Atlantic Jewel: New world champion

Tell your friends; sing it from the rooftops. She is back! Atlantic Jewel, now undoubtedly the best horse in the world is still undefeated, eight from eight, and without parallel in the sport right now.

Atlantic Jewel’s victory in Saturday’s Memsie (1400m, Group 1, weight-for-age) is the best win against a Cox Plate quality field – thus excluding the legendary sprinter Black Caviar from the equation – I have seen from any horse in Australia in the last ten years.

There’s no point comparing Atlantic Jewel’s dominance to that of Lonhro or So You Think. In time, like theirs, it will have its own trademarks. At the moment, the trademark of an Atlantic Jewel victory is a soft kill.

The hunted on Saturday, racing wide on a hot speed for practically the entirety, it should have spelled defeat for Atlantic Jewel and in a manner that thousands have suffered before.

When you factor in that Atlantic Jewel was first up off a 16-month injury layoff and described as “vulnerable” by trainer Mark Kavanagh in the press, victory by any margin should be celebrated as a great one.

So then, how you do adequately describe Atlantic Jewel’s annihilation of the best-ever field attracted for a horse race in August in the 200-year history of Australian racing?

Quite simply, we learnt yesterday that Atlantic Jewel, similar to Black Caviar, has an unmatched engine allowing her to go harder and faster for longer than anyone else.

And don’t underestimate the ‘for longer than anyone else’ bit because Atlantic Jewel, as Kavanagh proclaimed last week, is a 2000m horse on the path to the Cox Plate (2040m, Group 1, weight-for-age).

Atlantic Jewel’s demolition of the Memsie field elevates the mare to a level that few horses have achieved in history. It’s a level of certain greatness set so high that it cannot simply be attained by horses with racetrack résumés that are littered with victories in important races.

Instead, it is reserved for the most talented racehorses, whose athletic ability is legendary – a membership that includes Frankel and Black Caviar and few else.

And it signals another win for Australian breeding because Atlantic Jewel is a daughter of Australian racing’s champion sire Fastnet Rock, a horse who carved his legacy with some thrilling victories in sprint races in the 2005 Melbourne autumn.

I wonder if there is no coincidence that Black Caviar (seven-years old), Frankel (five-years old) and Atlantic Jewel (five-years old) come from the same era. Has the breeding of thoroughbreds, a centuries-old science, been mastered?

Will we become accustomed to seeing these sorts of horses on a nearly seasonal basis? I sure hope so.

The fact that Australian breeding has produced two of them in recent times is particularly exciting for fans of Australian racing.

We were told, as racing fans, only months ago that there would never be another Black Caviar. And while you can always argue that to be the case, I didn’t think we’d have a horse as good racing four-months later.

Not even when I penned this article in April. It was written mainly in hope and to drown the sorrows after having to say goodbye to the horse that made racing matter.

But I believe it now. Atlantic Jewel makes our collective jaws drop and she is on track to become the first undefeated horse to win a spring major since Grand Flaneur won the 1880 Melbourne Cup at his fifth start and as a three-year old.

We can’t leave Saturday’s Memsie, a race that was always going to have huge consequences for spring, without first speaking about the beaten brigade and the race generally.

This was a great Group 1 and I wish more were run like it. So genuine and taxing was the speed that we got a fair and accurate insight into how well each horse is travelling for their spring aim.

The fireworks began barely 20m after the start when the obvious leader, and my on-top selection, Ajeeb, missed the start and was driven through the ruck to take the lead.

When he found the front, 1300m from home, he could not win the race – too much energy had been already exerted – but he played an important role because his late emergence at the front kept Atlantic Jewel out three wide.

It had been reported that Kavanagh described Atlantic Jewel’s draw of 7 as “perfect” but it should serve as a lesson because middle draws in pressure races rarely are perfect.

Instead, middle draws act as a false sense of security and take a well-executed plan, just like any awkward draw, to overcome.

And I was getting nods of approval from the person I was watching the Memsie with after declaring two seconds before that start of the race, “Atlantic Jewel will get trapped three wide”.

