Alex Hammond Blog and Weekend Racing Tips

By Alex Hammond

15:10 · WED November 06, 2024

The Sky Sports Racing presenter reflects on some of the biggest performances and news stories before providing some early weekend thoughts.

It wasn’t to be for City Of Troy, but what were your Breeders’ Cup highlights?

We so wanted him to fulfil expectations, but it wasn’t to be. A familiar tale in horse racing and this event is a tough ask at the end of a long season for a turf horse. Overall, he’s been a fabulous racehorse, but he doesn’t fall into the exceptional category reserved for the few.

Away from that, a horse that did live up to the hype was Lake Victoria. The chat before the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf at Del Mar suggested defeat was out of the question, and the confidence wasn’t misplaced on this occasion.

Her dam Quiet Reflection was a dual Group 1-winning sprinter for Karl Burke and Lake Victoria is by super-sire Frankel, so what a commodity she will be in time in the breeding paddocks. The Coolmore team paid 2.1m guineas for Quiet Reflection at the sales seven years ago and what an addition she has been to their broodmare band.

Lake Victoria came to the States unbeaten in her four previous starts and it was a bold move to send her across for this race having won the Cheveley Park Stakes on her previous start over six furlongs, and the Moyglare the time before that over seven.

Tactically, she’s incredibly versatile and you can upgrade the Breeders’ Cup win as she didn’t get the smoothest of passages either. I’m not one for jumping on antepost this far in advance but it’s no shock to see her as Sky Bet’s 5/2 favourite for next year’s 1000 Guineas.

Horse Racing Podcast: From LA to Doncaster

Less than an hour and a half after her win, trainer Aidan O’Brien became the joint winning-most trainer in Breeders’ Cup history, drawing level with US racing Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, thanks to the win of Henri Matisse in the Juvenile Turf.

Quite the achievement for an Irish trainer to take on the Americans so successfully in their own back yard. He won’t rest until he gets that Breeders’ Cup Classic prize, though. Maybe they’ll construct a dirt gallop at Ballydoyle to leave no stone unturned!

O’Brien aside, Ralph Beckett isn’t making a bad job of this training lark, is he?

Starlust’s 20/1 win in the Turf Sprint was another great advertisement of his skills and Rossa Ryan’s brilliant season continued thanks to his association with the trainer. The Arc-winning duo had a tentative wait when an objection was lodged in the immediate aftermath of the win, but after Rossa stuck 50p in the meter and had a chat with the stewards, all was well. At the time of writing, Ryan has ridden 46 winners from 209 rides for Beckett in the UK this year, at a strike rate of 22%.

Rebel’s Romance deserves a mention too after his win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. His record now stands at 15 wins from 22 starts and those victories have come in the UK, Dubai, Germany, America, Qatar, and Hong Kong. He’s earned over £9.1m in win and place prize money and is a fine advertisement for his trainer Charlie Appleby.

The curtain comes down on the turf Flat season at Doncaster on Saturday – what have been your favourite moments of the campaign?

How long have you got?

Charyn has been a personal highlight for me having tipped him up for the Doncaster Mile back in March and basically followed him blindly ever since. I feel his two defeats can be excused due to the nature of those races, and it was a relief to see him win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day after an overconfident ride from Silvestre de Sousa, who despite that unnecessary confidence at Ascot has struck up a great relationship with him.

Everyone loves a stayer and Kyprios is king of that division having swept aside all his opposition this season and it’s been incredible to see what he can achieve, particularly after such a severe injury which reportedly saw him almost lose his life.

Another horse that has given us plenty of entertainment having returned from serious injury is Bradsell, and he retires to stud now having added two more Group 1s to his record. I’m sure he’ll be hugely popular in the breeding shed with his tough nature and incredible speed.

It’s a shame Rosallion had his season cut short as we were denied some mouthwatering clashes with other leading milers in the second half of the season. We have him to look forward to next year though, which is exciting.

Sean Levey gives Rosallion a pat after his Royal Ascot win

Sir Michael Stoute looks to have saddled his final runner – what’s your favourite horse he’s trained over the years?

The beauty of Sir Michael is he was a patient man with his horses. You tend to gravitate towards the horses that captured your imagination in your youth, so a horse like Pilsudski would be up there for me. The fact he kept these top-class Flat horses at their peak as they moved beyond their Classic season was a joy to behold and is a quality for which he’ll be lauded. He often didn’t fly high with his younger squad, choosing to go up through the ranks instead. It gave racing fans time to get to know them, and as a result, to love them.

I grew up a fan of the National Hunt game and I have a soft spot for Kribensis whom he trained to win four Grade 1s over timber. He won a Triumph, two Christmas Hurdles and a Champion Hurdle. The latter came in 1990 at a time when I had just started to follow the sport as a teenager. The horse in second was Nomadic Way, trained by Barry Hills! What a one-two that was.

Sir Michael wasn’t as patient with the press, and I remember doing an interview with him after he’d saddled a winner on the July Course back in the day. He was typically happy to discuss what had just taken place, but not so much what was still to come, and when I moved the interview along to ask about horses still to run that day, he gave me a side glance, smiled, and walked off mid-interview. Happy retirement, Sir Michael, we’ll miss you.

Any weekend fancies at this early stage?

Look Back Smiling was a horse on my radar on Futurity day at Doncaster a couple of weeks ago, but he could only finish seventh in the Class 3 seven-furlong handicap. The handicapper has dropped him a couple of pounds for that, and he now holds an entry in the opening race on November Handicap day at Doncaster.

The race is a Class 4 Apprentice Handicap and Wayne Hassett is already jocked up on the horse. Hassett has had one ride and one winner in Britain but has plenty of experience in Ireland where he has ridden high-profile winners for both Aidan and Joseph O’Brien. He would appear to be a positive booking for this horse.

You could do worse than have Chillingham on your shortlist for the November Handicap at Donny too. He wasn’t disgraced in finishing runner-up to Not So Sleepy in the Autumn Cup Handicap at Newbury last month, and whilst he hasn’t won for a while, a reproduction of that would see him run well.

I’m a sucker for a Venetia Williams-trained horse and was thrilled to see Martator become her first winner of the season at Ascot last Saturday. I’ll be following the yard’s runners closely and Frero Banbou is entered in the Grand Sefton at Aintree on Saturday. He was third in the race last year off a 3lbs higher mark on his seasonal return and although he hasn’t won for an age, is capable if fully wound up again.

At Wincanton, the feature there is the Badger Beer Handicap Chase and one I’ll be keen to see run if he’s declared is The Changing Man for an in-form Joe Tizzard.

On his reappearance (and chasing debut) last season he finished second at Exeter, splitting Stay Away Fay and Grey Dawning. The trainer is having a good start to the season with a 43% strike-rate at the time of writing for November (3 wins from 7 runners), so I hope he can go well off his handicap mark of 130.

Published at 1600 GMT on 06/11/24

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