THE FRANKIE FACTOR - 16:25 TODAY!

Frankie Dettori and Camelot
(Image : Stan James/Telegraph)

QATAR PRIX DE L’ARC DE TRIOMPHE (Group 1)
Longchamp, Turf, 2400m
7 October 2012

There was a sense of inevitability when Frankie Dettori was handed the spare ride of the season on Camelot (GB) (Montjeu), and a flying dismount after today’s G1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe would be a dream end to an unusually average year for the famed Italian.

The record of the 3-year-old generation in this Longchamp feature speaks for itself, and G1 Epsom Derby winners to have come here and triumphed in recent times include Sinndar (Ire) (Grand Lodge), Sea the Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross) and Workforce (GB) (King’s Best), while Frankie’s first of his three Arcs came on the ‘Blue Riband’ winner Lammtarra (USA) (Nijinsky) 17 years ago. If he is able to guide Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor’s talented and much-vaunted colt to the post first, he will also equal the joint-record of four winning rides held by Jacques Doyasbere, Freddy Head, Yves Saint-Martin and Pat Eddery.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien was unequivocal in his praise for the rider at Dundalk on Friday evening. “We’re delighted to have got a great rider like Frankie - as everybody knows, he has all the experience in the world,” O’Brien said.

www.prixarcdetriomphe.com

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

ENGLISH TRIPLE CROWN : D-DAY APPROACHES

Click above to watch the St Leger Stakes promo…
(Image : Ramadan - Footage : Official BC Series)

LADBROKES ST LEGER STAKES (Gr1)
Doncaster, Turf, 2937m
15 September 2012

Camelot (GB) (Montjeu) yesterday headed the 11 entries remaining for Saturday’s G1 Ladbrokes St Leger and trainer Aidan O’Brien admitted to some anxious moments ahead of the unbeaten colt’s Triple Crown bid. Currently rated a 1-3 shot, generally to emulate the 1970 hero Nijinsky and end the 42-year wait for the prestigious honour to be bestowed once again, Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor’s flag bearer is firmly on target for the extended 14-furlong test and a slice of history.

“Everything has been good so far, although there are always worries,” the Ballydoyle maestro told a gathering at a media day yesterday. “We are in the zone where you don’t want to talk about things, you just want to keep everything smooth. None of us know what is going to happen tomorrow. Accidents never just happen, they are always caused along the line. We just have to try and cover everything. It is a fickle time but we just have to stay focused.”

O’Brien admitted that the road to this point has not been straightforward, with testing ground at The Curragh almost curtailing his stop-over in the June 30 Irish Derby.

“We always had it in our heads that he would have three or four runs this year. After Epsom, our grass gallop was flooded and all his work was on the woodchip. When he ran in the Irish Derby, I don’t think I have ever known the ground so heavy at the Curragh. He runs very low to the ground, not rising much, so it was very touch and go whether he would run. He went through the race very easily, only racing for two furlongs; he just couldn’t quicken in the same way that day. We gave him a good break and his weight started to increase which was unusual. He will be heavier for the St Leger than he has been going into any other race, but with 3-year-olds they often don’t change until later in the year. His body is built more like a miler, in that he is round and strong as opposed to angular and lean. That is a little thing that would be in your mind.”

Camelot’s attitude is one of his great characteristics, O’Brien explained. “After his races, he just stands there and doesn’t blow which is very unusual. Most horses are bit agitated after a race. I think he must have a tremendous heart and lung capacity.”

“The horse is a very independent thinker. He is very sharp minded, very intelligent and very relaxed. If he was in a barn of 40 horses and some horses started messing, usually the barn would go mad but he wouldn’t. When horses walk off, most of them need other horses with them, but he doesn’t mind being by himself. He doesn’t look for company and makes his own mind up about things. We have to prioritise; we think Camelot is like no other horse. Who knows what is going to happen; we don’t take anything for granted. We will do our very best, it’s all we can do. We knew that Sue Magnier had the name Camelot for 10 years, since the last Derby winner, and we were not going to influence her in any way. She made her own mind up about it. It is a mystical kind of name and everything about this horse has not been normal. They have to have speed, stamina and courage - they are the three most important things when you are breeding horses. The Ladbrokes St Leger will expose the last two.”

“It will be an interesting day. The Triple Crown is a dream; what has changed with the lads is originally they wanted to make stallions and got them off to stud quick. Now it is make a stallion and expose him because they have a lot of mares. I suppose things have moved on - people are not as forgiving as they were and want to see horses being tested. The lads are prepared to race on the older horses and that previously did not happen. There are an awful lot more disappointments and you do your best; sometimes it is good enough, sometimes it is not. When it is not you try and analyse why not, move on and try not to dwell on it.”

“He is a jockey’s dream to ride as everything comes naturally to him,” jockey Joseph O’Brien, all nineteen years of him, said. “Camelot is an exceptional horse with a brilliant turn of foot. Whether he will stay a mile and three quarters, that’s the big question and nobody knows the answer until Saturday. It may only be just over two furlongs further than he has been before but that is still a lot. Camelot is still learning and has not had as much racing as some horses of his age. The Triple Crown would be a dream come true. I have seen the videos of Nijinsky and Lester Piggott and if Camelot could emulate that it would be unbelievable.”

