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Alex Hammond: Post to deliver
- Updated: September 14, 2016
Last weekend we enjoyed arguably the best weekend of Flat racing of the season so far.
The Leger festival didn’t disappoint in terms of drama and performances on the track and Ireland’s Champions Weekend threw up some top class winners and was pretty unpredictable as well.
Let’s start at Doncaster where I was most impressed by the performance of Rivet in Saturday’s Champagne Stakes.
Trainer William Haggas seemed a bit glum about the winning performance, but that’s probably because the fireworks he expected didn’t quite materialise. This could be a good sign as the colt should therefore have more to offer. On the performance we saw he needs to find a bit more to challenge the leading Classic contenders next season, but there’s no reason he won’t. Despite seeming a bit deflated, Haggas said afterwards he was delighted and that he is definitely going to run again this season, that was only his second outing and the experience will do him the world of good.
The fixture ended with a fairytale story that this racing game is so good at.
Laura Mongan will go down in history as the first woman to train the winner of the St Leger with the stout staying Harbour Law and also becomes only the third female to saddle a Classic winner (just the second officially as Helen Johnson Houghton’s 2000 Guineas victory in 1956 was in her husband’s name); in case you are wracking your brain for the other it was Pam Sly winning the 1000 Guineas with Speciosa.
It was also a boost for Epsom which has struggled to retain its standing as a leading training centre with the likes of Newmarket, Lambourn and Malton hot spots for the bigger yards with the historic town becoming their poor relation (although not for owners of property in this desirable location). So, before I get into a debate with myself over the reasons for Epsom’s decline let’s get back to the complexion of Saturday’s race, which changed when hot favourite Idaho crashed out, but Harbour Law, a fine looking son of Lawman, was only just engaging top gear at the time of his departure and he galloped on strongly under George Baker to grind the rest into submission.
Mongan is assisted by husband, former jockey Ian Mongan, and operates at a reasonable strike rate with the 20 odd horses she has in her care and this advertisement of her skills should hopefully encourage owners to head back to Epsom to be part of her up and coming career. There are many trainers that ‘deserve’ more horses and better quality bloodstock, but you get the impression this down to earth duo would be a fun team to be involved with and I hope the win has opened the floodgates for them. I hope they get the opportunity to train Harbour Law next season and would love to see him aimed at the Ascot Gold Cup and he’s a horse we can hopefully enjoy for a few more seasons to come.
Champions Weekend kicked off at Leopardstown on Saturday and we were blessed with perhaps the race of the season with the Irish Champion Stakes which had attracted the leading European middle distance superstars.
Trainer Jean-Claude Rouget is all conquering in his native France this season and he took this with his French Derby winner Almanzor after a battle with talented filly Found. Minding wasn’t disgraced in third. I fancied dual Derby winner Harzand and initially felt the drop back to a mile and a quarter contributed to his disappointing eighth …
