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It was meant to be a match race between the best two horses in the country, Fiorente and It’s A Dundeel – a race to determine the best. The 2014 Ranvet Stakes did provide telling answers, but not to the questions we asked.
The Ranvet (2000m, Group 1, weight-for-age) was won in the last stride by the consistent New Zealand mare Silent Achiever. It was her third victory at weight-for-age and her first at Group 1 level in Australia.
In the 2013 spring, Silent Achiever had raced well in similar grade but without the same success. She was 11th in the Memsie (1400m, Group 1, weight-for-age) when It’s A Dundeel was fourth and Fiorente sixth. She was sixth in the Underwood (1800m, Group 1, weight-for-age) won by It’s A Dundeel, and a good sixth in the Turnbull (2000m, Group 1, set weights and penalties) when Fiorente (fourth) and Hawkspur (fifth) were outstanding.
Yet on Saturday she turned the tables on It’s A Dundeel (third on Saturday), Hawskpur (fourth) and Fiorente (seventh) to record what is a well deserved victory. Racing much closer to the speed than usual, Silent Achiever was in a position to strike – and she made her kill at the very last moment.
The prey was Carlton House, the horse owned by Queen Elizabeth II and trained by Gai Waterhouse at Randwick. Full credit to Waterhouse – she finally got the enigmatic Carlton House to perform at a level we sometimes saw from him in England.
There’s one English race that stands out like a sore thumb when I think of Carlton House’s European form and that’s the 2012 Prince of Wales’s Stakes (2011m, Group 1, weight-for-age) at Royal Ascot.
It was billed by the English media as a duel between So You Think, the former Australian champion, and the Queen’s horse Carlton House, the favourite when third in the previous season’s Epsom Derby (2423m, Group 1, three-year-olds).
After Carlton House challenged So You Think for the lead with 300m to go – you could hear the pro-English crowd roar for the Queen’s horse as he loomed up – So You Think’s famous ability to sustain a high speed eventually pulled him clear of Carlton House in the final furlong.
It was So You Think’s last race before he was retired to stud. A great swansong!
Carlton House held second narrowly from Farhh, with Reliable Man in a fast-finishing fourth. Australian racing fans would know this form well. Some perhaps wouldn’t be familiar with Farhh, but he was a dual European Group 1 winner last season.
Carlton House and Reliable Man, however, have one very important thing in common. They have both proven to be far superior to It’s A Dundeel at 2000m in Australia.
Reliable Man’s only meeting with It’s A Dundeel came in the 2013 Queen Elizabeth (2000m, Group 1, weight-for-age) at Randwick. It’s A Dundeel was a long odds-on favourite but was no match for Reliable Man in a 2.5-length defeat.
Reliable Man unfortunately sustained a tendon injury only a few metres after the winning post and was subsequently retired to stud.
Then on Saturday, Carlton House – with Kerrin McEvoy on board – made the last 1000m of the Ranvet a staying test. If the Ranvet was a few yards shorter, Carlton House would’ve won. In any event, Carlton House finished 1.8 lengths ahead of It’s A Dundeel, who was third.
Considering Saturday’s run was Carlton House’s best performance in Australia by somewhere between five and eight lengths, it wouldn’t be ridiculous to expect further improvement as the autumn progresses. We are only beginning to see the quality in Carlton House.
Carlton House gave the mighty So You Think – a winner of ten Group 1s across both hemispheres – a great race over 2000m. Reliable Man was far from disgraced in the same race when he ran fourth.
Does anyone today think that It’s A Dundeel, or even Fiorente, would give So You Think a good race? All the evidence points to a one-sided defeat.
If the Ranvet didn’t excite you as a weight-for-age contest then you were correct to conserve your energy for something better. All the Ranvet showed was that Australia’s middle-distance gallopers are very average when compared to what we have come to expect over the years. It seems like we’ve come to this conclusion a hundred times – So You Think excepted– over the past six or seven years.
So what can we make of the run of It’s A Dundeel?
