RACING YORK REPORT:IT'S NOT often prestigious Group One flat races turn farcical but for those of a certain vintage yesterday's Darley Yorkshire Oaks will always, thanks to Sariska, reek of metaphorical cigar smoke.
The famous “Hamlet” cigar ad, where a racehorse resolutely remains in its starting stall after the others have gone, remains an iconic television image of the 1970s.
But fiction turned into fact at York when last year’s dual-classic heroine Sariska, favourite for what was billed as the best renewal of the Ebor festival highlight, and one of the top-rated racehorses in the world, refused point-blank to race at all.
Jockey Jamie Spencer tried without success to make Sariska budge from her stall and it was left to her old rival Midday to proceed to an easy victory for trainer Henry Cecil and Irish-born jockey Tom Queally.
Sariska had beaten Midday in all three of their previous clashes but it will be hard for the Cecil team to claim one back after yesterday’s mulish demonstration by her old rival.
Just six weeks previously, last year’s Epsom and Curragh Oaks winner had disgraced herself too when kicking her trainer Michael Bell in the back, leaving him lucky to be bruised and not broken.
But yesterday was a shock as Sariska actually entered the stalls without fuss. In the renowned ad, the horse at least ventures a few steps out of the gate in order to graze while its jockey dolefully puffs on a cigar but even with the front of the gate wide open, Sariska still had to be backed out in order to return to the unsaddling enclosure.
“She was in the stalls a long time,” Bell said afterwards. “She’s a little bit quirky but not to that extent. The filly is fine and as Jamie Spencer said, nobody’s died.” As the runners had come under starters orders, all bets on Sariska were technically lost although some firms such as Paddy Power and Boylesports indicated they would refund.
Bell also said Longhcamp’s Prix Vermeille could be next for Sariska and that race is also an option for Midday who was adding to her previous Breeders’ Cup victory, and a pair of Nassau Stakes wins, with a comprehensive defeat of this year’s top classic filly, Snow Fairy.
“It’s a real pity Sariska didn’t race but the second is a very good filly,” Cecil said. “I would say that’s her best ever run. There’s the Vermeille for her, the Prix de l’Opera or the Breeders’ Cup. I wouldn’t have thought it would be the Arc. We’re not trying to make her the best in the world – just the best filly.”
Ed Dunlop was satisfied with Snow Fairy’s display and said: “I thought she might do something but Midday quickened again. She’s an exceptional filly.”
Spencer’s day at the gate didn’t improve much in the following Galtres Stakes as the heavily backed John Oxx-trained favourite Zarebiya reared as the stalls opened and finished stone last behind the 20 to 1 winner Brushing. Dermot Weld’s Sense Of Purpose, behind Zarebiya on her previous start at Cork, finished runner-up.
Given the day he endured, Spencer might have sought consolation with a smoke last night as the old ad advised: “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet!”
