Redwood claims new turf in Northern Dancer Stakes
Having lost one stable star this week, with the retirement of Equiano, Barry Hills has a new standard bearer.
Redwood, under a canny ride by Michael Hills, came through with a classic rails run to win the Grade One Northern Dancer Turf Stakes at Woodbine.
In a ride that came loaded with risk, Hills elected to drop Redwood, who was slightly slowly away, to the back of the field as Fifty Proof and Marsh Side – the winner of this race 12 months ago – set the pace. The field were racing some way off the rail which enabled Hills to smuggle Redwood into a closer position down the back stretch to place himself a couple of lengths off the lead hitting the home straight.
The door could have been shut on Redwood at any time but there was enough of a gap between Fifty Proof and the rail, through which Hills aimed Redwood. The colt, who has been a solid performer in Group races this summer, took his cue as he collared Fifty Proof in the final furlong to win by a half-length with what looked to be a little in hand, with Windward Islands in third.
The trainer was following events back in Lambourn and will have taken great pleasure in a victory of tactical planning by two of his sons with Charlie, Hills’s assistant trainer, and his elder brother discovering that there was a fresh strip of ground along the rail. As he returned to the winner’s enclosure the jockey said: “We walked the course before and we decided that, if I could get to the rail, he would get a nice lead. The horse I followed into the straight came off the rail and I took the inside run.”
Redwood could return to Woodbine next month for the Canadian International or head for the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Redwood’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah, has some enviable choices to make as his racing manager, Lord Grimthorpe, explained. “It will be up to Prince Khalid to decide where he goes now but the good thing is that he does have some pretty nice options.”
Abdullah’s Famous Name may have made little impact, finishing out of the places behind Court Vision in the Grade One Woodbine Mile, and Redwood may not rate among the best of the European runners for the Turf but his victory shows the standard of opposition that the North American runners will face in the Breeders’ Cup.
After the feast of the past two Breeders’ Cup meetings in the races that were run on the main track, which took place on the synthetic Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita, the European challenge face a potential famine when the meeting returns to the traditional dirt surface at Churchill Downs in November. But the advantage in the turf races remains.
Debussy, a Group Three winner in Britain for John Gosden, put many of the best American turf horses to the sword when he beat Gio Ponti by a half-length in the Grade One Arlington Million last month and it is no coincidence that the European runners that top current Breeders’ Cup markets are another Abdullah runner in Midday, in the Filly & Mare Turf, Goldikova, who heads a quintet of non-American runners who dominate in the Mile and Fame and Glory in the Turf.
Another indicator was the victory of Miss Keller, ridden by Javier Castellano and trained Roger Attfield, in the Grade Two Canadian Stakes.
Miss Keller, who was never rated beyond 100 when trained in Ireland by John Oxx, got up in the last furlong to beat the David Wachman-trained Latin Love by one-and-three-quarter lengths, with the pair five lengths clear of Magic Broomstick in third.
Even allowing for the filly improving it is hard to believe that Miss Keller would be capable of something similar in a Pattern race in Britain or Ireland.
Come the Breeders’ Cup the grass may well be greener for the Europeans.
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