Our series continues with Sheikh Mohammed’s formidable colt who won major races on three continents for legendary trainer Michael Stoute, including the Japan Cup and a memorable Dubai World Cup on dirt
There is something undeniably compelling about a Thoroughbred who can show up anywhere in the world and strut his best stuff.
The tradition goes back to Phar Lap, a star that shone over two hemispheres in an era when horses traveled by boat. Colorado King was as good in California as he was in South Africa, and there he was very good. Dahlia wrote her own version of the script, flying back and forth across the Atlantic before the Middle East and Asia came on line.
It figures, then, that in order to have the pleasure of watching Singspiel in action – and thereby fulfill the self-imposed requirements of this series – this reporter had to get on the road. To Canada, in fact, where the elegant, dark bay colt was part of a powerhouse entry in the 1996 renewal of the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
He finished second, sorry to say, one of a half-dozen major events in which he was runner-up. However, those efforts only added bulk to Singspiel’s international array of achievements, which included landmark victories in North America, Great Britain, Dubai, and Japan.
Singspiel was trained by Michael Stoute (right), the son of a Barbados police chief who to that point already had won two Epsom Derbies and four British titles.
The colt was bred and raced in the colors of Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, which tended to put his every appearance under an analytic microscope, and he came by his ability honestly. In fact, if he’d not been a world-class equine athlete, something would have been amiss.
Singspiel’s dam was Glorious Song, a daughter of Halo who emerged from the 1976 Canadian foal crop of Edward P. Taylor’s Windfields Farm. Her comprehensive three-year-old season in Canada included stakes victories from 6½ furlongs to a mile and a quarter, on both dirt and turf. Seeking new worlds to conquer, owner Frank Stronach sent Glorious Song to California in 1980, where she commenced an 11-race bi-coastal campaign that would have brought most Thoroughbreds to their knees.
She won the La Canada Stakes and Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita and the Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct, then defeated males in the Michigan Mile and One-Eighth at Detroit Race Course and the Dominion Day and Maturity Handicap at Woodbine.
Among the best
In a flourish that fixed her place among the best of the era, Glorious Song gave Spectacular Bid his toughest race of his perfect season in the Amory Haskell Handicap, missing by less than two lengths, and came right back three weeks later to finished second in the Marlboro Cup against an all-star field of males, wrapping up her title as Canadian Horse of the Year in the bargain.
As a broodmare later owned by Sheikh Mohammed, Glorious Song visited the cream of available stallions: Northern Dancer, Nijinsky, Danzig, Sadler’s Wells. In 1991, she made a single date with the freshman sire In The Wings, a son of Sadler’s Wells who won the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Belmont Park. The result was Singspiel, foaled on Feb. 25, 1992, at the sheikh’s Kildangan Stud in Ireland.
When reached recently in retirement, Stoute recalled Singspiel’s early days at the trainer’s Freemason Lodge. “He was still a bit of a baby at two, so we looked after him,” Stoute said. “Didn’t rush him. Physically he was a bit immature. We did it correctly with him and didn’t hassle him.
“He just had a lovely temperament, though,” Stoute added. “Mentally superb – and a very clean-limbed, sound horse. Very easy to train. He made the job easier.”
The young version of Singspiel kept his brightest light under a bushel basket through the end of his three-year-old season. While the Maktoum family was enjoying the exploits of Singspiel’s classmate Lammtarra, winner of the 1995 Epsom Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for the young Godolphin operation, Singspiel was turning in a series of stalwart efforts in serious races without winning, including close seconds in the Grand Prix de Paris and Eclipse Stakes. He clearly was on the verge of something big.
Singspiel became a Group-race winner in his first start at four, the Gordon Richards Stakes at Sandown. Stablemate Pilsudski finished second.
