Dual L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate winner, Legal Eagle (photo: Chase Liebenberg)
Champions come in all shapes and sizes, because as the old adage goes, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. However, one thing that remains constant is that true champions are rare. They run through your hands like quicksilver and there is no telling how long they’ll be around before they slip through the hour glass along with the sands of time.
Racing careers are short and real, top shelf contests are few and far between, so the biggest challenge is recognising and appreciating a special talent for the rare gem that it is. The second challenge is to have the clarity of mind – when others might be losing theirs – to see a champion for what it is and not get carried away trying to make it what it isn’t. Spread it too thinly to be all things to all men and you risk losing the essence of what makes the magic.
The key lies in finding the right recipe – and resisting the urge to meddle. Jump too soon and you risk overhyping, wait too long and you miss the boat. There has to be a measure of balance. However, in 19 starts, Legal Eagle has only finished out of the money once and that was his debut effort over 1160m. When a horse has an SA Derby, two Horse Chestnut Stakes victories, a Champions Challenge, two of South Africa’s Premier WFA Mile Queen’s Plate trophies and back to back Horse Of The Year titles to his credit, one can comfortably say we’ve got a champion on our hands.
Charles Faull’s ‘heronomics’ of the Queen’s Plate, which focussed on the period of 1945 – 2011 reflects that only one in 4311 foals bred in SA have been good enough to win a Queen’s Plate. To translate that into rands and cents (and not allowing for current inflation), the average cost of breeding and racing a foal to the end of its four-year-old season is estimated at R400,000 If the average lifetime earnings per foal is R80,000, less 20% jockey and trainer commissions, you end up with a sum of R64,000. Round that up to R70k for ease of calculation, subtract your R70k average earnings from your R400k average cost and you’re left with a figure of R330,000. If it takes 4300 foals to produce a Queen’s Plate winner at an average cost of R3300,000 per foal, that means it costs a shade over R1,4 billion to produce a single Queen’s Plate winner.
Remarkable Level Of Rarity
Charles’ heronomics board reads, “For a racehorse to win the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate is indeed a heroic achievement. For the same horse to win two plates, takes heroism to remarkable levels of rarity.” Legal Eagle is one such horse.
His back to back victories put him in the rarified company of the likes of Winter Solstice, Jet Master, Wolf Power, Politician, Sledgehammer, Chichester, Sea Cottage and Black Cap. Pocket Power retains the title as the king of the Queen’s Plate, topping the pile in splendid isolation with a gut-busting four wins and there is no-one in between. In 2018, Legal Eagle will attempt to fill that gap. If successful, we’ll need to custom design a description just for him.
On Monday, 13 November, Legal Eagle arrived in Cape Town and we caught up with trainer Sean Tarry, another multiple champion, to see how things are going.
Sean Tarry
Sean Tarry (photo: hamishNIVENPhotography)
Firstly, it’s always a pleasure speaking to Sean Tarry. His straight-talking, factual style makes him a journalist’s dream – as long as you can type fast enough to process all the information. However, in the case of Legal Eagle, it’s more than just business. The facts are still there, but he takes his time and savours the details. While the pride and affection is not effusive, it pools in the small, thoughtful pauses and coalesces in the unexpected, almost intimate detail with which he paints the portrait of his champion. It is a privilege to listen to.
“Last year we kept him on ice till the Champion’s Cup and waited right till the last minute before deciding not to run. This year, after the Premier’s Challenge, we decided to give him a proper rest. He had a good break on the farm and didn’t do anything at all for a few months. It looks like it has borne fruit and he has physically benefitted from the break. He seems to be a lot stronger in front for some reason and he looks like more of a solid horse to me now. It just confirms that in this country we don’t really give our horses a chance. At five, they’re past their best in our minds and I’m not too sure that’s the case at all,” he muses.
Current campaign
In terms of his prep for this season, Sean expresses his satisfaction with how Legal Eagle is doing. “You saw his run last week – he did exactly what he did this time last year. He didn’t have a tough time going into that race – it was a relatively easy sort of prep. He just came along at his own pace and I think it’s been a good starting point.”
Legal Eagle has just made his way to Cape Town and arrived at his Milnerton base on Monday, 13 November. “It all went very smoothly, we’re happy with the travel time, but we’ll see how he’s taken the trip over the next few days.”
Sean nominated for the Green Point Stakes and was very happy when Legal Eagle drew 3. “There’s everybody there that you’d expect. It’s basically that recent Pinnacle Plate field plus Last Winter, so it’s a proper field. It will be a nice starting point, but it’s not a soft start, that’s for sure.”
