Vaguely Noble
Vaguely Noble 2 b.c. Vienna 127-Noble Lassie 109 (Nearco) [1967 132 6g2 7fg2 7s* 8s*]
Having to find something new to say about Vaguely Noble is like having to write an additional chapter to ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’, Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall…’ or Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’. Although Vaguely Noble was only a youngster with but four races under his belt he received as much publicity as the Derby winner, if not more. Who doesn’t yet know he won the Observer Gold Cup by a staggering margin and that, regrettably, he is not entered in the classics? Even most of those who do not know this must surely have heard, or read, that he passed through the sale ring at the end of the year, falling to the almighty dollar for a record sum. As a result of his sale we may not see much of this outstanding colt over here. He is to be trained in Ireland by Paddy Prendergast for at least a year before going to the United States, if present plans are adhered to, and will race mainly in France with the Prix de 1 Arc de Triomphe his chief objective.
Vaguely Noble put up one of the top performances of the year when he won the Observer Gold Cup in Doncaster in October, his last race, by a long-looking seven lengths from Doon, who had carried 9-7 to victory in the Prince of Wales’s Nursery on his most recent appearance. Alongside Doon, thoroughly outpaced, came the Royal Lodge Stakes second Riboccarc, and behind them the Prix Morny and Champagne Stakes second Lorenzaccio, the highly-rated newcomer Connaught, the Beresford Stakes winner Hibernian, the non-staying Champagne winner Chebs Lad and, finally, the outclassed First Pick. The most amazing aspect of Vaguely Noble’s win was that he did everything in the last furlong or so. After being in the last three to the turn (Doon made most of the running) he came on the inside in the straight and found himself badly boxed-in over two furlongs out. Even at this point, it was obvious he would take a deal of beating given a run, so well was he going. Williamson, normally the quietest of riders, made no bones about forcing a way through, and pulled the race out of the fire. Approaching the distance, Vaguely Noble had begun to make room for himself—in a few more strides he had started to pull away towards a memorable win. Of the other six winners of this race since it was first instituted as the Timeform Gold Cup, only that brilliant filly Noblesse had treated the opposition in such cavalier fashion. Those opposing Vaguely Noble might have been donkeys, but they weren’t. Although in 1967 the race was the least valuable to the winner since its inauguration—instead of the usual 10 per cent and 5 per cent of the whole stakes to the second and third, the conditions allowed 20 per cent to the second, 10 per cent to the third and 3 per cent to the fourth—the sponsors succeeded in attracting a fair selection of the best staying two-year-olds in England, the most notable absentee being Remand, who had retired for the season. To win as he did, Vaguely Noble had to be a very good horse.
Clearly testing conditions suited Vaguely Noble down to the ground. Two weeks earlier he had handed out the same shattering treatment to lesser lights in the Sandwich Stakes over seven furlongs on the soft at Ascot, always moving smoothly down the middle of the course and striding out in great style (again doing everything in the last furlong) to win, with a good deal in hand from The Moorings. The judge’s distances between the first three in this 18-horse race, 12 lengths and six lengths, tell their own story. We made Vaguely Noble the winner by even further! Strangely enough, this was Vaguely Noble's first win. Perhaps the fast ground prevailing at the Doncaster St Leger meeting when the Feversham Stakes came to be run didn’t suit him quite so well, or maybe he hadn’t yet reached his best. At any rate, the newcomer Saraceno beat him three-quarters of a length after Vaguely Noble had led the far-side group all the way. Only a short time before, on the last Saturday in August, Vaguely Noble had made his first appearance on the racecourse in the Sandgate Stakes, a maiden race at Newcastle, giving a very good account of himself against the more experienced Sweet Thanks and others, losing by only a neck.
Vaguely Noble |
Vienna |
Aureole |
Hyperion |
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Angelola |
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Turkish Blood |
Turkom |
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Rusk |
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Noble Lassie |
Nearco |
Pharos |
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Nogara |
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Belle Sauvage |
Big Game |
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Tropical Sun |
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By painful coincidence Vaguely Noble, like the stable’s previous Gold Cup winner Pushful, had no classic engagements. When this, and the fact that Vaguely Noble was to be sold at the Newmarket December Sales became widely known soon after the Observer had been run, the guessing game began. How much would he fetch, and what would happen to him? There are many opportunities for an animal of his ability, but the jackpot races—the colts classics—are still the ones that do most to enhance a horse’s value at stud. It seemed virtually certain that he would go to an American—not much guesswork required there—but we never imagined bidding would open at the remarkable high figure of 80,000 guineas. In next to no time this opening bid had been raised successively to 136,000 guineas, over three times the highest amount previously paid for a horse in training at public auction in this country (Plying Pox, as long ago as 1900), and Vaguely Noble passed from the Holliday family into the hands of a Californian, Dr. Franklyn. In all conscience, 136,000 guineas is a tremendous sum, part of which will almost certainly have to be recouped in stud fees, yet is it a comparatively greater sum, or even as great as the 37,500 guineas paid for Plying Fox at turn-of-the-century values? Almost certainly it’s less. Records, in terms of mere figures, are bound to go on being broken as the value of the pound decreases. In 1927, the year Call Boy was sold privately for £60,000, the Derby winner received £12,615; in 1938, the year Nearco fetched £60,000 by private treaty, the Derby winner received £9,228. The winner of the latest Derby Stakes won almost £62,000.
Just what value for money Vaguely Noble will be as a racehorse is impossible to say, but if all remains well with him he must surely win good races as a three-year-old, particularly if there is a wet summer and autumn. His distance? He will stay well and, indeed, may need a test of stamina to be seen to best advantage as the year rolls on, even though he obviously possesses a top-class turn of foot. At stud Vaguely Noble will not represent the most famous of the late Major Holliday’s blood lines—the Lost Soul family—but comes from a good line nevertheless. His dam, an exceptionally attractive filly and a strong, resolute galloper, won the Lancashire Oaks. Before Vaguely Noble, she bred two foals, of whom Attractive (by Acropolis) won a staying race. The second dam (a winning stayer) bred four winners besides Noble Lassie, the best of them the very useful middle-distance performer Pandour. The great grandam Tropical Sun finished third in a New-Oaks, and is by Hyperion out of the Oaks winner Brulette. The result of the Observer gave a timely boost to the prestige of Vaguely Noble’s sire, that great-hearted racehorse Vienna. Apart from Kursaal, he had not sired a winner of note from two crops until Vaguely Noble came along, and had been leased from the Airlie Stud to a syndicate of French breeders after the 1967 covering season. Vienna now stands at the Haras de Messelan, Seine-et-Oise.
Racehorses of 1967, Timeform