Coolmore sweep to more Classic glory - here's why their domination will only increase

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My first emotion after watching the St Leger on Saturday was one of sadness. Not because Continuous wasn't a worthy winner, far from it. Not because it was another Classic that went the way of team Coolmore – where would we be without them? – but because it was another indication of how far the breeding industry has fallen.

Continuous is the only horse by the Japanese sire Heart's Cry to run in Britain and Ireland this season and he is a Classic and Votigeur winner. The Derby and Irish Derby hero Auguste Rodin is by another Japanese sire in Deep Impact, who is also the sire of European Classic winners Saxon Warrior, Snowfall, Fancy Blue and Study Of Man despite very few runners in the northern hemisphere and all that goes to show, as we see in Dubai every spring, is that Japan is now the number-one racing nation when it comes to producing top-class middle-distance stallions.

Of course, Europe is still well capable of breeding top-class horses over every trip and Frankel is a great stallion in every respect, but I think if things continue as they are now, we are in a race to the bottom in terms of quality.

To further illustrate that point there have been 16 winners of Group 1 races this season who had run in handicaps beforehand. That is more than any other time this millennium and while those figures are skewed slightly by Paddington's four top-level wins, it still is an indication of how little strength in depth there is at the top of the racing tree.

Continuous and Ryan Moore gallop clear to claim St Leger gloryCredit: Edward Whitaker

What is most interesting is that while we continue to breed sprinters by the bucket load the Sprint Cup at Haydock, the Nunthorpe at York and the Flying Five at the Curragh were all won by horses who were rated in the 100s and didn't have strong form claims. So, basically we are breeding lots of sprinters who aren't very good and forgetting about the middle-distances horses, which is why the Japanese-bred horses statistically dominate. That is not a good recipe for the quality of our racing 

Of course things can change, but if you think Coolmore are dominating now, I believe they are going to be even stronger in the coming years. Not only do they have Justify, the sire of City Of Troy, but they are also using Dubawi, the sire of Henry Longfellow, more as well as Frankel, the sire of Diego Velazquez, and a lot more too. Throw that in with the overall quality getting weaker and it is going to be hard for anyone to compete with them.

As I said last week, most punters don't really care about the quality of the product they are betting on, but they might in time if the horses are less consistent and less trustworthy. 

Furthermore, the one thing that has always made our Flat racing great was the possibility of unearthing the next Frankel, Troy, Shergar, Galileo, Dayjur or Sea the Stars every time a two-year-old maiden came along but that seems to be becoming less and less likely in Britain.

Here's two for the autumn double

At this time every year I do like a long-range ante-post autumn double wager and this year is no different. The key horse in the Cambridgeshire is undoubtedly Greek Order, who looked a different horse at Newbury last time and his form was given a big boost at Doncaster last week. However, he might need softish ground and he is a short price now, so at this stage I prefer the chances of another three-year-old, the Ed Bethell-trained Oviedo.

Oviedo hasn't had much luck on his last three runs, but he finished well behind Astro King at York last time and will be suited if the ground stays on the quick side.

In the Cesarewitch I think it might be worth taking on the hurdlers as most of the best ones might well go for the Irish version instead. Consequently, I think David Simcock's Traila is of interest, as he is open to loads of improvement at marathon trips.

He might take in the trial race at Newmarket on Saturday but he looked a horse going places when overcoming trouble in running to win at Sandown last time and he's relatively unexposed in the context of the race.

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