Tony McFadden speaks to Ralph Beckett about a remarkable season for the trainer headlined by a 'career-defining' success in the Arc for Bluestocking, Timeform's Champion Filly/Mare.
Some recipients of the Timeform Awards for the 2024 European Flat season - which were revealed on Friday - could perhaps have been predicted at the start of the season. For instance, it wouldn't have been a surprise to many that last year's leading juvenile City of Troy developed into the top middle-distance performer, nor was it a major shock that his Ballydoyle stablemate Kyprios was able to re-establish himself as the dominant stayer.
However, it would have been very difficult to make a case for Charyn as Champion Miler or Bluestocking as Champion Filly/Mare after they had both endured winless campaigns in 2023. But Charyn and Bluestocking both showed significant improvement from three to four and each bagged a trio of Group 1s to mark themselves out as worthy winners.
Bluestocking's haul included the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, arguably the most prestigious all-aged race in the European calendar. It was certainly a success savoured by her trainer Ralph Beckett who said: "I've been lucky to have had some really good horses and to have had the first two in the Oaks in 2013 was perhaps the one [achievement] I was proudest of. But this definitely is, no doubt. To win an Arc is a career-defining moment. Not many English trainers get to do it."
Reflecting on how the day unfolded, Beckett recalled: "In the preliminaries [trainer] Arthur Moore stopped me and said she looks better than anything else here. I remember thinking 'wow, if as good a judge as him is telling me this beforehand then maybe we really do have a chance'."
And of how the race itself panned out for the filly who was supplemented at a cost of €120,000, he added: "The race went exactly as we planned - and it never [usually] does! To get box three, for it to rain all morning, which wasn't forecast, and then for her to bounce out of the stalls in the manner she did, how rarely does that happen? It just doesn't."
Bluestocking's rise had started with a thumping six-length win in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York in May, a performance Timeform rated 5 lb superior to the pick of her efforts as a three-year-old which included a half-length defeat in the Irish Oaks and a neck defeat in the Fillies & Mares Stakes on Champions Day.
On whether such improvement had been apparent from her homework leading up to the campaign, Beckett said: "You would go skint trying to predict middle-distance fillies on their home work, but when we did work her it was clear that she had improved from three to four.
"I felt she was a more robust filly, a stronger filly. Although her work was pretty similar to last year she was taking her work and racing better than she was as a three-year-old... mentally she was a much tougher filly."
A feature of Bluestocking's displays as a three-year-old was a lack of strength in the finish - she hit in-running lows of 1.04, 1.10 and 1.21 for three of her defeats - but quite the opposite was true at four when her stamina and resolve shone through, especially in the Prix Vermeille and Arc when she was made to dig deep by another very smart filly in Aventure.
Beckett feels a patient approach taken with Bluestocking early in the campaign aided her development, and he said: "We were surprised with how well she won the Middleton. We were keen to give her the best chance of being a Group 1 winner after the Middleton and the race that fitted best was the Pretty Polly which we had to wait six weeks for.
"I think that six-week gap was significant in why she then took her racing so well. We were able to go there off what was a big confidence-booster with her at the top of her game and then everything flowed from there."
Beckett, who also enjoyed success on the international stage recently when Starlust won the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, won't have Bluestocking to call on next season after she was retired to the paddocks at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor. However, the future looks bright given the success his juveniles achieved in 2024.
Beckett has had 49 two-year-old winners so far this year, the second highest tally of any British trainer behind only Karl Burke who has had 56. However, whereas Burke's have come at a strike rate of 19.8%, Beckett's have been achieved at 24.4%. His strike rate with his two-year-olds since the start of August climbs to 30% and there have been 17 winning debutants, at a strike rate of 32.7%, since that point.
Beckett said: "We got sent some really good stock last year and that's really shown over the last few months, it's been terrific. I was speaking to a jumps trainer, a good pal of mine, who was saying 'oh, I'm on the cold list'. I said 'have a look back at how many winners we had in April'. Nobody remembers April in November [for a Flat trainer] any more than they remember October in April if you're a jumps trainer.
"We don't get sent too many speedsters, so nearly all our two-year-olds would be for the second half of the year. Obviously they have to be nice horses to go and do it first time, and they are. We've been sent really good kit and, inevitably, that makes a huge difference."
On some names to note for next year, he added: "Of the fillies you'd be really hopeful for Cathedral and Sandtrap, for example. And of the colts horses like Stanhope Gardens and Starzintheireyes you would hope would come to the fore.
"But there are any number of others who will be on the radar for those trials, horses like Sir Dinadan, who are backwards, staying types but were able to get it done in maidens. It's difficult to pick five out as there's a bunch of them."
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