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racing_news/
Ouija Board Set To Weave Her Magic In Audemars Piguet QE II Cup 17/04/06
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“I still have no idea how she won it. I still feel the same fear and dread watching that video as I remember on the day itself when she was last for three-quarters of the race.”
Teddy Stanley, as he is otherwise known, was not the only one to be shocked by her late surge with racecaller David Raphael unable to prevent himself describing Ouija Board as ‘a wonder filly’ after witnessing her loiter at the back for so long in slow fractions and yet win so easily.
Next Sunday the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup presents a fresh challenge for a mare who knows a bit about challenges, with a 14-race career that has yielded wins in four countries and on three continents. But whilst the thousands of miles distance from her Newmarket home is no worry for the brilliant five-year-old, one can be sure that there will be plenty of media probing into the suitability of the drop back to 2,000m, not to mention her recent failure in the Dubai Sheema Classic.
Her owner does not sound worried on the distance front. “In fact we used to think that 2,000m was her best trip. Now we would probably say that it was 2,400m but I don't think it is significant, though we will be a bit more anxious about her post position this time,” he says.
Her defeat in Dubai remains a moot point, the fact that she lost not a bit of weight during it suggests that she was not fully involved in an unusual race in which the first three in the early stages were also the first three at the end.
Cameras caught Ouija Board's unusually tall and usually composed trainer Ed Dunlop repeatedly running his hands through his blond locks in frustration as he unsaddled her and, by heaping praise on winning jockey Christophe Lemaire, he gave a good imitation of a man who was partially blaming his own jockey, Kieren Fallon. Either way the 37-year-old Newmarket trainer, whose former main patron Maktoum Al Maktoum died in January, gloomily described the mare’s Dubai venture as “an unsatisfactory race in every respect.”
Dunlop also believes that racing at an unfamiliar time of year and leaving a particularly cold spell in Britain for the heat of Dubai did not help her cause, whilst an impartial view comes from Henry Rix, racehorse owner and Britain’s most influential tipster.
“You can put a line through Quija Board's run in Dubai, just forget it. Nor is there any point in blaming Fallon, going down that route is usually unhelpful.”
With Fallon otherwise engaged in major Irish trials for the Vodafone Derby next Sunday, Frankie Dettori will be the man in the Hong Kong hotseat, and will be as keen as mustard to maintain his 100 per cent winning strike-rate on the filly he rode to win the Princess Royal Stakes at Newmarket last September.
When the Italian partnered Ouija Board in a spin at Newmarket on Wednesday he reported that she gave him the same sort of feel as then - good news gratefully received by the owner who is currently enjoying a family skiing holiday in the Alps.
Ouija Board's was being written off less than a year ago after a succession
of injuries - including a thrown splint, a bruised heel and most significantly
a stress fracture to her near-fore cannonbone. Despite having been 2004 Horse
Of The Year in Europe, her name disappeared from the headlines and even her
trainer admitted that he had “mentally closed the
book on her.”
With the devoted support of the team around her and what her trainer describes as her own 'fantastic attitude' she not only bounced back for that fairytale Hong Kong win but also cemented her popularity in Britain.
Owner Lord Derby has turned down an invitation to a thanksgiving ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday celebrations next weekend, but he is unlikely to find himself sent to the tower for being at Sha Tin instead. Especially if Ouija Board provides a famous British victory in the race named in honour of the monarch.
