Ralph Beckett, who trained Look Here to upset the 2008 Oaks, made no secret
of his belief that he had a massive chance of winning another in Friday’s
renewal of the fillies’ classic at Epsom. Although Beckett was proven correct,
it was his lesser-fancied entrant, 20-1 Talent, who stunned his prime contender,
Secret Gesture, in a one-two result for the yard.
“Having the first two doesn’t happen, does it,” Beckett commented.
“It means everything. I’m not Aidan O’Brien, and I’d probably only have two
runners in classics in a year.”
As a daughter of New Approach, Talent could be the opening act of a
magnificent Epsom double for her red-hot young sire, whose son Dawn Approach is
heavily favored to stay unbeaten in Saturday’s Derby.
Talent was also emulating her third dam, Bireme, heroine of the 1980 Oaks.
Secret Gesture had vaulted to the head of the antepost market after her romp
in the Lingfield Oaks Trial. She was eclipsed for Oaks favoritism just prior to
the race, with late money coming in for the Aidan O’Brien-trained Moth at 5-2.
Talent, meanwhile, came in as an under-the-radar type, despite her smart victory
in the May 5 Pretty Polly at Newmarket.
With stable rider Jim Crowley preferring the flashier Secret Gesture, Richard
Hughes picked up the mount on Talent, and he candidly admitted afterward that he
wasn’t overly confident in his mount.
“I rode her in work during the week and, to be honest, I wasn’t impressed —
I said that she was skinnier than me,” joked Hughes, who was winning the second
British classic of his career, just about three weeks after garnering his first
with Sky Lantern in the One Thousand Guineas.
“To be honest, I’d never been so disappointed after getting off a horse,” he
added. “Admittedly she’d only worked over 5 1/2 furlongs, which isn’t her trip
but they usually give you some sort of feeling and I got no feel at all.”
Beckett commented on the homework that turned out to be a misleading
indicator.
“One thing I would say is I genuinely feel sorry for Jim (Crowley),” the
trainer offered. “He had the choice of rides, but how could he have picked the
winner? He couldn’t pick her on homework.
“Richard came and sat on her on Friday when she worked on the grass and I
knew from his face when he pulled up that he was thinking, ‘Oh, no – this isn’t
going to happen.’ But Richard got the breaks today and that might have made the
difference.”
Talent was simply saving herself for the racecourse, and when it counted, she
outshone her vaunted stablemate.
Dropped to the back of the pack early, Talent was some way behind the
front-running Miss You Too. Secret Gesture, who broke from the rail, was settled
closer to the pace. Liber Nauticus and Moth were biding their time in midpack.
In the straight, Secret Gesture was in a pocket briefly, but Crowley was able
to thread the needle. The 3-1 second choice sliced between the weakening Miss
You Too and the advancing Liber Nauticus. Finding a better turn of foot than
Liber Nauticus, Secret Gesture skipped clear. A danger soon emerged in the shape
of The Lark, who followed an inside path herself. The Lark did not sustain her
run, however, and Secret Gesture was still in control.
Talent had been busy getting herself organized wider out on the course.
Suddenly kicking into overdrive, she hung left across Epsom’s camber while
building up irresistible momentum, and blew by Secret Gesture in a few strides.
Talent won going away by 3 3/4 lengths in a final time of 2:42 for about 1
1/2 miles, reflecting the give in the ground that was officially listed as good
to soft.
“Ralph didn’t tie me down to instructions and said to do what I wanted,”
Hughes said. “I decided to drop her out because she is a bit small to get in a
barging match, and it was the right thing to do because they were going very
quick to the top of the hill.
“I was stuck in by a big filly that (Tom) Queally was on (Madame Defarge) and
he let me out which was good of him, because he could have really nailed me. It
shows there are some good guys in racing.
“I said to him turning for home, ‘can you believe how well I am going?’ I
thought that I would win five furlongs out, she was going that well.”
Beckett had a different reaction watching the race unfold.
“I looked at her (Talent) when they were at the top of the hill and thought,
‘she can’t win from there,'” the trainer said. “I stopped watching her, and was
just willing Jim (on Secret Gesture) to get out from his position on the rail
because he was going to have horses coming back on top of him.
“I wasn’t watching her (Talent) until she suddenly loomed up on the outside.
He just put her in the race and she got keen and started tanking then.”
Secret Gesture’s connections believe that her rail post proved costly.
“I think the last horse to win from stall 1,” Beckett recalled, “was Bireme
(Talent’s great-granddam). How ironic is that?
“Secret Gesture was never going to have much help from stall 1 and Jim had to
get her out smartly — he didn’t have much choice on that front.
“Jim had to spend a lot of time trying to maneuver his filly out rather than
getting her into a rhythm.”
“I had to ride her like that because of the draw,” Crowley said. “I managed
to get a nice position and got a breather into her before we turned. When the
gap came I had to take it — if I had been drawn higher I would have ridden her
more patiently. She has come there to win her race but we always knew the other
horse (Talent) would improve.”
The Lark checked in another three-quarters of a length astern in third,
edging Moth. Liber Nauticus folded to fifth, followed by Miss You Too, Banoffee,
Gertrude Versed, Roz, Say and Madame Defarge.
A homebred racing for James Rowsell’s Ashbrittle Stud and Mark Dixon, Talent
has now won three straight. After her debut third over six furlongs at Newbury
last August, she captured a seven-furlong conditions race on Kempton’s Polytrack
in September and called it a season. She made a winning reappearance in the
Pretty Polly, despite failing to settle early, and ratcheted up her progressive
profile here.
Talent is the fourth successive generation of her family to run in the Oaks.
Her dam, the stakes-placed Peintre Celebre mare Prowess, was ninth in 2009.
Prowess is out of Group 3 victress Yawl, the 12th-place finisher in 1993. Yawl
is a daughter of Bireme, who sported the colors of the late Dick Hollingsworth,
uncle of Talent’s co-owner Dixon.
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