Cape Blanco fails to up the Dante
It all appeared straightforward on paper. The race regarded as the best Derby trial, run at a solid pace throughout and delivering the sort of clear-cut winner that most observers had craved. Then the downside arrived.
The winning jockey was non-committal, the breeding pundits doubted the winner’s stamina and the horse himself walked lamely to the racecourse stables. So, back to square one. Rarely can such a convincing winner of a Classic trial have delivered so many mixed messages as when Cape Blanco won the Group Two totesport.com Dante Stakes at York. And yet the performance was emphatic enough.
Circumvent ensured a solid pace from the start and was still leading into the home straight by which time Frankie Dettori had moved the favourite, Chabal, into a closer position but the jockey was already beginning to shorten his reins – with little sign of a strong response.
At the same time Ryan Moore was trying to straighten Workforce, who was hanging slightly right early on the rail. The problem was not helped when the bit went through the colt’s mouth around the three-furlong marker and he began to hang left. By then Chabal was under pressure while Johnny Murtagh was about to unleash Cape Blanco.
It might not have been instant acceleration but he stayed on well as he passed Coordinated Cut and the weakening Circumvent to lead in the penultimate furlong and pull three-and-a-quarter lengths clear of Workforce, who kept on under a firm but considerate ride from Moore to take second, with Coordinated Cut in third and Chabal beaten over 20 lengths in fourth.
That should have been the cue for Cape Blanco to supplant stable companion St Nicholas Abbey as the market leader for the Investec Derby, but the move never quite materialised, rather like Chabal’s attempt to become the first horse carrying Godlophin colours to win the Derby. A disconsolate Dettori said: “I really can’t put my finger on it. I mean he was beaten four out and a good horse like that can’t be that far wrong. Unfortunately they’re animals and you never know if something hurts but we’re going to take him home and have good look at him. But it’s disappointing because we really thought we had a Derby horse.”
Murtagh knew that he had a Derby horse but was not ready to nail his colours to the mast. “They’re all trials – trying to find out about these horses,” he said. “He had good form as a two-year-old and he’s a very nice horse. Good gallop, properly run race, he runs a bit lazily when you get him off the bridle but, when you do ask him, he really responds well. He’s very tenacious, he’s very brave and he’s a big, big player this lad.”
This win appeared to have made Cape Blanco the most impressive player for this year’s Derby but Murtagh was not about to make any public statements having already said that he still believes in the potential of St Nicholas Abbey to come back from his lacklustre run in the 2000 Guineas two weeks ago.
Referring to any decisions as “high-class problems” he added: “It’s a very good trial and I always liked this horse. He’s not spectacular but he’s very solid and he’s four from four, so he knows where the winning post is. We’ve a lot of horses that are still in the mix, and some big decisions to be made, but we’ll know nearer the time.”
The decision for Sir Michael Stoute, the trainer of Workforce, appears to be whether to push ahead to Epsom or wait with a colt who was having only the second run of his career. “It was a good run from a horse who'd only run once before and he would be better on more forgiving ground,” he said.
The grounds for Murtagh and Aidan O’Brien still siding with St Nicholas Abbey, who hardly set the world alight when he finished sixth in the Guineas, appear to be based on his home work.
In his defence, Cape Blanco was unproven on the ground but handled it well just as he did the extended 10 furlongs. His sire, Galileo, won the Derby but his dam, Laurel Delight, only ran once beyond five furlongs in 25 starts – and she was beaten. Then there was his lameness after the race. This was played down by connections and it seems reasonable to believe that the colt simply banged himself on the same area on his heel that he had nicked at the weekend – an injury that O’Brien had been quite open about before the race.
The lameness added a further twist when O’Brien was later referred to the BHA for refusing to allow Cape Blanco to be trotted up in front of the racecourse vet and also for refusing a request for the stable lad to be interviewed by the stewards.
He will have to face the questions on that score at some point but the simpler question may be whether Murtagh and O’Brien are making the correct call if they put St Nicholas Abbey at the head of what is likely to be a team for the Derby? A year ago they thought that Rip Van Winkle was the best chance from their six runners to beat Sea The Stars, to the point where they deployed pacemakers to slow the tempo in order to conserve Rip Van Winkle’s stamina.
In the end he was not even the best O’Brien runner in the race, finishing fourth.
Should Murtagh elect to ride St Nicholas Abbey it opens the door for another jockey to take over on Cape Blanco. If that jockey should be Kieren Fallon it would be interesting to see how the markets might react to that partnership.
It may all appear straightforward on paper to Murtagh and O’Brien. It may be different at Epsom.
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