Wasn't Native Trail a Disappointment?

​Look, I was sort of wrong. Baaeed won hard-held and my fancy Native Trail ran like a hairy dog in a monsoon. I hope he was dope-tested. I hope they find no suggestion of foul-play. And you can’t say he didn’t stay the distance in a strongly run race because he wouldn’t have won at any distance yesterday.
Baaeed is very, very good. How good we will never know as he is set to avoid the type of opposition that might make a race of it with him. Also, as with Frankel, as I suggested yesterday, it is at the very end of his career that we discover he has been running over the wrong distance for twelve-months. At no stage up till now has Baaeed been as impressive as yesterday.
But in all honesty what did the opposition amount to? Mishriff was always a Grade 1 performer, hoovering up mega big prize money in newly created races light on top-quality opposition. True, last year he won the Juddmonte International with the same ease as Baaeed yesterday but he is a horse that is beaten more times than he has won and yesterday he beat Sir Busker, Dubai Honour, a bitterly disappointing Native Trail and the habitually failing High Definition. Not stellar opposition, I would suggest.
I doubt if St. Nicholas Abbey would have been beaten as far as Mishriff.
That all said, Baaeed is the best around. I still believe the accolade of ‘best in the world’ is undeserved, as it would be for any horse as such a claim cannot be proved beyond any doubt. How good Baaeed is; where he stands in the history of the sport, we shall never know. Just as he is at his peak, when it is clear for all to see that all the top middle-distances races around the world are at his mercy, he is to be retired. British horse racing needs Baaeed in training next season, not covering mares. He can have that pleasure for the rest of his life. It is so sad that owners these days place commercial interests before sporting endeavour. John and Jean Hislop may have had few cheer-leaders during their lifetime, with their reputations mud since their passing, but credit where credit is due. They campaigned Brigadier Gerard without any real regard for his value at stud, placing emphasis on finding out his limitations so that breeders knew exactly what his qualities were. It is why despite his breeding, the Brigadier ran in the King George & Queen Elisabeth, why he ran on soft/heavy ground that he disliked and why they were considering keeping him in training as a five-year-old. Yes, they caved on the last aspiration but when he retired to stud breeders knew the sort of horse the Brigadier truly was, a horse of outstanding courage and rare ability, a winner from six-furlongs to twelve, on all types of ground.
Will they run Baaeed in the Champion Stakes if it comes up soft/heavy. Will they risk his reputation, risk him losing his unbeaten tag?
I have no criticism of Baaeed. He is a beautiful, uncomplicated horse. To use a phrase of Nicky Henderson’s, he appears a really nice person, a horse in the mould of Brigadier Gerard, at least temperament-wise. My moan is toward Shadwell for putting their own commercial interests before the health of the sport. Horse racing in this country needs Baaeed kept in training. Just as the people have accepted him as a champion he is be withdrawn from public view. Is it no wonder that in this country and Ireland National Hunt is so much more popular with the public than flat racing. Owners, especially those fortunate to own brilliant racehorses, have a responsibility as much to the sport as they do their horses.
But that said: wasn’t he impressive yesterday? And finally, Shadwell have a stallion to match Juddmonte’s Frankel and Godolphin’s Dubawi.