Alpha Delphini: 'I asked them to stick me 50 quid each-way on that morning'

Fans' Favourites is a weekly feature in the Racing Post Weekender in which we talk to those closest to racing's most popular horses and find out why they tug on our heartstrings. This week's subject: Alpha Delphini

The second Bryan Smart saw Alpha Delphini saunter into a packed paddock ahead of the Nunthorpe in 2018, he knew he had him right.

This had been the plan all season for the talented albeit slightly unpredictable sprinter, and despite facing something of a murderers' row of sprinting stars including Battaash, Blue Point and Mabs Cross, his trainer was oozing confidence.

"The moment he walked through those big gates at York to come into the pre-paddock, I knew he was ready," says Smart, as he casts his mind back to one of the finest days of his training career. "He stood and he had this look of eagles about him, I'd never had him better and I knew that immediately.

"He just looked like he owned the racecourse and everyone on it that day. It was quite an emotional moment for me. I just knew he was going to give us everything he had."

The journey that led Smart, Alpha Delphini and his battalion of owners to York that day was a long one, jam-packed with ups, downs and changing plans. There were debates about correct targets and about adding or removing headgear, but Smart always retained faith in a horse he knew was just going to keep improving with age.

"I trained his half-brother Tangerine Trees and he was a late developer," says the trainer. "He was a great, big horse who kept improving with age and ended up winning the Abbaye, so deep down I always knew Alpha Delphini would go the same way.

Celebrations all round: trainer Bryan Smart leaps for joy after Alpha Delphini's Nunthorpe victoryCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Whatever he was doing as a youngster, I knew there was more to come. Every race he ran in the early days showed signs of progress and he just kept getting better. The engine was always under the bonnet, it just needed to get fired up."

Patience was always going to be the key with Alpha Delphini, and Smart's instincts and no-rush approach began to bear fruit when the son of Captain Gerrard blossomed in his five-year-old season.

He won a handicap at Musselburgh off a mark of 79 in April 2016. By September of the same year he was rated 106 with five victories to his name, including Listed success in the Beverley Bullet – the race won by his half-brother Tangerine Trees five years earlier.

Smart says: "It wasn't until he was a five-year-old that things began to fall into place. He won handicaps at York and Ascot and then went and won the Beverley Bullet. You could see then that things were starting to fall into place."

There might have been an even better finish to the season but for a short-head defeat by Cotai Glory in a Newbury Group 3 to end the year. In any case, Alpha Delphini was now fully on the radar of many and primed for a season of Pattern-level racing at six.

However, making that leap from top-class handicapper and Listed winner into the higher echelons of the sprinting scene is never an easy one, and Alpha Delphini struggled to truly make his mark in 2017 in better races.

Alpha Delphini with Graham Lee, Bryan Smart and members of the Alpha Delphini Partnership after winning the conditions sprint

That said, a good run in the King's Stand that year when he was hampered by a substantial bump two furlongs from home hinted better could yet still be to come – something not lost on his devoted trainer, who never wavered in his conviction.

Even four runs without a win in 2018 could not dissuade Smart that he had a horse capable of mixing it with the very best sprinters, and that the point would be proved on perhaps the division's greatest stage.

"I knew him so well," Smart says. "I could feel exactly how he'd gone and I knew it was all there and it would eventually come right. Entering his seven-year-old season my mind was always set on the Nunthorpe.

"I didn't voice my opinions until later on but I was sure that was the right race to go for. I remember I was sitting at the kitchen table early in the season with my wife and daughter and I told them this horse would win a Nunthorpe. I really believed it.

"I trained him for that race, even though some of the owners wanted to go for the Bullet again. He got beaten at York before the Ebor meeting but still ran a very fast time and I said straight after the day that he would be going back there in August.

"The Nunthorpe was one of those races that I'd always wanted to win with it being at York. It is such a special racecourse, especially at this time of year. To have a horse win a lowly handicap there is hard enough, let alone a Group 1."

After convincing all of the horse's owners that the Nunthorpe was the correct next step, Smart set about preparing Alpha Delphini for his date with destiny on the Knavesmire. The hard work paid off and by the time the Ebor meeting came around Smart was delighted.

"He was a horse who might not fire every time but that if all the cards fell into place and I got him there in top form could be top class," Smart says. "I said to the owners at York before he ran that I didn't think I'd be able to get this horse out any better than I did that day.

"On the morning of the race one of the lads at the yard came in and said he'd drifted out to 80-1. I don't have a betting account myself but I asked him to stick me 50 quid each-way on that morning. I just felt so good about his chances.

"That day he was just so right. You could not have a horse in a better place mentally and physically. It gave me so much confidence before the race on what turned out to be a truly amazing day."

'The form of that race is something really'

An amazing day born of an amazing race. Alpha Delphini hit the front near the furlong marker, blasting past Battaash and Blue Point with only the classy Mabs Cross for company.

As the pair hit the line there was no clear winner, with Racing TV's Nick Luck aptly suggesting there was little more than a hair's breadth in it. A photo was called and tension descended on York.

Both parties thought they might have won it and were made to endure an agonising few minutes as those charged with making the ruling justifiably poured over what was a momentous call for the connections of Alpha Delphini and Mabs Cross.

Then came the moment Smart had seemingly been waiting all season for: "First number one, Alpha Delphini."

"I've watched that race back so many times," Smart says. "The minute they crossed the line I thought he'd been nabbed. Then I saw a replay and looked at it again and I thought to myself, 'hang on a minute, maybe he has got there'.

Number one: a beaming Graham Lee after landing the Nunthorpe on Alpha Delphini

"Mabs Cross was coming at him so hard but he just stuck his neck out as far as he could get it. His will to win that day was amazing. He simply was not going to let her beat him and now no-one can ever take that win away from him.

"The form of that race is something really. He beat the horse who went on to win the Abbaye later that season and in the two positions behind that were Blue Point and Battaash. It doesn't get much better than that in terms of sprinting.

"I did feel vindicated after he won because I'd trained him for that day all season. Every race, every canter, every piece of preparation that season were all for that day. To the point where the decision to go to the Abbaye after that was misguided."

'It was immediately clear he didn't like travelling at all'

Following those glorious scenes at York, the Alpha Delphini team set their sights on the Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp, a race in which they had enjoyed Group 1 success with Tangerine Trees.

From the moment the horse arrived in Paris things felt uneasy, with Alpha Delphini clearly not taking to his new, albeit temporary, surroundings.

"My team rang me from France and said he wasn't settling at all well," Smart remembers. "He's always been a very needy horse. He needed routine and when he went racing someone always had to stay and sit in the stable with him – he needed his surroundings to be relaxed and familiar. He's still like that today.

"I got to Paris that day and went to the stables. It was immediately clear he didn't like travelling at all. He'd lost it before the race, he got left on his own for a second when my travelling head lass went to get him some water and was just in meltdown."

Distressed though Alpha Delphini may have been, he finished only four lengths behind Mabs Cross that day. A final reminder perhaps of the depth of his ability.

Alpha Delphini was seen only twice more after his run in Paris. "He had a wind issue that proved too difficult for him to get over," Smart explains. "It wouldn't have been fair to him to have any procedures done on him at that age and the owners agreed.

"I offered him a permanent home and now he's in the showjumping bit of the yard, where he's being ridden and taught a new career. He's got a home here for life."

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