CAMELOT SURGES TO SCINTILLATING INVESTEC DERBY VICTORY

Click above to watch post Investec Derby interview with Aidan O’Brien…
(Image and Footage : Racing UK)

INVESTEC DERBY (Group 1)
Epsom Downs, Turf, 2400m
2 June 2012

Derrick Smith’s Camelot (GB) (Montjeu), trainer Aidan O’Brien and jockey Joseph O’Brien had a weight of expectation on their shoulders entering Saturday’s G1 Investec Derby, but the 8-13 favorite and his 19-year-old rider proved impervious to the pressure when surging to an emphatic five-length victory. In doing so, the much-lauded bay completed the 2000 Guineas / Epsom Derby double and became the first horse to win this great race for a father-son trainer-jockey combination.

Settled with only one behind by his supremely confident rider early, Camelot had his positively ridden stable companion Astrology (Ire) (Galileo) to aim at in the straight and, after powering past with a furlong remaining, carried on into the clear, with Main Sequence (USA) (Aldebaran) denying a Ballydoyle one-two in the final stride. “He must be right up there with the best,” John Magnier commented. “It is there for everybody to see, and we are fortunate to have anything to do with him, particularly in the year that his father died, which makes it more important.” When asked whether he would like to attempt the Triple Crown, the Coolmore supremo answered, “Wouldn’t anybody? We are going to have to take it race-by-race and give it a lot of thought. These things get to mean more as you get older. If you had asked me the same question 20 years ago, I would have looked the other way, but we’ll have to see what Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor think about it. We are going through a good patch at the moment, so we just have to savor the moment.”

If there was any panic rising as he guided Camelot down the hill still several lengths adrift of Ryan Moore and Astrology, it was not apparent until he asked the crowd’s choice to chase hard from the three-furlong pole. Hanging down the camber as he closed down his barnmate, Camelot’s acceleration had carried him into a winning position by the furlong pole and his subsequent tour de force allowed connections and favorite-backers time to bask in the moment. “I was a bit worried, as he didn’t come down the hill at all and didn’t handle the track that well,” Joseph O’Brien explained. “He’s a very special horse and I’m just very fortunate to be on his back.” Derrick Smith, who was celebrating an apt 100th Group 1 winner, added, “It’s not a dream, because I could never have dreamt I would do it. This is the one everybody wants in racing and what a horse and what a ride. I suppose the Triple Crown must be on the agenda and we may get pressured into it, but we’ll sit down and talk about it and make the final decision.”

Aidan O’Brien paid his own tribute to the sport’s new talent. “He always looked special, but this is something you can’t really dream about,” he commented. “He’s one of those unusual horses who seems to be always finishing no matter what trip you run him over. He’s magical and that’s the only way I can describe him - he couldn’t be better named. He has a great constitution and the way he came back and stood relaxed in the winner’s enclosure afterwards, he’s very much in control. That he’s in such a place in his head with that ability, it is very unusual. We really fancied Ryan Moore’s horse, Astrology, and an awful lot of things could have happened, but Joseph wanted to come with a long sustained run. When a horse can give distance away and go up into those gears and still mow horses down like that, it’s incredible. I think he was only going away at the line and he has an awful lot of different options now.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

DEATH OF MONTJEU

Click above to watch Montjeu winning the
2000 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (G1)
(Image : The Guardian - Footage : Sachahuista)

MONTJEU (IRE)
Sadler’s Wells (USA) - Floripedes (FR)
1996 - 2012

Montjeu (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells - Floripedes, by Top Ville), a champion on the racecourse who went on to become an influential stallion, died Thursday morning at Coolmore Stud following a short illness due to complications from septicaemia. He was 16.

Bred by the late Sir James Goldsmith, campaigned by Michael Tabor and trained by John Hammond, the bay captured the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, G1 Irish Derby and G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe during his 3-year-old campaign in 1999. He added a facile score in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at four, and retired to Coolmore with a record of 11 wins from 16 starts. From his first crop, Montjeu sired G1 Epsom Derby hero Motivator (GB) and G1 Irish Derby hero Hurricane Run (Ire). He has since sired two other winners of the Epsom Classic in Authorized (Ire) and Pour Moi (Ire), and was represented in 2011 by GI Breeders’ Cup Turf hero St Nicholas Abbey (Ire).

Taken to Ascot for his crowning moment in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes in July 2000, Montjeu put up arguably his greatest performance - and visually his most stunning - when winning unextended and doing what Mick Kinane classed as ‘three-quarters’ speed.” His unextended 1 3/4-length defeat of Fantastic Light (Rahy), who would lower the colors of Galileo (Ire) a year later, in the 50th renewal of that midsummer feature, was a rare moment for the turfistes. For Kinane, the feel the great horse gave him that sun-kissed afternoon left him in no doubt as to his standing among the best he had ridden. “He knows how good he is,” he commented at the time. “That’s why he comes at them with such power. I would have liked to have held on to him a bit longer, but a furlong and a half out he just wanted them and I had to let him go.”