Anton Marcus was on board for both of Legal Eagle’s Queen’s Plate wins. However, it’s a new year and a new season and with a strong crop of Mayfair Speculators’ horses coming to the fore he will have his pick. Will Anton be sticking with Legal Eagle this year? “I’ve not spoken to Derek, but am making the assumption – foolhardy as it might be – that he will stick with Legal Eagle,” confirms Sean.
History repeating
Legal Eagle wins a second Gr1 Queen’s Plate (photo: hamishNIVENPhotography)
I was lucky enough to have a pretty similar conversation with Sean ahead of the 2017 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, marvelling at the prospects of a second trophy. A year down the line it seems incredible to be contemplating a third. Is it a realistic expectation from a horse that really has nothing left to prove? “If we can get him to the Queen’s Plate on his best form and everything goes well, it’s very realistic,” he states firmly. “I’m always guarded – not in terms of his ability – I know he can do it and we know more or less what the opposition is, but these are not machines and that’s what everyone seems to miss, particularly if you go by what you read on social media. It’s a matter that you need things to go right, you need to travel well, you need to stay away from bacterial infections and, and and…. As I said, if we can get him there in the best possible condition on race day, he will be a massive runner.”
How is Sean feeling ahead of the task ahead? “I’m pretty relaxed. At the start of the season there’s always a lot of expectation on the yard, especially this year because we had such a massive season last year. We’re not performing where I’d like,” he admits. “We’ve had a lot of mucus and dirty lung washes, but some years are better than others. It’s nothing new and nothing we haven’t dealt with in the past, but we’re being proactive and hoping to get on top of it.”
When I comment that Legal Eagle seems to be a model student and has been an absolute soldier through each and every season, Sean concurs. “That’s exactly it. He is a soldier. I’ll tell you a little story – twice at the end of last season we weren’t happy with him. Ahead of the Horse Chestnut Stakes we thought of scratching him and he had a similar blood picture in the Premier’s Challenge, but he was so impressive in the Horse Chestnut, you sort of wondered why you doubted him in the first place? His blood picture, lung washes etc. weren’t right” he emphasises, “and yet he did what he did on Classic Day and Champions Day. Even though he got beat, he still ran a heck of a race.”
Heart
“We know he’s got a massive heart. Even though we know he’s got the ability, there are plenty of horses with ability that will have little things go wrong and fall in a heap. He’s got heart and he always tries his best. It’s been a privilege to train him.” There is a world of feeling in those seven words.
Sensing a gap, I seize my chance. A top level trainer will have a number of good horses pass through their hands in their career, but even by Sean’s rarefied standards Legal Eagle is in a league of his own. What does Legal Eagle mean to him? “You’ve got to understand, I picked the mother and trained her. The fact that first of all you’ve sent the mother to the paddock in good enough shape to produce a horse like Legal Eagle is very special to me. The same with Golden Apple and Pomodoro – it’s not something that happens a lot. Obviously the fact that he was offered for sale and to have picked him out was very rewarding, but the rest is him. He’s such a special guy and an easy customer to work with. The only trouble I have is getting a saddle onto him on race day, but other than that, everything is simple and straightforward. Like I said earlier, it’s been a privilege. Watching him step up and overcome obstacles and see him race consistently for 4 seasons at the highest level – it’s incredibly rewarding. He is special,” he says again.
Programme
Given the controversially high rating the horse was assigned so early in his career, has it been a challenge trying to map a campaign for him? “Not at all. The fact that we’re all on the same page in terms of how sparingly we’re going to race him during the year makes things really easy for me. The programme is all mapped out and we stick to what we did the previous season. The main priority is just to ensure his well being before going for the races we’ve targeted, but other than that, it’s simple. His rating is very high,” he acknowledges, “but fortunately we’ve got two lovely weight-for-age Gr1 miles and two WFA Gr1 races over 2000m – so it’s very simple. He’s the easiest horse in the yard in terms of the programming.”
Earlier this year, there was talk of sending Legal Eagle abroad. Fortunately – or unfortunately depending on your point of view – things didn’t work out and he got to stay home. Are there any regrets? “There are mixed feelings because we’d like to see him compete on the world stage and I do believe he’s good enough if we had to target the right races in the right countries. However, he’s a very particular horse. Other people haven’t got the history I’ve got with him and obviously that would always be a concern.”
But it’s not all bad. “Champions are scarce and we need a champion to market racing and keep it going. I think that’s where we miss the point. We market events, where it’s really the good horses that pull the crowds, so I think especially in this day and age, we have to be thankful that he is here and hopefully he is still good enough to produce the goods in January.”