Ferocious finish
With that, Stoute thought his horse was ready for another crack at top company in the Coronation Cup over the Derby course at Epsom. In a paceless, four-horse affair, Singspiel and Mick Kinane shadowed Swain and Frankie Dettori to the final straight, at which point both Sheikh Mohammed colts cut loose with a ferocious finish before Swain held his rival safe by a neck.
Back home in Newmarket that summer, Singspiel was a solid choice to take the G2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes, again at a mile and a half. Unfortunately, the longshot Posidonas picked that day to run the race of his life, as Singspiel’s closing kick fell a length and a quarter short at the line.
Singspiel got the rest of the summer off while Stoute began plotting an autumn campaign that would take his colt far and wide. The trainer figured he had the weapon for the job.
“It was his soundness and his temperament,” Stoute said. “He had a great mind, which is very important for those horses you’re taking on the long route.”
As a jumping off point for the international campaign, the trainer used the mile-and-a-quarter Select Stakes at Goodwood in mid-September. Cash Asmussen came over from France for the ride, which amounted to a routine one-length win over Godolphin’s Wall Street. A week later, Singspiel was off to Canada, where a collection of North American turf stars awaited in the 10-furlong Canadian International at Woodbine.
After a collection of all-star European jockeys, Singspiel would be ridden for the first time by Gary Stevens, who was one year away from election to the racing Hall of Fame.
“I think anybody who followed American racing knew who he was,” Stoute said with a characteristic chortle. “I was always a great admirer.” Presumably it also did not hurt that Stevens had ridden Singspiel’s sire In The Wings to win his Breeders’ Cup Turf.
The field for the Canadian International was stellar, topped by defending champion Lassigny, Arlington Million winner Mecke, and the emerging Canadian star Chief Bearhart. The mare Windsharp had defeated males twice at Santa Anita earlier in the year, while Dernier Empereur was fresh from victory in the Del Mar Invitational.
Perfect result
Stevens was content to track Windsharp into the long Woodbine finishing straight, then took command easily and had the race won with a furlong left to run. The margin was two lengths, a perfect result on the threshold of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, to be run one month later over the same course.
At the time, Stoute was pointing Singspiel’s stablemate Pilsudski in the same direction, although after their encounter in the Gordon Richards they had gone their separate ways. Pilsudski took down the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown and the Grosser Preis von Baden in Germany. Then, while Singspiel was celebrating his Woodbine win, Pilsudski finished second to Helissio in the Arc.
“We tried to do the right thing for both horses, and I think we did it mostly correct for them,” Stoute said. “There was not much between them, was there? And I think they proved that. The race suited them both, so it was time to take each other on.”
The assembled field for the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Turf was outstanding, save for the presence of the embarrassing Rick’s Natural Star, a cheap horse fulfilling an owner’s fantasy who gained a starting berth through a loophole in the entry process.
Otherwise, horseplayers were faced with the usual classy group of domestic turf horses, plus English St Leger winner Shantou and runner-up Dushyantor, Godolphin’s formidable Swain, and Stoute’s one-two punch of Singspiel and Pilsudski.
After running on the pace for half a mile, poor Rick’s Natural Star was gradually eased out of the race. The real game commenced on the final turn of the mile and a half, when Stevens tried to steal a march on the field.
First and second
He would have succeeded, too, had it not been for the powerful finish of his stablemate. Walter Swinburn brought Pilsudski along in the final 100 yards to catch and pass Singspiel by a length at the wire. No trainer before, or since, has finished first and second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
“We very much enjoyed that,” Stoute said. “And I think if you ran the race again you might get a different result.”
Stoute responded by giving Pilsudski a holiday back home at Freemason Lodge and packing Singspiel’s bags for another international attack, which would be the toughest test of all.
Save perhaps the Kentucky Derby, there are few races more intense from start to finish than a Japan Cup, especially during its first two decades when the field was always a stimulating mix of international talent.
Riding styles collided from all over the globe. The course is an amalgam of European ups and downs around a North American counter-clockwise oval writ large. Success requires a Thoroughbred stout of both heart and mind.
