StableTalk

A wonderful evening's racing from Del Mar marked the climax of the Breeders Cup meeting but it was a tough evening for both punters and Europeans with a string of long-priced winners in the earlier races and any number of fancied runners blowing out on the tight track. It should be remembered this is the end of a long northern hemisphere season and it was clear a number of those found a final run in the warmth of southern California after going into their autumn and winter coats a step too far.

LADY AURELIA went off odds on for the turf sprint over 1000m but she never got the uncontested lead and faded tamely off the home turn coming home a poor tenth. For MARSHA it all happened too quickly and she was forced wide off the home turn but ran on for sixth behind 40/1 STORMY LIBERAL. After a 66/1 had stunned the crowd in the Filly & Mare Sprint on the dirt, the Filly & Mare Turf looked a more reasonable proposition with LADY ELI favourite to end her career on a high.

However, it never went right for the favourite after she was crowded into the clubhouse turn where outsider ZIPRESSA led with WUHEIDA close up and most of the Europeans held up behind. Into the home turn and WUHEIDA got first run on the field and poached a small but sufficient lead to hold the late challenge of RHODODENDRON who flew home to be beaten a length. QUEEN'S TRUST was arguably unlucky having been forced to check at a vital moment and flew home to be beaten barely two lengths in fifth.

The 1-2 for Europe emphasized what a remarkable crop of 3-y-o fillies we've seen this year. The winner had won the Boussac as a juvenile and had mixed it with the very best this year including a very close fourth to RHODODENDRON in the Opera while the second has mixed it with both WINTER and ENABLE in the Guineas and Oaks respectively . In another year, both would be in the very top rank of their generation but the fact they are just off the best shows what a fantastic crop of young fillies we've enjoyed in Europe this year. Again they put the older horses to the sword including the battle hardened American mares on their home turf.

The Mile on the Turf was expected to be another win for the Europeans but it wasn't to be as the American punters came for WORLD APPROVAL and he saw off the Europeans racing handily throughout and quickening off the home turn to win a shade cosily by a length and a quarter. Dropping him back to 1600m has been the making of him and he confirmed Woodbine form with LANCASTER BOMBER who ran a career best in second and showed what a good horse he is when he gets really quick ground. A number of the Europeans ran well without quite being good enough - SUEDOIS showed his love for North America with another strong run in fourth while RIBCHESTER signed off with a fair fifth perhaps feeling the effect of a hard race at Ascot and ZELZAL and KARAR finished sixth and seventh.

How about WORLD APPROVAL vs WINX over the straight 1600m at Ascot next June ? It's a thought and TEPIN has shown the Americans can come and win at Ascot. WORLD APPROVAL has shown the American turf milers are always hard to beat on their home ground and the Europeans have only prevailed when the American challenge has been weak.

The challenge of US NAVY FLAG in the Juvenile on the Dirt looked ambitious and although Ryan Moore got the Dewhurst winner to the front early from the inside draw he was beaten before the home turn and trailed home 30 lengths behind the winner.

The Turf over 2400m has long been the banker race for the Europeans but the challenge suffered a late blow with the scratching of ULYSSES leaving the 2016 winner HIGHLAND REEL to be backed in to 11/10 favourite but the Americans weren't going to give Ryan Moore the uncontested lead he enjoyed last year and both OSCAR PERFORMANCE and Arlington Million winner BEACH PATROL were soon with the pace leaving HIGHLAND REEL a close third. Off the home turn BEACH PATROL went for home and Ryan Moore was giving HIGHLAND REEL a full ride but the two of them had set the race up for one to come from off the pace and that one was Andre Fabre's TALISMANIC who was produced by Mikael Barzalona with a beautifully-timed run to lead close home and win by half a length with HIGHLAND REEL a neck back in third and SEVENTH HEAVEN running a much better race in fifth.

This was HIGHLAND REEL's swansong and he goes off to stud as one of the best gallopers of recent times. He's mixed it consistently with the very best all round the world including Hong KOng and has won, I think, in excess of £7 million in win and place money and will no doubt be popular as a prospective stallion. TALISMANIC has been flying below the radar for a while but he was fourth to a certain ALMANZOR in the 2016 French Derby. This year he narrowly went down to TIBERIAN in the Hedouville in the spring and then beat MARMELO in the Maurice de Nieuil at Saint Cloud in mid summer.

