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Jockey said he didn’t pick up when he pressed the button – the lack of his usual response when asked for it I doubt would have been any different had he been facing those in the QE2. He most likely would have been similarly placed as Bayside Boy & Inspiral were and we clearly saw the difference between those two when they were asked to pick up, Bayside Boy who has won on soft ground really found a different gear whilst Inspiral just plugged on.
Baaeed couldn’t pick up enough to pull back his stable companion My Prospero (114) who was rated only 4lbs higher than Bayside Boy was (110 from his Sandown win) so I doubt he would have been able to pick up and go with Bayside Boy either…..but like you said we will never know for sure.
Baaeed has won on gd to soft 4 times
I don’t buy the ground excuse one bit
He just didn’t run very well
It’s what all horses do
Even frankel didn’t bring his A game to the track in every race
Frankel wasn’t exactly loving the HEAVY ground in this race, and in Cirrus Des Aigles – lethal in the mud – was facing a gelding with an OR of 130 at the peak of his powers.
And yet Frankel STILL won – comfortably.
That’s the difference between a good, or even very good, horse and a GREAT horse.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"With the ground being cited as an excuse, would Baaeed have won if the Champion Stakes was still run at its rightful home in Newmarket?
“Rightful home” or simply venue the race used to be run at?
It’s been at Ascot a long time now – 11 years? – and tbh I’ve no issues with that.
Heavy ground at Ascot didn’t stop Frankel who, in then OR 130 Cirrus Des Aigles, faced and beat a better horse than anything Baaeed faced yesterday.
A better horse than anything Baaeed EVER faced, actually.
For me, Baaeed was a very good racehorse who put up one “great” performance – at York.
Frankel’s “great” performances were numerous – Royal Lodge by ten, 2,000 Guineas by six, Queen Anne by 11, International by seven spring to mind.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Completely agree with that.
I am not entirely convinced by the ground theory to explain Baaeed’s defeat. I do wonder if that performance at York left a mark. It takes a huge physical effort to power clear and win by so many lengths.
What was remarkable about Frankel was he kept putting up those sort of performances. After his Guineas win, I was in the school of thought that it was a brilliant performance but it would leave its mark on him. If anything, his latter performances were even better.
On the venue of the Champion Stakes: I fully understand the commercial reasons why it was moved to Ascot but I preferred it at Newmarket and the race is now at the mercy of being run on deep ground. Newmarket does not get as testing as Ascot.
Lots of fair comment from you there, as usual, IMO CAS.
“Tradition” is one of the things I love about racing and “change” is hard to embrace for me sometimes.
But “change” is inevitable in all walks of life and in learning to accept and even enjoy it I’ve realised in recent years that what I label “tradition” is simply the status quo when I first got interested in 1977 and go back another 45 years before that and the game looked different then too.
I’m also not a big fan of either Newmarket track – complete Emperor’s New Clothes to me – as both are poor viewing tracks, and this sentiment has helped me embrace this switch.
The Rowley Mile course is infinitely better than the July Course, however, as it is absolutely steeped in history, Rowley Mile, the Bushes, the dip, the rising ground, and yes, the 1m2f “across the Flat.”
With its amazing covering of grass, you did indeed seldom get extremes of going on it either.
But I’ve grown to love Champions’ Day and I’m aware any 24 year old version of me who got into racing at 14, same as me, has never know anything else and has Champions’ Day at Ascot high up in their racing tradition pantheon.
Many “normal” horses would never have been the same again after that 2,000 Guineas, but I agree – Frankel wasn’t normal.
Despite an even more boneheaded ride at Royal Ascot, he still managed to hang on and thereafter he went from strength to strength.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Losing a 12F Arc in more testing conditions and having faced a much deeper, quality field would have been more “legitimately excusable” and understandable – perhaps 12F was not to his true ability. But, the owners rolled the dice and lost, pure and simple. There could be infinite number of reasons why he got beat yesterday. So what? He lost!
Seems Adayar could be heading to the Breeders’ Cup next…
“…Obviously we’ll have discussions about where we go next,” Appleby told England-based Racing TV. “We might look at taking him to America for the Breeders’ Cup Turf. He’s getting better with his gate work. He came out well today.
“That would be the only question mark about going there. He’s got no miles on the clock, but he’s had a race today, so I don’t want to fall into the trap today of backing him up quickly like I did last year after a layoff.”
Agree about Newmarket. Even though the July Course was the first track I ever attended, the Rowley Mile is by far the better course.
The Champion Stakes was one of my favourite races of the season when it was run there. I liked it even more after the old Champions Day was created in the late 1990s. I thought that day worked well.
Tradition should not be allowed to stand in the way of progress but I am not convinced the Champion Stakes is a better race for the move to Ascot. But I do understand why the BHA prefer to have a showpiece event at a track with good rail access from London, rather than at a track in East Anglia with a tiny railway station with about one train every two hours.
Depends on your criteria for “great,” Homer.
Mine is OR 135+, so Baaeed qualified (just) after York, but that was his one and only truly exceptional performance IMO.
If I’m calling Baaeed “great” based on a sole 135+ effort, I’d be calling so many horses from over the years “great” the word’s meaning would be totally diluted.
Each to their own on this, though, it’s a personal choice.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I agree with Crowley, it was the ground. They could have course redeem themselves, race on next season and clean up on faster ground.
“Does it make me a bad person that a part of me was happy to see Baaed beaten today to justify my view all the hype being heaped on the horse was premature as in my opinion he was being overrated?”
Nah! Nothing to feel bad about. I laughed too because of the fact that he’s now being bungled off to stud without scooping his swansong race. More so because this defeat has somewhat backfired and left the owner with egg on her face. I like to think that the universe is saying “keep the horse in training”
Well, I was glad – I had (admittedly small) bets win only on Bay Bridge at 18.5 at Betfair Exchange and Stone Age (only just behind Baaeed) at 100/1 ante-post.
I thought the tiny bit of media coverage beforehand I heard on the tannoy at Stratford was PATHETIC.
Why was it all about Baaeed?
Why was it so important he won?
Didn’t any of the other runners matter?
They so wanted him to be Frankel, he never was, and he got found out.
Simple as that.
He will never race on because he’s a colt and can earn so much more at stud than a filly could.
Very good horse, one great performance, but the hype his entire career was absurd.
I never felt that way during Frankel’s career because his succession of incredible achievements kept exceeding the hype.
Baaeed just about matched the hype surrounding him once.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Jesus you lot are miserable, frankel was a decade ago, he had flaws in his form, beating the same horses, over & over, never travelled abroad, yes, undoubtably still the greatest
They didnt want him to be frankel, they just wanted him to win and to be completely fair to baaeed here, had he ran his york performance against that field yesterday he’d have been bumped to 138, he wasnt that far behind.
Let it go already
a horse will outrun frankels or at somepoint, id hate to be around here when it happens lolAgree ham. Like many, I don’t buy the ground excuse and think the first 3 will prove to be top class next season (Adayar not so much to prove and may not be around next year anyway). That said, clear that Baaeed didn’t run to the best of his form. Reckon it was just one race too many.
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