2005
VINTAGE Tipple and Desert King both used the Tralee Festival as a launching pad to success at the highest level, and Aidan O’Brien’s Alexandrova looks another destined to make her mark against some of the leading lights of her generation following a most impressive victory in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden.
A 420,000gns purchase at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, the Sadler’s Wells half-sister to the Cheveley Park Stakes winner Magical Romance finished sixth in a listed race at the Curragh on her debut and then took third in a Goodwood maiden. However, it was an entirely different story on this occasion as the 8/15 favourite came home some 10 lengths clear of Nautical Design.
Rivals
Facing seven rivals that included Ocean Pearl, who finished second to the Futurity Stakes runner-up Galantas on her debut at Galway, Alexandrova was slowly into her stride and raced towards the rear early on as her aforementioned opponent cut out the running. Approaching halfway in the one-mile event, Kieren Fallon asked his mount to improve her position and, shortly after passing the three-furlong marker, Alexandrova surged to the front.
From that point on the result was in no doubt, and the Sue Magnier-owned filly drew well clear in the straight to earn a quote of 33/1 from Cashmans for next year’s Epsom Oaks. An absent O’Brien said: “Alexandrova is a lovely filly and it is quite possible that she will go for either the Fillies Mile or the Prix Marcel Boussac. She stood in the stalls and ran green on her debut, and finished well at Goodwood last time. She could be anything.”
[Alexandrova finished second in the Group 1 Fillies Mile and at three won the Group 1 Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks. She is the dam of three group winners and grandam of Group 1 winner Aspetar]
End of the road for Divine Proportions
2005
LATE on Wednesday night news broke that Divine Proportions had sustained an injury, forcing her retirement to stud. During her stunning career she won nine races, including five Group 1 events and two classics.
The Niarchos Family racing manager Alan Cooper, the Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard manager Tim Richardson, and trainer Pascal Bary looked glum as they buried their sorrows three days ago. After a glass or two of Bordeaux, Bary disclosed: “When the filly came back from Deauville we decided to give her a thorough check-over and, this afternoon, our vets confirmed that she had sustained an injury to her off-fore tendon. We couldn’t understand when she ran a disappointing fourth to Dubawi in the Jacques Le Marois, and now we know the reason.
“This has been brutal news for me and all the team. Divine Proportions was the best horse to have passed through my hands as she had all the qualities of a champion. She showed me her talents very early on in her career. This is a big shock but I am happy they have found something, as you couldn’t have risked running her in the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont.”
On behalf of her family, Maria Niarchos-Gouaze added: “Divine Proportions was a magical filly and gave us a lot of happiness. Now we look forward to racing her babies.”
Very probably Divine Proportions will be mated with Giant’s Causeway. He is the sire of Shamardal who reeled off the Poulains, Prix du Jockey-Club and St James’s Palace Stakes before also being prematurely retired with an injury.
[Champion filly in Europe at two and three, Divine Proportions won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas, Prix de Diane Hermes-French Oaks, Prix d’Astarte, Prix Morny and Prix Marcel Boussac. She was covered by Giant’s Causeway, producing a Group 3 winner]
2005
Position: Sports caster, RTE TV
Best moment so far in racing? Magic Oats winning a three-mile hurdle at Galway on Hurdle day in 1990. It was my first involvement with a syndicate and it paid 67/1 on the Tote.
What was your earliest racing memory? Swings, carnivals, ice cream and the colours of the jockeys’ silks, as seen from the infield at Kilbeggan.
Who would you most like to meet? Homer Simpson – a role model for our times.
What’s the best book you have read? With a sporting theme it has to be Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand.
Favourite saying? Do you want doubles or quits?
What’s playing in your car stereo? Right now it’s Leonard Cohen.
What’s the biggest gamble you’ve ever taken? Leaving teaching in 1978 to dive into broadcasting.
Best hotel you’ve stayed in? Hotel Grande Bretagne, Athens.
Where in the world would you live outside Ireland? Wouldn’t want to, but France comes close.
What keeps you awake at night? Very little really, thank God.
What’s the best piece of advice you have been given? Carpe diem – life is not a dress rehearsal!
One word that describes you?
Loquacious.
Letter to the editor of The Irish Field
1955
SIR, I would like to say how very small-minded I think it is of the Irish jockeys to protest to the Minister for Agriculture about a British jockey being engaged to ride Panaslipper in America. Gosling knows the course, and presumably he was chosen for some very good reason.
Did the British jumping jockeys protest when Danny Morgan was given the rides on steeplechasers belonging to King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI? Not on your life they didn’t.
Yours etc.
MICHAEL HALL, Furness, Naas, Co Kildare
Laytown’s unique role in racing
1935
LAYTOWN is the sole surviving strand meeting in Great Britain and Ireland, though time was when strand meetings were plentiful, as the records show. Laytown is a popular fixture – everybody who is anybody goes to the seaside for the afternoon’s sport. Maybe the course there was the only one where hard going has not had to be complained of since summer set in.
We need not explain that the tides, twice a day for an entire year, keep the going in excellent order for the annual celebration. “The going is always good at Laytown” is as effective a slogan as it is a true one. Seldom do all circumstances promoting the happiness of humanity synchronise, and if we had good going underfoot the overhead conditions were emphatically unpleasant, for rain poured down ceaselessly during the afternoon.
Mr J.H Nicholls’ horses (whose preparation is on Sandymount strand) won three of the six races, Again Afloat taking two races and Mountain City one race. Joseph Canty was on Again Afloat and Mr J.A. Mangan on her stable companion. Mr Edward Delany’s Magnum II raised a winning flag too, and as well came in first for a second race, but was disqualified for carrying 3lb short weight.