Monday Musings: Of Kubler’s King, and Double Impact geegeez.co.uk

I know I should be dedicating much of today’s article to celebrating France’s successful conclusion to their horseracing Holy Grail – finding an unbeaten three-year-old colt who can win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, preferably as the favourite for Europe’s greatest race, writes Tony Stafford.

As I watched on a nice big screen at a much more leisurely Epsom racecourse yesterday, I picked out the motionless Christian Demuro near the back of the 15-horse field and not for one moment did I think Ace Impact wouldn’t win.

The sprint, when it finally came, was prototype “Arc”, Ace Impact sailing past them all down the outside with any doubts about stamina, class, or anything else you care to mention, made totally irrelevant by the manner of the win.

France has a true champion, one going by an appropriate name that is sure to adorn many colts and fillies down the road. Sir Philip Oppenheimer can be proud of the sire, Cracksman, bred by him from Frankel out of a Pivotal mare and now standing at Darley Stud.

Unlike Golden Horn, which he also bred, Cracksman didn’t win the Derby, finishing third to one of the least remembered winners, Wings Of Eagles and Padraig Beggy - although one that John Gosden, Cracksman’s trainer, thought a talented performer who might have gone further had he not finished lame in the Irish Derby in which he was a close third to stablemate Capri.

Ace Impact’s owners, who shelled out €75k for him as a yearling at the Deauville August sale of 2021 can sit back and wait for the offers to come flying in. The previous Jean-Claude Rouget winner of the race was Sotssass, who is now standing at stud at Coolmore at a fee of €25k. His racing owner Peter Brant was at Newmarket on Saturday.

We had a chat as the juvenile Group races were adding lustre to the first part of the card but, in the manner of racing at the top end, I’m not sure Peter had much of a second glance at the Cambridgeshire. I said here last week how it’s one of my favourite races and having made the 20/1 winner Astro King my best bet of the day in Trainers Quotes, a line I manage every day, I like the race even more.

I did mention that had Silver Sword been left in by Dylan Cunha, he would have been my confident choice, but the South African, who will be moving into the soon-to-retire William Jarvis’ Phantom House Stables, thought it would be coming too soon after his run in a Listed race at Sandown.

He knows best and that at least eased up the chance to stay with a horse I’d latched onto before the John Smith’s Cup at York in July when he started the astonishingly big price of 50/1 considering what an eye-catcher the ex-Sir Michael Stoute horse had been two races previously on first start for his new stable at Yarmouth.

Daniel and Claire Kubler train the six-year-old Astro King, who had been coming to win his race at York, going narrowly past the leader with a thrilling late run only to be caught in mid-stride, not by the winner so much as the camera which just happened to be situated at the only spot that would have counted against him.

Victory in the John Smith’s would have been a feather in the double Kubler cap. Instead, they had to wait for the Ebor meeting to make amends, the gelding having been raised 3lb, but still having plenty left to continue his upward trend in the Clipper Logistics handicap earning £51k in the process.

Astro King had been a buy from the Sir Mchael Stoute stable at the 2022 Horses in Training sales at Newmarket, for £36k having been originally bought as a yearling for 375,000gns from Book 1 of the October Yearling sales there four years earlier.

Sir Michael had nudged him into the low hundreds by his four-year-old days but after a less successful than expected five-year-old season, Desert Crown’s owner decided to draw stumps.

He had finished second (2021) and fourth in successive Royal Hunt Cup challenges, so understandably that was the first major handicap targeted by the Kublers. That race came between the Yarmouth eye-opener and the John Smith’s so when he trailed home only 21 of 30 at the Royal meeting, it would have been understandable if they had lost faith.

Instead, they embarked on a path mirroring and far out-performing what Sir Michael had achieved two years earlier, the Hunt Cup excepted.

As a four-year old he was 12 of 20 in the John Smith’s as the 7/1 joint-favourite and a close third in the Clipper, again as joint market-leader. He was off 102 when beating only one home in that year’s Cambridgeshire on his final start.

On Saturday, having been raised to 107 after the Ebor meeting win, he topped the weights with a massive 9st12lb. I’ve been limited in my research, lists of pre-1977 winners appearing without the weights carried, but certainly over the past 100 years this has been the biggest weight carried to victory.

It came with quite a comfortable course along the favoured stands side from his draw right on the rail in 35. Richard Kingscote was unhurried and once his determined mount hit the front in the last furlong, he was always holding the excessively gambled-on favourite Greek Order by half a length. Winner and second are both by Kingman but the runner-up, who was receiving 17lb, is a Juddmonte home-bred.

Dan Kubler began training in 2012 and in his first nine campaigns never won more than eleven races in a season. Those numbers have moved up markedly since adding wife Claire’s name to the licence. Claire is the daughter of their principal owners, breeders Gary and Lesley Middlebrook.

A feature of their training pattern has been the willingness to target the valuable prizes on offer in such as the Racing League and Sunday series, so that already this year, from 18 wins at 15% they have amassed £462k, far exceeding 2022’s whole year tally of £326k.

Claire, a qualified accountant, grew up around horses at her parents’ stud. Dan didn’t waste his time either, working for Roger Charlton and Jeremy Noseda in the UK and having spells with Ben Cecil in the US, Francois Doumen in France and Gai Waterhouse in Australia.

Saturday’s great win will give their upwardly mobile career a big boost, not only because of winning a major, prestigious race, but also with a weight-carrying record to boot. I expect a lot of prospective owners will be looking up their Google maps to find their way to Sarsen Farm, Upper Lambourn.

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I enjoyed a first yesterday. I’ve often tagged onto the end of the scrum inside the Epsom winner’s circle after the Derby or Oaks and watched from near but at the same time oh so far away as the Queen, attended by Bernard Kantor in the days his bank Investec were the Classics’ sponsors, presented the winner’s trophy.

Yesterday, with neither of Strong Impact’s owners in attendance, I represented Ed Babington and my friend Jonathan Barnett as their promising maiden filly gained a facile first win after three good second places this year.

She was long odds-on to do so, but what was a surprise was when Anthony Kemp told me that Clare Balding was there to deliver the very nice glass bowl that went to the winner.

I understand the plan is to keep the 81-rated Roger Varian filly, a daughter of Saxon Warrior, in training as a four-year-old and she has the temperament and physique to develop into a high-class handicapper. The Gary Moore-trained runner-up Soigneux Bell should be watched out for, as he is about to make a start in juvenile hurdles after his second to Strong Impact, trying to concede 12lb. He won his sole race in France over two miles back in May, considering which he showed decent speed over this ten furlongs.

As we waited for the winner’s parcel to be made up, we reminisced that I had actually given Clare her first paid journalistic assignment in the racing pages of the Daily Telegraph. Everything is so long ago, and she revealed that the lovely regular walks she does for Radio Four have been going for 24 years. She has an idea for a special guest for the Silver Anniversary edition next year but I dare not reveal who she hopes willl join her.