From the Rails: Bacio Blows York Apart as a Huge Weekend Awaits
Racing news, opinion, and the stories that matter.
York has seen plenty of outstanding American sprinters over the years, but there was something wonderfully uncomplicated about the way Bacio went about winning Friday’s Coolmore City of Troy Nunthorpe Stakes. Wesley Ward had brought his Royal Ascot winner back across the Atlantic with the softer ground providing the obvious question mark, yet within a remarkably short space of time it became apparent that neither the conditions nor Europe’s best five-furlong horses were going to inconvenience him very much.
Juan Hernandez was positive from the moment the gates opened and, with Night Raider initially attempting to follow him, Bacio quickly had the field operating at a tempo of his choosing. Hernandez was even afforded the luxury of looking around for dangers before the serious racing had begun, and although Starlust and Rumstar eventually emerged from the pack to chase him home, the official winning margin of a length and a quarter rather understates the authority of the performance.
Bacio never really looked like being caught.
There is always something particularly compelling about a top-class sprinter who can impose himself on a race in that fashion. Five-furlong contests at this level are usually decided by fractions, with one awkward stride or moment’s hesitation capable of changing the result, but Bacio took much of that uncertainty out of proceedings by simply being faster than the horses around him.
For Hernandez, who began his riding career in Mexico before establishing himself in America, a first York winner on one of British racing’s biggest stages was understandably special. For Ward, it was another reminder that his best speed horses can travel, adapt and compete with Europe’s finest when the right opportunity presents itself.
Perhaps the horse to take from the race without winning was Time For Sandals. Harry Eustace’s filly was travelling strongly towards the rear but found herself short of room when the race was developing, and after being checked again when trying to find another route through, she eventually flew home to finish fourth. Whether she could ever have troubled Bacio is another matter — the winner had already gone — but she ran considerably better than the finishing position alone might suggest.
Farewell to Asfoora
The Nunthorpe also marked the end of a rather wonderful European adventure for Asfoora, who finished eighth on her final racecourse appearance.
The Australian mare didn’t get her preferred conditions at York and was unable to reproduce the form which had made her such a popular figure on these shores, but one disappointing afternoon should hardly be allowed to colour what she achieved.
International runners are often talked about as being good for racing, but Asfoora actually demonstrated why.
Henry Dwyer brought her halfway around the world and, rather than appearing once before disappearing home again, she became a familiar part of the European sprinting scene. Victory in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot was followed by success in the Nunthorpe and the Prix de l’Abbaye during three campaigns in Europe, giving British and French racegoers the chance to become properly acquainted with her.
There is something racing loses when international competition becomes little more than an occasional flying visit. Asfoora was different; she stayed around long enough to become one of ours for a while, even though everybody knew she wasn’t.
She leaves with an outstanding record and, more importantly, having added something to the races in which she competed.
Flooring Porter Leaves With His Reputation Secure
There was another retirement announced on Friday, although from a very different part of the racing world, as Gavin Cromwell called time on the career of Flooring Porter following the recurrence of an injury.
At 11, there was nothing left for him to prove.
His back-to-back Stayers’ Hurdle victories at Cheltenham in 2021 and 2022 would have been enough to guarantee his place among the outstanding staying hurdlers of his generation, but Flooring Porter’s appeal always extended beyond the bare record.
The second Cheltenham success probably told his story best.
His first had come behind closed doors during the Covid restrictions, but twelve months later the owners were there, the crowds were back and Flooring Porter did it all over again. For a horse owned by a group of people who clearly enjoyed every minute of the journey, it was difficult to imagine a more appropriate return to the Festival.
He later finished second to Teahupoo in the 2024 Stayers’ Hurdle and added the Kerry National to a record which eventually contained three Grade 1 victories, demonstrating a versatility and toughness which made him far more than a horse associated with one race.
Cromwell reports that he retires in good health and is heading back to his owners, which is exactly the ending everybody wants for horses who have given connections and racegoers as much as Flooring Porter has.
Cheltenham will produce new staying heroes, as it always does, but those green and gold colours bowling along near the front became one of the familiar sights of the Festival for several years.
He’ll be remembered fondly.
