Elm Park, one of the favourites for this season’s Classics after his victory in the Group One Racing Post Trophy last October, will be aimed at the Champions Day fixture at Ascot next month after recording his first win as a three-year-old here on Wednesday.
Andrew Balding’s colt was sent off odds-on at 4-7 after three of the seven declared runners for the Listed Fortune Stakes were withdrawn because of worsening ground on a miserably wet afternoon in Surrey.
Andrea Atzeni, his jockey, soon settled him in front and his class was enough to get him home as Gabrial, the second-favourite, tried but failed to land a blow in the final furlong.
Elm Park had last been seen finishing down the field in the Derby at Epsom in early June, and emerged tender and jarred-up from his trip around the Downs on fast ground.
It has taken Balding more than three months to get him back to the track, but his proven ability on soft ground could be a useful asset as the Flat season moves towards its climax.
“I’m just pleased to have him back on the track,” Balding said. “He’s in two races on Champions Day [the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile and the Champion Stakes over 10 furlongs] and we’ll probably make a decision that week on which one we will run him in.
“I’d have thought the ground is going to be on the slow side whatever, but I would think the likely opposition would be the biggest factor.”
Elm Park carries the colours of Qatar Racing, whose prime mover, Sheikh Fahad al-Thani, was denied victory in last Saturday’s St Leger with Simple Verse in the stewards’ room. An appeal against that decision is now expected to be heard next Wednesday, but the Sheikh, whose personal investment fund, Qipco, is the headline sponsor of Champions Day, will be delighted to have a contender for one of the card’s feature events.
“He’s won a Group One over a mile so he’s not slow, and a stiff mile on soft ground might well suit him,” Balding said. “But we’ll see because I think it will be the owner’s decision nearer the time, but that’s blown the cobwebs away and we should have him in peak condition.”
“He was pretty sore after Epsom and we’d said we wouldn’t even consider running until mid-September, but he didn’t need any surgery and he’s come right. The team at home have done a fantastic job with him, and he’s been moving fantastic the last month.”
Balding is hopeful that Elm Park will remain in his stable for a four-year-old campaign.
“Again, that’s an owner’s decision,” he said, “but I’d have thought he’s still got a lot to do on the track.”
Atzeni, who was aboard Simple Verse at Doncaster, will also be delighted to have another major contender for the autumn Group Ones.
“He was entitled to do that on his two-year-old form and it was very straightforward,” the jockey said. “I think he’s a better horse with cut in the ground. On Derby day it was very quick and he hits the ground quite hard.
“Last year the ground on Champions Day was worse than this, so that’s a bonus. Also, he’s a fresh horse.”
Elm Park can be backed at 16-1 for the Qipco Champion Stakes with several leading firms, and at 25-1 for the QEII.
The British Horseracing Authority issued a brief statement on Wednesday seeking to underline that bookmakers are “highly-valued partners” of the sport following a report that race sponsorship from betting firms could be turned away in future if the bookies concerned do not pay a return to the sport from offshore betting revenues.
The Levy, the statutory system which returns money to racing from off-course betting, applies only to bets placed in high street betting shops, and the increasingly popular offshore internet sites of major betting firms are beyond its reach. One estimate suggests that £50m could be lost to the sport each year as a result.
“The current Levy leakage, with the vast majority of remote betting activity not being captured, causes real economic damage to British racing,” the BHA statement said. “However, we don’t comment on speculation and are happy to reinforce our long-standing position that betting firms are highly valued partners of our sport.”
If racecourses agree to refuse sponsorship from bookmaking firms based entirely or partly offshore, long-standing sponsorships such as the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park and the Ladbrokes St Leger at Doncaster could be at risk.
Coral reacted with surprise to the idea that future offers of sponsorship, including for the Group One flagship event of its portfolio, could be turned away.
“I would be very surprised if racing is seriously considering such an illogical proposal that could threaten the future of some of the longest standing sponsorships in the sport,” Simon Clare, Coral’s PR director, said.
“However, we need to see more in terms of official comment from the major racecourse groups that Coral has commercial relationships with before we say anything further.”
David Casey, who had his first ride in the 1990-91 seasons and partnered a total of 16 Grade One winners over jumps, went out with a victory on his final day in the saddle at Listowel.
Casey’s major wins included the 2004 Royal & SunAlliance Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on Rule Supreme, and two wins in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown, on Rule Supreme (2005) and Kempes (2011). His first Grade One won came on Cenkos for Oliver Sherwood in the Maghull Novice Chase at Aintree in 2000, while he also won the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil, the French equivalent of the Champion Hurdle, twice, on Nobody Told Me (2003) and Rule Supreme (2004).
Casey was out of luck on his final big-race ride as Alelchi Inois, at 16-1 chance, was pulled up behind Rogue Angel in the Kerry National Handicap Chase, but he had no trouble steering the 1-6 favourite Long Dog to a nine-and-a-half length success in the seventh race on the card, the Ballygarry House Hotel Novice Hurdle.
Most of Casey’s major wins were for the Willie Mullins stable, and he will now join the staff at the yard. His first job will be to travel to Australia with Mullins’s Max Dynamite, a contender for the Melbourne Cup in November.
“I’m getting older and probably am a bit old for a jump jockey,” Casey said, “and recently Willie offered me this position in the yard. I’m travelling with Max Dynamite to the Melbourne Cup. He’s in quarantine now but goes over on Thursday. I’ve been there a long time already so not a lot will change. I just hope I won’t be a burden on him.”
