Of all the results in America on Saturday overnight perhaps the most important was not Tepin’s eclipse, but Mongolian Saturday’s victory.
Tepin failed to chase down long-time leader Photo Call in the Grade One First Lady at Keeneland, a race that was supposed to add the gloss before the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita next month.
Before that, Mongolian Saturday had secured his first win since last season’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint when he held off the late thrust of Hogy in the Group 3 Woodford.
Under a canny ride from Carlos Montalvo, Mongolian Saturday sat back off a solid pace, cruised to the front entering the home straight and battled well to cling on to what dwindled down to half a length at the line.
It was the six-year-old’s first run for three months, following two wildly unsuccessful performances due to a stomach ulcer in England during the summer.
What makes his victory in a $US150,000 (Dh550,972.50) event so interesting? He was the only horse of the 12 who ran without the anti-bleeding drug Lasix.
Mongolian Saturday will most likely defend his title at Santa Anita without the drug, too.
Last year there were only three American horses out of 139 who took part in the 13 Breeders’ Cup races at Keeneland who did not have Lasix administered to them before racing.
Mongolian Saturday won the Turf Sprint, and Runhappy, who broke the track record, won the Sprint.
Their efforts came a year after Michael Chang sent over Hong Kong’s Rich Tapestry to raid the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprit Championship, another who was the only runner in his race competing without the drug.
The likes of Mongolian trainer Enebish Ganbat and Chang are hardly household names in America, but they have won top-flight races there without Lasix and there are reasons for believing that America is ripe for turning.
This year two of America’s most famous horses have won international races without their dose of race day medication.
California Chrome defied a slipping saddle to win the Dubai World Cup in March at Meydan, where race day Lasix is forbidden. On California Chrome’s return to America, trainer Art Sherman was considering racing on without Lasix, which has diuretic properties and is seen by many as a performance-enhancing drug. For a stallion proposition, it would have been a landmark moment had Sherman resisted temptation.
Tepin then produced one of the most extraordinary performances anywhere in the world this year when she won the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, where Lasix is also prohibited.
Last week following the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe the 50th International Conference of Horseracing Authorities took place in Paris. Dr Yves Bonnaire opened proceedings with a paper suggesting that an international certification programme for drug-testing laboratories would be implemented from next year.
Laboratories will have to undergo proficiency testing and audits every few years and the move will put pressure on laboratories around the world, including those responsible for marquee races such as the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup, to toe the line.
Racing, therefore, is beginning to get its house in order.
Mongolian Saturday’s continued success against horses racing with an unfair advantage is just the tip of the iceberg, but with things starting to move in the right direction in America he is the flag-bearer of cleaner racing across the Atlantic.
Chang has shown that it can be done at Santa Anita — it is time for American horsemen to be braver ahead of their self-styled ‘World Championships’.
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