The hopes of the home team were high for the 16th running of the Japan Cup on Nov. 24, 1996. After surrendering the spotlight to foreigners through most of its early history, the race had been won by Japanese horses in three of the previous four years. No longer were horses from Europe and North America considered unbeatable.
Stoute had run in two previous Japan Cups without winning, although neither starter was of Singspiel’s caliber. “We knew he’d take to the traveling and the fast ground, and the money was very good,” Stoute said.
Reunited with Dettori for their first collaboration since the Gordon Richards, Singspiel was sent off as fourth choice behind Arc winner Helissio, local star Bubble Gum Fellow, and King George winner Pentire in a race where the US was represented by Flag Down and Awad, both major race winners.
Tumultuous cheer
The field of 15 was dispatched with a tumultuous cheer from in front of the grandstand seething with more than 100,000 souls. Helissio and Bubble Gum Fellow were forwardly placed around the first turn and onto the long back straight, although Dettori always had Singspiel in sight of the leaders.
Coming out of the final turn and heading up the incline, Dettori continued to bide his time, then attacked between horses. Under a right-handed thrashing from Frankie, Singspiel dismissed Helissio to his outside but was confronted by the Japanese runner Fabulous La Fouine to his left. They raced as a team through the final yards before Singspiel’s handsome nose reached the finish first. “You’re always very lucky to get involved in those high-caliber international races and to win one is terrific,” Stoute said.
Upon his return to England, Singspiel did not get much of a break. Of all the mountains he’d already climbed, the next peak would be the most daunting.
But first, on Feb. 4, 1997, at the Eclipse Awards dinner in Miami, Florida, Singspiel was honored as the champion Male Turf Horse of 1996. The fact that he had won only one of his seven races that season in North America mattered not. His record of international accomplishment spoke volumes, and the Eclipse voters paid attention.
Five days before the banquet, Singspiel and his entourage had arrived in the United Arab Emirates to begin training for the second running of the Dubai World Cup, scheduled for Saturday, March 29. Singspiel would be racing on dirt for the first time against what was sure to be a powerful contingent from the United States, which had swept the first three places in the inaugural running in 1996.
Adaptable athlete
“He was a very adaptable athlete, very athletic,” Stoute said. “He’d go on anything … if you give them enough practice on it.”
The human players for the 1997 running arrived earlier in the week for what was to become a giddy round of World Cup celebrations. This included Jerry Bailey (right) and his wife Suzee. Bailey was back for an encore after winning the first World Cup aboard Cigar, and now he would be riding Singspiel for the first time.
“Apparently Sheikh Mohammed like what he saw with Cigar,” Bailey said, which may have been an understatement. As the reigning North American Horse of the Year, Cigar gave the World Cup immediate legitimacy with his tenacious victory over fellow American Soul Of The Matter.
Storm clouds began looming the morning of the race and then, in the afternoon, a rare tempest was unleashed upon the desert landscape.
“It was every bit the intensity of a Florida hurricane,” Bailey recalled. “I went up to the press box, and water was pouring through the high-hat light fixtures in the ceiling.”
It was Sheikh Mohammed’s show, so it had to be the sheikh who pulled the plug late that afternoon before any racing could take place. Soaked and disappointed, everyone went home with no assurances of a rescheduling. The Baileys flew back to Florida the next day as planned.
“Then it was announced the race would go the following Thursday,” Bailey recalled. “I really didn’t want to fly all the way back there again and I had commitments for Keeneland’s opening day. But Sheikh Mohammed let my agent know that it would be very much worth my while to come. So I flew to New York, packed up again, and took a flight on Wednesday that went through London and got me there Thursday.”
Bailey had just enough time to settle into the jockey quarters at Nad Al Sheba. His one encounter with Stoute was brief and to the point.