Both MARMELO and TIBERIAN are of course running in the Melbourne Cup so TALISMANIC is, fittingly, a global form link across the hemispheres and you just wonder if Fabre reckons he could be the first horse to win a Breeders Cup Turf and a Melbourne Cup - that would be a huge achievement but he provides a useful point of reference when comparing the top Australian form with the top American and European form going forward.

The Del Mar ended with the Classic over 2000m which is worth over £3 million to the winner. CHURCHILL put up a brave attempt but never got involved and finished a well beaten seventh. ARROGATE broke slowly and looked a shadow of the horse who won this race last year. He struggled home fifth and that will I think be the end of him as well.

GUN RUNNER and COLLECTED went at it from the start and produced a magnificent duel down the back straight and into the stretch where GUN RUNNER just got on top and stayed on to win by two and a quarter lengths. WEST COAST ran on to finish a decent third and establish himself as the best for what has to be one of the worst crops of 3-y-o ever in America. The 4-y-o are however a very strong group and GUN RUNNER is now the "next big thing" and having been beaten by ARROGATE in the Dubai World Cup this year, I suspect connections will fancy their chances of winning the huge Meydan prize in the spring.

Perhaps but COLLECTED is closing fast and will again be a worthy opponent if the two re-match in Dubai. It's hard to see what else is going to get in their way on the basis of the evening's results.

All in all, a mixed night for the Europeans with wins in the Filly & Mare Turf and the 2400m Turf but that's back to how it used to be in the earliest days and perhaps the move to the west coast from Kentucky and points east has worked against the Europeans but some of the big American form hopes blew out as well on an evening that raised more questions than answers. GUN RUNNER was however the huge star of the night and may well be a horse with plenty more to come in 2018.

Not much fallout from the Breeders Cup so far but it seems Classic winner GUN RUNNER will make only one final appearance at the Pegasus World Cup at the end of January before being packed off to stud.

That seems to leave a gaping hole at the top of the American dirt rankings to be filled by either COLLECTED or WEST COAST and I suspect one or both will be aimed at the Dubai World Cup.

Turf winner TALISMANIC is set to go to Hong Kong emulating his former stable companion FLINTSHIRE. It's an entirely logical step for this 4-y-o who returned to the big time with a vengeance at Del Mar last weekend and could be another to take on ENABLE next season.

Elsewhere news that Melbourne Cup winner REWILDING will return to Europe for a 2018 campaign based around the Ascot Gold Cup. Let's not forget he faces some interesting opposition led by ORDER OF ST GEORGE but including BIG ORANGE and the likes of STRADIVARIUS and DESERT SKYLINE and perhaps CAPRI so it looks a really exciting staying division up here next year.

Another 3-y-o colt set to stay in training is EMINENT and he's likely to be seen over 2400m which means he'll also be running into the likes of ENABLE let alone SAXON WARRIOR or any of the other staying 3-y-o of next season.

The British turf flat season ends at Doncaster on Saturday with a whimper to be honest. I'll be keeping tabs on developments concerning the Japan Cup and the international card at Hong Kong in mid December before shutting up shop for the year.

Yesterday I enjoyed the winter sunshine and took a half day to take in a jump card at Kempton.

It's a meeting that in some jurisdictions would have been abandoned - why ? The seven race card contained two match races and one race with three runners and only one race with more than a double figure field. This isn't unusual in the early days of the jump season with the ground still on the quick side but this meeting has suffered before and once again there's a debate started.

Nobody likes match races - the media rights agreements between the bookies and the racecourses stipulates no payments where races (other than Group 1 events) have fewer than five runners so the course only got money for four of the seven races yesterday and was out around £15k. The bookies (both on and off course) also suffer reduced turnover because people don't bet on match races.

The crowd numbers also suffer - people don't like match races. Kempton's problem is they were trying to put on good races for good horses and providing, by British standards, good money. Fine except for two things - first, there are many more bad horses than good ones so the pool of runners for decent races is limited. Second, nearby top courses, Newbury and Sandown, had both had meetings in the previous four days and both had tried to run similar races.

