A First Flat G1 for Golden Horn as Trawlerman Joins the Clarehaven Greats

[Wandering Eyes]

ASCOT, UK — If the wait had been a while for Golden Horn to have his first Group 1 winner on the Flat, for the coterie of folk involved with his son Trawlerman it had been a worthwhile one. 

“He's just like his father – very brave,” said John Gosden as he assessed the performance of Trawlerman in the Gold Cup, Thursday's showpiece event. “When they go wire to wire like that, it takes a bit of doing.”

It was something the old warhorse had attempted last year, when still a mere stripling of a six-year-old, only to be headed in the final furlong by Kyprios. With that old foe now permanently off the scene, the way was paved for Trawlerman to add to a tremendous week for the Gosdens' Clarehaven Stables, where his sire, too, was trained to win the Derby and the Arc.

As Trawlerman was led back in after his record-lowering effort – the fifth Royal Ascot winner in three days for John and Thady Gosden and the second in the Godolphin blue – Golden Horn's former rider Frankie Dettori was on hand to congratulate William Buick. Though Dettori couldn't cajole him into a flying dismount, Buick was flamboyant in his urging of the crowd's roar for his most valiant of partners. 

Over the last decade or so, the Gold Cup has often been passed back and forth between Ballydoyle and Clarehaven, with Stradivarius claiming it three times, Kyprios twice, and then Courage Mon Ami handing Wathnan Racing and the partnership of John and Thady Gosden a first victory in the week's most celebrated race. 

“If anyone is going to go by him they'll know that they've been in a race,” Gosden Sr added of the Godolphin-bred Trawlerman. “With Kyprios not here he deserves that, to come back and show that he's a proper horse. 

“We like the Cup races – you can have a cup of tea or coffee and a chat halfway through – but also it's so important to have those lovely staying horses for the future of racing in England, Ireland and France.”

Casting his mind back to the 1970s and to the turn of foot of treble Gold Cup winner Sagaro, he added, “That is what I like – horses than can go the distance – and then go.”

Gosden has gone the distance himself and, at 74, shows no sign of slowing up, especially with a new sprint kick added to the training partnership from his youngest son, Thady.

In Westminster on Monday Gosden was one of only two trainers, along with Jim Boyle, to attend a presentation of the report to government from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Racing and Bloodstock on the looming threat of betting duty harmonisation. There he spoke eloquently, as usual, on the lure of British racing for the major international owners-breeders before bouncing on to Ascot to pick up a Group 1 prize per day. Yesterday he chatted with the future king after Ombudsman won the Prince of Wales's Stakes, and then with the King and Queen following Trawlerman's triumph – and if anyone from government was taking notes, those Group 1s have come for the two biggest patrons of the British turf of the last half-century in Juddmonte and Godolphin. 

It has been a decade since Golden Horn's great Classic season and he has had quite the year in celebration of that landmark. In many ways this was the perfect race in which to break his Group 1 duck. Trawlerman ran half a mile less than Golden Ace had to when winning the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, but then she had the small matter of eight flights to jump. Their sire will struggle for popularity with breeders of a commercial mind but he is nevertheless an important crossover sire to have on this isle – one who could get you a Gold Cup winner of either variety.

His owner Jayne McGivern is of course his most passionate supporter and took obvious delight in Trawlerman's success.

She said, “He throughly deserved this and I do hope this is the first of many races where people recognise the value of a middle-distance, staying stallion like Golden Horn. I worry that we are losing that in Britain.”

Garden Comes Up Roses for Breeder Hanly 

At the other end of the scale for both age and distance, Coolmore's grip on the two-year-old races continued, with No Nay Never's Charles Darwin bossing the Norfolk Stakes, just as True Love, by the same sire, had done the day before in Queen Mary.

Aidan O'Brien later landed the Ribblesdale with Garden Of Eden, providing a dream result for breeder Mark Hanly, who produced the daughter of Saxon Warrior with his mother Stephanie. 

He said, “It doesn't get much better than this. It's gobsmacking. She's incredible, I just didn't see it coming.”

Hanly, who is married to the broadcaster Sally Ann Grassick, travelled to Spain to buy Garden Of Eden's dam Komedy (Kodiac) after her full-sister On Her Toes was Listed-placed for Cheveley Park Stud and was quick to credit agent Barry Lynch for his assistance in finding the mare. 

He continued, “I flew down there, I got a call that there was a filly and these fillies don't hang around. I was in Newmarket and I flew to Madrid straight away to buy her privately. Then I had all the vultures ringing me to try to buy her after her sister won her Listed race, but we sent her to Saxon Warrior, who is a great sire, and here we are.”

 

The post A First Flat G1 for Golden Horn as Trawlerman Joins the Clarehaven Greats  appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article