A late night well spent

You know you’re on to a good thing when, pre-race, the commentator proffers “fate is a dramatist who does his best work with small casts”. And a cast of four was what the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes (1m 2 1/2f, or 2100m) offered at York, via Sky Racing, overnight.

The cast was lopsided, too – three runners from Coolmore’s Ballydoyle against the much-hyped Sea The Stars, trained at the Curragh by another Irishman, John Oxx. The chances were fewer – Sea The Stars at 1/4f and the Aidan O’Brien pea, Mastercraftsman (3/1). Set Sail (125/1) and Georgebernardshaw (100/1) were not there to make up the numbers, but to make the pace.

Such manipulation is anathema to the Australian watchers who sat up for the 12.35am race, and probably said to themselves, “Imagine the uproar if Freedman or Hayes padded a Group 1 field with speedy lesser lights to upset a Kavanagh star”; standard fare in big races in England and Ireland.

The Coolmore team did its job well. The pace pair quickly led and led quickly, Georgebernardshaw a touch ahead of Set Sail. Mastercraftsman sat in behind, and Sea The Stars tagged along. About 800 metres out the pair widened the gap – not the distance from the two chances but the space between themselves, presenting the gap to Mastercraftsman. Jockey Johnny Murtagh pushed him through, to plan and easily. What would Michael Kinane do on Sea The Stars? Follow and risk interference? Or ease out and around a weakener? 

Sea The Stars was going so smoothly that he tailed Mastercraftsman through as if attached by an invisible string. Within strides the pacemakers were also-rans. (They finished 30-plus lengths in arrears.)

The Coolmore job wasn’t complete, but it was shaping like a complete success when Mastercraftsman (winner of two Group 1s this season) put a little gap on Sea The Stars who, after three Group 1 wins from his past three starts (the 2000 Guineas, the Derby and the Eclipse Stakes), was staring at the leader’s rump and defeat. No, he showed he was just a little flat-footed when Murtagh applied maximum pressure. In the final furlong the colt hauled in that invisible string to win nicely, by a length.

Thanks to Coolmore’s brutal testing with their pacemakers and their slipstreamer, Sea The Stars had broken the track record by a second, running 2min 5.29sec on good to firm ground on the Knavesmire. The caller and the commentators let loose with superlatives. “Sea The Stars, a galaxy apart.” And “They cannot take Sea The Stars down.” And “Ticker with the talent and pace.”

Kinane later told racingpost.com: “I asked him to go and quicken up between the two Ballydoyle pacemakers, which was probably a bit of a risky manoeuvre, but I wanted to follow Johnny (Murtagh, on Mastercraftsman) through. So I let him quicken up and then eased him down. Then Johnny quickened and found a couple of lengths and his horse has run a hell of a race … just a combination of those things made it more difficult than maybe it should have been.”

The Coolmore team did their job, but Sea The Stars did his. And more. Racing can be great theatre.

(The one small downer from a late night well spent was Georgebernardshaw – not the horse but the horse’s name, as in the growing absence of space in names to fit them in the 18 characters allowed, with a space counting as a character. Coolmore also has Changingoftheguard, nominated for the Melbourne Cup and favourite for the big staying handicap, The Ebor, at York tonight (12.25am EST). And the Irelandracinggiant has priors, giving us Henrythenavigator, Footstepsinthesand – Juststopnowplease! George Bernard Shaw must be turning in his Irish grave. He would never have written Thedevil’sdisciple.)

BREEDING

Sea The Stars (B c 3, Cape Cross (IRE)-Urban Sea (USA), by Miswaki (USA))

Mastercraftsman (Gr c 3, Danehill Dancer (IRE)-Starlight Dreams (USA), by Black Tie Affair (GB))