The Ebor Takes Centre Stage
There isn’t much opportunity for sentimentality at York because Saturday brings one of the great betting races of the Flat season, and this year’s Ebor has once again attracted a field with a strong Irish presence.
Six of the last ten winners have been trained in Ireland and Willie Mullins, who knows rather more than most about turning ostensibly unlikely candidates into major Flat handicap winners, returns with another intriguing contender in Love Me Tender.
The four-year-old is particularly difficult to assess because British handicappers have relatively little evidence with which to work. He won both his races in Germany before finishing fourth in Listed company in France last autumn and now makes his first start for Mullins from a mark of 96.
That could prove perfectly fair.
It could also prove anything but.
What makes the story even more interesting is the ownership. Love Me Tender carries the HOS Syndicate colours which have already been successful in the Ebor with Ethical Diamond last year and Absurde in 2023, and it would be quite something if they were to complete three consecutive victories with three different horses.
Henry de Bromhead returns with last year’s runner-up Ascending, while Ryan Moore partners Emit for Joseph O’Brien, adding further strength to an Irish challenge which has transformed the recent history of a race once regarded as quintessentially English.
For many punters, whatever Group 1 racing takes place around it, the Ebor will still be the race they have spent the week trying to solve.
Some traditions survive for good reason.
Notable Speech Adds Class to the City of York
There is Group 1 business elsewhere on Saturday’s York card, with the City of York Stakes having only recently joined racing’s top tier but already attracting a field worthy of its new status.
Notable Speech brings established Group 1 quality for Godolphin and has landed an interesting draw on the rail, while Zaveteri starts alongside him and is understandably regarded as one of the principal dangers.
Aidan O’Brien relies on Puerto Rico, whose season hasn’t developed as connections might once have hoped. He had been considered a genuine Classic prospect but has increasingly found himself playing a supporting role behind Gstaad at the major meetings, and first-time cheekpieces now provide another clue that Ballydoyle are looking for something different from him.
Seven furlongs at York should leave nowhere to hide.
Diamond Necklace Has One More Box to Tick
If York dominates Saturday, attention shifts across the Channel on Sunday when Diamond Necklace attempts to give Aidan O’Brien one of the relatively few major European prizes missing from his record.
The Prix Jean Romanet has somehow escaped Ballydoyle despite O’Brien’s extraordinary success across virtually every other corner of the European Group 1 programme, and it is difficult to imagine him arriving with a stronger candidate than this.
Diamond Necklace is unbeaten in six starts, four of them at Group 1 level, having already won the French 1,000 Guineas and Oaks before defeating older fillies and mares in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood. She is now prominent in the betting for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, although O’Brien has understandably chosen to keep her against her own sex at Deauville for the time being.
Aventure provides serious French opposition, while Diamond Necklace is joined by Ballydoyle stablemates Moments Of Joy and Beautify, with Red Letter and Rebel Moon adding further Irish interest.
There will be bigger questions if Diamond Necklace eventually takes her chance in the Arc, particularly when she steps outside the protection of races restricted to fillies and mares, but she has answered everything asked of her so far.
Sunday provides the next examination.
One Meeting Ends, Another Weekend Begins
The great racing festivals have a habit of producing stories faster than anybody can properly digest them, and this week at York has been no exception. Sun Goddess announced herself as a filly of considerable potential on Thursday, Bacio brought American speed to the Knavesmire on Friday, and Saturday now gives us the Ebor alongside another Group 1 contest before attention begins to drift towards Deauville.
Yet among all the talk of future champions and major prizes, two of Friday’s stories belonged to horses whose journeys have reached their end.
Asfoora leaves European racing having proved what can happen when international horses are campaigned here rather than merely visiting, while Flooring Porter retires after giving his owners the sort of experience most people entering racehorse ownership can only dream about.
That contrast is part of what makes a weekend like this so compelling. Racing is forever looking for the next one, whether that is another Group 1 sprinter, a future Classic winner or the latest Willie Mullins handicap plot waiting to be uncovered.
Every so often, though, it is worth looking back at the good ones as they leave.
They are the reason we’re so interested in finding the next one in the first place.
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