RACING:RARELY CAN an Epsom Derby winner have been as appropriately named as Camelot for the Irish star has put a seal on a glorious 1,000 days of true racing brilliance to put any overwrought JFK myth into the h'apenny place.
Saturday’s blue-riband victory for the father-son team of Aidan and Joseph O’Brien has kept open the likelihood of an unprecedented 2012 British classic clean-sweep by Ireland’s champion trainer and a first Triple Crown since the legendary Ballydoyle figure of Nijinsky 42 years ago.
Comparisons with Nijinsky will fill the summer after Camelot joined the legendary horse in that rare European elite to have completed the 2,000 Guineas-Derby double with a stunning five-length victory at the weekend. Quibbles in bare form terms might remain but the visual impression was enough to make the son of Montjeu stand out even among the 200 plus top-flight winners that Aidan O’Brien has trained.
Just as exciting is the realisation we might just be enjoying a golden period of equine excellence. Nijinsky himself burst like a meteor through 1970, just a couple of years after Sir Ivor completed the Guineas-Derby double. In 1971, Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef split those two classics between them and subsequently mopped up everything else.
In just four years those were four names to conjure with whenever great horses are discussed. It’s hard not to conclude we are living through something similar.
What Sea The Stars did in an unbeaten and one-off 2009 campaign has set an unrivalled modern-day benchmark. The emergence of Frankel last year has set handicap computers whirring and provoked comparisons to the Brigadier. And, after just a pair of Guineas-Derby winners in almost 40 years, another has arrived.
The respected form experts Timeform yesterday slapped a 130 rating on Camelot which is behind recent Derby winners such as Workforce and Authorized. But the famous “P” they stick next to figures reckoned likely to improve indicates the potential for better still lurking within Irish racing’s handsome new superstar.
Certainly if the Coolmore team decide to accept the ultimate challenge of meeting Frankel over a mile and a quarter in a race like the Juddmonte International at York, then improvement will be necessary, and plenty of it.
But there was a swagger about Camelot at Epsom that means there will be a sizable contingent willing to take on bookmakers who have installed Frankel a heavy favourite in a “match” with the youngster should racing’s ultimate head-to-head ever take place.
In the meantime the Ballydoyle brains-trust will continue to ponder their options for Camelot and plot a course through the rest of the season. The growing groundswell of support for a Triple Crown bid by the colt will gather more steam following a pair of Epsom classic wins by O’Brien that leave him with just one more to complete a clean-sweep of the English classics in the St Leger.
It’s not as if Doncaster’s 14-furlong challenge in September is unknown territory for the champion trainer either having won it three times. But those bookmakers going odds as cramped about 1 to 3 Camelot picking up the Leger at his ease might do well not to underestimate the task the world’s oldest classic presents.
Nijinsky won it, but on the back of a bout of ringworm, and the combined effects were blamed by many for his subsequent defeat in the Arc. And no amount of sentiment can change the reality it is Longchamp’s all-aged test that is Europe’s biggest test.
Alleged managed to win the Arc twice, but was beaten in the Leger beforehand. It’s also worth remembering how Shergar never even made it to the Arc after managing only fourth at Doncaster. Even when conditions are perfect, the Leger is rarely a simple gimme. But that’s the glory of these top races: even when the style looks effortless, the substance required to make it look like that is considerable. And Camelot is following in the rarest of hoof-prints.
“At this stage of his development we see him as the same horse as Sea The Stars,” said Britain’s top handicapper Phil Smith after handing the O’Brien star an official rating of 124.
“When you do the maths it puts both Main Sequence (second at Epsom) and Astrology (third) on 115 and we all think Camelot’s five-length win was worth 9lb,” he added. “What we want to see him do now is to run against older horses. That is the great barometer. Sea The Stars went on to beat the older horses and remained unbeaten through the year.”
That’s the scale at which Camelot is being judged. It is racing’s good fortune to have the rest of 2012 to see how he measures up to the legends.
Camelot: Facts and figures
Born: March 5, 2009
Sire: Montjeu
Dam: Tarfah (by Kingmambo)
Bred by: Abdulla Bin Isa-Al-Halifa in Britain.
Purchase Price: 525,000 Guineas as a yearling.
Owners: John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith.
Estimated Current Value: €70 million.
Race Record: 4 starts – 4 wins including three Group Ones and two classics.
Aidan O'Brien 2012 English Classic Winners: Camelot – 2,000 Guineas (15 to 8 favourite) and Derby (8 to 13 favourite); Homecoming Queen – 1,000 Guineas (25 to 1); Was – Oaks (20 to 1)
