THERE seemed to be two ‘dirty’ terms in racing after the first day of the York Ebor meeting. Pacemakers and geldings. (Well, three if we mention Betting Tax but that’s a very British problem at the moment).

The pacemakers not doing the job they were given, and geldings winning group races were not welcome conclusions to some of the big races this season.

The story began in the Coronation Cup at Epsom. Continuous made a decent pace to give Jan Brueghel a lead and to get first run to beat Calandagan.

At Royal Ascot, Continuous dropped the ball and the pace was too fast for Los Angeles in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Ombudsman took advantage.

Not having a pacemaker did not aid Ombudsman, who went on too soon in the Eclipse. but helped Delacroix, last to challenge in the final furlong. Continuous then said ‘I’ve enough of this’ and spat the dummy out in the King George.

Now to Goodwood and Qirat and his rider did exactly what was asked of them. Go out and run 12-second furlongs. A below-par Field Of Gold, and jockey error from those behind, meant no one got ahead of him.

Birr Castle almost did likewise at York, off in front, but no one followed him. It looked worrying three furlongs out that the wide margin he had established might not be pulled back by those behind. But surely the blame lies with the ‘chasers’.

Aidan O’Brien ran four in the Great Voltigeur and, after Lambourn was beaten, he said “They went slow, it was kind of a mess”, prompting William Haggas to comment: “I cannot understand how you run four stayers in a Group 2 and go that slowly.” Pacemaker problems again.

In the Yorkshire Oaks, Garden Of Eden made the running. But was she a pacemaker? She went a decent clip. She had won the Ribblesdale at Royal Ascot where another O’Brien pacemaker, Island Hopping, was virtually ignored by the field, racing over 10 lengths clear at one stage. But none of these pacemakers impeded any other runners. And it’s hard to say they are not running on merit.

And of course, this is a recent gripe. One of the great flat races of all time was made by pacemakers. In the 1975 King George, Bustino, the St Leger winner, had not one but two pacemakers to pull the sting out of the Derby winner Grundy. Indeed, I recall Major Dick Hern in subsequent interviews saying he regretted not running three pacemakers, a third one to take over and pull Bustino further into the straight before he had to take it up.

Something positive

And the last six runs of Bullet Train’s career were as pacemaker to Frankel. Yes, he was known to be there for that purpose but no one regarded it as a neagtive, as it gave the great horse a lead and allowed him to settle.

Leading commentor Simon Holt commented on X on Wednesday that pacemakers should be banned. Ryan Moore, in an interview on Racing TV on Thursday, said he thought they were not going to catch the pacemaker. But Ombudsman did. The closing riders did not need to let the pacemaker go so far clear, so the problem was there to solve.

The question should be, did the best horse win. No one questioned that King George where Grundy was victorious. It looked the same at York. Ombudsman quickened faster than Delacroix, whereas in the Eclipse he probably went too soon and a stiffer finish caught him out.

And of course it’s hard to see Qirat as the best horse from the Sussex. But again, that was riders’ error.

Gelded

Qirat finds himself in both camps of negativity. A very well-bred colt, he was gelded after his two-year-old career and this season allocated the job of pacemaker to top miler Field Of Gold in the Sussex. The gelded Calandagan has already made his name in the top ranks for the season with his King George win.

Then Pride Of Arras, gelded after two very disappointing runs in the Derbys at Epsom and the Curragh, comes back to his best form in winning a pretty high class Voltigeur.

Those headlines used earlier this year on a piece praising Rachael Blackmore, that proved she had bigger balls than most male jockeys, look even more insulting. Not for the first time, Pride Of Arras shows you can run a better race with much less testosterone in the system!

IT’S pretty staggering the fire power that the Aidan O’Brien team have come up with this year as they hit the 15 Group 1-winner mark with Minnie Hauk at York mid-week. And that is before any of the main two-year-old races take place.

And it’s worth looking back to the end of last season, and that all has not actually gone to plan. He had 12 two-year-olds in the top section of ratings – the top 40 or so rated from 120 to 110. While success was to be expected, eight of those horses have not won a Group 1 at three.

Curiously, the three horses responsible for the most Group 1 wins this season, Minnie Hauk with three, Whirl with two and Lambourn with two, were not among the top section of two-year-olds. Expanded, The Lion In Winter, Whistlejacket, Twain, Exactly and Bedtime Story have, so far, let the side down.

WHEN he retired to stud, I had thought that Night Of Thunder had perhaps a ‘lucky’ profile, in that he had a 2000 Guineas win in the book against two horses in Kingman and Australia who, by the end of that season, looked much better than he was and had a lot more success in the book.

Lucky is as lucky does and what a week and year it has been for the Kildangan Stud sire.

At York, Ombudsman, Estrange, Charlotte’s Web and Gewan all won or performed with credit for him. That followed Zahrann and More Thunder winning and looking like colts to follow last weekend. There’s also classic winner Desert Flower and sprinter Nighteyes keeping him to the fore. And he, for good measure, had the top lot, a €3 million yearling through the ring in Arqana last weekend. Forget the oncoming hurricane season, Thunder is taking things by storm this month.

IT would be an amusing race commentary audio if the two promising two-year-olds, Ger Lyons’ Geryon and Andrew Balding’s York winner Gewan ever get to meet in one of the forthcoming top two-year-old races.

It might be intgeresting if Jerry Hannon got to do the call too. We could have a racing episode of Father Ted with Mrs Doyle offering the cup of tea! Go wan, Gerwan, go wan, Geryon!