Great weekend of racing at Santa Anita

What a fantastic weekend of racing to go out on with my final column for the season! I started last weekend off in fine style at Dundalk when we won with Leandros and Cosmic Breeze, both superbly ridden by Keagan Latham who is now, unfortunately, heading home to South Africa on Tuesday next, 4th November for a well earned holiday before he moves on to Dubai for the winter. Yes, he will be back here next season riding for us and I must say he has been a pleasure to have around the place. He has ridden 22 winners this season, of which 20 were for Glenburnie and I would like to think that next year he will get more rides from other trainers as they have got to know him this year. The main event of the weekend however was over on the west coast of the USA in Santa Anita, California, where for the first time, there was a two -day Breeders Cup festival. It was also the first time that the Breeders Cup was staged on a synthetic surface, as Santa Anita races on the Pro Ride surface which is comparable to the Polytrack at Dundalk. Friday night was ladies night, or should I say fillies and mares night! Aidan O"Brien and Johnny Murtagh went as close as you possibly could without winning when they just failed in the Juvenile Fillies Turf with Heart Shaped. Unfortunately, this trend continued and the Ballydoyle team failed to hit the winners" circle and, for them, an otherwise fantastic season fizzled out without a Breeders Cup win. The performance of Heart Shape did, however, boost the form of my filly Pasar Silbano which is off to California on Wednesday, 5th November to race on Sunday, 16th at Hollywood Park. Pasar Silbano finished third to Heart Shaped at the Curragh earlier in the season on ground that did not suit and as this is a listed race at Hollywood Park I feel she could take a lot of beating, subject to her travelling without any problems. Ventura won the Fillies and Mares Sprint and this was a great success for Juddmonte Farms, they have a base near Kilcock under the expert guidance of Rory Mahon. Rory would have foaled this mare and broke her in before she went into training with Amanda Perrett where she won three races before going to America. This, I think, was the fifth Breeders Cup winner to come from this exceptional farm and it"s to Rory"s huge credit that this success is achieved. Without question, the performance of the night was the exceptional filly Zenyatta in the Ladies Classic when she came from last to first to bring her unbeaten record to nine. She could win horse-of-the-year off the back of this and amazingly, in this day and age, she is to stay in training next year, which can only be good for the sport. Saturday evening at Santa Anita promised to be a great night for anyone interested in racing with some fantastic racing on offer. Believe me, the Breeders Cup fulfilled its promise and we witnessed some great racing. The night started off with the Breeders Cup Marathon and this was won by Muhannak, last seen winning a listed race at Dundalk. He beat my horse Fiery Lad into third that night and Keagan felt that we should have won that as he probably gave Fiery Lad too much to do on the night. Anyway, it was a great shot in the arm for our form and, more importantly, to the importance of Dundalk on the international racing scene. Fiery Lad will hopefully run in the Carlingford Stakes at Dundalk on Friday, 7th November. The English and the Irish fought out the colts Juvenile Turf championship when Donativum and Frankie Dettori beat Westphalia and Johnny Murtagh in another close finish. That was as close as the Coolmore guys got as the weekend was definitely hijacked by Darley and they had a day to remember even by their high standards. Conduit put up a career best in winning the Emirates Airline Breeders Cup Turf beating Eagle Mountain and Soldier of Fortune (fourth). I was not impressed with Conduit"s win in the St Leger as it looked a slog. However, all credit must go to his trainer Sir Michael Stoute who was winning a fourth Breeders Cup following success with Pilsudski, Kalanisi and Islington, he obviously has the Midas touch in this race. Conduit looks an improving horse and could be an interesting prospect, if kept in training. The Breeders Cup Classic was billed as the world championship horse race with the great Curlin taking on the brilliant Duke of Marmalade and the two fantastic three-year-olds, Raven"s Pass and Henrythenavigator. Both three-year-olds were stepping up in trip for the first time and what a boost they gave to their generation when they finished first and second leaving the big guys well and truly beaten. These two have been banging heads all season and Raven"s Pass only beat Henry once, but there can be no doubt now that he has matured into the better horse, especially over this longer trip. In my opinion Henrythenavigator is the best miler while Raven"s Pass is now a world champion, without question. Either way, what an exceptional group of three-year-olds we have witnessed this season. Now, any of you who know me, know that I am not a Dettori fan, but the ride he gave Raven"s Pass was top class. He tracked Curlin and pounced when it mattered and only John Velazquez on Henrythenavigator deserves equal credit - both rides were world class. Yeats went to Longchamp on Sunday and got the Ballydoyle bandwagon back on the Group 1-winning trail when he strolled to victory in the Prix Royal-Oak over the extended mile and seven furlongs. Despite their lack of winners at Santa Anita, this capped a tremendous season for Aidan O"Brien, Johnny Murtagh and all their team. A lot has happened in this country over the course of the current flat season. We are definitely in different economic times now and we all need to think and behave differently, at least until things settle down. Our game is very much going to be affected by the current economic climate, but it will be just a case of everyone cutting their cloth to suit. This very much includes the HRI who are in charge of the financial side of our industry. There have been huge plans over the last few years to improve our racing facilities around the country. Some have been badly needed and some have been, to this eye, a complete waste of money. I would like to think that a lot of the major plans would go on the back boiler for the moment and that good clear heads will take control and run the industry the way it should be, that is as economically viable as possible. Simple things like the over-staffing at races should be considered. It continues to baffle me why, at some meetings, we need so many staff when it would seem we don"t have that many paying customers in the first place. Our prizemoney is, at the moment, our big selling point and it should stay that way. There are so many obvious areas that money could be saved without ever having to touch the prizemoney which affects so many different elements of our industry, from owners to trainers to jockeys to stable staff to breeders, the list goes on and on. At the risk of sounding like the financial guru Eddie Hobbs, I will leave it at that except to say that prizemoney is sacrosanct and it should stay that way. It is the cornerstone of the industry. This week I am selling some of the Glenburnie team at the horses-in-training sale at Newmarket, so by the time you are reading this I will have had a good sale or a bad sale and I will know what older horses will be on the team next season, or not! Horses like Dohasa, Vincenzio Gallillei, Leandros and Slam Dunk go under the hammer. I was delighted that Slam Dunk and Leandros both won on their last start up at Dundalk. You might ask why I am trying to sell some of my best horses? The answer to that is simple. I have to sell on horses every year in order to buy new yearlings, much like the way some teams in the English Premiership have to sell their better stars in order to survive. My stable would be the equivalent to the likes of Bolton or Everton who compete just outside the top four, but stay competitive in the league by selling stars after buying them relatively cheaply. If they don"t make their required targets then I will be delighted to train them next season, as they are the horses that will be competing in the better races. Congratulations to my headman Martin Horan and his Kilmessan teammates for winning yet another Meath senior hurling title with a fine replay victory over Kildalkey last Sunday. Martin is getting married next month and will hopefully enjoy a well-earned holiday abroad with his wife Eimear; he has definitely earned it this year, a top man! I hope you have enjoyed my weekly articles during the flat season as much as I have enjoyed writing them and I do hope I have given you an insight into a flat trainer"s life, the ups and the downs! Now, from next week, it will be over the jumps with Noel Meade. Visit the Ger Lyons website: www.gerlyons.ie