Mocking Godolphin's much-vaunted but oft-disappointing spring army has become a bit of a blood sport in the last couple of decades. Overhyped flops like Mamool, Faithful Son and Kayf Tara (through no fault of his own) have ventured south with fearsome reputations, but have often been upstaged either by the locals, or by their less-credentialled travelling companions, who have been allowed to bowl along happily at the front of Cup fields and run plenty of cheeky races at odds (think Central Park,
Mocking Godolphin's much-vaunted but oft-disappointing spring army has become a bit of a blood sport in the last couple of decades. Overhyped flops like Mamool, Faithful Son and Kayf Tara (through no fault of his own) have ventured south with fearsome reputations, but have often been upstaged either by the locals, or by their less-credentialled travelling companions, who have been allowed to bowl along happily at the front of Cup fields and run plenty of cheeky races at odds (think Central Park, Give The Slip, Beekeeper...).
Well it appears all that good-natured prodding of the royal blue-clad bluebloods may have come back to haunt us, with So You Think, our champion-of-champions to whom surely none would come close abroad, gunned down in a desperate finish by Godolphin's Rewilding in the G1 Prince Of Wales Stakes last night. With a Lanfranco Dettori star-jump putting the exclamation mark on Rewilding's stunning drive to victory, I was hit pretty hard by the pictures beamed across the world from England last night (although I did enjoy that eccentrically barbered and dressed 'Big Mac' fellow (pictured below)unleashing his foul-mouthed tirade about not knowing 'the f***ing name of that f***ing horse', apparently mistaken in the belief that he was basking in the blissful boundary-less freedoms of every broadcaster's faithful friend, 'off-air'). To see So You Think beaten is always upsetting, but this one hurt just that little bit more, and I suspect there were more than a few knowing "I told you he wasn't that good's" heard around Royal Ascot yesterday. The proud So You Think - with his beautiful black mane and tempestuous forelock - would have been upset no doubt had he got wind of such accusations of mediocrity. However, according to the philosophy of the sagacious Ivana Trump - former-wife of Donald 'Obama is really Kenyan' - the five-year-old son of High Chaparral can take solace in the fact that he is still well in front, for as we all (now) know, 'Gorgeous hair is the best revenge'.
