Month For Running Second

And so, a week after the moderate run of the race horse Shamal Wind in the King's Stand Stakes, we learn that the mare will go to the Irish stallion Sea The Stars - considered by authorities on the sport as one of the greatest race horses of all time! And if you don't believe me, just Google it!

Now I can tell you what this might imply as far as the last run of the horse is concerned but to cut a long story short, no one risks a mare that is accepted for such an illustrious stallion in any kind of 'violence' racing at Ascot - which is known as a track with let's just say, 'peculiarities...'

For one thing, the prize money is ridiculously low and that generally implies the place has more to do with showing a horse to the breeding industry than actually racing it.

His Highness, Aga Khan

Sea The Stars won the Prix de  L'Arc de Triomphe, and the Epsom as well so it is some special kind of horse.

Not only that, it stands at the Aga Khan's Stud in Ballydoyle in Ireland. Recalling, as we must, that the Aga Khan owned the greatest race horse of all modern times - Shergar. That was the one the IRA stole and killed.

Now I gotta tell ya I have a high opinion of the Aga Khan so I won't be indulging any conspiracy theories about any of this, other than to point out that the Aga Khan has been determined to breed close to what Shergar represented as a 'type' of racing animal. 

And so as far as I'm concerned, if, three or four years from now some Aussie horse starts somewhere as a rank outsider because everyone has forgotten what its dam-side really is, then it won't be any kind of surprise to me if the horse won by the length of the straight and made someone a quiet fortune.

Webber does an advert for Porsche

Anyway it has been the month for Aussies running second - Brazen Beau, the ten million dollar stallion, just ran a close second in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, and Mark Webber drove for his Porsche team into the second podium position at Le Mans.