How good is Quickthorn? The Sporting Life Podcast team debate the subject
The Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup was a race in York last week that threatened to turn into something of a soggy squib.
It didn’t lose one – but both – headlines on race day, an injured foot ruled out Stradivarius and the Trueshan team took him out after the first race as they felt the ground was too fast for their star.
It still offered some spectacle, however, as Quickthorn sped into a clear lead and held himself 14 lengths ahead of his closest pursuer, Coltrane, to the finish line.
So did her substance match the style? On the Sporting Life Racing Podcast there were disagreements.
Timeform’s Billy Nash doesn’t get carried away by the display.
“Take nothing from Quickthorn on an adventurous ride. How much the form is worth is very difficult to say as it was pretty clear they wouldn’t catch him,” he argued.
“He’s a progressive horse himself and that’s now three pattern races on the go. We know Trueshan put him in his place earlier in the season and if they meet again you would expect Truesham to beat him again.
But Graham Cunningham wasn’t so sure.
“Timeform’s comment on the race is, ‘This is clearly a career best, but to what extent is not so easy to know’.
“I’d be interested to know what Graeme North and Simon Rowlands think, but that seems like a really interesting time effort from Quickthorn.
“It was a little earlier in the week and a different race but the two mile handicap that Alfred Boucher won on Wednesday, a high quality race, Quickthorn was about 25 lengths quicker through the halfway point than the leaders.
“And he was still going faster, furlong after furlong, all the way around the corner and most of the straight. His splits on the other side and in the middle of the race were also much stronger than Ebor’s. I have a feeling we thought we had three big stayers in Kyprius, Stradivarius and Trueshan. I think we could have a big four now. I think this horse deserves to have a Group 1 performance in a Group 2 race.”
However, Cunningham lamented the fact that another fight between Stradvarius and Trueshan did not materialize.
“This is so strange. How can two fully mature and strong stayers miss each other seven times in 14 months because of the ground? It is strange. This Strad and Trueshan could have been an epic saga, but it turned into a three-part miniseries with lots of frustrating twists and turns.
“I know relationships do their best for the horse, but it’s so strange that they’ve managed to miss each other so much.”