champions' day, charyn & world domination, possibly.

​In Kyprios we are quite possibly witnessing the best stayer in flat history. Bold statement, especially as horses are no longer bred with Ascot Gold Cups in mind and Yeats won 4 Ascot Gold Cups. Yet he just seems unbeatable over any distance from 14-furlongs upwards, and he wins without any undue effort. Two weeks after winning over 20-furlongs on soft ground at Longchamp, he won with such imperious ease at Ascot, he was practically unmanageable in the winners’ enclosure and even Aidan had to admit to defeat when it came to the group photograph. How good he is we will never know as I doubt if a horse will appear on the scene next year to even make him exert himself. They will decline the offer, of course, but it would make interesting viewing if they were to chance their arm and run Kyprios over 12-furlongs in something like the King George & Queen Elisabeth Stakes, which perhaps now requires its name shortened to just the Queen Elisabeth Stakes in honour of our greatest monarch.
But do not get the impression my view of Champions’ Day has changed. It rankled me all day to have the meeting described as ‘the conclusion of the flat season’. It is not, as flat racing on turf continues until November and the appropriately titled November Handicap at Doncaster, with the final Group 1 of the season next weekend also at Doncaster. How can we educate people to our sport when we make claims that cannot be justified by common-sense alone?
It continues to rankle with me that Joe Leavy, for instance, come November, might have ridden more winners than Sean Bowen and yet because jockey championships are decided between two arbitrary dates and not the whole of the season, Leavy would not go down in history as the leading apprentice for 2024. I would hold the same opinion if Sean Bowen was denied the title by this short-changing of the season.
Also, given the sport is in decline, with nowhere near enough money in the sport to provide prize-money on a daily basis that, when compared to countries with far less of a heritage than Britain and Ireland, is embarrassing, how can £2-million in prize-money for one six-race card be justified? As with the equally fatuous Bleeders’ Cup, Champions’ Day is a bun-feast for the mega-wealthy, with the same coterie of owners, trainers and jockeys taking home all the buns.
And the meeting is invariably run on atrocious ground.

Here’s a thing, and I squeeze this in without titling it, if only to spare Richard Forristal’s blushes, but the 1st, 2nd & 4th in yesterday’s Champion Stakes were geldings, all of whom would have graced any Arc de Triomphe.

Here is another thing of annoyance. Charyn is a dude. He only comes alive on the racecourse, doing so little on the gallops at home, that already having run six-times this season, including only a few-weeks ago, he had to be given a stern work-out last week to ensure he was at his peak for the Queen Elisabeth Stakes, which he won eventually in facile fashion. According to his trainer, Roger Varian, Charyn ‘loves his racing’. He is only 4, yet to reach full maturity. Yet he will be off to the stallion sheds after one more run. In troubling times for the sport, it would be helpful if owners did all they could to keep the top horses in training longer than their 4-year-old days.

The furious cries last jumps season over the embarrassing domination of Willie Mullins are not heard in response to similar domination of the sport by Aidan O’Brien. In Ireland, he has trained, as of 20/10, 126-winners for £6,437,000 (0r Euros). In Britain he has trained only 31-winners for £8,283,000. Then of course there is the haul of prize-money won in France. Compared to Aidan’s achievements, Willie Mullins needs to pull his soaks up and concentrate harder. Yesterday, not only did Aidan have a winner at Ascot, but as a side-dish he had 4-winners at Leopardstown and a 1,2, 3, in a race. Today domination of Ireland and Britain, tomorrow the world, if the ‘lads’ want it, of course.