Breeders' Cup

Rock finds a hard place

Fergie's colt in Mile upset

Rock of Gibralter just failed to lay the final polish on the veneer of invincibility he has worn all season when concluding his racing career with a length defeat by four-year-old Domedriver in the Breeders' Cup Mile last night.

Sir Alex Ferguson's son of Danehill, whose triumphal progress began somewhat luckily, many thought, when he narrowly held off his stablemate Hawk Wing in the 2,000 Guineas, almost completed the rout of those of us who have questioned his claim to greatness on the grounds that his victories have been achieved against relatively modest opposition. But even though he showed himself too good this time for the best that America could throw at him, he was thwarted at the end by a combination of the brilliance of Domedriver and his outside draw in a race marred by a horrific and fatal injury to his Aidan O'Brien stablemate, Landseer.

It has become a cliche to repeat the mantra that The Rock, as he has been affectionately dubbed, 'can only beat what's put in front of him'. He tried his level best, flying past horses at the finish after being shuffled back to last in the back straight. But Thierry Thulliez an the 26-1 winner just had too much in reserve and at the line the gap between them was closing only slowly if at all.

Joint-owner Sir Alex Ferguson, watching the race at home on TV after his Manchester United side's 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, said: 'It's disappointing. It's a great horse and it was the fastest in the race but the draw beat it.

'But it's been a terrific season and Rock of Gibraltar has proved itself as one of the greatest horses of all time.'

Every race on Breeders' Cup Day is a championship, but it was not just for visiting Europeans that the Aidan O'Brien-trained champion's performance in defeat was the highlight of the meeting's early stage.

Not that he was without competition this time. In the first race, the Distaff, before a sell-out crowd of 45,000 juddering in near freezing temperatures, the four-year-old Azeri, undisputed Grande Dame in her native California, ran some of the fastest late fractions in Breeders' Cup history to tear apart a field of East Coast stars that was expected to test her to the full.

Her trainer, Laura de Seroux, a former work rider for the legendary Charlie Whittingham, who took over the horses belonging to the family of the plane construction magnate Allen Paulson, has no doubts that Azeri is the best racehorse on earth. Even allowing for an understandable hint of bias in her judgment you'd have to say she has a case at least.

If the Distaff was a destruction, the Juvenile Fillies' that followed was a war of near equals. After both Storm Flag Flying and the Bob Baffert-trained Composure had surged past Santa Catarina shortly after entering the straight it seemed as though Composure had just too much power the Shug McGaughey-trained market leader. But in the end it became a sheer slog through a final furlong that made this an enormous test of stamina for two year old fillies and it was Storm Flag Flying, fighting back with utmost resolution after going at least three quarters of a length down at one stage, who just refused to give up her unbeaten record.

Epics of very different kinds both the first two races may have been, but the international competition that justifies the Cup's increasingly used subtitle of 'The World Thoroughbred Champi onships' really only starts with the first collision between the Americans and the Europeans in the Mile.

Those of us who've been trying to think of a way to get The Rock beaten clung to the belief that the horses he'd beaten just didn't justify the superlatives that have been heaped on him. It is ironic that he probably ran his finest ever race in defeat.

However, it is never good form to decry a winner, not even one who overthrows a hero, and Domedriver's achievement should not be underestimated, as with three races gone the pair of them had given Europe what might be termed a two-nil lead in what is more than occasionally referred to as racing's equivalent of the Ryder Cup, fought out between America and Europe.

Rock Of Gibraltar's stablemate Landseer, the French 2,000 Guineas winner, shattered a cannon bone shortly after turning into the straight. He staggered horribly for a 100 yards or so before collapsing and throwing jockey Edgar Prado to the ground.

Prado was unhurt, but Landseer was immediately humanely destroyed.

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