Racing: Shamardal eases the grief for Johnston

Hearthstead Wings finished third for Mark Johnston in the Gran Criterium in Milan yesterday, much better than his stablemate Bandari in a later Group One race, the Gran Premio del Jockey Club.

Hearthstead Wings finished third for Mark Johnston in the Gran Criterium in Milan yesterday, much better than his stablemate Bandari in a later Group One race, the Gran Premio del Jockey Club.

Yet it was another horse from the very apex of the sport which consumed the trainer's mind as he strolled around San Siro. The shimmering display of Shamardal, Saturday's Dewhurst Stakes winner at Newmarket and clear favourite for the 2005 2,000 Guineas, would normally have been the image burnt into his consciousness. Yet the film Johnston still sees most vividly is the dark one featuring Mister Monet breaking a leg during the Champion Stakes. The champagne at Kingsley House was safe in the cellar.

"It's not been fun," Johnston said from Italy yesterday. "We were very, very proud of Mister Monet. Racing is very much a game of tomorrows rather than yesterdays, but the sad truth is that when I go back in the yard tomorrow he will be missing from our team. I definitely thought the horse was going right to the top. Regardless of what happened yesterday, he was heading for races like the Dubai World Cup and the Eclipse next year."

Shamardal himself seems to be heading for the skies. His performance in historically the most significant two-year-old contest in the calendar was the best in the last seven years according to the official handicapper. If Johnston was shocked by Mister Monet, he was not surprised by Shamardal.

"I've said all along that he's one of the best two-year-olds I've ever trained, if not the best, because he has always been exceptionally sharp and speedy," the trainer added. "I've made the comparison before, but he's so much like Attraction in that he goes from a long way out and puts pressure on the others with his natural speed.

"You would have thought he would stay further than Attraction, but, having said that, I'm sure he could have won over five furlongs if we'd asked him to. Now he is Group One winner, which is always elusive in terms of a stallion career, and that represents a slight change of stable policy. I have missed Group Ones with some of my best horses and I was determined not to let that happen this year."

Back home at Middleham, Shamardal was reported in good form by the trainer's wife, Deirdre. "He did it so well yesterday and on ground I'm not sure was completely to his liking. But he's so good he handled it anyway. We'll have to wrap him up in cotton wool now through the winter, and keep him as safe as we can for the Guineas."

The wadding will also be out for Azamour, who will become something of a novelty as a leading colt owned by the Aga Khan staying in training for a third season. The King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes is the beacon contest for the horse which finished third to Haafhd in the Champion Stakes.

"The plan is to keep him in training next year, and there is a fairly obvious programme for him, starting with the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh," John Oxx, his trainer, said yesterday. "Then comes the Prince of Wales's Stakes, which will be run at York. We will then stretch him up to a mile and a half, and the King George would be the obvious race for that.

"We knew he wouldn't like the ground [on Saturday] and he hated it, but we ran him to find out what his limitations were on soft. He ran a great race, and is so genuine and courageous."

No decision has been taken about whether Haafhd himself will stay in training, although Barry Hills has taken the contingency of mapping out a programme should Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum see fit to press on with the 2,000 Guineas winner.

Doyen, the disappointing favourite, is to be stripped down in Dubai this winter as connections start off from scratch with him, while another Godolphin horse, Refuse To Bend, has run his last, but lives to fight another day at stud. That was not true for all the runners in the Champion Stakes.

¿ Ouija Board, the dual Oaks winner and third in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, will today be confirmed for a tilt at the Breeders' Cup meeting in Texas.