The softer the ground the further Enable will win, she prefers soft ground, King George was best performance of her career.
That was why I specifically used the word heavy. We know that the going reports in France do not really tally with what we would consider to be Good or Firm or Soft but when the Japanese raider Orfevre was floored by Solemia I accept that he threw the race away by jinking in the lead but the ground was desperate – it had rained heavily on Saturday night, the track was like glue (I walked across it!) and she was a Group 2 horse at best. He had won on ‘soft’ ground in Japan.
Enables King George was the slowest time in at least the last 11 years, the ground was described as good to soft but clearly it was far more testing and closer to Heavy, it was 5 seconds slower than Postponed win on ground described as soft. Going descriptions are not what they should be.
What the ground is “described” as is largely irrelevant. What it actually is does matter. Enable’s time was the slowest in 20 years. I was in Paris for Arc weekend when Orfevre was beaten and on Saturday afternoon I would have said that the ground was just on the soft side of good at Longchamp. I know this because I walked across the track and it had been watered, as France Galop do at all the big tracks in France. It then bucketed down with rain all night. On the Sunday, the first race was the Prix de l’Abbaye on the straight course (effectively the back straight in reverse) and I walked across the track and you had to keep moving or your feet sank into the ground, despite the good covering of grass. Horses weigh at least half a ton more than me, so I guess they would find it a bit harder too. Race times in isolation are often not a very good indicator of the state of the ground. By the stopwatch the best winner of the King George this century is Novellist. How the race is run is a big factor. In the rain in 2017 on what was clearly soft ground, they ignored the pacemaker and Dettori was only waving the whip at her in the last furlong, hardly a surprise it was the slowest time since Swain in 1997.
The kicking up of the going is the result of watering. Look at a card for next week and you'll see Going: Good to Firm (watering). Watering that near to racing is almost certain to lead to the top being kicked off by the horses. It's false ground and it's more dangerous than firm ground to my mind. They often say on the TV 'it's good to firm but there's a good grass covering' but as Noel Murless said years ago 'the problem with artificial watering is that it makes the grass grow up instead of down' so hence it gets kicked up when raced on. I'll not say this anymore as I've said it countless times. As I said after the Musidora Sparkle Roll is a cow. She's as ingenuine as you'll get. The owner should send her to the December Sales and get as much as he can as he shouldn't breed from her. I know she finished 3rd in the Ribblesdale but she'll continually do that: flatter to deceive. The winner Dame Malliot is yet another good racehorse from the family that has given Oppenheimer Golden Horn, Cracksman and many others in recent years. He's an amazingly lucky breeder. Good to see Charlton getting a double at Newbury (and his new stable jockey a treble). His stable is still not firing properly but that must give him some confidence.
Great day at Ripon, deffo recommend it if you get the chance to go. Totally enjoyed the day. Five stars on trip advisor
