London Guildhall Sweeps Past Boys In Gr. 1 Capitano Win for Veteran Owner Claudio

 

London Guildhall didn’t take long in 2015 to stamp herself as not only a contender for an End Of The Year Award but maybe as a contender for Horse Of The Year Award as well when she cruised past her male foe Montjeuelry in the closing strides to win the 12-furlong Group 1 $750,000 San Francisco Capitano on the California turf course last weekend.

That she won against the boys made London Guildhall’s performance impressive.  But it was the caliber of boys she was running against Saturday that made her performance seem almost other worldly.

The four year old daughter of Street Cry beat 2014 EOY Award winner Montjeuelry by a length on Saturday afternoon, but she also beat two other group 1 winners, including Hall Of Fame inductee Bustin Chops, in the big race on the turf in California.

Her veteran Venezuelan-born owner and trainer Claudio, who runs Newmarket Racing Stables, said he felt “some kind of determination from London Guildhall on Saturday. It’s a feeling I get from her in every race. The first time I got the feeling was in the Equinics (race last season). These cartoon horses are dangerous to weak minds like mine.”

Claudio, who has been training in Derbyfever since 2001, said he startied to get the feeling that his Street Cry filly would win her second group 1 event of her career about 800 metres out from the finish last weekend.

“About 800 metres from the finish, I was most confident that the race was for London Guildhall,” said Claudio. “But in the stretch I started to think that Montjeuelry had enough reserves to repel us.”

Montjeuelry had quite a bit left in the tank at the end after sitting on the lead for all but 50 meters of Saturday’s San Franscisco Capitano event. But the quick early fractions (4 furlongs in 47:37) he set after being pushed hard early by Man Of Mystery finally took its toll on Montjeuelry when London Guildhall came calling in the last few jumps before the wire.

Man Of Mystery hung on for third, nearly eight lengths behind London Guildhall and Montjeuelry. Candy Cane Killer ran on late to be a game fourth, and Off The Leash ran a pretty even fifth in Saturday’s turf headliner in California.

After the top five came Dynamic Moon, More Than A Minion, Bustin Chops, King Graywolf and Hushwing Osprey.

The field of ten in the Grade 1 Capitano read like a Who’s Who of the top horses in the world long turf division rankings the past couple of seasons. But, despite the strength of Saturday’s field, Claudio said he was confident going in that his 4 year old filly could pretty much handle most of these boys.

“Prior to the race,” said Claudio, a native of Caracas who has lived in Barcelona the past 18 years, “I was pretty sure that my filly was second best in the race, on form. How crazy is this, to even think that your horse is better than a Hall Of Fame horse like Bustin Chops?  For me, she is on the upswing, while Bustin Chops is inconsistent nowadays.  So, the great rivalry has to be (with) Montjeuelry.  If I’m fool enough to rate my horse second best before the race, then I’m fool enough to put her in a field as strong as this.”

If that was a foolish move by Claudio to enter his filly against this stellar group of males, then it was a foolish move that could pay off big time when it comes time to start passing out the 2015 EOY Awards, as London Guildhall made a massive jump in the world long turf rankings with her big win this weekend.

“Can we fast forward to December NOW?” asked Claudio after the race.

Claudio’s filly, who ran the 12 furlongs in 2:29.64, will be pointed to Dubai next, to the game’s equivalent of the Sheema Classic, a 12-furlong turf event that is open to both the boys and girls.

“I’ll aim her to Dubai, almost five weeks from now, so it’s a good rest for her,” said Claudio. “I think that she can compete with the boys, and so it will be.  After Dubai, there is a blurry horizon, because I will keep her at 12 furlongs. And, there are not many meaningful group 1’s until the King George and Queen Beth at Berkshire 17 weeks later. Maybe a stop at a 1.5 mile race in Brazil before then, leaving 8-9 weeks between races.”

