Buick’s judgment of pace is rewarded

After the jockey maintained his perfect record in the world’s oldest Classic – two wins from two rides after last year’s victory on Arctic Cosmos – Masked Marvel was touted as a potential Ascot Gold Cup horse.

Buick disagreed. The three-year-old could have the speed, he ventured, to excel in the great middle distance races like the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

He should know. Buick and trainer John Gosden, who was recording his fourth St Leger triumph from his last six runners in the race, won this year’s King George with Nathaniel before swerving Doncaster in favour of next month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s foremost race. That they hold Nathaniel in even higher regard than Masked Marvel is a tip in itself.

Buick, 23, had told Saturday’s Yorkshire Post that he would ride an “uncomplicated” race and so it proved as he again showed why he is such an astute judge of pace.

There was such a ferocious gallop that Rumh, Godolphin’s supposed pacemaker for Frankie Dettori’s dual Classic winner Blue Bunting, could not even head Gosden’s second-string Buthelezi.

Blue Bunting was always out of contention as Buick started to plan his winning move in tactics similar to those deployed last year. Again he made sure the favourite, this time Sir Michael Stoute’s Sea Moon, was always behind him.

As the nine runners turned for home, Buick sought cover for his 15-2 chance behind other horses to protect Masked Marvel from the fierce headwind, and to ensure that his winning move was a decisive one.

When it came, the outcome was instantaneous – with Sea Moon boxed in heading to the two furlong pole, it was left to Manchester United footballer Michael Owen’s Brown Panther to run on into second, three lengths in arrears.

Even if Sea Moon, the eventual third, was better positioned by Olivier Peslier, it would have made no difference – Buick had so much to spare that he struggled to slow his colt down after covering the one-and-three-quarter miles in 3mins 0.44secs – two-and-a-half seconds quicker than last year.

His beaming smile became even wider when he returned to the winner’s enclosure in front of a 27,000 crowd – he was greeted by his mother Maria, a former show-jumper, and other family members who had travelled to Doncaster from their native Norway.

It was the first time that Buick’s mother had watched her son win a big race. “I think she enjoyed it more than I did,” he smiled. “Seriously, Masked Marvel really has improved for his previous experience and I had a problem pulling him up.

“I tried to keep the revs up in the headwind and when I went two-and-a-half out, he killed the rest off – he’s an improving horse.”

As for Gosden, this was the culmination of a carefully-executed plan. “From the first day I saw him as a yearling at Deauville, I just thought he was that type,” explained the winning handler.

“He was a powerful little guy then and he’s got a great pedigree for this job. His owner (Bjorn Nielsen) allowed me to back off him so we had a lovely horse for the autumn. To win the oldest Classic with this horse is what we’ve planned for about two years – sometimes it works.”

Gosden’s one regret is that he becomes typecast as a Leger trainer and is sent horses that only have the speed to become ‘hunters’.

“I can train sprinters,” says the man who guided some of the formative years of Frankie Dettori’s career.

And, judging by William Buick’s progression, Gosden also knows how to bring the best out of his riders.