Special Duty completes Guineas double for France
The French tricolour replaced the Union flag over the grandstand at Newmarket after a Special Duty completed a Gallic double in the stanjames.com 1000 Guineas.
Criquette Head-Maarek's completed a Classic clean sweep for the French, that had started with the victory of Makfi in the 2000 Guineas the previous day, but this race was anything but clean and was only finally decided after a 10-minute stewards’ inquiry.
Heavy overnight rain had eased the ground and raised the suspicion that there might be a draw bias that had not been evident the previous day. The field split into two groups, with Pollenator and Nurture prominent of those racing towards the centre of the course while Misheer careered on her own down the far rail.
However, it was the group running down the stands’ rail who were always going the best. Sent From Heaven led them and Stephanne Pasquier has Special Duty at the back of the pack. Two furlongs out and the field were spread across two-thirds of the width of the Rowley Mile but Jacqueline Quest, a rank outsider ridden by Tom Queally, burst through near-side group to lead into the Dip, chased by Special Duty.
The French filly was upside in the final furlong as, crucially, Jacqueline Quest began to drift right. They went from a few horse widths off the rail to centre course by the time they hit the line together in a photo-finish that gave the verdict to Jacqueline Quest by the minimum margin of a nose with Jim Bolger’s runner, Gile Na Greine, a head away in third.
Neither Music Show (sixth) nor Seta (12th) ever got into contention and their respective riders, Ryan Moore and Kieren Fallon, both blamed the draw for the performances of their fillies, but the real controversy was in the winner’s enclosure. Henry Cecil was greeting what he thought would be the 25th Classic winner of his career but the announcement of a stewards’ inquiry muted any celebrations.
Head-Maarek's first reaction was to congratulate Cecil but she felt that the justice needed to be done. “I think in my country the winner would be stood down,” she said, just as the announcement of the revised result was made. Her obvious delight was tempered with thoughts for Cecil. “Pasquier said he would have won easily but that filly drifted. I don’t like to win races like that, I feel very sorry for the others, but I think they were right to do that.
“I never thought they would stand the other one down. I suppose the others will be very annoyed. We are happy, of course, but racing is all about that – some lose, some win. You always like to win the race truly but I think they were fair to put the other one down. There is someone up there looking down, a French God.”
It was the fourth win in the race for Head-Maarek - after Ma Biche (1983), Ravinella (1988) and Hatoof (1992) - and the first time that a Newmarket Classic had been decided in this fashion since the 2000 Guineas in 1980 when Nureyev was thrown out in favour of Known Fact. The common theme running through the story was Prince Khalid Abdullah. He was the winning owner in both cases but is also a long-standing patron of Cecil, who remained philosophical in a reverse that saw Queally lose a first Classic winner and hit the ground with a thump and a three-day suspension for careless riding.
Cecil said: “I was pleased she ran so well, it’s one of those things. If she took the winner across the course I suppose the winner deserved to win. She ran really well, I wasn’t sure she’d stay, and she’s only beginning to come to herself. She’s improving and, maybe, I’ll get my own back at Royal Ascot.
“I’ve know Criquette a long time and I’m very pleased for her and very pleased for the prince – obviously I’d rather I’d won it for myself but that’s the way it goes.”
Aside for the sympathy for Cecil and Queally there were also thoughts for the owner of Jacqueline Quest, Noel Martin, who was left a quadriplegic, following an attack by Neo-n***s in Germany in 1996, and who had named the filly in memory of his late wife. However, those thoughts could not be allowed to cloud the judgement of the stewards.
William Nunneley, the stipendiary steward, explained the mechanism by which the panel came to their adjudication. “It was a nose between them at the line. What we had to decide was whether or not Special Duty lost a chance of winning by the interference that was caused by the winner. When you look at the film you’ll see that Jacqueline Quest has actually drifted right-handed and, towards the end has taken the French horse across the course. They’ve touched and she continues to go across. Tom Queally has got his whip in his right hand, doesn’t pull it through and, as a result, he’s taken her halfway across the course.
“It was only a nose – which is a pixel on the photograph – and it wasn’t really too difficult to decide that it cost her more than that distance. And so we changed the places. “It’s always very unfortunate when these things happen, especially in a very important race like this, but we have to administer the rules across the board the same for everybody.”
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