Group 1 race over a mile on the opening day, if further proof were needed that the older brigade aren’t a particularly strong bunch, the Queen Anne provided it. Following on from Cicero’s Gift springing an almighty shock in the QEII Stakes last autumn, Ten Bob Tony crashed the party in the Festival curtain-raiser, his winning SP of 50/1 the biggest since this race was upgraded to Group 1 status in 2003.
A provisional rating of 123 leaves him still behind the Godolphin pair who lined up here and there’ll be other days for both of those, the evidence mounting that Ascot simply isn’t the track for Notable Speech (126), whilst the turns of Goodwood will surely suit Opera Ballo (125) better given his style of racing. Runner-up More Thunder remains on 122 but loses his ‘p’, and he could be worth a try in headgear given he appears to be developing a lazy streak.
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