Events / Malcolm Pannett / 21 May 2009 /

It may have moved around the country of late but the five furlong sprint retains its lustre, says Malcolm Pannett.

The Temple Stakes has been won by some top sprinters in the past including Dayjur and Lochsong, however it has recently become an itinerant/nomad moving around the capital and then off to the North West in search of TV coverage.

Horseracing and television first united with coverage of the 1931 Derby via the 30-line Baird system which was probably also representative of the number of viewers at the time. It wasn't until the late 1950s that television truly became a mass medium with the first Grand National on television in 1960 proving to be a landmark broadcast.

From 1965 to 2003 the Temple Stakes was run at Sandown on Whitsun (now Spring) Bank Holiday Monday with Holborn, owned by Charles Englehard, winning the inaugural race. Englehard, who had many good horses including Nijinsky the Triple Crown-winner five years later, was a US metal magnate whom many sources claim to be the inspiration for the Bond villain Goldfinger.

Notable winners of the Temple Stakes include Song (1969) a top sire of sprinters including the 1994-winner Lochsong who went on to win the l'Abbaye twice; Raffingora (1970) a 17-time winner who broke the electrically-timed course record at Epsom carrying 10st; and Dayjur (1990) who won the Nunthorpe and the l'Abbaye before jumping a shadow cost him the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Trainer Jack Berry won four times in six years in the 1990s with Paris House (1993); Mind Games (1995 and 1996) and Bolshoi (1998).

The last Spring Bank Holiday Temple Stakes-winner at Sandown was Henry Candy's Airwave (2003) who gave his rivals a five length start before mowing them down to win easily by three lengths. In doing so he completed a double for his trainer who had won the previous year with Kyllachy.

The current broadcasters, Channel 4, were forced to cut back on their coverage and the Spring Bank holiday fixture was chopped from the schedule so the race was moved to Epsom with disastrous results (see below), before returning to Esher as an add on to the evening card that features the Brigadier Gerard Stakes. It did though clash somewhat with the National Stakes which was already established on the card.

Last year the race moved again this time to Haydock, like Sandown and Epsom part of the Racecourse Holdings Trust group of courses, to ensure Channel 4 coverage.

But whether it's the uphill at Sandown, downhill at Epsom or the flat at Haydock the Temple Stakes remains a shrine to superlative sprinters.

25 years ago - Bill O'Gorman's Reesh, who was invigorated by the application of blinkers, won three pattern races in a month in the early part of the summer of 1984. After taking the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket, (where favourite Petorius suffered interference in running after losing a shoe at the start), and the Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh the son of Lochnager lined up for the Temple Stakes. Petorius was back and settled in behind Reesh who blitzed away from the stalls. Walter Swinburn galvanised Petorius close home and their late lunge forced a dead-heat. Oscilight and Smarten Up also dead-heated in 1978.

10 years ago - Tipsy Creek, who had won the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1996, was allowed a soft lead and waited in front until kicking for home two furlongs out. Richard Hills' mount never looked in danger holding on by a length and three quarters from Lochangel and Andreyev.

Five years ago - A controversial renewal. Moved to Epsom on the Friday of the Derby Meeting the downhill nature of the course compared with Sandown meant that horses like Airwave, the winner the previous year, stayed at home. The flipstart was used due to a stall handlers' dispute but the starter let them go with three runners facing the wrong way while Night Prospector and Autumn Pearl, along with Colonel Cotton, got flying starts. The first two mentioned, as natural pacesetters, were gifted an advantage they would not relinquish with Night Prospector winning under Johnny Murtagh at 33-1. Bishops Court who was short of room when it mattered was unlucky back in third.

Last Year - The first seven home beat the old course record as the Temple Stakes took its Haydock bow. Jeremy Noseda's Flying Childers-winner Fleeting Spirit fell out of the stalls but Ryan Moore conjured up a strong run on the daughter of Invincible Spirit to pass Borderlescott inside the final furlong to win comfortably by a couple of lengths from the subsequent Nunthorpe winner.

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