All fanfare aside, It’s A Dundeel was a creditable third. The Ranvet was a race dominated from the front. He had a gorgeous run in midfield and never shirked his task down the straight to grab a place.
I thought his last 100m was much better than it was first-up in the Chipping Norton (1600m, Group 1, weight-for-age), when he looked a tired racehorse at the finish. He did well to hold off a flying Hawkspur in the last 50m on Saturday.
Of what we’ve seen of It’s A Dundeel at weight-for-age, all we can expect is creditable runs. If he wins, as he did on slow ground in the Underwood last September, it will probably be a narrow margin.
We have learnt that Australian Group 1 weight-for-age racing is It’s A Dundeel’s right level. He has to earn every placing he gets at the caper. He’s a winning chance in the Queen Elizabeth next month, but only one of many.
On another point, I thought it was interesting that two strappers led It’s A Dundeel around the mounting yard on Saturday. It subdued the stallion.
It’s A Dundeel is a horse who has always performed well when allowed to let off some pre-race steam. I don’t know how often two handlers have been used on It’s A Dundeel in the paddock, but I have a clear recollection of seeing it for the first time on 2012 Cox Plate day before the Vase (2040m, Group 2, three-year-olds).
That was the first time It’s A Dundeel disappointed in his career and it was a telling defeat at the hands of Super Cool. Of course, 18 months down the track, Super Cool now holds a remarkable 4-0 record in head-to-head match-ups with It’s A Dundeel.
And that stat is further proof of It’s A Dundeel’s mortality.
What happened to Fiorente?
His seventh was incredibly disappointing, though the run was probably forgivable on face value.
Fiorente was caught wide, so Damien Oliver had to use early petrol to get the Melbourne Cup (3200m, Group 1, handicap) winner into a less exposed position. In the end he had to race without cover for the entire trip. In the last 600m, Fiorente gave very little.
Imported European stayers like Fiorente can disappoint at 2000m or a mile, especially if they are racing at the same distance for the second time in a row. Generally, they struggle for speed in those circumstances.
They can compete over shorter than suitable distances when fresh from a spell, but once the freshness is trained out, they can disappoint at unsuitable trips.
So perhaps Fiorente has genuine excuses. He was probably looking for 2400m on Saturday and his cause wasn’t helped when he had to sustain a tough run.
But I don’t buy it.
Until Saturday, Fiorente had never run poorly in Australia. An examination of last year’s Cox Plate (2040m, Group 1, weight-for-age) is quite revealing here. Like the Ranvet, Fiorente was racing at 2000m for the second time in a row in the 2013 Cox Plate. And like the Ranvet, Fiorente got trapped wide and worked around the field.
But in the Cox Plate, Fiorente did a lot more work than he did on Saturday and he was exposed just as badly, yet was outstanding in third.
If Fiorente was going to turn in the odd bad performance, he would’ve started doing it in the Cox Plate. The real concern for Fiorente and his trainer Waterhouse is that this autumn, the six-year-old stallion has begun to pull in his races. Waterhouse has obviously tried to keep Fiorente as fresh as possible so he can perform in 2000m races, but it is bringing his bad manners to the fore.
When he won the Australian Cup (2000m, Group 1, weight-for-age) earlier in the month, Fiorente began to pull at the 800m mark. On Saturday, when Oliver tried to restrain Fiorente down the back straight, he started to pull for extra rein. It forced Oliver’s hand. Fiorente had to go forward because Oliver needed his mount to relax.
In the end, it was futile. Fiorente wasn’t in the mood to be a racehorse, and he was soundly beaten. Getting Fiorente back to his best for the Queen Elizabeth is going to require the training performance of Waterhouse’s illustrious career.
I’m firmly of the belief that 2000m is not a distance Fiorente is comfortable at, and now that he has turned in his worst Australian run, the task is all the more difficult.
I wonder if Waterhouse is considering the Sydney Cup (3200m, Group 1, handicap) instead of the Queen Elizabeth as the grand final for Fiorente.
Both races are on April 19 and the former would be a lot more suitable.
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