Classic Prospects That Never Trained On

tenby,duck row

Tromos looked a champion at 2

Funny you should mention him. One of my earliest vague memories, the 1972 Craven Stakes.

Another of the famous ones would be Tromos in the 1979 race.

hasnt anything that won the racing post trophy been installed as derby favourite

Try My Best.

Tromos carried the famous Cambanis colours, Black, White Spots and of course was the produce of the great racing mare Stilvi. Bruce Hobbs thought it was the best he had trained.

Apalachee, trained by Vincent O`Brien is another good shout. Can`t remember who owned him but I seem to have a vague recollection of Green and White colours

Mulcahy who had the likes of Thatch and Cloonlara.

At age two Try My Best won the G III Larkspur Stakes at Leopardstown Racecourse in Ireland and the Group One Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse in England. The unbeaten 1977 Champion Two-Year-Old of England and Ireland won the Vauxhall Trial Stakes at Phoenix Park Racecourse at age three in 1978 following which owner Robert Sangster syndicated the colt for US$6 million. Try My Best then shocked his owners and the betting public when he finished last in the Classic 2,000 Guineas Stakes to winner, Roland Gardens. Injured, Try My Best never returned to racing.

killer instinct
daggers dawn
appalche
tromos
gorytus
think I backed all of them at short odds glad to say I have learnt my lesson.
Ronnie.

Storm Bird looked an exceptional 2-y-o. Did he not get attacked by a disgruntled ex stable lad in the Spring of his 3-y-o career?

Gorytus is a great shout. Was he not the victim of the doping gangs?

Yep, TMM. Storm had his tail hacked.

He sure was. He must have been the subject of one of the first big breeding syndicates set up by the late, great, Mr Robert Sangster.

yeh.

champion the wunder horse never won a classic

*black bess never won a classic

a few of these get a mention in alec bird's book has being got at by the dopers

"This is the betting without Killer Instinct right?" lol,all Killer Instinct was was an overhyped 2 y o,nothing it did at 2 made it look like a classic prospect,won a Nottingham maiden on his 3rd start.

Apalachee looked very Decent then finnished   3rd in the 2000 Guineas, was odds on ..  Never ran again

Ribofilio -from the Neolithic!

Crocket, a King Of The Tudors colt who had won all five of his races as a juvenile, dominating the division was winter favourite for the 1963 2000 Guineas. He reappeared in the Craven Stakes and was all out to win by a head, but his connections were reassuringly satisfied by the performance and an impressive final gallop ensured he started favourite at 5-2 in a field of 21 on the big day. He finished 21st.

There was an almost exact parallel in 1978. Try My Best had been unbeaten at two, his comfortable win in the Dewhurst guaranteeing he was named champion of his crop. Such was his reputation that Timeform declared him “a ready-made winner of the 2,000 Guineas”, with the caveat “provided the race is run on a sound surface.” He came back with an emphatic two-length triumph in the Vauxhall Trial Stakes at Phoenix Park and was at even money when the stalls opened for the Classic. But there had been rain on the day and the soft ground did not suit the son of Northern Dancer. After two furlongs he was stone last, he never promised to improve his position and at the finish he was tailed off, 19th of the 19 runners.

Could there ever have been a worse display by a Guineas favourite than those by Crocket and Try My Best? Well, yes, actually, and I remember the occasion well. It was 1969 and most people found it hard to look beyond Ribofilio. He had been the champion juvenile, impressive in the Champagne Stakes and dominant in the Dewhurst. And he had come back with a victory in the Ascot 2,000 Guineas Trial, albeit in slow time against negligible rivals. There were no more than a dozen in opposition on the big day and at 15-8 Ribofilio was confidently expected to blow them away.

Oh dear! The supposed leader of his generation was in trouble and under pressure after a furlong, tailed off after three, and at halfway Lester Piggott abandoned pursuit, pulling him up. Effectively, the race was run without the favourite and Right Tack cruised to a victory that was undervalued until he went on to confirm his class as the first to add the Curragh Guineas to success on the Rowley Mile. What happened to Ribofilio?

We never found out and although the dope test was negative, suspicion remained there were some who knew that the favourite was not going to win. Hours afterwards, in a Newmarket hostelry, I partook of a glass or three with a prominent bookmaker who admitted to having made a fortune by laying Ribofilio. Why would he have been so keen to lay the presumed certainty? “I just didn’t fancy him” was the not all too convincing retort. Poor Ribofilio went on to compile the unenviable and unprecedented record of being the beaten favourite in four Classics – at 7-2 in the Derby, 2-1 in the Irish Derby and 11-10 in the St Leger.

Of course, there have also been those who ruled as firm favourites for the Guineas over the winter but who did not even make it to the post. Could there have been any reason to doubt the credentials of Tromos in 1979?
Tremendously impressive in the Dewhurst Stakes, he ranked 5lb clear of the next-best juvenile of his year and Timeform declared: “We think Tromos will take the world of beating as a three-year-old and can’t see anything to trouble him in the Guineas except the ground, should it be soft.” The going was good but Tromos was not there; he had surrendered tamely to Lyphard’s Wish in the Craven Stakes, then contracted a virus which meant he never raced again.

Four years later there was Danzatore, a Northern Dancer colt unbeaten at two and who had returned victorious at Phoenix Park. In mid-April he ruled as 7-4 favourite in ante-post lists, but a week later, after a disappointing gallop, was taken out of the Classic and the previously unconsidered Lomond was sent to deputise successfully for the Ballydoyle stable.

The 2,000 Guineas always represented a prime target for Vincent O’Brien and if Try My Best has to be cited as his most calamitous loser, there were other disappointing favourites, like Thatch, only fourth at 5-2 in 1973, The Minstrel, third at 6-5 in 1977, and more remarkably, Apalachee, sent off at 4-9 in 1974. Timeform had given Apalachee the outlandish rating of 137 as a two-year-old after a couple of wide-margin wins in Ireland and an emphatic victory over Grand Criterium hero Mississippian in the Observer Gold Cup. The accompanying comment could hardly have been more enthusiastic: “Quite frankly we can see nothing to stop him winning both the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby. We have not seen a horse as promising as this for years.” The shortest-priced Guineas favourite in four decades was soundly beaten and never seen on a racecourse again.

Danzatore for me as well.

Arazi was whisked away after the breeders Cup race for an emergency??? Operation and was never the same after. The cynic in me always thought it was an excuse to prevent him for being dope tested post race. The performance of Arazi that night defied belief it was incredible.