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It might just be time for the racing community to stand and up take notice of its only maiden to win a Cox Plate (2040m, Group 1, weight-for-age). Certainly, there’s a lot more to Shamus Award than the title of Cox Plate winner or maiden Cox Plate winner.
Shamus Award, the dominant victor in Saturday’s Australian Guineas (1600m, Group 1, three-year-olds) is a fantastic miler, I think in the mould of the champion mare Sunline.
Sunline, who won two Doncasters (1600m, Group 1, handicap), a Hong Kong Mile (1600m, International Group 1, weight-for-age) and a further ten Group 1s, liked to control the action from the front.
She was incredibly tough to get past because she was determined and could also accelerate off a hot tempo, and she brought a certain amount of attitude and aggression to her racing.
So good is Shamus Award at miling (a neologism, but a worthy one, the miler’s craft being so specific it deserves its own word) that in time I can envisage Shamus Award stepping out of all shadows and creating his own legacy.
Three times he’s been to mile this season and each of his performances at the trip would rank in the top ten I’ve seen in Australia at the mile since the season began on August 1 last year.
First, there was his narrow defeat in the spring at Moonee Valley, in the Stutt (1600m, Group 2, three-year-olds), when there was so much pressure that the hearts of everything near Shamus Award in the lead were broken.
The black colt could’ve spat the dummy too and be beaten by ten or 15 lengths like the others. After all, Shamus Award had no reputation to defend.
But instead he wanted to fight, showed admirable desire to win and only went down in a photo to Devine Calling, who would later survive an objection from the Shamus Award camp on Stutt night and then run second in the Caulfield Guineas (1600m, Group 1, three-year-olds) a few weeks later.
The next start, in that Guineas, Shamus Award drew wide and was subsequently disregarded by pundits and punters and everyone else in between.
He travelled wide and at the back of the Guineas field, racing without much cover before sweeping down the centre of the Caulfield straight to take an eye-catching third.
It shouldn’t be forgotten, and won’t be anytime soon, that the Guineas winner Long John has since won by panels in Dubai, and the fifth horse in the Guineas, El Roca, could turn out to be anything from a multiple Group 1 winner to a champion.
Of course, Shamus Award would, at their next start, give Long John and everything else that lined-up in the Cox Plate a beating.
It wasn’t a dominant victory by any stretch but the Cox Plate was memorable for two reasons. It was the victory of a maiden who gave a final-bend Valley kick that Sunline would happily claim; and was the first Cox Plate to be used by half the field as the lead-up to the Melbourne Cup (3200m, Group 1, handicap), which last year was the spring grand final for those that took a Cox Plate path through to Flemington.
Third in the Cox Plate was Fiorente, who will be remembered as the winner of what was described at the time as the strongest ever Melbourne Cup.
Returning in the autumn, Shamus Award was well beaten at 1400m in the Orr (Group 1, weight-for-age) by Moment of Change. And perhaps this is where Sunline is superior – she was very rarely well beaten over any distance.
In any case, Shamus Award had a tough first-up run. He was asked to sit in the slipstream of Moment Of Change and chase. Shamus Award would cart sections of 11.67s (1200-1000m), 11.56s (1000-800m), 11.47s (800-600m), 11.19 (600-400m), 11.23 (400-200m) and then, when on one rein and completely spent, 12.07s (200m-finish).
On face value I thought Shamus Award was disappointing, but then Moment of Change did exactly the same to Group 1-placed three-year-old Bull Point in the Futurity (1400m, Group 1, weight-for-age) last weekend.
At the mile, and not for the first time, we saw a different Shamus Award in the Australian Guineas. Remember, no-one thought anything of Shamus Award until he stepped up to the mile for the first time in the Stutt.
Shamus Award becomes elite class when he steps up in trip to a middle-distance. Before the Australian Guineas, even though this race was his autumn aim, he showed signs of freshness (he was four weeks between runs) as he sweated freely in the mounting yard. But he presented in fantastic health and fitness.
Then he channelled his inner Sunline, and produced a dominant victory at the mile. Craig Williams took Shamus Award to the front, where the horse does his best work, and set an average speed. Shamus Award would benefit from the tempo because it made the task of everything in the second half of the field almost impossible.
But Shamus Award resented being restrained. He fought Williams for more rein between the 1200m and 600m when sections of 12.00s, 12.19s and 12.00s were posted (two or three lengths slower, per furlong, than the Orr).
The attitude Shamus Award exhibited on Saturday when he raced with his head held high, pulling for more leather, is an example of the same free-wheeling attitude that made Sunline famous.
And how many times did we see Sunline race with her head held high? Plenty!
