Is a stayers' triple crown the answer to Royal-Oak impasse?

The European Pattern Committee is in the process of revisiting whether Ascot's Long Distance Cup can or should be boosted to Group 1 status, therefore giving British Champions Day a full slate of five top level races with which to see out the Flat season.

Given that when the meeting started in 2011 just the Champion Stakes itself and the QE11 Stakes were Group 1s, it would mark quite an achievement on the part of British Champions Series and the BHA.

Among the senior members of the Pattern Committee, France is easily portrayed as the sticking point, given its attachment to the Prix Royal-Oak, a race which chases the same population of stayers as the Long Distance Cup and, as recently as 2015, was put on notice of a potential downgrade.

Order of St George wins the Qipco Long Distance Cup on Saturday, just 24 hours before the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak was run in FranceCredit: Mark Cranham

The EPC has several factors to balance here:

• A commitment to revitalise the entire staying Pattern in an effort to bolster breeding and stem the tide of highly-rated horses being sold to Australia for their Cups programme.
• The fact that the Long Distance Cup has achieved the necessary rating and qualifies by other EPC rules.
• The long held principle that a race should not be promoted in direct competition to an existing race in close calendar proximity.

Does the staying Pattern need another Group 1?

Big Orange and James Doyle just hold Order Of St George in an epic battle for the Gold CupCredit: Charlie Crowhurst

This might seem an odd question to pose since we are not yet at the end of the first year of the new drive to improve the lot of such races.

The headline-grabber among the measures announced at the beginning of 2017 was the promotion of the Goodwood Cup to Group 1 status, raising the number of all-aged races for 1m6f+ in Europe from four to five.

But if the Long Distance Cup becomes number six, there will be as many stayers' races at the top level in which horses of four and above can run as there are races at a mile.

Races at a mile and 1m6f+ not restricted to 3yos or fillies/mares

If the long term desire is to encourage breeding which rewards stamina, then a 'lag period' where the population catches up to the opportunities on offer might be expected.

But a Pattern which produces four Group 1 races for stayers in a six week period at the end of the European turf season doesn't at first glance appear to be doing its job.

Should the EPC give special dispensation for festivals?

The creation of British Champions Day – four years before the emergence of its Irish counterpart – created a major headache for the Pattern, since the BHA made it plain that it had ambitions to gain promotion for the races formerly known as the Diadem Stakes (Champions Sprint), the Pride Stakes (Fillies and Mares) and the Jockey Club Cup (Long Distance Cup).

The Long Distance Cup had furthest to travel in terms of ratings from its previous Newmarket incarnation although, even as a Group 3, it drew horses of the calibre of Celeric and Persian Punch in preference to the Royal-Oak.

France hit on the idea of the festival weekend long before Britain and Ireland, though the current Arc day extravaganza is not as well established as many people may think. Take as an example the Sunday running order from just 20 years ago, when Peintre Celebre lit up Longchamp.

Longchamp October 5 1997

• Prix Charles Laffitte (Listed) 3yo fillies, 1m2f
• Prix du Rond Point (Group 2) 3yo+, 1m
• Prix Marcel Boussac (Group 1) 2yo fillies, 1m
• Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp (Group 1) 2yo+, 5f
• Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Group 1) 3yo+, 1m4f
• Prix de l'Opera (Group 2) 3yo+ fillies & mares, 1m1¼f
• Prix de la Place Vendome (Handicap) 4yo+, 1m2f

If you're wondering where the other major Arc day features were distributed in 1997 then the answer is, far and wide:

Prix du Cadran (Group 1) Longchamp, October 4 (Arc Saturday)

Grand Criterium [now Jean-Luc Lagardere] Longchamp, October 12

Prix de la Foret (Group 1) Longchamp, October 19

A certain amount of European co-operation was required when France began to assemble its own Super Sunday in the Bois de Boulogne.

There is an argument to say that each country should, while adhering to the EPC ground rules, do as much as it can to help the establishment of the other durisdictions' flagship end-of-year meetings.

That may not have been the case in the past but it looks from the outside as if the three major players are working more closely now, rather than automatically seeking to obstruct one another's ambitions

Can the Long Distance Cup and the Prix Royal-Oak co-exist?

Ice Breeze ((far side) wins the 2017 Prix Royal-Oak from Vazirabad

The Long Distance Cup looks set to qualify for Group 1 status on historical ratings and has served the appropriate amount of waiting time in its current guise (EPC ground rules require a a race to have been run for a minimum of three years under its existing conditions).

But can it really be in the interest of either the staying division or the wider Pattern races to have near identical races run on the same weekend or – in the years when British Champions Day falls a week earlier – a maximum of eight days apart.

Nor does there seem to be much motivation for France to revert back to the Royal-Oak as a three-year-olds only race, a measure that surely condemns it to long term decline.

The status of the Long Distance Cup might not be a problem of France's making but it could be part of a solution that avoids future calendar clashes.

A Stayers' Triple Crown?

Order Of St George has won two of the last three editions of the Irish St LegerCredit: Alan Crowhurst

If a combination of wanting to boost the staying programme and allowing the BHA to stage a fifth Group 1 on Champions Day leads to unanimity among the Pattern Committee members on the subject, then a more creative solution needs to be found.

One possible suggestion is to move the Prix du Cadran – which along with the Gold Cup is restricted to horses of four years old and above – to a mid May slot, say four weeks before the Gold Cup, while still allowing time for at least two prep races at Group level beginning in early April.

The Cadran has been run in May before, while this would allow the Royal-Oak to be staged on Arc weekend. In this scenario there would be the potential for the three autumn all-age races – the Irish St Leger, the Royal-Oak and the Long Distance Cup – to have some kind of series bonus attached, potentially providing a financial incentive capable of countering the imperative to sell to Australia.

As with all solutions that come before the EPC it requires trade offs and compromise.

French trainers might argue that the gradual progression of the three-year-old programme through the autumn will be telescoped, since the interim stage of the Group 2 Prix Chaudenay would be skipped.

It also means Ascot would always gets to crown the stayers' champion, while it is doubtful the Gold Cup would suffer greatly with the Cadran run a month before it.

But it also presents a staying programme which closely reflects the principles adhered to at shorter distances, with the older horses and the Classic generation kept apart in the first half of the season and then matched against one another in the autumn.

If you liked this story, you should read:

Goodwood Cup becomes Group 1 as part of stayers boost