Two verses of Advance Australia Fair were played. The national flag was hoisted. Australia became holders of the World Cup for the first time in thoroughbred horse racing.
The world champion’s name?
Animal Kingdom; a five-year-old stallion; bred, owned, and trained in the USA.
In 2011, he won the Kentucky Derby, and this year he ventured out of his homeland (the USA, of course) for the first time to contest Saturday night’s Dubai World Cup (2000m, Group 1, weight-for-age) at UAE’s Meydan Racecourse.
His dominant two-length victory in the US$10m race will go down in history as an Australian win.
Why? Last December, Arrowfield Stud, based in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, acquired a 75 per-cent share in Animal Kingdom to effectively naturalise the stallion.
In June, Animal Kingdom will become the first Kentucky Derby winner to race at Royal Ascot in 77 years, running in either the Group 1 Queen Anne (1609m) or Prince of Wales (2014m) Stakes.
He will then be retired to stand at stud in the Hunter Valley.
In exactly four years’ time, Animal Kingdom’s best progeny will be prepared in Sydney for the 2017 Golden Slipper – the world’s richest two-year old race.
It’s a fantastic story. But there’s one problem. Animal Kingdom isn’t Australian. And he shouldn’t be classified as such.
Animal Kingdom is an American horse, bred in Kentucky and trained in Maryland. Regardless of what the record books will say, Animal Kingdom won the Dubai World Cup for the USA.
If a horse’s nationality is based purely on the nationality of its owner then Phar Lap would have to be regarded as an American horse because he was owned by the US businessman David Davis.
It’s an interesting trade off. The Americans can have Phar Lap (heck, they poisoned him anyway) and we’ll take Animal Kingdom.
Hang on. That’s hardly fair.
And where does that leave the poor old New Zealanders. After all, Phar Lap, born and bred in New Zealand, was raised on the green grass of Timaru on the South Island.
But surely the Kiwis lost their rights to Phar Lap when they allowed an Aussie to buy him at the 1928 Trentham Sales in Wellington.
Phar Lap was bought – for a miserly 160 guineas – by Hugh Telford on the advice of his brother Harry, based in Sydney. Harry Telford became Phar Lap’s trainer and the colt was on-sold to Davis.
There were a few sticking points. Davis refused to pay for Phar Lap when he first saw him – a gangly colt with an awkward gait. And Telford was forced to lease the yearling off Davis for three years.
It wasn’t until Phar Lap won the Rosehill Guineas (2000m, Group 1, three-year olds) some 18 months later, in the spring of 1929, that the son of Night Raid began to show his true worth.
And in the 84 years since Phar Lap’s breakthrough victory in the Rosehill Guineas, few horses have been as impressive in winning the 2000m classic as It’s A Dundeel was on Saturday.
It’s A Dundeel is an excitement machine. He has a wicked turn of foot, an incredible will to win and the tactical speed – brought to the fore by the application of blinkers – to either race forward (near the lead) or back (near the end of the field).
The Murray Baker-trained colt is on track to become on the fifth winner of Australia’s three-year old Triple Crown, compromising the Randwick (formerly Canterbury) Guineas (winner by a half-length); Rosehill Guineas (winner by six and three-quarter lengths); and Australian Derby (to be run over 2400m on April 13).
It should be a mere formality and, for the record, something not even Phar Lap could achieve.
It’s A Dundeel is the best son of High Chaparral since So You Think took the 2010 Melbourne Spring Carnival by storm. He could soon be the best middle-distance horse in Australasia.
But the big question is: what nationality is he?
It’s A Dundeel is owned by New Zealanders and trained by a New Zealander. Yet he is stabled at Warwick Farm in Sydney, at the Bakers’ Australian base.
Officially, in race books and for statistical purposes, It’s A Dundeel is trained at Cambridge (in the Waikato region) but since he landed in Australia last August, I doubt It’s A Dundeel has done much track-work there.
I’ve always believed a horse’s nationality should be determined by the country they are trained in. But, in this case, it fails to answer the question. It’s A Dundeel is trained in two countries.
Perhaps most pertinently, nine of his starts have been in Australia. Only his debut was in New Zealand.
In true Australian fashion, I think it’s only fair to call It’s A Dundeel an Aussie while he’s winning. When he does eventually lose, the Kiwis can have him back.
And while we’re at it, maybe we should happily claim Animal Kingdom as well.
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