His faithful and adoring lad Didier Follop - who often had to ride Montjeu into the paddock before his races - and his understated but shrewd trainer John Hammond took care of nurturing his quirks and mighty ego, while his pilots Cash Asmussen and Mick Kinane imparted more than a share of their justified self-belief in the saddle. Together, they brought a brilliant talent to its peak and were touched by magic as a result.

“He was a really outstanding racehorse - one of the few outstanding racehorses I’ve ridden,” Kinane told PA Sport. “That King George win was pretty good all right. He treated them with contempt that day and it was just a privilege to be on board. He had some other good performances in the Irish Derby and the Arc, and he’s obviously going to be sadly missed. He had an aura about him and a few issues, and the great horses he’s sired have all had that as well - that’s what’s made them great. His fillies have been much better of late as well and I think he’s going to end up being an outstanding broodmare stallion. He’s going to leave a big hole in racing.”

“It’s really sad news,” Hammond told PA Sport. “He provided us with some magic moments. I was just very fortunate that he turned up at our place. The two days that stick out are obviously his wins in the King George and the Arc. He was fairly amazing at Ascot and the Arc win was special because I didn’t think he was going to win when the other horse got away from us. I think he showed his brilliance at Ascot and his courage at Longchamp. If he was a human being I’d describe him as an eccentric genius.”

When Montjeu entered stud in 2001, the jury was still out as to whether the all-conquering Sadler’s Wells would have a son that could approach his sire’s achievements in the breeding shed. However, his first crop indicated that Montjeu would be a force to be reckoned with. Motivator, hero of the G1 Racing Post Trophy at two, added the G1 Epsom Derby in 2005. Hurricane Run (Ire) captured the G1 Irish Derby and G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe that season, while Scorpion (Ire) added victories in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris and G1 St Leger Stakes. Two years later, Authorized (Ire) also completed the Racing Post Trophy / Epsom Derby double. Fame and Glory (GB), hero of the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in 2008, went on to capture the Irish Derby the following year, the G1 Coronation Cup at four, and added the G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last season for good measure. St Nicholas Abbey, winner of the Racing Post Trophy in 2009, missed out on the major races as a 3-year-old, but returned at four in 2011 to secure the Coronation Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Turf. French-based Pour Moi (Ire) came with a furious late rush to take Epsom honors last June in what would be his final career start, and will now attempt to take his sire’s place at Coolmore. Montjeu was represented by another Racing Post Trophy winner last season in Camelot (Ire), and that colt is the current favorite for the June Classic at Epsom.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

CAPE BLANCO SWOOPS TO ARLINGTON MILLION VICTORY

Click above to watch Cape Blanco winning the Arlington Million (G1)…
(Image : ESPN - Footage : Arlington)

ARLINGTON MILLION STAKES (Grade 1)
Arlington Park, Turf, 2000m
13 August 2011

It was a great day for the Irish Saturday at Arlington Park, particularly if you were an Aidan O’Brien-trained Irish Derby-winning son of Galileo (Ire). First 2011 Derby winner Treasure Beach (GB) (Galileo) won the GI Secretariat Stakes and then, an hour or so later, 2010 Classic winner Cape Blanco (Ire) (Galileo) swept to a 2 1/2-length victory in the GI Arlington Million Stakes. Cape Blanco, favored at 2-1, settled in a stalking fourth as Mission Approved (With Approval) took the field along through pedestrian fractions over the rain-soakened Arlington turf course. The Irish raider was asked for run turning for home, made a bold move to put his head in front in upper stretch and surged clear. Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat) closed late for second, matching his finish in last year’s Million. “He’s a good tough horse and he’s brilliantly trained,” jockey Jamie Spencer said of the winner. “All I did was was do the steering. Aidan gave me my instructions and I rode accordingly.”

Cape Blanco, a two-time group winner during his undefeated juvenile campaign, parlayed a win in last year’s G1 Irish Derby into a strong runner-up effort behind Harbinger in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes before storming home by 5 1/2 lengths in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes. This term, the chestnut colt took to the synthetics for a fourth-place effort in the G1 Dubai World Cup in March and was fourth again in the G1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp in April. He set sail for America after a sixth-place effort in the June 14 G1 Queen Anne Stakes and made a quick impact on these shores, defeating Gio Ponti by 2 1/4 lengths in the July 9 G1 Man O’War Stakes at Belmont Park. “I’m very pleased just to be able to ride the horse,” Spencer continued. “There are very few horses that have the will to win like he has. The more you ask from him, the more you get from him. He had loads left in the end.”

Cape Blanco won the Irish Derby and Irish Champion Stakes last term for owners Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor. Dubai socialite Fitri Hay joined the ownership group in March when she purchased a significant interest in the colt. Hay and her husband, Jim, own the UAE-based holding company JMH Group.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News