A career of rare brilliance comes to an end on Saturday when Baaeed lines up as the headline act for British Champions Day at Ascot. At the official conclusion of Britain’s flat season, Baaeed’s final race in the Champion Stakes is being billed as a crowning glory similar to Frankel’s success in the race a decade ago.
The son of Sea The Stars, unbeaten in 10 starts, has been barely extended in four Group 1 victories to date this season while precisely following the “Frankel route” as a four-year-old.
Acclaimed as a paragon in terms of natural ability and temperament, perhaps a spectacular rout of last year’s Derby hero Adayar will shake off niggling doubts that remain about Baaeed’s brilliance, entitling him to all-time great status.
A spectacular Juddmonte victory at York in August earned him an official rating just a pound shy of his sire. It also prompted comparisons to the other modern day thoroughbred exemplar Frankel.
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Establishing definitive rankings across the generations is a futile exercise. However, it is entirely possible Baaeed finishes his racing career without coming close to revealing the full extent of his ability.
Admittedly the same could be said for Sea The Stars but he danced every dance possible during a stellar 2009 campaign. Frankel arrived at his career-climax as a classic winner and champion two-year-old. Baaeed’s CV is superb but only his greatest fan could argue it is similarly spectacular.
A figures-busting performance to wind it up could yet make for a different perspective and perhaps even eclipse this season’s US dirt superstar Flightline.
Given Adayar’s own 127 rating, and Baaeed’s willingness to stretch clear at York, that might yet occur. William Haggas’s colt has proven form on ground with a similar cut in it to what he’s likely to encounter at Ascot.
The priority for connections though appears to be concentrating on maintaining an unbeaten record before their colt heads off to a lucrative stud career. A short head will be as good as 10 lengths to manage that.
The tantalising possibility remains though that Baaeed might have a final definitive statement of true greatness in him before it happens.
Among his eight opponents are a trio from Ireland that include Jim Bolger’s MacSwiney who made the frame last year.
A total of 13 Irish-trained runners in all figures across Saturday’s lucrative showpiece event that nevertheless appears to have slid down the pecking order of priorities here.
Njord has been the sole Irish winner in the last two years and that was in the Balmoral Handicap. He is the last of 17 Champions Day winners from Ireland in the 11-year history of an event which originally supplied massive success for the visitors, including half a dozen victories in the opening Long-Distance Cup.
Both Excelebration (2012) and Minding (2016) won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes for Aidan O’Brien but this time only Johnny Murtagh’s outsider Raadobarg makes the trip for a contest featuring a Frankie Dettori ridden hotpot in Inspiral.
There are four raiders in the Fillies & Mares event, although none of them figures among the market principals.
Aidan O’Brien’s Tenebrism is already a dual-Group 1 winner and reverts to six furlongs for a Sprint also containing Fozzy Stack’s Castle Star.
Tenebrism renews rivalry with Kinross to whom she finished fifth in the Foret at Longchamp over Arc weekend, and O’Brien said: “It will be her first time at six furlongs since she won the Cheveley Park and we think that dropping back will suit her.”
Kinross won that Foret with authority and will relish both the easy ground conditions and the stiff uphill finish, although it is debatable if a 17 of 18 draw will prove to be a plus or a minus.
Last year’s winner Creative Force and the Royal Ascot victor Naval Crown give Charlie Appleby a strong hand in this as he slugs it out with William Haggas for the British trainers’ title.
Perhaps the most intriguing Irish runner at Ascot, though, is the one-time Derby hope Waterville who takes on top stayers Trueshan and Eldar Eldarov in the opener. The Irish Cesarewitch winner is bottom rated on figures but his dramatic last to first success at the Curragh suggested a real if still raw talent.
