Breeders’ Cup winner Nobals set to visit Britain – but Ascot director of racing and public affairs Nick Smith admits he has never known a more challenging time for attracting significant overseas runners
British racing is “facing headwinds”, according to Royal Ascot’s international recruiter Nick Smith, who admits he is struggling to drum up significant overseas interest in this year’s five-day jamboree in June.
Royal Ascot may be world-renowned as the most glamorous race meeting on the planet – but Ascot’s director of racing and public affairs has spent an intensely frustrating few months trying to attract the long-range visitors who add so much prestige to the event.
“I can’t remember a more challenging time in terms of populating Royal Ascot with meaningful internationals,” says Smith. “It’s the most challenging in the 20 years I have been doing it. We are facing headwinds in Britain on so many fronts and this is one of them.”
It’s not all doom and gloom. Smith is still courting certain Australian possibles, while Breeders’ Cup winner Nobals and last year’s Queen Mary Stakes heroine Crimson Advocate are expected from the US, where Wesley Ward can be relied upon to play his usual hand of two-year-olds.
However, look elsewhere and Smith has encountered little other than disappointment – notably with his two prime targets in Australian-based star Imperatriz and Japanese fillies’ Triple Crown winner Liberty Island.
World-leading sprinter Imperatriz is #3 in the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary Global Rankings but after the mighty mare won the G1 Lightning Stakes at Flemington last month – so often an Aussie springboard to Ascot in the past – her connections politely declined Smith’s offer of a lucrative travel package for horse, owners and trainer.
Imperatriz no-go
That position remained the same after Imperatriz had finished a gallant second under topweight to the three-year-old Cylinder in Saturday’s Newmarket Handicap.
“They are not going to change their minds, they have made that very clear,” admits Smith. “She’s the best sprinter in the world and the one we all want to see, but Royal Ascot is not on her path.”
Liberty Island, runner-up to the great Equinox in last year’s Japan Cup, is another who has proven elusive in Ascot’s recruitment drive.
“Liberty Island is one we would love to get but she’s got Dubai on her agenda and she will not go to Europe after that,” reports Smith. “It’s extremely hard to get Japanese horses as the prize-money in Japan is so good.”
Double whammy
The double whammy here is relatively poor prize-money in Britain, coupled with strong competition from other jurisdictions to get big-name horses. “It’s the worst of both worlds,” Smith laments.
“The prize-money differential and the rise of the Middle Eastern programs, Saudi Arabia in particular, are major factors. The Saudi development is a welcome initiative – as are all good things in global racing – but in Europe, the fact that there is a massively lucrative program in February and March in the Middle East means that you are going to suck up the top quality in Japan for that meeting, meaning we are going to find it harder and harder to get Japanese runners.”
Yet while Smith is falling back on his strong American connections, he also reckons there is still ongoing business in Australia, especially with the remaining two-year-old program culminating in the Golden Slipper at Rosehill on March 23.
Southern Hemisphere juveniles could run in the Commonwealth Cup – in receipt of a 10lb weight concession from European three-year-olds. What is more, Smith is convinced there is little to fear in the domestic sprint ranks.
Nothing to be afraid of
“There are plenty in Australia more than capable of running in Europe,” he says. “All are potential Royal Ascot winners but they are not Black Caviar or Nature Strip. There is nothing in Europe you would be terrified of.”
Smith spoke to most of the major players on his trip to Melbourne and Sydney last month. “Chris Waller is always interested, and James Cummings is very interested – he is really looking at the Commonwealth Cup. He has always been open-minded about that race, and at some point, this is going to be tested.
“This Commonwealth Cup thing is going to happen,” he goes on. “It may not be this year, but it’s going to happen. The 10lb allowance is a huge amount and someone is going to try it, someone is going to be that pathfinder.
“It will take someone brave and with initiative, a pathfinder, to do it for the first time. It could be a little like the Choisir situation. The one who tries it first, it looks like they are mad – and then, everybody goes.
“The conversations I have with trainers these days is the principle of doing things rather than talking individual horses. You want to develop good relationships with trainers – it’s really about the people, not the horses. Horses come and go, people don’t.”
In the meantime, Smith isn’t waving the white flag just yet. Godolphin’s Cylinder, the winner of an emotion-charged Newmarket Handicap, is on his shortlist of horses to follow up with this year’s meeting in mind, as is the Annabel Neasham-trained Lady Laguna, a surprise winner of the G1 Canterbury Stakes at Randwick in Sydney, in which Espiona finished third. All three are possibles for the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs.
Lady Laguna carries the colours of the well-known syndication group OTI, who have tasted success at Royal Ascot, albeit with horses they have purchased in Europe for ultimate shipping Down Under.
The door is open
“It would be fascinating if they brought one from Australia,” says Smith. “There would be the usual travel allowances available; they know the door is open. I will talk to Terry Henderson [OTI head] and I discussed Royal Ascot with Annabel when we met in Sydney last month and she said she’s got three or four possibles.
“Annabel is keen,” he adds. “She’s English and she wants to come back home with a horse. She’s enjoying a remarkable career in Australia and I know she would love to have a runner at Royal Ascot.”
Alongside Wesley Ward’s two-year-olds, two from America already earmarked are Queen Mary Stakes winner Crimson Advocate – still with trainer George Weaver but now carrying the colours of Wathnan Racing – Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Nobals (Larry Rivelli).
Both are likely to have prep races before travelling, with the five-furlong Shakertown at Keeneland and the Twin Spires Turf Sprint, over 5½ furlongs, at Churchill Downs in May offering feasible targets.
• Visit the Royal Ascot website
Have passport, will travel: major interview with Frankie Dettori, loving his new life in California
World rankings update: ‘Frankie is incredible’ – Baffert and Dettori dominant at Santa Anita
Dubai World Cup fields: Big ’Cap winner Newgate joins the $30.5m Meydan party
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires