French Racing / La Casaque Noire / 12 November 2007 /

La Casaque Noire doesn't find much to cheer in final big race of season...

A few years back France Galop had this self-inspired idea to fiddle with the distances of many of their established and traditional races, including the Classic trials and heaven-forbid, even the Classics themselves.

This bought howls of protest from the racing professionals, as it was done virtually without notice and certainly without consultation. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Anyway, what's my point? Well, this weekend saw the final Group One race of the season for two-year-olds - it's called the Criterium de Saint-Cloud, and it's run over the ludicrous trip of 10 furlongs. What's the point of this marathon test for young horses run nearer Christmas than the height of summer, normally on a surface resembling a ploughed field, and how on earth does it add to the improvement of the breed, which after all, is what racing is supposed to be all about?

This year's race attracted only six runners, just three of them from France and from just four trainers. Pre-race, the best of them looked to be Hannouma, who was sent off favourite despite having already been beaten three times and not yet having won in Pattern company thus far in his career. In the end, the winner was Full Of Gold, by the cheap (if under-rated) sire Gold Away out of an average jumping mare in Funny Feerie, who so far has produced ... average jumpers. His participation was clearly an afterthought, as he was only supplemented on Friday. But so poor was this event that the owner, Alec Head, thought it worth having a punt before gelding the horse and sending over hurdles next spring. Perhaps now they've reconsidered his future - the Derby perhaps?

Looking back over the last quarter of a century or so, only Darshaan (winner in 1983) has gone on to do anything significant in enhancing the breed. Marchand De Sable (1992) and Poliglote (1994) haven't made bad starts to their stallion careers, but they've hardly set the world alight either. Indeed looking at the first three home over the last three decades resembles more of a "who?" than a "who's who" of famous thoroughbreds and stallions.

My point is that a lot of fiddling was done against most people's wishes, yet somehow this bizarre anomaly survived unscathed. A better idea would have been to simply scrap it (would anyone have noticed?) or move it to March and made it two miles with 10 flights of hurdles - the winner might have been the same but the race would have had more meaning.

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