The first since Frankel? How Baaeed could break a decade-long barrier

This article was first published as part of our four-part A Big Year For... series, available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. To mark Baaeed's return in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on Saturday, it has been made free to read.

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You don't have to go back as far as Brigadier Gerard. Not even as far as Kris, Warning, Miesque, Rock Of Gibraltar or the teak-tough Giant's Causeway. In fact, arguably the greatest miler of all time was around as recently as Frankel.

Nonetheless, Frankel was ten years ago now and it's hard to remember ever waiting as long for another truly great miler to come along.

Indeed, if you use a Racing Post Rating of 130 as the key metric by which to bestow such a title, then the recent dearth of miling talent has been extraordinary. Not one horse in Europe since Frankel has reached such a figure, when in the previous 20 years there had never been a wait of more than three years for another 130+ miler to emerge.

Kingman, with his four successive Group 1 wins in the summer of 2014, was pretty good, certainly, though only worthy of an RPR of 128. And in the last two years Palace Pier wasn't half bad either. But the sport is always looking for one who might take us into the stratosphere and, ever since Baaeed made his way on to the launchpad last year, the possibilities have been otherworldly.

As he notched victory after victory, Baaeed quickly became that most sought-after of beasts: the unbeaten horse. By the time he had polished off Palace Pier in the last of his six races in 2021, there were already people seeking to have him elevated to the sainthood, probably some more who were keen for him to be treated with kid gloves, campaigned with caution to preserve his unbeatenness; for the mass of his fans, however, he will emerge from spring quarters with their hopes and dreams on his back.

The possibilities at this stage are boundless, and while William Haggas has been around the block enough times to know that boundless possibilities are no guarantee of success, there can scarce be a racing person whose pulse hasn't already quickened when Baaeed's future has flitted across the conversation.

Although he missed his two-year-old season – immaturity, niggles, incoming late-season soft ground, his trainer isn't quite sure why – he was far from forgotten at Somerville Lodge, which makes it all the more surprising that his debut success in June, in a mile Leicester maiden under Dane O'Neill, by a cosy length and a quarter from the now 88-rated Tamaamm, was achieved at odds of 6-1.

As he was stepped up through the grades, such generosity wasn't repeated, and he was sent off at odds-on to win in novice and Listed company at Newmarket, always over a mile, although Haggas confessed he initially looked at the pedigree (brother to the 1m6f Group 3 winner Hukum out of a 1m2f French Listed-winning mare, by Derby and Arc winner Sea The Stars) and saw a potential stayer.

Then Baaeed breezed through his Group 3 test at Goodwood in July by six and a half lengths, and we all started to consult our notional programme books, wondering if we might be able to be there when he took his next electric step onwards and upwards. He was going through the gears so quickly and smoothly that it surely wasn't going to be long before he was sent to be measured against the very best, and wouldn't it be a treat to see first hand if he was as good as we thought?

The Flat's most exciting talent? Why the brilliant Baaeed could light up 2022

As he and Jim Crowley walked back into the winner's enclosure at Goodwood, more than one trainer – Haggas aside – was heard to mutter the word 'special' in his direction. There was an unspoken belief that we might have just seen a true superstar in the making, so when he was sent into the fray in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin at Longchamp in September, he was accompanied by more expectation than trepidation.

He was a 1-2 shot and he won like 1-2 shot, dismissing good Irish, French and German rivals in the same way he'd dismissed British ones along the way. Where once he was a rising star with a liking for quick ground, he'd now confirmed that a little give held no terrors for him and that Ascot in October was not a place to be avoided.

Baaeed: won like 1-2 shot should to claim his first Group 1Credit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

His owner Sheikh Hamdan may have died before this latest embodiment of his blue and white values had set foot on a racecourse, but it was fitting that the new custodians of the Shadwell ethos were being so quickly rewarded with a creature of such achievement and potential.

His season-ending defeat of Palace Pier may have been by only a neck, but he was beating the best miler on these isles and doing it with authority, on ground Crowley described as softer than ideal. It was "laboured", said the jockey, but that didn't detract from the now evident fact that Baaeed was "a beast", to be feared wherever he went.

Haggas quickly confirmed that he'd been given the opportunity to marshal this great talent for another year, and then headed into a winter of waiting, wondering and, no doubt, a little worrying.

"You try not to think about it," says the trainer. "You just get on and try to treat him as normally as possible. It's not very easy but it's the best thing to do, treat him like another horse.

"People like an unbeaten horse, we know that, but I don't really feel any added pressure. Then again, we're not near the race yet, so ask me in a couple of weeks' time and I might be getting a bit wobbly."

The race he's talking about is the Lockinge, which has been earmarked as Baaeed's first target of the season, but this is the time of year when best-laid plans can very quickly go awry.

"So far, so good," confirms Haggas, "but we're into dangerous territory now. As any athlete will tell you, once you get fit, life becomes a little easier and maintaining that fitness is not as difficult, but getting fit is hard, muscles get sore, everything gets sore, and that's the process he's going through.

"Luckily, he's not difficult. He's done well from three to four, but then he was almost certain to. He's not huge, just a good medium-sized horse with a good backside, and he's charming, very kind and relatively straightforward."

Baaeed: conquered Palace Pier on Champions Day to extend his unbeaten runCredit: Edward Whitaker

All of which is not to say that, even if the road to action remains smooth, the direction of travel will remain constant. That search for a great miler has another complicating factor.

"I think it's pretty straightforward," says Haggas, "but the question I keep asking myself is when, or if, we step him up in trip. His pedigree suggests he'll be better over further, or at least just as good, and if he's not sharp enough over a mile now he'll have to go up in trip quite quickly.

"The Lockinge is the obvious starting point and he'll have entries in both the Queen Anne and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes to keep our options open."

All of which leaves the Baaeed fan club in a state of high excitement regardless of trip, while the trainer tries to stave off such indulgences for the time being.

"Excited isn't the word that readily springs to mind for me," he says in deadpan fashion. "I'll try to keep everybody's feet on the ground, including my own, although when these horses come along, you want to enjoy them. I'm not sure we'll be able to enjoy him until afterwards, but we must try."

The rest of our A Big Year For series is exclusive to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Read the other three parts here:

Aidan O'Brien: Is the master of Ballydoyle facing his toughest challenge yet?

William Buick: 'Oisin being out doesn't change anything - so much still needs to go right'

Adayar: The Derby needs a saviour - so is this 'stronger, quicker' superstar the one?

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