Those waiting for the photo finish should never have doubted it. Of course he had held on. Toughness and resilience are ingrained through Jessica Harrington and her horses.
It was two years ago this month the trainer revealed she was facing a much more serious issue than the outcome of a horse race, announcing she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Yet she stayed positive throughout, was branded “a force to be reckoned with” by daughter Kate, received the all clear this year, and looked a picture of good health in the autumn sunshine at Doncaster.
Those who have followed her horses since she started training in 1989 will testify they can be just as tough, particularly anyone who backed the battling trio Jezki in the Champion Hurdle, Spirit Leader in the County Hurdle, or Sizing John in the Punchestown Gold Cup, to pick just three famed examples of narrow but gutsy winners.
They were all jumpers and Harrington, all bar half a dozen of whose 2024 string are flat racers, temporarily forgot she is in a more rarefied, business-like, emotion-free world nowadays as things got serious for her Hotazhell in a titanic final furlong of the Futurity Trophy Stakes (G1) Oct. 26.
Thriller at @DoncasterRaces đŻ
Hotazhell JUST gets his nose ahead of Delacroix to win the G1 William Hill Futurity Trophy Stakes under Shane Foley.
Fantastic to see trainer @Jessica_Racing with another Classic contender on her hands pic.twitter.com/qQlc1JEz5o
â Champions Series (@ChampionsSeries) October 26, 2024
She is easily forgiven as it got, well, hot as hell, in the closing stages of the last group 1 race of the British season. No sooner had Aidan O’Brien’s Delacroix edged in front than Harrington’s group 3 and group 2 winner took him on in a sustained duel through the final 200 yards, with Shane Foley and Ryan Moore giving it everything.
Hotazhell led narrowly close home but had he held the favorite’s renewed challenge at the line?
After the judge announced Hotazhell had held on by a nose, giving Harrington her first group or grade 1 success since her illness was made public, the trainer admitted: “I did a lot of shouting. I get a bit National Hunt doing that. I thought he’d won, then I thought he hadn’t. But it was absolutely fantastic.”
Foley added: “You’d have liked him to win a bit snugger but we got the head in front. He’s a very tough, competitive horse and when I got him up between them he loves a fight. I thought he’d wonâand Ryan said well done to me after, which was a good sign.”
Hotazhell had gained his three previous wins by a total of just 3 1/2 lengths and Harrington said: “He’s a smashing horse, he’s very tough and he loves a battle. I don’t think he’ll ever win races by large margins. He loves just looking at the other horse and saying, ‘I’m better than you’.
“He’s a little bit feisty, he ain’t called Hotazhell for nothing. He’s done very well. He’s won a group 3, a group 2, and now a group 1. That’s just the start of his career, hopefully, and he’ll go on next year and get better.
“This is very special. To win any group 1, or a grade 1 over jumps, is special and it takes a special horse. I’m very excited.”
Six Futurity winners have gone on to land the Epsom Derby (G1) the following year, but Harrington is not sure Hotazhell will have the necessary stamina for Epsom.
“I’d say he’ll start off over a mile and take it from there,” the trainer said. “He’ll probably stay a mile and a quarter. I’m not sure he’ll stay a mile and a half, but you never know, he’s a very relaxed horse and he just might.”
Three of those Derby winners were trained by O’Brien, who took Delacroix’s narrow failure to give him a record-extending 12th victory in the race on the chin. Delacroix is the last foal out of United States dual champion grass mare and Hall of Famer Tepin.
“He’s run a stormer,” the trainer said. “We hope that bodes well for next year.”
It was another 4 3/4 lengths back to James Doyle’s mount Wimbledon Hawkeye , who trainer James Owen felt suffered for racing on ground softer than when he won the Royal Lodge Stakes (G2) at Newmarket.Â
“He showed his heart and how good he is in the way he battled on to finish third,” Owen said. “James said it’s a lot softer here today than it was at Newmarket.
“He was struggling in it but he’s a lovely horse for next year. I’m thrilled to be here mixing it with the top and he’s done us proud.”
