BetMGM Fighting Fifth Hurdle (G1)
“Golden Ace”
There will be so many column inches written about Constitution Hill and The New Lion in the next few days that it hardly needs me to add anything to it. We could examine the data in minute detail in an attempt to put a figure on things, but I don’t think there is a need to. The latter seemed uncomfortable in front and very nearly ran out at one of the flights in the back straight before veering to his left and coming down at the 2nd last. He appeared far more comfortable last season when able to take a lead and surely his connections will put this down to experience and drop him in behind the leaders next time. As for the latter, I don’t know. What can we say about a former champion who has fallen in 3 of his last 4 starts and who appears to have lost all confidence over his hurdles? Both made very similar mistakes at the flight in the straight and the fact that they both got up and cantered away is really all that matters.
Instead of talking about the race that wasn’t, I would prefer to focus on the race that was and that brings me nicely to the reigning Champion hurdler, Golden Ace. This was a truly remarkable turnaround from Jeremy Scott’s mare, who was a long way short of her best at Wetherby but bounced right back to form to win a 2nd Grade 1 hurdle in the space of 9 months. We only have a complete data set for the 3 finishers, but what I can say from that data is that she was the most efficient over her hurdles, especially in the latter stages. An incredibly low jump at the last helped to maintain her momentum and whilst it highlights the fine margins that the 2-mile hurdlers have at this level, an average speed loss of just 2.33% in the closing stages of the race was the most significant difference between her and the placed horses. She recorded a shorter average stride length (21.83 ft) than Anzadam, as might be expected, but in a race that developed into a sprint finish over the final 4 furlongs, she found most when it mattered. All 3 finishers had exactly the same peak average stride frequency figure at 2.31 per second and if we were to pretend that the earlier antics of the other 2 hadn’t happened, then what we served up was a very exciting race. A winning time of 4:01.03 on Good to Soft (Soft in Places) ground meant that Golden Ace was over 4s slower than the TPD expected time and the sense of a slow time figure is confirmed when we look at the winning times of the more recent winners. We have to go back to 2019 to find a slower winning time when the race was run at Newcastle (Not So Sleepy won a rearranged race at Sandown in 2023) when Cornerstone Lad recorded a time of 4:05.70. Beyond that, Buveur D’Air was the last to run a slower time when the word soft appeared in the going description (2017) on the first of his 2 victories in this race. So with a steadily run race, this developed into a sprint and when we ask the question why did Golden Ace win? We get to 2 very simple conclusions. She jumped the hurdles and she was the bravest horse to cross the winning line. She will have plenty of people calling for an asterisk to be added to her CV, but she has completed the course in a pair of Grade 1s and reaped the rewards. There should be nothing but praise for Jeremy Scott and everything he and his team have achieved in 2025.
It’s very easy to forget that Anzadam was making only the 5th start of his career and against a more experienced mare like Golden Ace, giving her 7 lbs and coming up slightly short is not a disappointing run by any means. However, having run the fastest individual furlongs at the top of the straight, there is still a slightly underwhelming feeling about his finishing effort. He appeared to lean in towards the winner between the final 2 flights and then having finished 2nd, he went on to record the fastest run-out speed of the 3 at 29.35 mph. His earlier wins for Willie Mullins were relatively comfortable with a combined winning distance of 17 lengths and it was a similar story on his final start for Arnaud Chaille-Chaille in France. This was therefore the first time that Anzadam has really been in a battling finish and as such, I think there is a case to forgive him. However, the fact that his stride frequency dropped sharply in the final quarter of a mile is a slight note for caution going forwards.
If you had offered Kerry Lee and Conor O’Farrell a 3rd placed finish in this race on Saturday morning, I’m almost certain that they would have taken it. However, with the way the race panned out in front of Nemean Lion, there could be a slight sense of what might have been. He has been beaten by 2 lengths or 0.37s, despite the fact that he recorded a higher late speed (31.36 mph) and run-out speed (28.97 mph) than the winner. He was an almost identical distance behind Golden Ace at the 4 furlong pole as he was at the line and the case to be made from the data is that she has held that advantage up the Newcastle straight without extending it. He has of course been ridden to pick up as much prize money as possible and it would have been impossible to predict the way that this race played out. However, whilst he is an admirable horse, we know a lot about Nemean Lion and the fact that Golden Ace has only matched him in the straight does add some context to this form.