Friday, 14 November 2008: The splendid victories of New Approach in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket and of Raven's Pass in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita provided a timely reminder that top horses can have a full campaign and still be at their best for autumn's big championship races.

New Approach beats Tartan Bearer at Epsom Photo by Racing and Sports

After taking high rank as two-year-olds – New Approach was Timeform 's champion juvenile and Raven's Pass the third-highest rated – both were given a Guineas preparation. New Approach narrowly lost his unbeaten record in the Two Thousand Guineas in which Raven's Pass, who had a prep race in the Craven in mid-April, managed only fourth.

New Approach was beaten again in the Irish Two Thousand Guineas before winning the Derby, while Raven's Pass didn't get off the mark until his sixth outing, after further defeats in the St James's Palace, the Prix Jean Prat and the Sussex Stakes.

Three of Raven's Pass's defeats were in races won by the Two Thousand Guineas winner Henrythenavigator who also retained his form through a full season, finishing a good second to Raven's Pass in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes before doing the same in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

The Breeders' Cup Classic, the showpiece of the self-proclaimed fourteen-race 'World Championships', was run on a synthetic surface (Pro-Ride) for the first time, as were all the non-turf races at the two-day meeting.

The growing global dimension to racing, coupled with the disappointing response to attempts over the years to lure top American horses to Europe, makes the success of the Breeders' Cup series vital to the promotion of the sport in the new era.

Traditional racing on dirt has created welfare issues for American racing, with the unforgiving surfaces leading since the 1970s to a permissive policy towards the use of drugs which are banned in most major racing countries.

Michael Dickinson trained successfully in the States and his experiences led him to develop the synthetic Tapeta surface which, along with Polytrack, Cushion Track and Pro-Ride, has been introduced to some tracks and training centres.

'Horses need drugs to keep them sound in the States', says Dickinson. 'Because they train and race year round on dirt, an unnatural surface, the horses need a little bute and they bleed more on dirt for which they are given furosemide.'

The 2007 Breeders' Cup, run on a sloppy track in miserable conditions at Monmouth Park, showed dirt racing in its worst light and should accelerate the move to synthetic surfaces (as should the death from severe injuries in the latest Kentucky Derby of the runner-up Eight Belles).

Dickinson's view that 'with the switch to synthetic surfaces, the drugs won't be necessary' may or may not turn out to be true, but the banning of steroids at the latest Breeders' Cup was certainly a step forward.

The modern synthetic surfaces are promoted as a 'halfway house' between turf and dirt, and they should encourage horses from across the world to challenge in increasing numbers for the Breeders' Cup which, along with the Dubai World Cup meeting, has been the most exciting innovation in racing of the last quarter of a century.

The record haul of five Breeders' Cup victories for the Europeans (three on turf, two on the artificial surface) led some influential figures in American racing to criticise the switch from dirt to synthetic.
The trainer of Curlin, odds-on in the Breeders' Cup Classic, blamed the surface for the defeat of America's top horse who had even been thought a possible for the Arc earlier in the season until beaten on turf by Red Rocks in his trial for that race. Curlin won the 2007 Breeders' Cup Classic on dirt and followed up on sand in the 2008 Dubai World Cup.

Santa Anita stages the Breeders' Cup again in 2009 but it then returns to Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, which seems most unlikely to abandon its traditional dirt.

Next year's Breeders' Cup therefore looks like being critical in the battle to achieve more widespread international acceptance for the organisers' billing of the meeting as the 'World Championships'.
The European turf horses certainly seemed not to be disadvantaged in the races on Pro-Ride, and there were also plenty of good performances from the established dirt performers.

Zenyatta's brilliant win in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic (formerly the Distaff) and Midnight Lute's equally impressive performance in the Breeders' Cup Sprint established both as outstanding horses in their field, while those with Grade 1 form on dirt came to the fore in the two main juvenile events.

The closest that Britain has to a Breeders' Cup-style finale is Champions' Day at Newmarket where all the races are on turf (British racing is crying out for an international-standard track, like Santa Anita and Nad Al Sheba, which can stage top-class racing on a good artificial surface as well as on turf).

The Champion Stakes itself rarely proves a defining end-of-season event in the European season, but New Approach's six-length win rivalled that of Zarkava in the Arc a fortnight earlier, his form at least as good as that he showed when winning the Derby.

The successes of Raven's Pass and New Approach must have banished any disappointment felt by Sheikh Mohammed in the achievements of his Godolphin operation. Both carried the colours of his wife, Princess Haya of Jordan, and provided the first major dividends of the Sheikh's massive spending spree on horses in training during 2007.

It will be another four or five years before the success or otherwise of the unprecedented move can properly be judged, but things could hardly have got off to a better start.

