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Britain’s first televised stewards’ enquiry just had to have a French connection.
Alright so Christophe Soumillon is one of that rare breed - famous Belgians - but his mount Stacelita is trained by Jean-Claude Rouget and they were interfered with by the winner Midday in the closing stages of the Group One Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.
The stewards hid the port and cheese and began their historic enquiry: there were to be no dramas.
“Mr Queally” and “Mr Soumillon”, as they were politely addressed by the officials, had little sense of occasion. Neither jockeys noses grew appreciably during the questioning, and they told their tales deadpan, showing none of the fight and resolution they’d both put into the race finish.
The juicy bits were left out – BHA censors would not allow viewing of the stewards’ actually deliberating (perhaps over another port) or even any pertinent comments such as the colour of their ties or the state of their Panamas.
Stewards don’t ‘do’ irony so Goodwood's probably didn’t have events at Longchamp last October in mind when deciding the result should stand.
Their French counterparts found a rule to eject Dar Re Mi from the Prix Vermeille in favour of… Stacelita. This was no tit for tat though. Midday, at last free of her nemesis Sariska, deserved to keep the race as she outmuscled Stacelita.
Yet the Goodwood stewards gave Queally a two-day ban for careless riding so one still harbours doubt as to whether the result would have stayed the same in France. And when French enquiries are televised, how much will cameras affect the result? They would have been kept rolling a long time at Longchamp after the Vermeille.
Stacelita is a remarkably consistent filly whose one poor race came behind Goldikova in this year’s d’Ispahan. But then Goldikova causes most rivals to quail and in the first Group One of the Deauville season, the Prix Rothschild, she only had Mick Channon’s Music Show to beat.
Harbinger may be the best horse in the world on official ratings but he has some way to go to match Goldikova’s ten Group One triumphs.
Freddie Head’s mare turned the Rothschild into the formality her odds predicted.
This was her third victory in a race once called the d’Astarte. Maybe it should be changed again, to the ‘Goldikova’.
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Frogwatch, by Rolf Johnson 
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