In 1998 Aiden O'Brien trained King of Kings to triumph in the 2,000 Guineas, his first English classic winner. The Sadler's Wells colt was then, along with Second Empire and Saratoga Springs one of his three representatives in the Epsom Derby, and it would soon dawn on everyone that fielding multiple runners with realistic chances would become the norm.
That day was not a memorable one for Ballydoyle - firstly travel delays resulted in the runners arriving with little time to spare and those with good memories will recall the odd saga unfolding when it was not clear whether the runners were arriving by boat or via Luton Airport. Ultimately, none of the runners trouble the judge.
Back in the mid seventies the power was spread wider and thinner, with the most successful handlers operating with smaller strings than has been the norm over the past two decades. Peter Walwyn housed what was viewed as the strongest English team from his Seven Barrows base in 1975, winning the Derby with Grundy, with stable companion Patch narrowly failing to take the French equivalent for the yard, both running in the colours of Dr Carlo Vittadini, who during that summer would move Orange Bay from his native Italy to Walwyn's yard. That animal was rumoured to be the best from Italy since the mighty Ribot, and two years later his final rally failed by only inches to put his head infront of The Minstrel in the King George V1 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.
Walwyn began 1975 with 104 animals, Henry Cecil an 85 strong string, Dick Hern had 88 under his care while M V O'Brien oversaw a stable of just 42. An incredible fact about the Ballydoyle class that year was that despite this being five years on from when Nijinsky first put Northern Dancer on the map in Europe, there was not a single animal sired by the Canadian legend in the string, which demonstrates how hard they were to obtain, and furthermore how small stallion books were in those days, something that benefited the sport in one sense as it guarded against young unproven but hyped stallions flooding the markets with rubbish for as long as four years and in doing so limiting the chances of others, maybe those run by small operations who can't afford to offer concessions.
Anyone looking back at this era who never lived through it would be surprised just how strong the French were at the time. In fact in that 1975 Derby, Maurice Zilber trained a filly, Nobiliary, to finish runner up, Alec Head trained the warm favorite Green Dancer, the French 2,000 Guineas winner who failed to stay, while the third home Hunza Dancer was trained at Epsom by Scobie Breasley who would soon be moving his operation to France at the behest of his paymaster Ravi Tikoo.
Given the strength of the in depth quality of animals based in France at the time it was surprising they were not on the scoreboard in any of the English Classics though Zilber struck with the legendary Dahlia in the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup, a race which turned out to be Grundy's swansong, and the François Boutin trained Sagaro, arguably the greatest post WW2 stayer, won the first of his three Ascot Gold Cups.
The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe fell to the German trained Star Appeal, formerly with John Oxx senior, the beaten favorite the Angel Penna trained Allez France, still to this day the highest rated female runner in the history of the Timeform organisation.
Forward to 1976 and the Gallic raiders took this country by storm with the Argentinian native Penna, winning the 1,000 Guineas with Flying Water, the St Leger with Crow, and the Oaks with Stradavarius's third dam Pawneese, who also won the King George at Ascot.
Zilber was successful in the Epsom Derby with Empery, the yard keeping their best three year old colt, Youth, at home for the Prix Du Jockey Club. If it wasn't for Henry Cecil's Wollow, ridden by Gianfranco Dettori, it would have been a Gallic whitewash as the runner up Vitiges was also trained in France at the time.
The point of this is to demonstrate that despite there being some powerful yards in existence the jam was spread out making the sport far more interesting - that cannot be denied. Admittedly there were rumours in circulation that some of the French set ups were not playing with a straight bat, but ways to gain edges will always be sought, we can only guess at the truth. It still doesn't remove the fact of how much more mesmerising the sport was then.
As testament to how rare it was for yards to field teams all holding realistic chances, people drooled over how lucky Dick Hern was in 1979 to field two horses in the Derby with major chances in the Royal runner Milford, and the eventual winner Troy.
Fast forward to what has happened over the past couple of decades, with the Maktoum family trying to compete with the shrewder, profit making Coolmore operation, and making some self inflicted errors in doing so.
They went through that long well publicised spell in boycotting the Coolmore stallions during which they bought New Approach and Teofilo from Jim Bolger, as a means to obtain some Galileo blood without having to deal with the Tipperary clan. Although this proved a successful ploy they did not own the two Epsom Derby winning sons of their own Cape Cross, and watched the best stallion they've had charge of Dubawi, sire a pair of Newmarket 2,000 Guineas winners that crossed the line in the colours of none of their family members.
The most pleasing development of the past few decades has been the progression of the Juddmonte farms operation who keep the numbers manageable by culling and trimming when needed, with an emphasis on concentrated quality. For the time being, the operation continues and the sport desperately needs it to. Owner breeder operations were once a most pleasing aspect for followers of the sport but many faded into oblivion after the inheriting generation did not follow suit, perhaps daunted by the prospect of being unable to compete with the Maktoum.
To this weekend, the 2,000 Guineas, and we are back in the continued normality to which we are so accustomed to we don't bat an eyelid. Five Ballydoyle runners, four with genuine chances of winning, taken on by a Godolphin three strong Dubawi gang, two holding strong claims.
Maybe then we should be cheering on the indies, such as the Hannon's Chindit, Jess Harrington's Lucky Vega, the two Bolger runners, Joseph O'Brien's Thunder Moon, or even Mutasaabeq who being a Shadwell animal is part indie being from a long styled Maktoum 'outpost' operation with a different modus operandi to the Sheikh Mohammed driven ones.
We'll watch and enjoy but no one could convince that the sport is not well past its heyday. The focus is now on governing the decline responsibly.
image from scrapbook
This is the final track from an album that would of been in thousands of households during that long lasting drought hit summer of 1976, when the French trained horses cleaned up in Britain.
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