Hipodromos y caballos - Racetracks and horses BloodStockReview2013 | Page 48

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I N T E R N AT I O N A L

front-running Moreno. The latter’s trainer
Eric Guillot, a character perhaps best
described as ‘colourful’, accused winning
jockey Luis Saez of using a battery – an
illegal electrical device, also known as a
buzzer – to propel his mount in the dying
strides. The charges were thrown out,
leading to a half-hearted apology a couple
of months later when the pair met again at
the Breeders’ Cup.
Aside from Wise Dan on the lawn, a
notable feature of the 2013 season was the
unprecedented success of leading owners
Ken and Sarah Ramsey with horses sired by
their stallion Kitten’s Joy, easily recognisable
as most of them have the word ‘kitten’ in
their name.
With the males largely failing to set
pulses racing, it was yet again down to their
female counterparts to save the day in quality
terms. After a second dismal trip to Dubai,
reigning champ Royal Delta returned to her
best with a couple of thumping victories that
sent her back as favourite to the Breeders’
Cup Distaff, thankfully reverted to its
original title. But she could not emulate
Goldikova by becoming only the second
horse to win three Cup races, failing to fire
any sort of shot as Gary Stevens partnered
last year’s Juvenile Fillies’ scorer Beholder to
an emphatic verdict for Richard Mandella.
Perhaps the most unfair aspect of the
distaff division concerned Kentucky Oaks
winner Princess Of Sylmar, however. After
completing a Grade 1 four-timer for trainer
Todd Pletcher, the daughter of Majestic
Warrior – who beat Beholder at Churchill
Downs and then downed Royal Delta
in the Beldame – looked a certainty to
be named three-year-old filly champion.
As Princess Of Sylmar was not Breeders’
Cup-nominated, everyone expected her to
miss Santa Anita, only for owner Ed Stanco
to take the sporting decision to stump up
$100,000 for a late entry.
Her connections did not deserve the
fate that befell her: shipped across country
to the west coast from her New York base,
she fell out of the gate and was then faced
with the sort of ludicrous front-end pace
bias that gave a late closer such as her no
sort of chance.
Several divisions lacked any sort of clarity.
Santa Anita Derby victor Goldencents – a

Dan definitely the man for
Horse of the Year honours
WITH the main dirt track producing no clearly
dominant performer, the way is left clear for the
rags-to-riches superstar Wise Dan to retain his
Horse of the Year crown. And frankly, he should.
Okay, there may well be some merit to
criticism that his connections have followed an
unambitious programme, but once again he
barely lost a step, although this time his
progress was not completely serene thanks to
that rarest of birds: a defeat. Albeit a narrow
reverse in the Shadwell Turf Mile in October,
an odd race given that in the end it was neither
run on turf nor over a mile after a storm of
biblical proportions rendered the Keeneland
turf unraceable and the $750,000 contest
was transferred to the Polytrack, where t