Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid was out of luck at Saratoga Racecourse on Saturday night on a classy card that was totally dominated by the outrageous performance of Arrogate in the Travers Stakes.
Sheikh Hamdan’s Mohaymen flopped when asked to drop down to 1,400 metres for the first time since his juvenile days when he finished 11th of 12 behind Drefong in the King’s Bishop Stakes, one of six Grade 1s on the card at the New York track.
There was a ray of light for the Minister Of Finance, however, as former Godolphin Mile winner Tamarkuz finished with gusto coming from the rear to secure second behind AP Indian in the Forego Stakes.
Flintshire racked up his third consecutive win in America for Chad Brown with a commanding performance in the Sword Dancer Stakes, but his run merely acted as a warm-up to Arrogate’s record-breaking effort in the 147th running of America’s mid-summer Derby.
Arrogate, ridden by Mike Smith, stopped the clock at 1:59.36 for the 2000 metres, which smashed the previous best of 2:00 set by General Assembly in 1979. As a soothing balm to the defeat of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah 12 months ago, it went some way to easing the pain. American Pharoah was the fifth horse trained by Bob Baffert to lose in the Travers since he sent out Point Given to win the $1.25m contest in 2001. The silver-haired handler outlined his gratitude afterwards to owner Prince Khalid Abdullah and his Juddmonte operation, who also own Flintshire.
“I was hoping (Arrogate) could do something like this,” said Baffert, who also trains Drefong. “I want to thank the Prince (Khalid Abdullah) and Garrett O’Rourke (of Juddmonte) for having faith in me buying horses for them. We’ve hit a lot of empty spots here, but this one, he looks like the real deal. My horses, they both ran great races and I couldn’t be happier. To win for Juddmonte, a race like the Travers, that’s big for me.”
This may have been a freak performance as main rivals Creator and Exaggerator, the only Grade 1 winners in the field, ran no sort of race in seventh and 11th respectively.
The big, grey son of Unbridled’s Song, the 1996 Florida Derby winner, was not ready to run as a juvenile and lost on his debut in April having broken late. As such this was only his fifth start, and fourth straight win, so the likelihood is that there is much more to come. A clash with Dubai World Cup winner California Chrome at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita in November looks a formality.
“I rode his father – he looks so much like his father,” Smith said. “He was an unbelievably talented horse and his son might be even more talented. It’s crazy. He just did a mile and a quarter and as you can see galloping out, I had trouble getting him to stop. We headed for home and he picked it up when I asked him. I was amazed how he lengthened his stride in the last sixteenth of a mile and opened up.”
Kiaran McLaughlin has pledged not to give up on Sheikh Hamdan’s Mohaymen.
Mohaymen was never at the races in the 1,400-metre Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes, and having broken well under Junior Alvarado he clashed with Florent Geroux and Star Hill early on and was never a factor.
“Well, it’s disappointing because we thought we pointed him to the right spot here,” McLaughlin said. “He was one of the favourites and Junior said he took him to the three-eighths pole and he just didn’t kick on. We’ll send him home probably and go over him really well and find out what’s up. He’s too nice of a horse to give up on.”
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