Autumn Season Review
It was one of the performances of the season – and, for some, it was THE performance.
When New Approach strode home in splendid isolation to land the Emirates Airline Champion Stakes, The NatWest Rowley Mile racecourse reverberated with the sound of hearty applause. Race-goers knew they had witnessed something extraordinarily special.
The Derby hero, trained by Jim Bolger, signed off his brilliant racing career with a six-length triumph in a record time to make Champions’ Day a truly memorable experience for the thousands and thousands who attended at Newmarket on Saturday 18th October.
But there was so much more to enjoy on a magnificent day’s action when the stunning weather matched the sport. What a pulsating finish there was to the Darley Dewhurst Stakes where Intense Focus – another Bolger charge - pipped Lord Shanakill by a nose with a further nose back to the third Finjaan. Chances are, battle will be renewed between the trio at next May’s Stan James 2000 Guineas.
A further Classic clue – this time for the Stan James 1000 Guineas - came in the shape of the Countrywide Steel & Tubes Rockfel Stakes when Lahaleeb showed a fine turn of foot to secure a comprehensive success.
Then there were the heroics of Caracciola in the totesport.com Cesarewitch. The old-stager, now 11, received a warm welcome in the winner’s enclosure after springing a 50/1 shock in the second half of the traditional ‘autumn double’.
Just two weeks earlier, there had been also a wealth of outstanding racing at the Cambridgeshire meeting.
In Bushranger, we saw one of the top two-year-old talents as he followed up his Prix Morny success with an impressive victory in the Shadwell Middle Park Stakes. The same card also showcased a potential Stan James 1000 Guineas contender in Serious Attitude, who strutted her stuff in capturing the 32Red.com Cheveley Park Stakes.
The NatWest Rowley Mile was the scene for Britain’s richest race-day of 2008 on Saturday 4th October, when the latest instalment of the John Gosden’s 2008 success story took place.
The Newmarket-based trainer won the totesport.com Cambridgeshire with Tazeez and the inaugural Tattersalls Timeform Million with Donativum.
Aidan O’Brien, so used to top-level success at Newmarket, landed another Group 1 at The Home of Racing with Halfway To Heaven on target at Kingdom Of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes.
Overall, the two major autumn meetings at Newmarket, were massively exciting, equally significant and, for attending race-fans, wholly unforgettable.