Jamie Lynch's Autumn Racing A-Z

A is for Arc de Triomphe, still the best race in the world on Timeform recent standards, a bar set to be raised higher still by this year's stellar field*. The average rating of the Arc winner in the last decade is 129; Sunday's renewal has two horses already above that level - see 'N' and 'O' - and a further six within 3 lbs. An anagram of Arc de Triomphe is 'primed hot race'. C'est vrai, very vrai. 

*having obtained copyright from the 1965 Arc, the phrase 'stellar field' or 'star-studded field' must, by law, be used by every pundit to describe this year's race.

B is for Breeders' Cup, the Star Wars of racing; blew the mind and changed the game on arrival, way ahead of its time, and though diluted since by the franchise and various reincarnations, it still has huge pulling-power and a resonance beyond the genre. 

C is for Champion Stakes, which this year is the poor relation in the cyclical family of global championships, the top horses in Europe being either milers or mile-and-a-halfers. But we can look back at Frankel, as well as look forward to Mukhadram, which translates from Arabic as: the predator in a sea bereft of big fish. Something like that, anyway.                  
       
D is for Dank. A passport to probable smug and possible riches. Take the 9/2 about Dank for the Filly & Mare Turf, then hope, pray and politely ask John Gosden to run 'F' in the Turf itself against the boys. If that scenario does play out, then you'll be sitting pretty on virtually an odds-on shot.

E is for Ertijaal, one of the best two-year-olds in Europe by proxy. The best by rating is Toormore, winner of the Vintage and National Stakes, and Ertijaal ran him to a neck when both made their debut in the spring. Standing entries in the Middle Park and Dewhurst suggest that, this autumn, Ertijaal could yet make a big announcement with his own voice rather Toormore's. 

F is for Fugue, The. 
When I was just a little boy, I asked Lloyd Webber what would it be?
Would it be Paris, Ascot or States? 
Here's what he said to me:
She's a tank, a tank.
We're taking her overseas,
Aiming higher than just fillies,
Have the bank on Dank. 

G is for Game On Dude. Second only to 'W'  in the current hierarchy of American thoroughbreds, Game On Dude is better than ever this year, with a perfect five out of five, and he's rightly favourite to exorcise the ghost of the last two Breeders' Cup Classics.

H is for Heads, two being better than one in France; Criquette is masterminding Treve's Arc attack, while brother Freddie is putting the finishing touches to the finishing touches of Moonlight Cloud, her swansong in the Foret on Sunday. That Alec Head was a proper sire. 

I is for It's A Dundeel, the rising star of Australia. The shadow of Black Caviar still looms over everything equine Down Under, and It's A Dundeel has been mentioned in the same breath as Black Caviar, more so after he beat Atlantic Jewel, who was supposed to be the new Black Caviar. It's A Dundeel won't contest the Melbourne Cup, but he's all out to win the Cox Plate, and, according to the rumour mill, we may well see him at Royal Ascot next year. 

J is for Jean-Luc Lagardere, the pre-eminent prix for two-year-olds in France, to be won this year by...

K is for Kingman.

L is for Let Em Shine. Ernie might have been the fastest milkman in the west, but Let Em Shine looks the fastest racehorse in the west, or the east for that matter. The Breeders' Cup Sprint winner. 

M is for Melbourne Cup, as well as Mount Athos, the two intertwined in one man's obsession with one nation's posession. The Melbourne Cup is the Roadrunner to Luca Cumani's Coyote, each near-miss intensifying the yearning. After seconds with Purple Moon in 2007 (half a length) and Bauer in 2008 (nose), Cumani took Mount Athos to Flemington last year more in expectation than hope, only to be scuppered by circumstances out of his control, chiefly the slow pace. Getting so close to Harris Tweed at Goodwood, giving him a start and 5 lb, belatedly showed that Mount Athos is the same horse, and he has the same weight for the Cup, meaning Cumani's wait for the Cup could be over.

N is for Novellist. Forget that he's a galloping machine, or that he's unbeaten this season, or that he won the King George by five lengths, or that he smashed the course record by over two seconds in the process, or that his positive style gives him a tactical edge over the other Arc principals; two words are all that's needed to persuade you that Novellist will probably win: Johnny Murtagh. 

O is for Orfevre. 
Niles: 'There's nothing better than an exquisite meal.'
Frasier: 'How about an exquisite meal, with a tiny flaw we can pick at all night.'
The same principle applies to Orfevre, a pundit's dream.      

P is for Pletcher, Todd. Nowadays, when a smart horse emerges in the US, more often than not the trainer behind it is Todd Pletcher, who's fast becoming a phenomenon. He's got the highest-rated three-year-old colt (Verrazano) and filly (Princess of Sylmar) in the US, a number of top older horses such as Cross Traffic and Graydar, as well as a raft of promising juveniles, and one or several of the Todd squad will this year add to his current Breeders' Cup total of seven wins.    

Q is for QEII. More royalties for Sea-Bird here, as if the Arc field is stellar or star-studded, the QEII is potentially uber-steller or superstar-studded. As mentioned earlier, the Arc includes two horses rated 130+, but the QEII could have as many as five. Dawn Approach versus Toronado has been the story of the season, but the pair, who both disappointed when last seen on the track, may face challengers of a very different kind than before in the shape of Farhh and, in particular, Soft Falling Rain. The QEII is prospectively the race of 2013, anywhere in the world.      

R is for Richard and Ryan. Whether or not the denouement to the jockeys' championship is more Lost than Homeland, there surely has been few more talented riders in the history of the sport than Hughes and Moore, both a joy to watch.

S is for Strong Mandate. No Nay Never has taken the European juvenile scene by storm, but there's another US two-year-old, operating at home, who has an even higher Timeform rating, namely Strong Mandate, the winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes by almost ten lengths. Strong Mandate is trained by the legendary D. Wayne Lukas, tutor of, amongst others, a certain T. Pletcher.  

T is for tweed and a reminder that, though the autumn is the awards season for the Flat, it's also the time of the year when the jumps begins its take off. On the same day as the Breeders' Cup Classic is the Charlie Hall Chase. 

U is for unexpected. Expect it. The autumn means sensational racing, but it also means a surprising result or two along the way. The form book doesn't go out of the window, but it can go out of synch.   

V is for Veale, Ted. He's got the form, profile and trainer of a horse who could easily be 4/1 favourite on the day of the Cesarewitch. 

W is for Wise Dan. The best horse on the planet, according to Timeform. In Britain, turd is a slightly dirty word. In America, turf is a slightly dirty word, hence there's something of an underappreciation over there as to just how spectacular Wise Dan is. You'll see for yourselves when he wins a second Breeders' Cup Mile.  

X is for xenophobia, the healthy xenophobia, the sort of xenephobia on which international competition thrives, in turn taking horseracing to a different level in the autumn.   

Y is for yen, principally the yen that will be exchanged for euros and poured into the Pari-Mutuel, mostly on Orfevre and Kizuna, while the added element of xenephobia might, just might, mean that backing Deutschland's finest, Novellist, on the PMU is the way to play it. Danedream's return was 27/1 in 2011.  

Z is for...erm...Zenyatta? Tenuous, yes, but if, in the coming weeks, we get a story, or a finish, or a commentary as memorable as the 2010 Classic then, as far its responsibility to racing goes, the autumn will be largely blame free, much like that commentary. 'Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Blame, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Blame.'