Even if two top thoroughbreds in Paddington and Emily Upjohn contested the Coral Eclipse, the sponsors and Sandown Racecourse will be disappointed with the turnout. Neither would say so publicly of course, but all hasn’t been well at the Esher venue in 2023.
Sandown Park attracted just four runners for their showpiece Group 1 Flat race for the second time in three seasons this year. The Eclipse now seems a poor relation in the race programme. There’s the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and Juddmonte International during York’s Ebor Festival to consider at either end of the summer.
Its proximity to the former means the race that Coral have sponsored at the Esher track for 48 years seemingly suffers from its place in the calendar. Half of the meagre field that turned up at Sandown Racecourse actually ran at the Royal meeting, albeit in the St James’s Palace and Hardwicke Stakes, so that doesn’t explain it.
The Eclipse as a concept is about firsts. Three-year-olds cannot take their elders on at the highest level over middle distances until it comes around. It’s challenging for the older horses, however, as the clash of generations holds little incentive when you consider the weight for age favours youth. That is supposed to be a substitute for inexperience and lack of physical development.
It must be a turn-off, though, as there were 30 early closing entries for the big one at Sandown Racecourse and almost 90 per cent didn’t take up the engagement. Connections of older male horses by and large didn’t fancy giving 10lb away to the Classic generation. When a rapidly improving youngster like Paddington turns up, can you blame them?
Eclipse Excellence Shouldn’t Mask Tough Year at Sandown Racecourse
Everyone fell over themselves in the build-up to the Eclipse talking about quality over quantity, but that comes across as little more than papering over widening cracks in the façade. Perhaps, as has been suggested in the horse racing media, some kind of bonus scheme may be the answer to boost turnout. Throwing money at a problem is the default response of the sport’s organisers.
Paddington and Emily Upjohn still served up a duel up the Esher hill to savour. Would the young star backed off the boards stay? He did, but the best horse at the weights was John and Thady Gosden’s filly running over a trip short of her optimum. Emily Upjohn found giving 7lb away when rated 3lb inferior just too much and went down fighting by half-a-length.
As a trial for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, this was just fine. Paddington also enhanced his commercial prospects post-racing as a stallion no end with a Group 1 victory over a different distance. We’ll let his head carriage slide. For Sandown Racecourse, this was a win as trainer Aidan O’Brien landed a record seventh Eclipse with his Siyouni colt.
This hasn’t been a good year for the Greater London venue, however. No amount of PR spin can disguise the fact that they’ve lost their Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle to Aintree. While it’s fair to say there were bigger losers in the Jumps Pattern Committee’s shake-up of National Hunt races, this stung.
Sandown Racecourse has gone from a prospective new home for the King George VI Chase, when it was briefly mooted by The Jockey Club that nearby Kempton Park could close, to being stripped of its pulling power to its main midwinter fixture. That’s not all either.
Absence of Sandown Classic Trial Keenly Felt
We had an embarrassing situation where the Flat course wasn’t raceable for the Gordon Richards Stakes card on the last Friday in April, yet the Jumps Finale meeting went ahead the following day. It’s not a good look. This resulted in there being no Sandown Classic Trial run this year.
Proof, as if it were needed, of the importance of that race can be found in recent renewals. Westover won it en route to Irish Derby success last season, while Adayar and Yibir finished placed the year before. Sandown Racecourse couldn’t get a relevant event on, though.
It must’ve felt like a coup when Epsom Derby hero Desert Crown came to Esher for his much-anticipated reappearance. The Brigadier Gerard didn’t pan out like that, however, as Hukum won despite a similarly long absence. Sandown Park needs a change of luck.
Paddington’s Eclipse win can turn the tide. There’s a new Grade 2 steeplechase to look forward to during the Tingle Creek Festival. That provides extra interest to the pre-Christmas meeting at a time when that is welcome. This does clash with the Becher Chase at Aintree, however.
What Sandown Racecourse requires most is better field sizes for its main events. Without that, expect more column inches on its reduced status.
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