Racing: Unusual approach pays off

Animal Kingdom parades before the Queen Anne Stakes yesterday. Photo / AP

Despite Guineas winner finishing tailed-off in the Derby, Bolger maintained the faith.

Trainer Jim Bolger can now add the art of the impossible to his list of achievements after Dawn Approach, the 2000 Guineas winner, re-established his reputation as a great horse by winning the St James's Palace Stakes 17 days after finishing tailed-off last in the Derby.

No rational trainer ever has Epsom and Ascot on the same itinerary for a classic winner, but Bolger has never been hamstrung by convention.

Originally, Dawn Approach was going to have a holiday after the Derby, while Bolger went "back to the drawing board". One can only hope that Mrs Bolger's holidays are longer.

Recalling the sequence of events, Simon Crisford, racing manager to Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin, explained how he had received a text from the trainer last week. "It said 'be prepared for a shock'," he recalled. "When I spoke to him he said he was thinking of running Dawn Approach at Ascot and I said, 'Hang on, let me speak to Sheikh Mohammed about this,' and Sheikh Mohammed said, 'Jim bred, owns and trains this horse. He knows every hair of this horse. If he says run, we run."'

Said Bolger: "It's the nature of the sport to take chances and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Sheikh Mohammed was a willing risk taker and I'm delighted he was."

A smiling Sheikh Mohammed added: "The biggest risk is taking no risk at all."

Bolger, who seems to imbue everything he touches with a steely robustness, was vindicated after the chestnut colt, whom he still part-owns with Godolphin, had gone toe-to-toe with Toronado over the last furlong to win by a hard-fought short head in what will surely prove the race of this year's meeting. Mars was third and Mshawish fourth but it was all about the first two restoring reputations.

What happened to Dawn Approach in the Derby will always remain a mystery. "It's only been three weeks but I could sit here for 12 months and still not know what went wrong," jockey Kevin Manning said, reflecting on why the colt left the stalls at Epsom as if he had been stung by a hornet.

Bolger explained what happened next: "We stuck a Hackamore [bitless bridle] on him for the first week after Epsom because he had a sore mouth. It was very brave of the lad, Pat O'Donovan, because it's akin to having no brakes, but when he lobbed away down the gallop I thought it best to just put a line through the Derby."

One year on from Frankel and Black Caviar, the Royal Ascot dreamers faced brutal reality. Some results are written in the stars but others, such as the one featuring Animal Kingdom, who will stand at stud in Australia, clearly are not.

It was apparent after just two furlongs in the Queen Anne Stakes that the first Kentucky Derby winner in 77 years to appear at the meeting was not going to win. He was dropping back quickly and eventually finished 11th of 13 runners .

Declaration Of War, who had lost many followers when well beaten in Newbury's Lockinge Stakes last month, bounced back under Joseph O'Brien to beat Aljamaaheer and Gregorian.

It was not the undulations that had brought Animal Kingdom down, more the rhythm of the race, so different from Churchill Downs, Santa Anita, and even Meydan, where he excelled in the Dubai World Cup.

Trainer Graham Motion, conservative by nature, was not jumping to any conclusions, but the disappointment was etched on his face. The realisation that this defeat was probably Animal Kingdom's last performance on a racetrack was hard to bear.

"I am sorry it did not work out," he said. "It is disappointing for everyone. There was such a good reception for him. It would have been great to see him do his stuff, but he clearly didn't."