Sometimes I think the racecourses are their own worst enemies and it's time the British Horseracing Authority regained control of the fixture list and culled 25% of the early season jump races. Ironically, Kempton has an all weather track and could probably have put on a full 8-race winter flat race meeting without any problem.

This coming Sunday morning (UK) sees the Japan Cup over 2400m at the main racecourse in Tokyo.

There doesn't look to be a strong overseas challenge this year. IDAHO represents Coolmore and Aidan O'Brien but he's frankly been a bit disappointing of late. He was eighth in the Arc but was then beaten a long way into fourth at Woodbine albeit on soft ground which isn't his preferred surface.

Germany are represented by IQUITOS and GUIGNOL. The former finished one place in front of IDAHO in the Arc but GUIGNOL has beaten IQUITOS three times this season including in the final German Group 1 of the year, the Grosser Preis von Bayern, at Munich three weeks ago. Both were well beaten by DSCHINGIS SECRET who finished sixth in the Arc so the IDAHO, IQUITOS and GUIGNOL all come out about the same.

BOOM TIME is an Australian contender who won the Caulfield Cup before running a moderate fifteenth in the Melbourne Cup. Back to this trip on fast ground, he could go well.

News this morning from Ballydoyle relating to the crop of star 3-y-o fillies in the stable.

WINTER, who won both the English and Irish 1000 Guineas and the Nassau Stakes among other Group 1 successes, has been retired. She will go to the paddocks at the Coolmore Stud and I think we can all guess where that's going. We can look forward to seeing her first progeny in a few years and no doubt that will be of interest.

ROLY POLY will have her final race in the Hong Kong Mile while HIGHLAND REEL will have his swansong in the Vase.

Of more interest, no decision has been made on whether RHODODENDRON or HYDRANGEA will stay in training at four. It would be fascinating to see one or both of these Group 1 winning fillies race on.

Ryan Moore warmed up for Sunday's Japan Cup meeting by riding six winners at the Saturday meeting and further enhancing his status with the Tokyo racing crowd.

17 go for the big race off at 6.40am UK time which is worth just over £2 million to the winner so good but not exceptional these days. KITASAN BLACK won the Japan Cup last year and was at one point heading for the Arc but he didn't come over and instead won the 2000m Tenno Sho beating SATOMO CROWN. The latter beat HIGHLAND REEL in last year's Hong Kong Vase which is very good form and came off HIGHLAND REEL's Breeders Cup turf win.

The biggest threat to KITASAN BLACK looks like the 3-y-o REY D'ORO who won the Japanese Derby and the St Leger Trial. The 3-y-o gets weight but now has to take on the very best. I don't know whether he's up to it or not.

The race looks to be between the three locals with the likes of IDAHO and GUIGNOL in it for the place money at best.

Talking of events further afield, the winter season has started at Meydan on the Dirt with maiden races (and poor maidens at that) going for £20k to the winner while an equivalent race on the artificial surface at Kempton goes for £3k. The Carnival doesn't start for a while yet and the expanding Dubai racing scene now includes Jebel Ali, Sharjah and Al Ain all of which race through the winter months when Dubai is a seasonal 25c.

Keeping the international theme, the entries are through for the Hong Kong races on Sunday December 10th which effectively wrap up the Northern Hemisphere racing year.

In the Sprint over 1200m, THE TIN MAN runs for James Fanshawe with the useful SIGNS OF BLESSING representing France.

The Mile has five European entries with sprinter LIBRISA BREEZE a fascinating entry along with LIGHTNING SPEAR while ROLY POLY is set to run her final race along with LANCASTER BOMBER while KARAR runs for France.

Six European entries in the Cup over 2000m headed by POET'S WORD and no less than seven in the Vase headed by HIGHLAND REEL, another running his final race and including MAX DYNAMITE who was a fine third at Flemington to REKINDLING.

The story of the Japan Cup last Sunday is quite simple to tell.

Yutaka Take got KITASAN BLACK out and rolling from the gate and to be honest the favourite looked to have matters well under control with 600m to go as Take went for home.

REY D'ORO had been held up off the pace and had made steady progress at the end of the back straight and had worked into a challenging position but the expected battle of the two top Japanese horses was ruined by Hugh Bowman on CHEVAL GRAND. Bowman had kept his horse in fourth or fifth place but didn't look to obviously have much left as Take went for home but managed to conjure a second run and forced CHEVAL GRAND into the lead as KITASAN BLACK wilted in the final 50m.

