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I touched on this in the thread regarding Elzaam. It seems Group class sprints are now little different to 5 and 6 furlong handicaps with a couple of lengths often covering the first five or six finishers. Were the favourites from 20 or 30 years ago really that much better or is it just a case of these races becoming far more competitive with much bigger fields?
I’d say the last sprinter to totally dominate a season was Dayjur, who won four 5F Group races by a minimum of two lengths, and added the Haydock Sprint Cup along the way – and of course he was morally the winner of the BC Sprint as well.
But that was 21 years ago (a sentence that made me feel old as I wrote it) and it’s hard to imagine any sprinter now matching that sequence of wins, let alone doing so by such clear cut margins of victory.
I’d suggest two reasons – the greater number of horses in training, which is likely to produce more individuals close to the top of he pyramid. And secondly, for the sprinters, more and better quality overseas competition.
But it would be great to see something do a Frankel in the Kings Stand or the Golden Jubilee, wouldn’t it.
AP
P.S. My account book for 1990 shows that I backed Dayjur at 2/1 in a £12k 6F conditions stakes, ten days before he started his run of success in the Temple Stakes. How on earth did he manage to get beaten in that!!
In the period from and including the Abbeye in 93 to the Abbeye in 94, Lochsong won 6 group races by an aggregate of 22 lengths.
This is a very good review of Dayjur’s remarkable season:
Dayjur was outstanding. Almost certainly under-rated by Timeform at 137 (if only they’d been in the habit of bumping up by a couple of lengths for dominant displays in those days).
I was there at York and it was scintillating. In fact, that WAS a Frankel-like performance.
Mozart
was probably the nearest we’ve come since. Pretty clear-cut winner of July Cup and Nunthorpe on his only two sub 7 furlong attempts in UK (although bombed in Breeders Cup).
I’d row in with Dayjur as well although I would give an honourable mention to Oasis Dream.
He won the Middle Park as a 2yo and then didn’t reappear until the King’s Stand Stakes when, taking on the mighty Choisir, he was only 3rd whilst probably not fully wound up.
He went on to take his revenge over Choisir in the July Cup before easily winning the Nunthorpe Stakes.
He was beaten on the rain softened ground when 2nd to Somnus in the Haydock Sprint Cup before failing to stay over a mile at Breeders’ Cup.
It is no surprise that he’s been such as success as a stallion.
It seems Group class sprints are now little different to 5 and 6 furlong handicaps with a couple of lengths often covering the first five or six finishers. Were the favourites from 20 or 30 years ago really that much better or is it just a case of these races becoming far more competitive with much bigger fields?
I’m sure it’s the latter.
There’s a much greater strength in depth in the sprinting division than there was 30, 40 or 50 years ago.
There have few outstanding British-trained champions in recent times, but I’d be pretty confident that many of today’s run-of-the-mill Group 1-winning sprinters would have been championship material 50 years ago.
The big Group 1 sprints used to attract smaller fields than today. I’m fairly sure that Right Boy, certainly the best sprinter around in 1957-9, had only one opponent one year when he won the Cork and Orrery (now the Golden Jubilee) and I can just remember Tin Whistle walking over for the July Cup.
Regarding Dayjur, he was a true champion. What a pity that, like Right Boy, he turned out to be such a terrible disappointment at stud.
I can remember that Breeders Cup race as if it were yesterday; not a great fan of flat racing at the time, but realised I was seeing something quite special. The fact that you see the title ‘who was the last dominant sprinter’ and the name Dayjur springs to mind without even procesing the question properly in your mind says it all to me.
Willie Carson said Dayjur was not only the fastest sprinter he’d sat on but was also the best horse he had ever sat on.
Dayjur v Black Caviar would have been a sight to behold.
Dayjur for me !
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Who breeds top class sprinters?
Anyone in UK or ROI at all?Or, perhaps, who wants to?
I had a look back and it seems as though the early 80s was something of a vintage period – the July Cup winners were:-
80 Moorestyle
81 Marwell
82 Sharpo
83 Habibti
84 Chief SingerFind it hard to believe they wouldn’t have taken care of the current crop.
I remember Vincent O’Brien had a very succesful time in the seventies with the likes of Thatch, Solinus, Aberguawn, Godswalk and clearly Marinsky had plenty of ability as well.
Does anyone go back far enough to remember seeing the early 70s champions Deep Diver and Sandford Lad?
80 Moorestyle
81 Marwell
82 Sharpo
83 Habibti
84 Chief SingerSharpo won the Nunthorpe three years on the trot : 1980 1981 and 1982. The ’81 renewal must surely go down as one of the best ever and with more-or-less the ‘perfect’ result on form, as Marwell and Moorestyle filled the places behind Sharpo
All three were mid-130s horses if memory serves, as were Chief Singer and Habibti, both of whom followed the not unfamiliar route of running in the Guineas before being stepped down to sprints
Incidentally, just to show that the cultural vandalism that is the desecration of historic racenames is nothing new, The Nunthorpe was known by the ugly title ‘The William Hill Sprint Championship’ back then
The Nunthorpe started life as a 5F all-aged seller in 1903.
Its current status as a championship race dates from 1922, when it was won by Two Step, who doubled up in the Portland the following month.
Do you happen to know if The Portland was a handicap then?
And why 5f 140yds I wonder?
Mind you, for that matter, why is the St Leger 1m 6f 132yds. Or 1m 6f 6chains if you prefer
If you’re talking worldwide, how about Lost In The Fog? 10 wins in a row!
He was utterly dominant in the US and continued to post blinding speed figures even when cancer was beginning to ravage his body.
I believe the distance of the Portland Handicap goes back to the days before distances were measured or published.
The race was originated as ‘from the Red House Inn to the Winning Post’.
The Red House Inn was (maybe still is?) a public house on the town side of the straight course positioned between the modern day 5F and 6F starts.
AP
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