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| The King - Where does Frankel's Royal Ascot romp rank among the season's best performances? |
Here I have compiled a list of my top ten performances from the flat season just gone. The criteria for making the list is somewhat loose, these performances may be worthy of a place due to visual impressiveness, an incredible piece of jockeyship, the strength of the horses that were beaten in attaining victory, it could just be a performance that got to me emotionally or a combination of any or all of the above.
Whichever way, the ten performances from the 2012 flat season listed below will all live long in my memory, and although this is a distinctly personal countdown, I’m sure anyone who bore witness to any of these races also remembers them for their impressiveness, if not quite as vividly as I do.
10. Dawn Approach – Coventry Stakes (Royal Ascot) – 19/6/12
Probably the least impressive performance visually on the list, but any countdown for 2012 should include the best two-year-old on the planet.
Dawn Approach’s Coventry win was so impressive because, in spite of only being a Group 2, he beat some very good horses when taking his winning run to four. Olympic Glory who was second has gone to win three Group races subsequently (including a Group 1) while Sir Prancealot, Artigiano, Letir Mor, Master of War and Heavy Metal have all gone on to run well in Group company too.
Kevin Manning may have had to shake Dawn Approach up quite a way out in the Coventry but the way he responded and kept finding showcased the horse’s toughness and became somewhat of a trademark for his races throughout the season. He’s not the flashiest in his running style, but he looks like being the horse to beat next season and should be a major classic contender.
His Coventry win was even more special to me as having followed this horse from day one I was there for this win in the flesh, as I was for another incredible performance also on this list, but we’ll get to that later…
9. Cirrus Des Aigles – Prix Dollar (Longchamp) – 6/10/12
The Arc itself may not have yielded a truly outstanding performance, though if Orfevre had kept straight it could have done, but Arc weekend certainly did produce a performance of the highest calibre.
People were so impressed by 2011 Champion Stakes winner Cirrus Des Aigles’ Prix Dollar soft ground romp that when the ground came up pretty desperate for Champions’ Day they even gave him a chance of turning over the mighty Frankel.
Obviously that never came to fruition but it doesn’t take away from this incredible performance at Longchamp in which he made good horses look like handicappers in a nine length demolition that more resembled a race course gallop.
8. Royal Delta – Ladies Classic (Santa Anita – Breeders’ Cup) – 2/11/12
Mike Smith certainly knows how to generate a Breeders’ Cup headline or two, and when he inexplicably went to the front early on Royal Delta in her bid for back to back Ladies Classics it seemed like he may be making headlines for all the wrong reasons at the Breeders’ Cup again.
What did in fact follow was a front-running master class from Mr. Breeders’ Cup as he and Royal Delta proceeded to run a very strong field ragged as Bill Mott’s charge doubled up in the Ladies Classic, and in the process confirmed herself as not just the leading female horse in America but also one of the leading horses overall.
7. Union Rags – Belmont Stakes (Belmont) – 9/6/12
This one is a performance that probably wouldn’t figure in many other countdowns of this nature, but for me it was one of the most gratifying wins of the season.
I was banging the Union Rags drum all season and although he’d enjoyed a fantastic two-year-old campaign his three-year-old campaign never really got going.
He never had a chance when finishing fast and late in the Kentucky Derby and then missed the Preakness, but he had his shot at Triple Crown glory in the final leg at Belmont.
The field he beat was nothing special really given that the classic generation was decimated by injury prior to this race but it was still a top notch performance, mainly down to Johnny Velasquez’s inspired performance in the saddle.
On the run-in it looked like the front-running Paynter was going to wire the field but as jockey Mike Smith made an error in judgement moving off the rail, Union and Johnny V sneaked down the inside through the smallest of gaps to snatch a famous win in the shadow of the post, sending New York, and my living room, in to raptures.
6. The Fugue – Nassau Stakes (Goodwood) – 4/8/12
If you could pick one horse that had an unlucky season in 2012 then chances are you would pick John Gosden’s The Fugue.
She had no luck in The Oaks or at Santa Anita when in both races she was arguably the best horse in the race and should, with things going a little more her way, have won.
However on an afternoon in August as Glorious Goodwood came to an end, she really showed what she was made of, and in doing so recorded one of the truly visually stunning performances of the season.
With stable jockey William Buick having opted for Izzi Top over The Fugue, it was left to Richard Hughes to pick up the plum spare ride; held up under a trademark Hughes ride when push came to shove, and everything in around her was hard at work, The Fugue was still cruising.
All Hughes had to do was shake her up and she came past the rest of the toiling field in a matter of strides to score cosily.
How the good the form of the race is, perhaps now, is somewhat questionable, but there is no disputing the fact that this was a stunning burst of speed from a horse that will hopefully stay in training next year and with a little more luck could be one of the leading horses in 2013.
5. Moonlight Cloud – Prix Maurice De Gheest (Deauville) – 5/8/12
Moonlight Cloud was very nearly responsible for the upset of the season when almost pouncing to pick up a below-par Black Caviar at Royal Ascot, and although she just failed to claim that rather lofty scalp in June, at the beginning of August she delivered one of the performances of the season at Deauville.
