AS AUTUMN arrives, rain-ravaged ground regularly conspires with the seduction of later and more glamorous targets to leave high-profile races short on quality and quantity. Godolphin will not be complaining after winning the Prix du Moulin with Librettist yesterday but that lacked some of its putative star attractions, while mass defections from the St Leger next Saturday have left the final classic as a one-horse book.
Youmzain is the latest colt to be scratched from a Leger that may need more than the enhancing theatre of its temporary stage at York to lift it above the mundane.
Sixties Icon is now odds-on with most bookmakers to give Jeremy Noseda, his trainer, a first British classic. While that would be a timely endorsement of a yard that is surely set to rival all in the coming years, the race is desperate for an injection of glamour and uncertainty.
Not for the first time, the Leger will be overshadowed by the Irish Champion Stakes. Hurricane Run could now head to Leopardstown for a duel of the sexes with Ouija Board that is, at least in anticipation, everything the classic is not.
Kieren Fallon would be free to resume his mutual admiration society with Hurricane Run at Leopardstown, and indeed to continue it when the pair try for a second Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in four weeks’ time.
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The Paris track was yesterday the scene for a second European group one this year for Godolphin, both secured by Librettist. Frankie Dettori made all the running to complete a fifth consecutive win for the four-year-old colt, who will be another adornment to the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot later this month.
It came, though, in a field deprived at declaration stage of Araafa, Court Masterpiece and Iffraaj. Given such rationed circumstances, there is all the more cause to rejoice in the vindication of Eric Alston, who supplied the story of the racing weekend by winning a second group one sprint within ten days with the ex-invalid that is Reverence.
Alston’s unpretentious background, as a dairy farmer with his own milk round, was told in these columns on Saturday and is the stuff of sporting romance. His conviction to run Reverence again so quickly, and over a trip that many considered beyond him, was gloriously justified in the bog that was Haydock Park.
In the days after his victory in the Nunthorpe, Alston and his wife, Sue, were overwhelmed by letters and faxes and calls of congratulation. They should not have been surprised, for theirs is a tale that inspires and delights everyone in the sport.
On Arc day, Alston and Reverence will also be in Paris for the Prix de l’Abbaye. It will be the yard’s first runner at the meeting for 13 years. And, having joined the group one winners at the grand age of 62, the trainer has already proved that dreams do come true.