“It wasn’t much,” Bailey said. “There were no real specifics. He said he would travel well on the dirt. I asked if he would run as well as he did at Woodbine, and he said, ‘yes, every bit’. I took him at his word.”
And Stoute’s word was good. Singspiel left the barrier running, just off the pace set by Siphon, the speedy Brazilian who had just won the Santa Anita Handicap. Siphon was trained by Richard Mandella, who had finished that heartbreak second to Cigar with Soul Of The Matter.
“I tucked in going down the backside and got through turning for home,” Bailey said. “With a long stretch you don’t have to get too excited and push the panic button. He felt like a winner the entire way.”
Observers will be forgiven if they thought Siphon looked pretty good as well. The South American hung in there to the very end, but at the line it was Singspiel by a length and a quarter. Sandpit, also trained by Mandella, finished third.
One of the greatest thrills
In a post-race interview with Willie Carson, Stoute was effusive in his praise of the winner. “It’s one of the greatest thrills of my whole career,” Stoute said. “He’s a star, you know. His versatility is a marvel. He’s as game a horse as you’ll ever train.”
As for Bailey, he was on a flight home later that night. “There was an early AM flight back to the States,” he said. “I don’t think I was there more than 24 hours!”
Singspiel left Dubai at a more leisurely pace and enjoyed a brief holiday before going back to work in the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June, drubbing runner-up Dushyantor by five. “Absolutely, he was every bit as good at age five,” Stoute said. “He had a great constitution.”
Next came a showdown in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes among the four best older horses in Europe over a mile and a half at Ascot. Swain edged clear at the end to beat Pilsudski and Helissio, with Singspiel fourth after trying hard over soft ground he clearly loathed.
Only 24 days later, Singspiel was back in action, erasing the taste of the King George with a rousing score over Desert King and Derby winner Benny The Dip in the prestigious Juddmonte International at York.
Especially sweet
Dettori’s flying dismount that day landed especially sweet, since the Juddmonte was to be Singspiel’s final race at home before his farewell appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Hollywood Park.
There is no requirement that great champions should go out on a high note. Damascus was practically eased in his final race; Forego was finished halfway though his last time around; Winning Colors struggled home next-to-last in her final bow.
Still, the table was set for a grand Singspiel finale at Hollywood Park, where his dam, Glorious Song, had nearly upset colts in the Californian Stakes 17 years before. On the foggy morning of Nov. 7, two days before the Breeders’ Cup races were to run, Stoute sent Singspiel and longtime work rider Kevin Bradshaw to the turf course for a leg-stretching half-mile breeze. Watching from a backstretch stands, Stoute lost track of his horse in the thick mist and worried when he did not appear in his gallop-out.
It turned out that Singspiel had sustained a condylar fracture to his off-fore cannon bone. In a scene anyone present was unlikely to forget in a hurry, he was led limping back to the quarantine barn, Stoute at his side, and later underwent surgery to stabilize the break.
“It was tough to take,” Stoute said. “He’d had a great run. But he recovered, which was the important thing.”
Singspiel’s stallion career for Sheikh Mohammed mirrored his international impact as a racehorse. His far-ranging sons and daughters were topped by Moon Ballad, who replicated his sire’s greatest achievement by winning the 2003 Dubai World Cup.
Singspiel’s more than 70 stakes winners also included brilliant five-time G1 winner Solow, Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine Lahudood, Ascot Gold Cup winner Papineau, Japanese stars Asakusa Den’en and Lohengrin, Dubai Sheema Classic winners Dar Re Mi and Eastern Anthem – plus Three Degrees, a graded-stakes winner in California.
In 2009, Singspiel serviced a robust book of mares, but it was to be his last hurrah. He fell ill before the 2010 breeding season began, developed severe laminitis, and was mercifully euthanized on July 2, 2010.
He was buried near Glorious Song in the cemetery of champions at Dalham Stud in Newmarket. Stoute’s valedictory was simple and to the point. “He was special,” the trainer said.
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