RACING:THE IRONY of how British racing's inaugural "Champions Day" is rooted in selling the sport to the general public and yet is taking place against a disastrous backdrop of an industry tearing itself apart will hang over Ascot today like a particularly gloomy pall.
The PR boost expected from the QEII appearance of Frankel, and an excellent Champions Stakes renewal headed by So You Think, has been sidelined to such an extent that even the appearance of the world’s highest rated horse won’t stop anyone from keeping at least one eye on this coming Monday.
A threatened jockey strike for that day’s three cards in England was averted late last night after the Professional Jockeys Association agreed to meet with the British Horseracing Authority to air their grievances in the wake of Richard Hughes’s decision to hand in his licence in protest.
The Irish jockey made his decision on Thursday night at Kempton after being hit with his second whip ban in the first four days of the new rules coming into practice.
That such a furore should coincide with a meeting that required a serious rejigging of the racing programme, and which is the centrepiece of official plans to make racing across the Irish Sea more customer friendly, is an accumulation of bad timing that surely can’t simply be put down to mere misfortune.
The blizzard of bad publicity has already been such that speculation about Ryan Moore quitting his job as Michael Stoute’s stable jockey in favour of signing on as the official number one at Ballydoyle next year – normally a story to get headline writers in a whirl of excitement – has been shuffled much further down the news priority list. In fact a denial from Moore’s management yesterday barely registered on the media Richter-scale.
And inevitably another result from all this is that a star-studded card faces having to fight its corner for even a fraction of the attention it could reasonably have expected as focus instead zeroes in on how many more riders might fall foul of the rules.
Nevertheless Frankel’s unbeaten aura is such that Australian representatives will be at Ascot in what is surely a thankless task in trying to persuade the Juddmonte team to send Frankel “Down Under” in February for a seven furlong clash with the world’s top-rated sprinter, Black Caviar.
That might be hopeful in the extreme but if the Frankel that has dominated 2011 to date shows up today then his opposition look doomed for minor roles, even when that opposition includes such proven Group One performers as Immortal Verse and Excelebration.
The €1.5 million Champion Stakes is much more obviously competitive and Aidan O’Brien will attempt to win the historic race for the first time with So You Think who will be trying to bounce back from a fourth in the Arc 13 days ago.
The ex-Australian star has been made a strong ante-post favourite on the basis that the drop back to 10 furlongs will suit him but Snow Fairy, third in the Arc, looked to be going better than him at every stage at Longchamp and it looks more significant that she is being pulled out again so quickly by Ed Dunlop.
The general mood, though, on the run-in to this afternoon’s action was caught by Fame And Glory’s jockey Jamie Spencer after Hughes handed in his licence on Thursday night.
“I’m dreading Saturday,” the Irishman said. “I just want to try my best and don’t want to let anyone down.”
Hardly the sort of public relations spin originally envisaged.
O'Donoghue hits road in search of group one double
IRISH JOCKEY Colm O'Donoghue will really be on international duty over the weekend as he travels to North America in pursuit of double Grade One glory, writes Brian O'Connor.
O'Donoghue returns to Keeneland tonight to team up with Together in the nine-furlong Queen Elizabeth Cup for three-year-old fillies on turf.
Aidan O'Brien's filly was runner-up in the Grade One First Lady Stakes at the Kentucky track last weekend and this time tackles local stars, Winter Memories and Summer Soiree.
Tomorrow morning O'Donoghue catches a flight to Toronto where he is re-united with his Irish Derby and Secretariat Stakes winning partner Treasure Beach in the €1.08 million Canadian International at Woodbine. O'Donoghue won the mile-and-a half feature last year on Joshua Tree who returns for the race too, this time under the care of Newmarket trainer Marco Botti.
Treasure Beach is drawn 13 of the 16 runners in a field dominated by European raiders such as Redwood, Arctic Cosmos, Quest For Peace and Mores Wells.
Co Kildare-based trainer Charles O'Brien will be represented in the two other Grade One races on the Woodbine card.
American jockey Joel Rosario teams up with both Bewitched in the €360,000 Nearctic Stakes over six furlongs and Laughing in the €720,000 EP Taylor Stakes.