Ajeeb’s early move also caught out Second Effort who was kept wide as well. And this was crucial because just when Craig Newitt brought Ajeeb up for a breather, Second Effort made a move around the field to join him in the lead.

When this happened, Atlantic Jewel moved out from a good position, one off the fence, to come out three wide again, thus forcing Second Effort four wide and high pressure was again injected into the race, this time at the 900m mark.

At this point, we began to see the confidence that jockey Michael Rodd has in the ability of Atlantic Jewel. He was exposing the mare – giving her adequate racing room, no doubt out of caution and with a hint of arrogance as well – full-well knowing what he was doing.

Rodd believed that a bit of extra bullocking work wouldn’t matter when the result came to be determined in the straight. In fact, he thought it would secure it. If Atlantic Jewel was clear, she would win.

Everyone is on the same page now. And that is why Atlantic Jewel will never again start odds against ($2 or better).

The Memsie was fast run for practically the whole way. And that meant the entire on-speed group – Ajeeb, Second Effort, Happy Trails, Atlantic Jewel, It’s A Dundeel, Ferlax and Luckygray – were exposed and vulnerable to a late challenge.

From that group the runs of Ferlax (second) and It’s A Dundeel (fourth) were outstanding and very good respectively.

Ferlax put the writing on the wall with a great first-up return in Broken’s Aurie’s Star Handicap (1200m, Group 3) earlier this month and that form has surprisingly stood up well.

An Australian Guineas (1600m, Group 1, three-year olds) winner, Ferlax is on track for the Cox Plate.

It’s A Dundeel, the four-time Group 1 winner and Triple Crown champion, on the other hand, was racing first-up and showed good speed fresh to be right up on the speed. He was a bit unlucky because he was blocked for clear galloping room for 150m at the start of the home straight but when he got clear he was strong enough late to score good marks.

Of those who got back and ran on, the best runs were from Super Cool, Green Moon and Fiorente.

Super Cool flew late for third, almost nabbing second. In getting past It’s A Dundeel, he took his record over the New Zealander to 3-0 but it should be remembered that all those meetings are in Melbourne where It’s A Dundeel is yet to win.

If Super Cool can avoid Atlantic Jewel next time, and the indication is that he will, I think he’ll win. The noise out of the Kavanagh stable is Super Cool will be now be aimed for the Caulfield Cup (2400m, Group 1, handicap) in favour of the Cox Plate. He’ll be hard to beat in whatever he contests from here on in.

Green Moon (fifth) was also fifth in this race last year, but was not as brilliant late in proceedings as he was then. This was a better field and he closed off strongly. His Cup (3200, Group 1, handicap) defence is on track.

Fiorente, second to Green Moon in last year’s Melbourne Cup, was sixth here and very strong late. He had Ferlax laying-in all over the top of him in the straight, so with better luck he could’ve finished closer. Like Green Moon, his Cup dreams shine brightly.

Silent Achiever, who ran second in the BMW (2400m, Group 1, weight-for-age) in April, was seriously unlucky in 11th. She did not see daylight in the straight yet looked like she had a lot offer. With better luck, she would’ve figured in the fight for a place.

Silent Achiever is nominated for both the Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup. With the Cox Plate Atlantic Jewel’s to lose and the battle for second as open as the Sydney heads, she should be aimed at the Caulfield Cup, where she will undoubtedly be a winning chance.

The big disappointment in the Memsie was last-placed Seville who hadn’t been seen since rocketing into 2012 Caulfield Cup calculations with a great second in the last Turnbull (2000m, Group 1, set weights and penalties).

He is a horse of serious talent, three times Group 1 placed in Europe and a further once in Australia, and he can be forgiven, noting that since being purchased by team Williams, he hasn’t finished closer than ninth on three resumptions from a spell.

Seville, however, has a much better second-up record and his spring hopes go on the line when he is next seen at the races.

Next weekend, Group 1 action is back at Flemington for the Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m, Group 1, weight-for-age). There we’ll get to see Puissance De Lune and highly-regarded import Sea Moon who will be on his Australian debut.