Ahead of Paddington’s bid for a fifth Group 1 of the season in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York next Wednesday, Tony McFadden looks at which horses trained in Europe have put together the most impressive campaigns in the last 30 years.
Sea The Stars is one of only 13 turf horses in Timeform’s history to have earned a rating of 140 or higher on the Flat. But his greatness and legacy derives not only from the lofty level he was able to reach, but the unparalleled campaign he put together as a three-year-old.
Sea The Stars won a remarkable six Group 1s in 2009, landing a top-level contest each month from the 2000 Guineas over a mile in May until he signed off with an impressive victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe over a mile and a half in October.
In the interim he landed the Derby at Epsom – becoming the first 2000 Guineas winner since Nashwan in 1989 to complete the double – the Eclipse, the International and the Irish Champion Stakes, in which he put up his best performance on Timeform’s figures.
No horse in Europe in the last 30 years can match his tally of six Group 1s in a season.
The Iron Horse
Like Paddington, Giant’s Causeway was also having his sixth start of the campaign when winning the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and prior to that he too had beaten a high-class older rival in the Eclipse at Sandown. There are also similarities earlier in their campaigns as they both landed the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and contested the Irish 2000 Guineas, though Giant’s Causeway had to settle for second at the Curragh.
Giant’s Causeway earned the moniker ‘the Iron Horse’ for the teak-tough attitude that saw him rack up five Group 1s on the bounce, with no victory achieved by more than three-quarters of a length, while the cumulative total of those five wins was only a length and three-quarters
Giant’s Causeway – whose haul also included the Sussex, the International and the Irish Champion Stakes – never finished outside the first two and ran ten times during his three-year-old campaign, with nine of those starts coming at the highest level.
Only four horses trained in Europe in the last 30 years have competed in more top-level contests during a single year: Magic Wand (11), Mother Earth (10), Imperial Dancer (10) and Falbrav (10).
The Globetrotter
Falbrav started his career in Italy, winning a trio of Group 1s as a four-year-old, most notably the 2002 Japan Cup, and the success continued after he joined Luca Cumani for an action-packed campaign in 2003.
Falbrav ran ten times as a five-year-old – all at the highest level – and he won five races in three countries, landing the Prix d’Ispahan in France, the Eclipse, International and QEII in Britain and the Hong Kong Cup in, unsurprisingly, Hong Kong.
He also went close to adding top-level prizes in Ireland and the USA to his tally as he was an unlucky runner-up to High Chaparral in the Irish Champion Stakes (he was persistently short of room in the straight) and was then a close-up third behind that rival and Johar who dead-heated in an epic edition of the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Phenomenon of the sport
Another horse who achieved five Group 1s during a single campaign was the legendary Frankel. His five victories in 2012 included an 11-length success in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot that earned him a rating of 147, the highest figure awarded to a horse in Timeform’s history.
Only 13 Flat horses have achieved a rating of 140 or higher on turf yet in 2012 alone Frankel posted four such performances, also passing that notable benchmark in the Lockinge, Sussex and International.
His other effort was still an outstanding one as he earned a performance rating of 139 for his Champion Stakes success.
O’Brien’s dominance
Frankel, whose career was masterminded by Sir Henry Cecil, is one of nine horses trained in Europe in the last 30 years who won five Group 1s in a single campaign.
Four of those – Giant’s Causeway, Duke of Marmalade, Minding and Rock of Gibraltar – were trained by Aidan O’Brien, whose horses dominate the list of horses who have contested the most Group/Grade 1s in a season.
Only 11 horses trained in Europe have contested nine or more top-level races in a single campaign and O’Brien has been responsible for seven of them.
Yes, O’Brien has more horses of Group 1 calibre than other trainers, so it stands to reason that he will be the most heavily represented, but his willingness to keep his thriving horses busy is notable and it suggests that if Paddington holds his form he will be presented with plenty more opportunities to carve out a memorable campaign.
A nod to Winx
If expanding the search beyond Europe the list is dominated by horses trained in Australia. That is partly explained by there being significantly more Group 1s in Australia than Britain or Ireland, though it’s still notable that Winx, whose peak rating of 134 identifies her as among the top dozen fillies or mares in Timeform’s history, won six top-level races in 2016 and 2017, while in 2018 she notched a remarkable seven successes. Another ace Aussie in Black Caviar won six Group 1s in 2011, while American Pharoah also won six Grade 1s, including the US Triple Crown, during a spectacular campaign in 2015.
Article first published July 10, updated on August 16
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