Harbinger is retired from racing
Harbinger, rated the best Flat horse in the world, has been retired from racing.
The four-year-old, who won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by 11 lengths just a fortnight ago, sustained a fracture to his near-fore cannon bone on the Limekiln gallops at Newmarket on Saturday.
Having successfully come through surgery to have two screws inserted into the fracture, he is expected to make a full recovery but it was considered that he would be unable to make a return to training with Sir Michael Stoute.
The colt is owned by the Admiral Rous Syndicate that races under the banner of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing. Harry Herbert, their racing manager said in a statement. "It is with regret that it has been decided to retire Harbinger from racing."
That brief sentence brought the curtain down on one of the shortest tenures at the top of Flat racing’s elite. However, if Harbinger’s residency on the top of the mountain was short-lived his ascent was truly stunning.
This year’s King George was seen as a clash of the generations with Workforce and Cape Blanco, the winners of the Derby and the Irish Derby respectively, taking on a field of seasoned older horses. Thirty-five years on from the epic duel of Grundy and Bustino Ascot was treated to a race that would also live long in the memory if only because it was so one-sided.
On the home turn as Cape Blanco and Workforce closed on Workforce’s pacemaker, Confront, the eye was magnetically drawn to the near-motionless figure of Olivier Peslier. The Frenchman eased Harbinger into the lead as Workforce capitulated and Cape Blanco gave his all without it being remotely enough to make a difference.
A length became two, three and then eight and the rest as Harbinger came clear – the single strike from Peslier’s whip was the closest it got to a driving finish – in a style that sets the best from the rest, with Cape Blanco hanging on for second.
In an age when racing is trying to escape the confines of its own little world in an attempt to connect with the one that bustles past only a few yards away from the racecourse perimeter, the unalloyed joy of Herbert and the owners could have been bottled as an essence of what they are trying to sell. “It comes down to suddenly being dealt the cards that you have dreamt off all of your life,” an emotional Herbert said. “This is it and right now it has happened. For everyone out there, you don't have to get involved with Highclere, but get into racehorse ownership because, I promise you, it brings grown men down to their knees in tears.”
There have doubtless been a few more tears shed over the weekend but Herbert and his owners are now consoling themselves with him being saved for a stallion career.
That in itself will be another task because, under the rules of the syndicate the horse will be sold rather than syndicated between the current owners. Herbert’s statement continued: “Thanks to the professionalism of the veterinary surgeons - Bruce Bladon of O'Gorman Slater & Main, Andrew Bathe of Rossdale & Partners and Antony Clements of Baker & McVeigh - the operation which was undertaken at Rossdales Hospital in Newmarket has been very successful.
"We are pleased to report that thankfully the horse is recovering well. The decision to retire Harbinger is based on the welfare of the horse which is paramount to all concerned. The owners, for whom this is very sad, are naturally sorry that their great horse has had his racing career cut short.
"However, Harbinger has given all concerned the ultimate thrill at the very highest level. The highest rated horse in the world, Harbinger won six of his nine starts and is undefeated this year. In winning the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot so impressively and then producing one of the greatest performances of all time to win the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by 11 lengths in record time, Harbinger has confirmed himself as one of the all-time greats."
Indeed, his winning margin was a record, eclipsing the seven lengths by which Generous won the 1991 renewal, and he also broke the track record. But now it can never be conclusively proved if Harbinger could have built on that in a race like the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, for which Stoute was preparing him with a view to winning the race for the first time in the trainer’s career.
The doubt is whether or not the King George, which Phil Smith – the BHA’s head of head of handicapping - described as a “wow race” was a one-off performance. Seven years ago Hawk Wing won the Lockinge Stakes by 11 lengths, beating a quality field, but failed dismally in his sole subsequent run.
Smith gave Harbinger a rating of 135 for his King George victory. Putting Harbinger in the context of the international classifications Smith pointed out: “Looking back you’ve got Montjeu 135, Peintre Celebre and Generous 137 and El Gran Senor 138. And if you go back you’ve got Alleged and Shergar on 140 and Dancing Brave on 141.”
The retirement of a horse who has been put on that pedestal places Smith and the other senior handicappers from racing’s jurisdictions across the world in something of a quandary when they hold their annual review meeting in December. But as Smith countered: “How do you disprove it? We have an interactive system where all the international handicappers put a figure on the system and we can see what everybody thinks.
“The figures varied from 134 to 137. I went for 135 but his ultimate rating will be decided in Hong Kong in December. And it’ll be a fascinating debate. It was a consensus of everyone who put figures on that it was a storming performance but it’ll be interesting to see if people back track. But I, personally, can’t see any reason why you could unless the second, third and fourth all run abysmally from now on. If they decline, Harbinger would decline with them.”
But not the memory of that King George.
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