Suddenly, there is a cut-throat edge to the once bland landscape of all-weather racing. September 22nd, 2008
Suddenly, there is a cut-throat edge to the once bland landscape of all-weather racing. It may never command much public affection this side of the Atlantic but the capacity to forge links with the headline dirt races of America has produced a face-off between British and Irish venues.
Late last Friday, it was announced from Ireland that Dundalk, the country’s only all-weather track, was to squeeze a Breeders’ Cup trial race into its existing card on October 3.
Unambiguously, this was an attempt to thwart the prospect of Duke Of Marmalade, Aidan O’Brien’s middle-distance star, headlining at Great Leighs in Essex next Saturday.
John Holmes, the creator and owner of Great Leighs, has gambled plenty of his own money on a valuable card he has themed as the Thoroughbred Open. Though he has sold TV rights to America, the plain hope remains that O’Brien will be attracted to use the meeting as a trying ground for one or more horses bound for the Breeders’ Cup in California.
Dundalk, not much longer on the scene than Great Leighs, has responded legitimately, albeit in an eleventh-hour fashion that could be considered as party-pooping.
The outright winners from the machinations of last week could be Kempton Park, whose target link is not the Breeders’ Cup but the spring showpiece of American racing, the Kentucky Derby. By creating a link with the Churchill Downs venue, and obtaining a guaranteed place in the Derby field for the winner of a new race next March, the Sunbury venue has stolen a march. Unless, that is, Dundalk has other ideas.