Almost exactly a year on from his greatest moment when he outclassed the opposition to give Brian Meehan and Manton a second win in the Breeders Cup Turf race at Churchill Downs, five year old Dangerous Midge has been retired.
Bought by Angie Loder at the Keeneland September Sale in 2007, the entire son of Lion Heart and Adored Slew, a daughter of the great Seattle Slew , exhibited a mixture of speed and class throughout his career.
Unraced at two, he ran only four times as a three year old , winning his Maiden and then ending the campaign with a stylish victory in a competitive handicap at Doncaster. Dangerous Midge repeated the victory on his seasonal return on the same course last year coming home five lengths clear.
His next victory was an eight-length romp in Haydock’s prestigious Old Newton Cup , his first success at a mile and a half. That effort earned general recognition as the handicap performance of the entire 2010 season.
Even better was to come. Dangerous Midge continued with an equally-convincing success in Newbury’s Group 3 Arc Trial over 11 furlongs. This was his first entry into Pattern-race company and in swamping Group 1 winners Rainbow View and Campanologist by four lengths and two, he was stating his place among the elite.
Martin Dwyer, who was in the saddle for all of his 2010 starts to date, said : “Dangerous Midge was a top performer at the highest level and had a devastating turn of foot for a mile and a half horse. When he won the Arc Trail, he left the field behind in three strides with a burst of speed which gave me the feel of a sprinter. He was a proper racehorse. Of all the top class horses I have ridden, he was one of the most impressive middle distance horses.”
Sadly for Martin a broken thumb and other injuries sustained in a fall at Leicester left him behind in England when Dangerous Midge finished his 2010 season in sensational style in Kentucky. Going for the same race at the same track as Red Rocks had annexed for Meehan four years earlier , Dangerous Midge had the assistance of Red Rocks’ jockey Frankie Dettori as Dwyer’s replacement.
Once again, as with all his career victories, there was clear sailing – one and a quarter lengths – from runner-up Champ Pegasus , with the French-trained favourite and Grand Prix De Paris winner Behkabad two lengths behind in third. Behkabad had been considered unlucky when fourth, four lengths behind Workforce in the Arc five weeks earlier.
Dettori, riding the then four-year-old for the only time in his career said : “I had a great trip throughout. For such a big horse, he was very balanced and we had no problems all the way. He got there easily in the end. He proved himself to be a top quality racehorse on Breeders Cup night”.
Brian Meehan said that Dangerous Midge was one of the top horses in his 20 year career. “ He is a very good looking horse with a super temperament. I always felt throughout the season before that the Breeders Cup would be his target and he never did anything to make me doubt it. This was especially so after his impressive victory at Newbury in the Arc Trail where he beat a number of genuine Group 1 performers. I have been fortunate to have trained top class middle distance horses in Red Rocks who won a Breeders Cup Turf and David Junior who won a Champion Stakes , an Eclipse and a Dubai Duty Free and I would rank Dangerous Midge in that triumvirate. He is one of the exciting Group 1 horses that I have trained over the years”.
Dangerous Midge never regained his form as a five-year-old after an unfortunate experience in Dubai when he was well below his best in the Sheema Classic. He retires as the winner of six of 15 races, two at Graded level, with total earnings of £1,109,761 and a Timeform rating of 123. As the two jockeys who rode him to his greatest triumphs observed, he is a big powerful horse with a terrific burst of speed at the highest level.
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© 2011 Brian Meehan at Manton