McDonald said all the jockeys look forward to riding at the meeting and added: “The atmosphere is always brilliant and if you’ve got some nice rides to look forward to, it’s one of the best meetings of the year to be competing at”. “In the last 7-10 days, I just felt he was coming right again”.
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“Half the battle is recognising it and not doing too much with the horses if they are slightly under the weather”, Varian said. The public and racegoers really get behind him as he’s a locally trained horse.
Furthermore, it’s hard to imagine that having an owner such as the Sheikh on your case 24 hours a day would make a tricky situation any easier, although the Sheikh himself admitted to feeling twitchy at the return to action of the horse who now undoubtedly deserves the mantle of being the best middle-distance horse on turf anywhere in the world.
“Before a Group One such as this you have to be nervous”, he said. A week ago I wouldn’t have known if I was running him here.
Sheikh Mohammed Obaid confirmed that Postponed would now head straight to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly on the first Sunday in October without another race to allow him time to adequately recuperate. We may still not have seen the best of her. It turned out, surprise surprise, that he had. “Every day. I have to know everything, every day”. Otherwise, he has to tell me to take my horses all from him. Roger is a gentleman. Still, the extra two and a half furlongs on Town Moor should hold no fears and I would rather have been Ladbrokes with their 6-4 quote about Idaho for the final Classic of the season than the bookmakers who went 5-2 and had to cut.
Roger Varian reflected upon one of the highlights of his career after Postponed silenced the doubters with another classy performance in the Juddmonte International.
“I tell you something – I am a military [man]”.
Found at her best will take a lot of beating, but if she does need this after a break then I think Seventh Heaven and Queen’s Trust are the two most likely to benefit. I trusted in the horse’s condition and he delivered. We do it like this.
Seventh Heaven travelled well when winning the Irish Oaks in emphatic style last time, and I think this flatter track will suit her, too. I think people under-rate him.
‘I pay the money. I don’t mind people criticising me, but they have to pay as much as I do, then criticise me’. “Then criticise me. They have to put their hands into their pockets and then say what they feel”.
Atzeni said: “He’s great, isn’t he?”
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“He told me after running Postponed three times he’s not ready and that’s a problem”. She is a Breeders’ Cup Turf victor and the track will suit her, and if she runs to her best then I would expect her to win. Timing-wise, I’d say the Irish Champion could be the one, but there’s also a race in America, the Sword Dancer (at Saratoga), he could run in. “He wasn’t ready. At Sandown [first time out in the Gordon Richards Stakes] he was beaten by an ordinary horse”.