For some reason, connections seem to want to keep running her at a mile when she has proved to be one of the best sprinters in the world on her day.
6f definitely seems to be her trip and anyone who saw the way she dismantled the Maurice De Gheest field this day would struggle to argue anything different.
She had subsequent Group 1 winner Wizz Kid 5l back in second here as well as useful, if unspectacular yardstick The Cheka further back still. In all honesty though she could have won as she liked because when Thierry Jarnet asked her to go she quickened with such a scintillating turn of foot that it, for all intents and purposes, looked like she was running in fast forward mode as the rest of the field stayed on one paced.
4. Ortensia – Nunthorpe Stakes (York) – 24/8/12
Black Caviar was the travelling Aussie horse that grabbed most of the headlines this summer but it was actually compatriot Ortensia that delivered this past flat season’s most incredible sprint performance when she pretty much came from last to first to land the Nunthorpe at York.
Having enjoyed a long stay in England, but for the most part an unsuccessful one, Ortensia finally justified her connections’ decision to campaign her over here when landing a Group 2 at Glorious Goodwood.
That victory propelled the Aussie mare to joint favouritism for the big sprint at York’s Ebor festival and she delivered in style coming from a mile back to reel in Spirit Quartz by a neck on the line.
Just before the half way stage you’d have been hard pressed to call her the winner, but with Hamish McGonagall trying to break the land speed record in front of her she got a good tow in to the race and really picked up just after half way under William Buick; though she was being ridden hard she delivered an electric burst of speed and notched up a highly impressive win.
Watch - Ortensia Wins the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes 2012
3. Excelebration – Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Ascot – Champions’ Day) – 20/10/12
In any other couple of years Excelebration would probably have been known the world over as the best horse in training, but unfortunately for him he was born in the same year as Frankel and for most of his career was forced to chase the wonder horse’s shadow.
With Frankel finally stepping up beyond a mile though, 2012 finally saw Excelebration shine in the big mile races; earlier in the season he’d won arguably the most deeply competitive race of the season when landing the Prix Jacques Le Marois but it was his Champions’ Day demolition job in the QEII that his season will be remembered for.
Riding for father Aidan, Joseph O’Brien appeared to be supremely confident, as when the race started to get serious he was trapped behind a wall of horses with seemingly nowhere to go.
As a gap finally opened up though Joseph simply angled Excelebration out and he took flight putting a huge amount of ground between himself and his toiling rivals eventually running out a 3l winner over Cityscape.
With this QEII performance Excelebration not only made mince meat of a strong field, he did so with the minimum of effort and in an eye-catching manner; in doing so he also finally stepped out from Frankel’s shadow, if only for half an hour…
2. Frankel – Juddmonte International (York) – 22/8/12
2012 was once again very much the year of Frankel and the Juddmonte was perhaps the most eagerly anticipated run of his career, with the question mark supposedly hanging over his ability to stay.
Those supposed doubts were quickly put to rest though as Frankel delivered a master class over 1m2f just as he had over 1m previously. Arguably the further he went the better he was this day as he sauntered up alongside proven Group 1 performers at this distance like St. Nicholas Abbey and Farhh and made them look like nobodies.
Held up for most of the race as his own pacemaker and those from Ballydoyle did their jobs by setting a break-neck pace, as things got serious in the straight a motionless Tom Queally cruised up on the stand side rail and quickly put the race to bed in mere strides. Queally didn’t really need to get too busy in the saddle as those around him were firmly put in their place by the greatest of all time.
York was buzzing before, during and after the Juddmonte and the presence of the one and only Sir Henry Cecil after missing Frankel’s previous run through illness only added to the occasion, it would have taken a heart of stone not to be moved after the race as the legendary trainer fawned over the horse that reinvigorated not only his career but the man himself.
The Juddmonte was a fantastic race and an incredible spectacle but it wasn’t the greatest performance of the season, in fact it wasn’t even Frankel’s greatest performance of the season…
1. Frankel – Queen Anne Stakes (Royal Ascot) – 19/6/12
The Juddmonte was an emotional win, but Frankel’s Queen Anne victory at Royal Ascot back in June was the second royal precession of the day as the king destroyed his opponents with a performance that had to be seen to be believed.
It’s often hard to write about Frankel, as you start to run out of superlatives to describe this incredible specimen, and maybe it’s the personal bias as I was there at Ascot for this race, but in the Queen Anne he was quite simply awesome.
When all was said and done Frankel was 11l clear of old foe Excelebration; the sort of winning distance you’d normally expect to see in a 3m+ chase on heavy ground, not a mile race at the Royal meeting.
It’s no secret most of Frankel’s opponents in the Queen Anne didn’t run to the best of their ability but that is mainly because a lot of them tried to live with the wonder horse and just simply couldn’t.
The roar that went up when he burst clear was something else, and being there to witness his heroics was something that will live long in the memory, not only because it was the performance of 2012 but because arguably it was one of the greatest performances of all time by the greatest race horse of all time.
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