Roger Charlton is Definightly hopeful for Ayr Gold Cup
When you have trained the winners of the Derby and the Prix du Jockey Club in the first season with a trainer’s licence there is a slight problem. What happens next?
Since Roger Charlton took over as master of the historic Wilshire yard at Beckhampton from Jeremy Tree in 1990, the year that Quest For Fame and Sanglamore achieved that Classic double, the trainer has found the short route to success.
It has come through a succession of sprinters, chiefly Tamarisk (1998) and Tante Rose (2004) who won the Group One Sprint Cup at Haydock and Patavellian (2003) and Avonbridge (2005) in the Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp. The coffers have also been swelled by victories in several of the leading sprint handicaps, most recently with Genki in last year’s Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood, who is one of Charlton’s two possible contenders for the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup on Saturday.
A sense of humour may not be on the checklist for aspiring trainers, although it probably should be given the vagaries of the profession, but Charlton is well equipped in that department as he considers just what he has to contend with. Firstly he does not know whether both Genki and Definightly, who is nine below the cut, will both get into the Gold Cup and then will have to decide which stall they might race from because connections are allowed to choose once their horse is drawn in a random ballot.
“We all know those sprinters have their days and who knows what the draw is?” Charlton said. “It’s a nightmare for trainers to have to decide what draw it should be – down the middle, down the rails – it’s not an easy one.”
It may not be easy but spotting that Genki is in the form of his life right now is something of a no-brainer after his run in the Sprint Cup two weeks ago when he finished two-and-a-quarter lengths third to Markab. “Haydock, was without doubt his best race,” Charlton conceded. “Last year he was running in the mid-90s, this year he ran in the Stewards’ Cup off 106, he now drops back to 103 – because he had a penalty in the Stewards’ Cup – and in future he’d be running off 111. So, if the official handicapper is correct, then we have 8lbs in hand on some of the other horses.”
Of course if only it were that easy but a back problem, known as kissing spine, is just one more piece of the jigsaw that Charlton has to fit into the horse’s training programme. “No criticism of the course in any way but he came home very sore [after the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood] and we constantly have to look after his back - after Haydock he was very sore again – he seems to be on very good shape but we have to take that on trust,” Charlton said.
Charlton can make no definite plans for Definightly because he does not know yet whether the horse will get a run in the Gold Cup or drop down to the next-level race, the Silver Cup, because he still needs nine horse above him in the handicap to drop out, which includes the massed ranks of entries from northern trainers such as David Nicholls and Richard Fahey. “They have about six runners and I’ve offered them trips to Barbados, a week at Beckhampton learning how to train horses and none of them want to take me up on it,” Charlton lamented, tongue so far in cheek it almost required medical extraction.
“Either it happens or it doesn’t happen. It looks to me as if he won’t get in, I think maybe two or three won’t run but I don’t think it’ll be nine coming out, in which case we’ll head to the Silver Cup.”
Whichever race Definightly contests the bare form of his last two runs means that he definitely has a chance. He won a six-furlong handicap at Goodwood by five lengths in August and returned on Saturday to win a Listed race by six lengths. “He’s been a revelation and I’m not sure quite why,” Charlton admitted.
“Whether it’s the blinkers or Goodwood I just don’t know but his last performance, if you took it literally, the official verdict was six lengths but it looked more like seven-and-a-half lengths to me. His Timeform rating is now 1lb above Genki. And Genki is rated 111 by the handicapper and this horse is rated 106. Whichever way you look at it particularly with his 5lb claimer [Adam Beschizza] he should have upwards of a stone in hand. That doesn’t necessarily translate into a great result.
“But in theory he’s very well-in and we’ve been planning this race for a while; never really thought we’d make the Gold Cup but always hoped for the Silver Cup. But I didn’t expect, when he ran in the Listed race, to win like he did. His days in handicaps will be over now – this is our last chance – the Silver Cup is worth twice what the Listed race was worth and he seems to have come out of the race well and he’ll never get an opportunity like this again,” Charlton said, before adding: “But life levels out in the end – nothing goes brilliantly all the time – but it would just be great if it went well this weekend.”
Definitely.
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