CHEVAL GRAND won by a length and a quarter with REY D'ORO just nicking second on the post from KITASAN BLACK. To be fair, CHEVAL GRAND was third in the Japan Cup last year but had been repeatedly beaten by KITASAN BLACK in all the major Japanese middle and long distance races. I thought the 3-y-o REY D'ORO ran a huge race and I wonder if connections will think about a tilt at the Arc next autumn.

Of the Europeans, IDAHO ran a fine race in fifth collecting over £200k for his efforts. I'm not sure if he will be kept in training next year - he's always gone best on a very firm surface.

GUIGNOL finished ninth, BOOM TIME twelfth and IQUITOS fifteenth.

Sunday sees the Hong Kong International meeting at Sha Tin but a setback for the Europeans overnight with the news THE TIN MAN will miss the Sprint owing to illness. I'll try to do a full preview once I see the final fields later in the week.

The end of the Northern Hemisphere season is on Sunday at the Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong with the four International races.

The first is the Vase over 2400m which sees the final outing of the wonderful HIGHLAND REEL, one of the great international racehorses of modern times and it's hard to believe he's only a 5-y-o. On his last run, he was a close third to TALISMANIC in the Breeders Cup Turf at Del Mar. Previously, he had run third on unsuitably slow ground to CRACKSMAN in the Champion Stakes and a well beaten fourth to ENABLE in the King George.

I do think TALISMANIC is on the way up and will confirm the places and also has the favoured inside berth. Their main rival looks to be the Japanese 3-y-o colt KINSEI who was second to REY D'ORO in the Japanese Leger Trial before winning the main race. I just wonder if he will find this happening too fast up against these experienced older campaigners. My money would be on TALISMANIC.

The Sprint is over 1200m and looks to be fought out by the locals. MR STUNNING won the Chairman's Sprint, the equivalent of this in May, beating LUCKY BUBBLES and beat that horse again last time in the Group 2 Trial for this race when he also accounted for a number of others in the field.

14 go in the Mile and neither LANCASTER BOMBER (11) nor ROLY POLY (14) have been done any favours by the draw and it looks very hard for both of them. KARAR has a better draw but doesn’t have the form to win this on what we’ve seen. SEASONS BLOOM won the trial race for this three weeks ago and you’d think he’d have a big chance again but I’m going to side with HELENE PARAGON who was second that day and might have held on with a better opening 400m.

12 go in the Cup over 2000m and there’s plenty of European interest. I like POET’S WORD a lot and have had a wager at 7/1. He was well beaten by CRACKSMAN in the Champion Stakes last time but before that he was a close second on much quicker ground in the Irish Champion at Leopardstown. That puts him right in this and if the 12 gate isn’t too big a problem I think he’ll go close.

The likes of DEAUVILLE, WAR DECREE and ROBIN OF NAVAN don’t look good enough but you have to respect the Japanese raider NEOREALISM who won the QE II Cup over this course and distance before a poor run on soft ground in the Tenno Sho last time. In the QE II Cup WERTHER was a close third beaten barely half a length and he came out to win the trial for this race last time.

Selections:

Vase: TALISMANIC
Sprint: MR STUNNING
Mile: HELENE PARAGON
Cup: POET’S WORD

I managed to get in a few days racing this week as I have annual leave to use up.

A couple of afternoons jumping at Plumpton and Lingfield were followed by an afternoon of winter flat racing as we call it here. Frankie Dettori came for two rides and won on them both. The 3-y-o maiden went to newcomer MORDIN, a gelded son of Invincible Spirit, who was backed in to 1/2 and hosed up despite looking very green. He could be a really nice sort next year.

The last time Dettori's other winner ran MORDIN was a foal. That other winner was TOAST OF NEW YORK and this was his first run since finishing second in the Breeders Cup Classic in 2014. He also won the UAE Derby and the Pacific Classic that year so he's no mug and it's been a real achievement by Jamie Osborne to get him back.

The plan is to go to Meydan for the Carnival and I wonder if they'll fancy a tilt at the Dubai World Cup.