July 2004

Choisir
the vanguard of an Australian invasion?

I was once asked by a friend what exactly I meant when saying a horse looked a 'typical sprinter', since although a keen racegoer he followed 'form' as in the book as opposed to equine physique. Unfortunately I didn't have a horse like Choisir at hand to illustrate my point. A massively built chunky horse, with great bone and not only powerful muscular quarters but a huge shoulder too, Choisir may not be the most beautiful racehorse to have graced the turf at Royal Ascot but he is undoubtedly one of the fastest and toughest and above all, an archetypical sprinter.

Nobody seemed to know much about the chestnut colt by Danehill Dancer with the strange headgear (which bore a striking resemblance to one of Madonna's 'cast-offs') and it was only after Choisir had flashed first past the post to land the King's Stand Stakes that one of our party realised that this was the horse, with the French sounding name, that had been passed on to her as a 'hot tip'! We had good reason to respect the source of this information whose record to that point was 100% in terms of long priced winners at Royal Ascot and now Choisir had triumphed at a healthy 25-1. Since a small investment would have greatly contributed to the cost of our day out, we could only rue the memory loss that allowed such a splendid winner to pass us by.

The victory was some consolation for jockey Johnny Murtagh who had suffered a painful fall in the previous race. Afterwards he admitted that he had only had to 'steer the horse home' but victories such as this are in any case a great panacea for all ills.

Ascot's executives too were thrilled by the victory since it represented a coup for them in their quest to attract high class runners from overseas, and they don't come much further than Choisir who had travelled halfway around the world from Australia to score a historic victory since no Australian trained horse had ever won an English racecourse before - or even in Europe. It had not originally been the plan to run this horse in England. He had been initially targeted at a bigger pot of gold in Singapore but when the race was cancelled due to an outbreak of the Sars virus, he just carried on travelling and ended up becoming a superstar at Royal Ascot instead. Not since the mighty Phar Lap's final victory in Mexico had an Australian horse ventured so far from home and with such success.

As a result, maybe the Australians will now start giving their good horses more credit for overseas victories, but in 2003 'rules' meant that such victories did not even count when it came to voting for the Horse of Year award.

The winning trainer, Paul Perry from New South Wales may not have looked entirely at home wearing a morning suit and top hat, but he seemed to quickly adjust to the excitement and atmosphere of Royal Ascot's unsaddling enclosure. Full of confidence in the physical and mental well being of his horse, he still described the result as 'unbelievable'. Taking the occasion to heart he soon decided to give the topper another airing and declared that Choisir would run again on the final day of the meeting - that the King's Stand 'had put him right' for the Group I Golden Jubilee Stakes. A furlong further to run and a mouth watering clash with Henry Candy's flying filly Airwave was now something to really look forward to.

Choisir's Trainer Paul Perry

Having drawn a favourably low in the King's Stand Stakes, Choisir now had to contend with a draw towards the outside of a large field - stall 20. Since he liked to run from the front this potentially posed a problem, however, Johnny Murtagh knew exactly what he had to do and he let the horse jump out fast and gradually work his way across to the stand's rail. His plan worked perfectly - so perfectly in fact that afterwards he said he knew 1½ furlongs out that nothing would catch him. Describing Choisir as 'a tank of a horse, tough and genuine - and very fast' Johnny urged the horse's connections to leave him in England and he would win everything! Airwave had run well, to finish second and although she was fund to be in season, no one suggested that she had not been beaten by a faster horse...

Choisir was in fact a 3 year old, but due to the Southern Hemisphere breeding schedules he was classified as a 4 year old when running in England and therefore weighted accordingly which made his historic achievement all the more impressive. He became the first horse for 83 years to win the big sprint double at the meeting and he had been the fastest over 6 furlongs on the course. Admittedly his track record was just pipped in the following race, the Wokingham, but Choisir had shown blistering speed on the firm ground. It had been 20 years since the last horse to score a double at the meeting, Stanerra. Not only had Choisir become the star of Royal Ascot but he had acquired a celebrity status of a kind which transcends national barriers. Not surprisingly Australians had stayed up all night watching his exploits on TV, but British racegoers had equally taken him to their hearts.

© Sue Wingate - The Joy of Horses 2004