Coolmore has had the better of the battle of racing's 'super powers' in recent seasons, but the tide turned again in favour of the Maktoum interests in the latter part of 2008, particularly at the Breeders' Cup where the two-year-olds Donativum and Midshipman also provided them with winners (Coolmore drew a blank).

Top Three Year Olds in Europe   133    Raven's Pass (USA) 133    Zarkava (Ire) 132    New Approach (Ire) 131    Henrythenavigator (USA) 130    Conduit (Ire) 130    Tartan Bearer (Ire) 129    Paco Boy (Ire) 128    Goldikova (Ire) 127    Vision d'Etat (Fr) 126    Montmartre (Fr) 126    Tamayuz 125    Lady Marian (Ger) 124p  Aqlaam 124    Kamsin (Ger) 124    Kingsgate Native (Ire) 123p  Overdose 123    Look Here 122    Cima de Triomphe (Ire) 122    Falco (USA) 122    Fleeting Spirit (Ire) 122    Frozen Fire (Ger) 122    Lush Lashes 122    Twice Over 121p  Kalahari Gold 121    Equiano (Fr) 121    Famous Name 121    Russian Cross (Ire) 121    Stimulation (Ire) 120    Corrybrough 120    Unsung Heroine (Ire) 119    African Rose 119    Alessandro Volta 119    Ancien Regime 119    Campanologist (USA) 119    Casual Conquest (Ire) 119    Dar Re Mi 119    Moonstone 119    Nahoodh (Ire) 119    Sub Rose (Ire)   Top Older Horses In Europe 132    Duke of Marmalade (Ire) 131§  Papal Bull 131    Youmzain (Ire) 130    Septimus (Ire) 130    Soldier of Fortune (Ire) 129    It's Gino (Ger) 128    Yeats (Ire) 127    Archipenko (USA) 127    Getaway (Ger) 127    Marchand d'Or (Fr) 126    Ask 126    Creachadoir (Ire) 126    Eagle Mountain 126    Jay Peg  (SAF) 126    Mount Nelson 126    Phoenix Tower (USA) 125    Borderlescott 125    Haradasun (Aus) 125    MacArthur 125    Sun Classique (Aus) 124    Cesare 124    Linngari (Ire) 124    Saddex 124§  US Ranger (USA) 123    Adlerflug (Ger) 123    Doctor Dino (Fr) 123    Pipedreamer 123    Sageburg (Ire) 123    Tariq 123    Traffic Guard (USA) Top Two Year Olds in Europe 124p  Crowded House 120    Mastercraftsman (Ire) 119p  Rainbow View (USA) 119    Bushranger (Ire) 118    Art Connoisseur (Ire) 117p  Naaqoos 117    Gallagher 117    Intense Focus (USA) 117    Lord Shanakill (USA) 117    Square Eddie (Can) 116p  Chintz (Ire) 116p  Delegator 116    Ashram (Ire) 116    Finjaan 116    Milanais 115p  Arazan (Ire) 115p  Proportional 115p  Rip Van Winkle (Ire) 115    Jukebox Jury 115    Sayif (Ire) 115    Shaweel   Top Three Year Olds In North America 132    Big Brown 123    Fatal Bullet 123    Music Note 123    Proud Spell 122    Georgie Boy 121    Colonel John 121    Mambo In Seattle 121    Zaftig 120    Da'Tara 120    Eight Belles  120    Indian Blessing  119    Denis of Cork 119    Gayego   Top Older Horses In North America 134    Curlin 130    Midnight Lute 128    Zenyatta 126    Commentator 126    Kip Deville 125    Cost of Freedom 124    Cocoa Beach 124    Go Between 124    Grand Couturier 124    Red Rocks 124    Street Boss 124    Tiago 123    In Summation 123    Well Armed 122    Benny The Bull 122    Better Talk Now 122    Daytona 122    Divine Park 122    Ginger Punch 122    Heatseeker  122    Wanderin Boy 122    Ventura 121    Abraaj 121    Albertus Maximus 121    Greg's Gold 121    Mast Track 121    Nashoba's Key 121    Sudan 120    Carriage Trail 120    Desert Code 120    Einstein 120    First Defence 120    Forever Together 120    Intangaroo 120    Lewis Michael 120    Marsh Side 120    Monterey Jazz 120    Past The Point 120    Rahy's Attorney 120    Spring At Last 120    Student Council 120    Surf Cat The Timeform Rating is the merit of a horse expressed in pounds and is arrived at by careful examination of the horse's performances against those of others. The ratings range from 130+ for top-class performers down to around 20 for the poorest. Symbols attached to the ratings: 'p'-likely to improve' 'P'-capable of much better form; '+'-the horse may be better than we have been able to rate it; '?'-the rating is suspect.