Hannon and Cecil excelling in the sun

By Rory King

They have held a trainer’s licence for 81 years between them, so you would have thought that they might know a few tricks of the training trade by now, but what Richard Hannon and Henry Cecil have done over the past year or so has been outstanding.

After a very comprehensive display from two of Hannon’s three-year-old colts on their first start of the season in the Greenham at Newbury in April – where Dick Turpin just outgunned more fancied stable mate Canford Cliffs, I thought the pair were two very good horses who both had a serious shot in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. What I also thought though was that after Newmarket, having run two big races they would need a break until Royal Ascot, particularly Dick Turpin as he is quite a light framed horse, and thereafter they may struggle to stay ahead of their generation as the others started to catch them up, especially seeing as they were both precocious two-year-olds.

Hannon’s handling of the pair though has been exceptional. The two filled the places behind the brilliant winner of the Guineas, with Canford Cliffs going on to pulverise the opposition in the Irish version, while Dick Turpin turned out again only two weeks after Newmarket and ran another huge race in the French equivalent, going down only to an impressive winner of that race who went on to win the Prix Du Jockey Club by three lengths. The Hannon duo then turned up at Ascot in the St James’ Palace Stakes and beat off all including their conqueror from Newmarket, Makfi, with Canford Cliffs coming out on top of his stable mate this time. Another break must then be in line. Not at all, at least not for Dick Turpin who returned to the track yesterday for his second run in France of the year, just 19 days after his Ascot run to produce probably his best performance of the season yet, blasting away his rivals in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat to win by four lengths. His preservation of form this season has been phenomenal.

Richard Hannon Jnr, assistant trainer to his father, described Canford Cliffs after his Irish Guineas romp as “possibly the best we’ve ever had”. If that is the case then we can very much look forward to his run against his elders in the Sussex at Goodwood at the end of the month – although Dick Turpin as well as Hannon’s star older miler Paco Boy will bid to prove that statement false over the remainder of the season. If Dick Turpin continues this improvement then it is by no means out of the question as these two brilliant colts are set to clash again at Goodwood.

For Henry Cecil to come back like he has done has been simply brilliant. It may be clichéd, but the setbacks he has faced over the last ten to fifteen years would have ended the careers of most. His fall-out with Sheikh Mohammed was a big blow, but not nearly as bad as being diagnosed with cancer. Coming back from nearly four years of treatment, undergoing 14 lots of chemotherapy, and without a Group 1 winner for over six years before November 2006, this remarkable trainer has had six of them since then. Despite being well known for his handling of fillies, it is his work with Twice Over that has really impressed me over the last twelve months.

After finishing a well-beaten seventh in the Eclipse last year, Cecil gave him a two month break before bringing him back in two small field races, the first a Conditions race, the second one a minor Listed race. This enabled Twice Over to build up his confidence, and get in the right frame of mind for another assault on a Group 1 – the Champion Stakes, which he duly landed before a brilliant third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic behind the exceptional Zenyatta. Perhaps not quite right for the Dubai World Cup, Cecil has brought him back this term to be a very credible second to the ultra progressive Byword, coming from further back than ideal, in the Prince of Wales’ Stakes and then to land another Group 1 in the form of the Eclipse at Sandown on Saturday, albeit a much weaker race than the one the year before. Twice Over is a much-improved horse over the last twelve months, and it is a distinct possibility that he may add the International at York to his Group 1 tally come mid-August.

By Rory King