The late Francis Flood © Photo Healy Racing
Racing’s perspective can be remarkably short term so the idea that Willie Mullins might face a struggle to maintain his grip on Ireland’s trainer’s title is gaining quite a bit of traction. And it’s rubbish. Of course Gordon Elliott is banging in the winners, and there’s always the danger of a rogue bug invading any yard. But just because Mullins is relatively quiet right now doesn’t mean normal service won’t be resumed soon - and with a vengeance.
Mullins has had just 11 National Hunt runners to date in October. Five have won and four were placed. He has run two on the flat. Laws Of Spin won the Cesarewitch and the maddening Renneti did his best Secretariat impression in a handicap rout at Naas. This is pretty standard October stuff for Mullins who has always made a point of only kicking into top gear in November. In two or three weeks it is likely to look very different.
Some of that has to do with ground conditions but it’s more to do with Mullins’s own long-term perspective which encompasses the major spring festivals, through to the big French races in June. It’s a tried and trusted method and it will continue despite the turbulence that came with Gigginstown’s decision to remove their 60 horses from Mullins in a kerfuffle over training fees which was clearly about anything but money.
Anyone reckoning Gigginstown’s absence will impact on Mullins in terms of numbers appear to be well off the mark: apparently all boxes were quickly filled with no job losses: and plenty in the know claim that other existing owners, in particular it seems Graham Wylie, are treating this as a major opportunity and investing as such. There are few certainties in this game but one is surely that soon enough everyone will be complaining again about Mullins domination.
Aidan O’Brien has described Found as the most genuine horse he’s ever seen and she’ll need all that grit and more if she’s to break the trainer’s duck in the Breeders Cup Classic. A superstar capable of winning at the top level on both turf and dirt has long been Coolmore’s commercial holy-grail and it would be ironic if it was a filly that finally managed it. The odds however must be heavily against her pulling it off.
For one thing there appear to be a very good bunch of dirt runners in the US, headed by the proven champion, California Chrome, and Arrogate who ticks the ‘could be anything’ box after his spectacular Travers victory. The traditional Euro Breeders Cup problem about it coming at the end of a long season may not apply to Found in particular who clearly thrives in the autumn but an alien surface is always an issue.
Maybe Found will succeed where so many have failed - including her sire Galileo - and beat the best of America on their home patch at their own game. But from the outside it shapes like another hit and hope job of a kind that might occasionally get lucky but which has often left European visitors promising never to try it again — until of course the following year.
Quite a lot of political shaping seems to be still going on in relation to Brian Kavanagh’s controversial reappointment as chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland but embarrassment levels within racing don’t appear to have reached any tipping point towards actual action as yet. If that point is ever reached though one could be forgiven for suspecting any fateful calls are unlikely to come from any TD but rather much closer to home.
As for Kavanagh himself, and the enviable position he finds himself in terms of a Contract of Indefinite Duration scenario, one could also be forgiven for recalling Liz Taylor’s famous line after getting paid a million dollars for a single movie — “If someone’s dumb enough to offer me a million dollars to make a picture, I’m certainly not dumb enough to turn them down!”
So calls for the CEO to step down may be wide of the mark on a number of levels, not the least of which is the CID situation. But such calls also presume racing wouldn’t collapse in a heap if Kavanagh did step down. And we’ve been constantly reassured that such an exceptional job requires the sort of exceptional talents that only he possesses. So who’s right?
It is always silly to go overboard about once-raced two year olds and some of us really should know better. But what’s the point if one can’t go a little giddy sometimes. Dermot Weld’s Titus won his maiden by half a length at Leopardstown on Sunday, beating a Ballydoyle outsider in a time that was over four seconds slower than the preceding fillies maiden won by White Satin Dancer. So if Titus is a classic prospect for 2017, then what’s she?
But Titus is a wonderful stamp of a colt at 16.2. He has a middle-distance pedigree and yet clearly isn’t short of pace. He also strolled around the parade ring beforehand like an old sheep and there was no disguising the regard in which Weld holds him. Talking Derby could wind up looking ridiculous. But how many were talking Derby after Harzand’s juvenile start at Gowran a year ago.
Finally, talking of trainers championships, Francis Flood was champion National Hunt trainer in 1970. It was the sole occasion Flood won the title and it was at a time when the kudos from such an achievement wasn’t like today. He wasn’t a man to blow his own trumpet about such an achievement, nor the many others throughout a long a career that included being an outstanding champion amateur jockey.
Glencarrig Lady’s Cheltenham Gold Cup victory in 1972 inevitably became the headline achievement when Flood passed away last week. Just as significant though is the obvious regard he was held in by those who knew him well, and those who didn’t.