Some people will knock Shamus Award for failing to settle but I admire what the poor trait stands for in this instance.
Here’s a great racehorse, a Cox Plate winner no less, wanting to get the job done. Wasting energy of course, but destroying his rivals when it counts. It’s arrogance and contempt and everything we love in a great horse.
Because when Williams turned Shamus Award loose with less than 400m remaining, he gave an almighty kick and opened the field up. In the end, it was a decisive turn of foot. And the killer kick you expect to find in any prolific Group 1 performer.
Shamus Award clearly didn’t get his own way in the lead, he wanted to run faster, but he was given a cheap lead and made the strongest ever Australian Guineas field pay.
Eurozone, who beat Shamus Award home in the Orr, was flat at the mile.
Despite racing on the outside of Shamus Award, he couldn’t sprint in the straight. Eurozone never appealed to me as a miler and even though he demolished the finish line first-up at 1400m, and presented fantastically well in the parade, he couldn’t get the job done at his first go at miling.
Eurozone will probably run a strong mile one day but it will only happen when he is given a quiet run, as he got in the Orr, and perhaps when he is more seasoned.
Hucklebuck, the heavily backed Guineas favourite who finished eighth on Saturday, doesn’t stay a mile – plain and simple.
I predicted two weeks ago that he wouldn’t run out the mile in the Guineas because he failed to win the Carbine Club (1600m, Group 3, three-year-olds) at the same track and distance in the spring when he loomed to win.
Statistically, as was pointed out to me by at least one Roarer, the Carbine Club run of Hucklebuck was fantastic. The winner Paximadia got a cheap lead and Hucklebuck never shirked his massive task, even if he went down as an even-money favourite.
But upon reflection, the view I had of the Carbine Club, watching on alongside James Cummings in fact, showed Hucklebuck looming to win at the clock tower adjacent to the mounting yard and failing to get the job done.
Camera angles can be so deceptive at the races because the television replay tells a completely different story in this instance.
On Saturday, Hucklebuck found himself further back than usual and then faced with the prospect of having to out-sprint the noted fast finishers like Teronado, Thunder Fantasy and Criterion, Hucklebuck could only hold his own until he ran of petrol in the last 100m and was swamped by the swoopers.
The runs of Thunder Fantasy, Criterion and Teronado were each fantastic. Criterion looked a million bucks before the race and ran right up to it. Cameron Rose hypothesised on Friday that the chestnut colt would be trained to run a big race and he did exactly that.
Criterion, having flown home for fourth first-up in the CS Hayes (1400m, Group 3, three-year-olds), has returned in fantastic form and will have his best opportunity yet to claim his maiden Group 1 in the Rosehill Guineas (2000m, Group 1, three-year-olds) later this month.
Teronado, fifth first-up in the Hayes, was super late. As he did upon resumption, he charged in the last 100m to get close to the place-getters. He has staying blood on his dam side and should appreciate 2000m, if only because it may allow him to settle closer to the lead.
But the best run of the beaten brigade came from Thunder Fantasy. On face value, I can understand why many people probably disagree with that previous sentence. But let me explain.
Thunder Fantasy didn’t look ready to win on Saturday. His coat was a bit plain, he wasn’t even nearly fit and he got into a muck lather before the race – a tell-tale sign of freshness. And still, he was fantastic in third.
Thunder Fantasy was only just beaten home by Criterion at the death but has plenty more improvement to come. Criterion, on the other hand, was presented in a manner that indicated he was ready to fire some big shots.
And it is also worth noting that Thunder Fantasy beat Criterion into third when they duelled for the bronze medal in Polanski’s Victoria Derby (2500m, Group 1, three-year-olds).
Most importantly, with Polanski and Derby runner-up Complacent off the Australian Derby (2400m, Group 1, three-year-olds) scene, the race is there for Thunder Fantasy to win.
Noting that he looks to have lengths of improvement to come, Thunder Fantasy has to be the horse to beat in the Derby. After all, Thunder Fantasy is dual Group 1 placed. Yet, unbelievably, he’s a 10/1 chance in Derby betting.
The other eye-catching run in the Guineas came from Surge Ahead who was a close-up sixth having also run on strongly from the back. He wasn’t as impressive visually as Teronado was late but he too will be a player in the Rosehill Guineas when the distance will be more suitable.
Prince Harada, who tired into seventh, was quite good. He plugged on well, as he promised to do, but like Hucklebuck failed to fully run out the mile.
And, in such a strong Guineas, where weaknesses were exposed, Prince Harada came up short. I still believe there’s a Group 1 win in Prince Harada but I don’t know where it’s going to come from.
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