BALDING SETS A NEW LANDMARK ON ANOTHER DOMINANT GOOD FRIDAY
By Simon Mapletoft
Winners don’t come easy on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, not even for the bigger stables, but Andrew Balding’s show stealing double at Newcastle helped him secure an unprecedented Good Friday achievement.
Stateira’s win in the Fillies’ And Mares’ Final saw him become the first trainer to saddle a winner in all six categories before Berkshire Sundance’s romp in the Easter Plate took his tally at the £1 million fixture to an unprecedented 12.
Stable jockey Oisin Murphy shielded the well-backed Stateira from a gusting headwind before producing her late to defy a 10lb rise for her previous win in the distaff trial in January, but his performance on the quirky Berkshire Sundance was even more of a masterclass.
The enigmatic chestnut overwhelmed 2024 champion Prydwen and slow starting hot favourite Beylerbeyi to give lucky owner Paul Spickett his third taste of Finals Day glory following the previous successes of the Balding-trained Berkshire Shadow and Berkshire Whisper.
The day promised to deliver so much more for the stable, however, with strong chances through the card, but The Lost King in the Mile and Regal Ulixes in the Easter Classic both came up short after favourite Silent Strike failed to give the Kingsclere maestro a fourth consecutive win in the 3YO Sprint.
Murphy summed the yard’s day up perfectly. “The prize money that ARC put on is fantastic and that makes the racing incredibly competitive. I thought Regal Ulixes would definitely win – he was my best chance on paper - but to come away with a double for Andrew and his owners is very satisfying,” he reasoned.
Just as grateful was teenage ace Billy Loughnane, whose strong book yielded just one success as Al Najashi completed a spectacular five-timer in the 3YO Final, taking him to 97 for the season and supplementing trainer Ollie Sangster’s win with Cool Mollie at Lingfield’s Vase fixture.
Loughnane would have expected better from Ian Williams’ Cesarewitch hero Beylerbeyi and the Willie Mullins-trained Gaucher in the Classic but neither could edge him closer to a century, though a £10,000 reward for being crowned champion jockey for the second consecutive season would have surely tempered that disappointment.
But for a stint in Dubai in January, Loughnane would surely have beaten Luke Morris’s 2014/15 record of 102 but pointed with some satisfaction to the history-making 222 winners he achieved with a New Year’s eve verdict at Lingfield Park.
Victory for an emotional Cieren Fallon in the Sprint was dedicated to the late Stefano Cherchi, who passed away two years ago to the day following a fall in Australia. Fallon blew a kiss into the stormy clouds as he flashed past the post on William Haggas’s re-invigorated Wiltshire before fighting back the tears to describe how his close friend had “opened up the gaps” for him.
For weighing room colleague Clifford Lee, the sheer relief of climbing back into the saddle following life threatening injuries sustained in a motorbike accident in October was success in itself. Lee was cheered into the parade ring by the syndicate owners of his mount Marshman who ran his usual respectable race despite being unable to produce a dream result in the same race.
The Glen Rover had a back story of his own in winning the £200,000 Classic under a well thought out ride by former champion apprentice Sean D. Bowen. Joint-owner Conor Ryan, who works for Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby, praised Lucy Wadham for nursing the gelding through setbacks to spring a 33-1 surprise.
Swerving an entry in the 10f feature in favour of the Mile proved a masterstroke by Roger Varian whose gorgeous grey Tyrrhenian Sea – undoubtedly the most striking horse in training - finished strongest of all to claim the £150,000 Final despite conceding a considerable weight advantage to progressive placed rivals Blue RC and The Lost King.
Assistant George Tregoning, son of Derby-winning trainer Marcus, described how meaningful it was to train such a high profile winner for the eight-year-old’s owners the Niarchos Family while jockey Jack Mitchell spoke of the relief in the Varian Stable in making the right decision following some eye-catching homework.
Tyrrhenian Sea’s career may be in its autumn, but spring was in the air for Charlie Johnston’s filly Timeforshowcasing who showed talent and tenacity in equal measure to win the day’s appetiser, the Listed Burradon Stakes, and set herself up for a probable run in the Betfred 1000 Guineas. “I couldn’t understand why she was such a big price,” said a baffled Johnston as he contemplated a run in the first British Classic of the season.
Finals Day was also a fitting opportunity to showcase two of Season 13’s unlikely heroes, the newly crowned Horse of the Year Yorkshire Glory and the record equalling Aisling Oscar – syndicate-owned warriors who both dominated the Million Pound Bonus charts and showed no signs of fatigue as they paraded with enthusiasm before racing.
Yorkshire Glory’s owners Blue Lion Racing and their trainer Ben Haslam collected a cheque for £100,000 following their gelding’s remarkable nine victories while Adrian Keatley reflected on the eight consecutive handicap wins he guided the 3,200 gns bargain buy to in the space of just 10 weeks.
At Lingfield, two more heroes of an unforgettable winter were crowned when Tony Carroll received the Champion Trainer’s trophy for the second year running and Ian Williams’ apprentice Ryan Kavanagh was celebrated as top apprentice with 25 hard-fought winners.
With declarations almost double the figure in the season before the six Finals were switched from conditions races to handicaps, and the Million Pound Bonus Scheme – undoubtedly one of the sport’s greatest modern-day innovations – creating so many soul-stirring narratives, the All-Weather Championships couldn’t be in a better place. Roll on October, when an eagerly anticipated Season 14 gets underway …