Claudio said that later in the season, there is the Arc and the Japan Classic for his star filly, both of which he said are worth about $6 million each in purses. “By now, you know that I am aiming for Horse Of The Year,” said a realistic Claudio, “because the foolishness is deep inside me.  We are only in February, so I know she has to maintain her form all along a hard season.”

In the Group 1 San Francisco Capitano last weekend, London Guildhall laid back in third or fourth place most of the way, nearly nine lengths behind Montjeuelry halfway through the race. The daughter of Street Cry picked up the tempo about four furlongs from the finish and closed ground quickly on Montjeuelry and also on Man of Mystery, who was starting to fade by mid-stretch.

When she was asked, London Guildhall found another gear, and by the time she was about 50 metres from the finish, she had pulled even with Montjeuelry and drew off to win by a length.

“I was hoping for some pace early and get London Guildhall to come from close behind,” said Claudio after the race. “Actually, the early pace was fairly hot, and the field was starting to break up early.  By the middle of the race, I felt that my filly was the horse to beat.  She was staying on well, but Montjeuelry was not stopping. About 350 metres before the wire, I started panicking. But my filly had enough in the tank and won easily in my opinion.”

Claudio said his filly “has speed herself.  That’s why she needs a real pace.  In (her loss in) the Japanese St. Legend last year, the rhythm and pace were minor, and I saw her in front too early. She prefers to sit mid-division and show her speed late.  In the San Franscisco Capitano, maybe she could perform at the same level with a slower pace. She was almost nine lengths behind halfway through, but she could have won being maybe only 3-4 lengths closer, but not in a really stalking position, like North American style runners.”

Claudio said he thought his filly was more of a marathoner last season when he entered her in the 14-furlong Group 1 Japanese St. Legend. “I thought she needed really long distances then. She struck the front too early in that race, and she didn’t have the force to stay in front. That’s when I realized she is definitely a 12-furlong horse.”

The veteran trainer who has been enjoying a lot of success lately after winning an Equinics race before he won a Breeders’ Bowl race last November said he thinks the horses tell him very early if they are outclassed.

“Some horses tell you they want to compete at the lower levels, allowance, claiming, etc.  And, then some horses tell you they want to compete at the top level. I don’t know if I’m out of my mind, but I think some horses compete better only at the top level. If you bring them down, they don’t seem to be as motivated.  Like London Guildhall.  They prefer hot contests.  London Guildhall is a fighter.  She needs the best to be her best.”

London Guildhall was indeed running with the best in the world last weekend in California, and that’s probably why she picked up her game a notch and beat that field of top shelf boys.

She came into the race on two months rest, something Claudio said he did on purpose. “In the summer, I was trying to get her on the Arc trail, and I was looking for signals that she was good enough.  I was running her every month.  The signals were there but not clear enough.  She was always coming up a little short in her races.  That’s why I thought she might be a marathoner. After the Saint Legend in Japan, there weren’t many true challenges, so I started waiting for races every two months.”

The rest has definitely seemed to help London Guildhall as she kicked off 2015 with a couple of group wins.

Claudio said he named his four year old Street Cry filly after a building in London that was built around 800 years ago, where the merchants had a kind of court to rival the aristocracy and the nobility. “Two breeding seasons ago, I was using horse racing places in England to name my horses, but I ran out of names when I came to name London Guildhall. The London Guildhall building is a beautiful building that nowadays is home of the City Of London Corporation.”

Claudio, a truly well-traveled horse racing fan in real life, says he goes to England, France and even Denmark to watch horse racing. “The closest real life track to where I live in Barcelona is five hours by car.  Ouch!  So I spend many of my vacation days attending races in foreign countries. I picked my first pick six winner when I was 8 years old, so I’ve been a horse racing fan since forever. I already have tickets and flights booked for the Guineas Festival at Newmarket this year, and I probably will take my kids to National Stud to see champions like Tornado and Bahamian Bounty in the flesh.”

If London Guildhall can hold the form she exhibited against the boys this past weekend in the biggest win of her career (so far), Claudio might have a true champion Horse Of The Year of his own in Derbyfever come the end of 2015.