Goldikova reaches force 10 at Deauville
It is the comparison that Freddie Head does his best to avoid but Goldikova does not make it any easier for him.
In the days when Head was the six-times champion jockey of France, Miesque was the great miling mare whom he rode for François Boutin in the 1980s. The comparisons are obvious, even if Head finds them odious and they started again when Goldikova won the Prix Rothschild at Deauville for the third year running.
That took the mare to her 10th Group One victory, from only 17 starts, level with Miesque in the all-time list of Group or Grade One victories since the inception of the European Pattern in 1971 and ahead of the rest.
Goldikova’s owners had two other runners in the field of eight for the Rothschild and Only Green took them along as a pacemaker. She was tracked by Music Show, who had finally delivered on the promise that she had shown when she won the Falmouth Stakes at the Newmarket July meeting earlier this month.
She was again ridden by Richard Hughes and rarely can a jockey have gone into a major race with such confidence after his domination of Glorious Goodwood, where he rode nine winners. However, behind him was Olivier Peslier, himself enjoy a patch of the deepest purple, and just waiting for the moment to unleash Goldikova.
At halfway the leader’s rider, Davy Bonilla, looked over his shoulder too see where Goldikova was. Hughes also had a quick check and probably did not like what he saw. Kieren Fallon was already trying to get more from rainfall but it was Peslier was who about to rain on Hughes’s parade.
Three furlongs out Only Green started to tire and Peslier attacked on Goldikova. Both Rainfall and Music Show tried to match the French mare but, while Fallon and Hughes were picking up their whips, Peslier was merely picking up the tempo as Goldikova eased, insouciantly, three lengths clear of Music Show in the final furlong, with Elusive Wave coming through for third. Rainfall faded out of the places to finish fifth.
There are obvious parallels to the career of both Goldikova and Miesque, not least that both mares have twice won the Breeders' Cup Mile, but Head has always done his best to avoid the question. After Goldikova had routed the colts in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot last month he said. “It is unfair, they’re quite different,” he said.
“Miesque was a brilliant two-year-old, a brilliant three-year-old winning the Guineas and the Poules D’Essai. She [Goldikova] took a bit more time in coming but I think she’s tougher, she stays more than Miesque and I think she’s easier to ride.”
Peslier will be riding again when Goldikova runs in the Prix Jacques le Marois (which could bring a clash with Sussex Stakes winner Canford Cliffs), at Deauville on August 15th, as part of a three –race plan that takes in the Prix de la Forêt, at Lonchamp on October 3rd, before heading to Churchill Downs for the Breeders' Cup Mile in November.
No horse has won at three Breeders’ Cups. If Goldikova achieves that, Head, and everyone else, can forget the comparisons.
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