Encouragement from Stravinsky and co for Guineas flop Little Big Bear

At Haydock on Saturday last year’s top two-year-old Little Big Bear will bid to get his career back on track in the Sandy Lane Stakes. That means a quick return to sprinting and, for now at least, seemingly the end of any ambitions of making him into a miler. Three weeks earlier, Little Big Bear was sent off the 5/1 second favourite for the 2000 Guineas but trailed home last. It was too bad a performance to simply write Little Big Bear off as a non-stayer, something confirmed by a veterinary inspection afterwards which revealed him to have finished lame on his right hind.

With stallion careers in mind, Little Big Bear’s part-owner and Coolmore supremo John Magnier has spoken in the past of the ‘great commercial pressure to get the mile…you have to keep trying to get it if you possibly can.’ It wasn’t just a case of hoping for the best either, as Little Big Bear’s pedigree, or at least the dam’s side of it, gave him every chance of staying the 2000 Guineas trip.

But that’s academic now given that connections are reverting to what Little Big Bear did best at two when he won his last four starts over five and six furlongs, culminating in a devastating performance to win the Phoenix Stakes by seven lengths (replay below).

Unlimited race replays of all UK & Irish racing

Access to exclusive features all for FREE - No monthly subscription fee

Log in with your existing Sporting Life, Sky Bet, or Sky Games account. If you don't have any of those, it's completely FREE to register!

If Little Big Bear does excel at sprinting again this season, he’ll be just the latest among several Ballydoyle colts over the years who have made a huge success of their ‘plan B’ after failing over longer trips first. Apart from the commercial incentive Magnier mentioned, until recently there was another good reason for making the 2000 Guineas an early-season target for a leading colt, even one not certain to get the trip – there was no alternative.

But all that changed with the creation of the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in 2015, a Group 1 sprint restricted to three-year-olds who previously had no option but to take on older rivals if kept to sprinting. Aidan O’Brien won the third running of the Commonwealth Cup with Caravaggio, he too a clear-cut winner of the Phoenix Stakes on his final start at two, having previously won the Coventry Stakes. A speedy son of Scat Daddy (Little Big Bear’s grandsire), had he been racing only years earlier, Caravaggio might well have started his three-year-old campaign in the 2000 Guineas but instead took in the Lacken Stakes, the Irish trial for the Commonwealth Cup, on the way to following up at Royal Ascot.

But there was no programme specifically for three-year-old sprinters when the top-class pair Stravinsky and Mozart became champion sprinters for Ballydoyle around the millennium. O’Brien was therefore being hard on himself when, speaking after Stravinsky won him his first July Cup in 1999, he claimed he’d made ‘an awful mess of it up to now’, adding ‘I was asking him to do something he just wasn’t able to do.’

Stravinsky never actually ran over a mile though he was ante-post favourite for the 2000 Guineas in the spring after ending his two-year-old season by finishing third in the Dewhurst. After an odds-on defeat over seven furlongs at the Curragh on his reappearance, Stravinsky ended up missing the 2000 Guineas because of fears about the ground and made his next start, over seven furlongs again, in the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot where he finished only fourth.

But, with a visor fitted and dropped in trip, Stravinsky improved dramatically on his next start. ‘The colt didn’t just beat his rivals in the July Cup – he destroyed them, and from the moment he passed the post there was little doubt where the title ‘champion sprinter’ was going.’ said Racehorses. Stravinsky won by four lengths in a record time and underlined just how well sprinting suited him by following up over five furlongs in the Nunthorpe.

Just two years later Mozart completed the same July Cup-Nunthorpe double but only after no fewer than four tries earlier that season over longer trips. His trainer had even spoken of him as a possible Kentucky Derby runner in the spring. Mozart was a son of Danehill who himself finished third in the 2000 Guineas but later excelled as a sprinter, winning the Cork And Orrery Stakes (now the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes) at Royal Ascot and the Sprint Cup at Haydock.

Mozart was fourth in the Dewhurst on his final start at two and was beaten at odds on in Ireland in his first two starts at three, firstly over a mile and then over seven furlongs. Back at a mile, he showed lots of speed in the Irish 2000 Guineas but was collared well inside the final furlong by stablemate Black Minnaloushe. Adopting the same tactics, Mozart managed to last home in front back over seven in the Jersey Stakes but only just, having a neck to spare, prompting his trainer to say – probably not for the last time about one of his colts – ‘I’ve never seen a horse with his pace.’ Mozart was given the chance to prove O’Brien right that ‘speed was his thing’ in the July Cup and produced a breathtaking performance to win by nearly as far as Stravinsky did before following up at York despite a slipping saddle.

O’Brien’s more recent pair of three-year-old winners of the July Cup, U S Navy Flag and Ten Sovereigns, also began their seasons as would-be Guineas colts. U S Navy Flag, who had completed the Middle Park Stakes-Dewhurst double at two before finishing well beaten over further on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was persevered with over a mile to begin with at three. Rather than the 2000 Guineas itself (won that year by stablemate Saxon Warrior), U S Navy Flag contested the French and Irish versions instead, finishing fifth and second respectively, after trailing home last of four on his reappearance in the 2000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown over seven furlongs on heavy ground.

With Ballydoyle having three other runners to contest the Commonwealth Cup, including favourite Sioux Nation, U S Navy Flag was kept to a mile at Royal Ascot for the St James’s Palace Stakes but gave himself little chance of seeing out the mile and weakened to beat only one home. That speed was duly seen to better effect in the July Cup where he proved better than ever, making all under an aggressive ride.

A year later, Ten Sovereigns became Ballydoyle’s latest July Cup winner. Ten Sovereigns was sent off the 9/4 favourite for the 2000 Guineas after winning all three of his starts over six furlongs at two, notably the Middle Park Stakes. He didn’t run badly to finish fifth behind stablemate Magna Grecia but he was soon back sprinting, going straight to Royal Ascot for the Commonwealth Cup. Sent off at even money, that move didn’t bring immediate success as he finished only fourth behind Advertise, another colt who had contested the 2000 Guineas, but Ten Sovereigns was well backed to make amends in the July Cup and ran out an authoritative winner with Advertise back in second.

Like Ten Sovereigns, Little Big Bear is a son of No Nay Never, but they may have more than that in common if Little Big Bear can put his Guineas flop behind him on Saturday on the way to winning a Group 1 sprint in the next month or two.

• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org