French Stewards Do Their Special Duty...Again

Decisions taken by the French racing stewards are as notoriously difficult to predict as the direction of the British Liberal Democrat party, a fact illustrated once again by the extraordinary events at Longchamp last Sunday in the French 1000 Guineas.

Many Irish racing fans are still scratching their heads in bewilderment at last season’s disqualification of John Gosden’s outstanding mare Dar Re Mi by the Longchamp stewards in favour of local heroine Stacellita, a decision seen by nearly all neutrals as utterly unfathomable.

Now, the same stewards have awarded a second Guineas by disqualification to French filly Special Duty, following the decision of their British counterparts two weeks earlier to disqualify Henry Cecil’s Jacqueline Quest in favour of the Criquette Head-Maarek trained three-year-old.

After flying home fast and late down the centre of the track (avoiding plenty of trouble near the far rail) Special Duty failed by just a head to peg back Liliside, who had caused considerable interference to those around her. After an agonising wait of more than an hour, Special Duty was promoted to first place and Liliside demoted to sixth, giving the Head-Maarek trained filly the distinction of being the first horse in racing history to win two Classics on the disqualification of others.

Arguments still rage about the rights and wrongs of the Newmarket disqualification, but most observers seem to agree that it was not an unreasonable call to demote the unfortunate Liliside in view of the interference she caused to a number of horses in what turned out to be an extraordinarily close finish between six horses covered by less than a length.

The Racing Post has been posing the question "Is Special Duty the luckiest horse in history?" The answer, I feel, must be in the affirmative, but there is no doubt that the Prince Khaled Abdullah-owned filly is high class and deserves to pass the post in front at some point this term to prove it, possibly in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.