Good Ba Ba makes history with three-peat in Hong Kong Mile

Good Ba Ba makes history with three-peat in Hong Kong
Mile

Good Ba Ba kept his fans in suspense until the end (Hong Kong Jockey Club) John Yuen Se Kit’s GOOD BA BA (Lear Fan) surged in the final yards to post an unprecedented third straight win in Sunday’s $2.1 million Hong Kong Mile (HK-G1) at Sha Tin. His quest to become the first three-time winner of a Hong Kong International Race appeared to be in trouble in midstretch, but the seven-year-old veteran fired late and got up by a half-length in the nick of time. Good Ba Ba has won his three Miles for two different trainers and jockeys. Olivier Doleuze was aboard in 2007, Christophe Soumillon picked up the mount last year, but Doleuze regained the ride this time around. Good Ba Ba developed into a world-class superstar under the tutelage of Andreas Schutz, for whom he won his first two Miles. This summer, though, his owner made a surprising decision to remove him from Schutz’s care and transfer him to Derek Cruz.

Cruz freely admitted the monumental pressure he had felt before the race,
with history on the line. Once Good Ba Ba came through, Cruz described the victory as the highlight of his
career.

“Without a doubt — it’s awesome,” Cruz beamed. “My job was to keep
him happy. But the fact that he would make history if he won this race did make
it harder and created pressure for me. But we’ve done it and it feels awesome.” 

Given a super-confident ride by Doleuze, Good Ba Ba settled into an unhurried
12th in the 14-horse field for the first six furlongs. Up front, Egyptian Ra (Woodborough)
led in his customary fashion while dictating fractions of :25.02, :47.52 and
1:11.04, and stuck to his guns resolutely down the stretch. Able One (Cape Cross
[Ire]) ranged up to challenge on the outside, and Fellowship (O’Reilly) followed
suit.

Good Ba Ba (far right) arrives on the scene (Hong Kong Jockey Club) Those three were locked in a titanic struggle when Happy Zero (Danzero), the impressive winner of the International Sprint Trial (HK-G2), erupted from far off the pace. Making his first start beyond a sprint distance, Happy Zero swept to a narrow lead for Darren Beadman, and with Good Ba Ba still out of the picture, he looked to have the Mile in the bag. Then Good Ba Ba exploded down the center of the course in deep stretch. As the roar of the Hong Kong crowd reached deafening proportions, the former Hong Kong Horse of the Year inhaled the little cluster of Happy Zero, Fellowship and Egyptian Ra to win going away. The popular hero completed his tour of the metric mile in 1:34.60 on the good turf. “Last year I was sorry to lose the ride, so to be back on him again is like a dream,” Doleuze said. “His preparation this season was similar to last year when Andreas trained him.

“It looks like he might stay a bit longer now. Now we can step him up in trip
to maybe 2,000 meters because it took him a little longer than normal to really
get going from the top of the straight. I believed he could get there though.
What a horse.

“He’s certainly the best I’ve ridden,” Doleuze added. “It’s a privilege to
have been a part of his story and to be back on him this year.”

Beadman said he was delighted with runner-up Happy Zero’s performance but
paid tribute to the history-making winner.

“He had his chance,” Beadman said of the young pretender to the Mile
crown. “I thought we had it at the 300 meters, but Good Ba Ba
came past me. He’s an amazing horse to do what he has done.”

Olivier Doleuze gives Good Ba Ba a congratulatory kiss on the muzzle (Hong Kong Jockey Club) Jockey Zac Purton was likewise thrilled with third-placer Fellowship, who was narrowly beaten by Happy Zero for second. “He ran the race of his life,” Purton said. “To nearly win this race at level weights, it has to be his best ever run. He was brilliant. We were just touched off.” Egyptian Ra completed Hong Kong’s clean sweep of the top four places. “It was a great run,” said Felix Coetzee, who piloted Egyptian Ra. “We eventually got to the lead, but got run down by three great horses who came past him on the outside, and the track seems quicker out wider.”   The American-based Ferneley (Ire) (Ishiguru) finished another length behind in an honorable fifth, the best of the international contingent. “He took a while to warm up,” Ferneley’s jockey Kieren Fallon said. “If I could have laid up closer, he’d have nearly won. Did you see how he finished?”

Confront (Nayef), Alexandros (Kingmambo), Able One, Sweet Hearth (Touch
Gold), Gris de Gris (Slickly [Fr]), Sight Winner (Faltaat), Duff (Spinning
World), Racing to Win (Encosta de Lago) and Pressing (Ire) (Soviet Star) rounded
out the order under the wire.

Good Ba Ba now sports a career mark of
36-16-5-3 with roughly $7.5 million in earnings. The bay gelding first burst
onto the scene with victories in the Chairman’s Trophy (HK-G2) and International
Mile Trial (HK-G2) in 2007. His thrilling, photo-finish score in the 2007 Hong
Kong Mile was the first of four straight Group 1 triumphs. By adding the
Stewards’ Cup (HK-G1) and the Champions Mile (HK-G1) to his trophy case, he
thereby became the first horse to sweep Hong Kong’s three premier mile events.
For good measure, Good Ba Ba also dropped down to about seven furlongs and
lifted the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (HK-G1). His streak was snapped in the 2008
Yasuda Kinen (Jpn-G1), where he was but a pale shadow of himself in 17th.

Returning in the fall of 2008, he prepped for his Mile title defense with a pair
of losses, a closing sixth in the Mission Hills Sha Tin Trophy (HK-G3) and a
third-place effort in the International Mile Trial. Doleuze lost the mount after
those defeats, and could only watch from the sidelines as Good Ba Ba crushed his
rivals in the 2008 Mile. Little did Doleuze know how much would change in the
next 12 months.

Good Ba Ba won the Stewards’ Cup for the second time in January, but was
unable to repeat his sweep of the prior year. Runner-up in the Queen’s Silver
Jubilee Cup in March, he managed only fourth in the Champions Mile in April. After
reappearing from his summer break for new trainer Cruz, and reuniting with old
partner Doleuze, Good Ba Ba prepped in the same manner for his Mile three-peat.
He finished seventh in the Mission Hills Sha Tin Trophy and third in the Mile
Trial last time out.

The winner was bred in Kentucky by Haras Santa Maria de Araras and
was purchased by his current connections for $218,593 at the 2004 Hong Kong
International Sale. Out of the winning Zilzal mare Elle Meme, Good Ba Ba is a
half-brother to the stakes-placed filly Ruban Bleu (Broken Vow), an unnamed
yearling filly by Aldebaran and a weanling filly by Unbridled’s Song.

His family has produced more than its fair share of world-class milers,
churning out such champions as 2003 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) queen Six
Perfections (Fr) (Celtic Swing) and Hall of Famer Miesque (Nureyev), heroine of
the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 1987 and 1988 and the dam of outstanding stallion
Kingmambo (Mr. Prospector).