Living Legend Yeats!

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By ARSENE ABITBOL - 20 June 2009 -
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YEATS (IRE)
Sire: Sadler's Wells (USA)
Dam : Lyndonville (IRE) (TopVille)
Age : 8 y-o, born 23 April 2001
Particularities : won from 8 to 20 furlongs, 7 Group I wins.
Others : undefeated at Goodwood (2/2), Leopardstown (2/2),& Ascot (4/4)
History : 4 triumphs in the Ascot Gold Cup.
Races : 24 Victories : 15
Earned : 1,298,000 £
Status : LIVING LEGEND

What Yeats has just achieved is simply beyond belief! Since the Ascot Gold Cup was created 207 years ago, no horse had ever been able to win this four times in a row. To say the truth, many things about him are unbelievable. For instance, the fact that an eight year-old is still able to thwart a young contender like Patkai. The 'young contender' is three years younger than him, and in racing terms that's a massive age difference.

Even if it's largely due to Yeats' constitution, the son of Sadler's Wells has been well taken care of. It's rare enough to maintain a racehorse in top condition when he/she is five or six, but in the case of an eight year-old, it has to be called an ''outstanding training performance'' from Aidan O'Brien and all the Ballydoyle team. How come Yeats has been coping with that many fights and that much toughness? All of the tournaments he took part in were always contested at top level, in top company; taking on younger and battle-hardened competitors, we are talking about genuine hardship. The kind of test, the vast majority of thoroughbreds could not bear for more than two or three years at the most. Well, in the case of Yeats - the iron horse -, both age and hardship very much failed to make an impact on him.

What's more, is Yeats' times in his four Gold Cups:

On 22 June 2006 , he clocked up 20 furlongs in 4'20''45, on 21 June 2007, in 4'20''78, at the time he was aged six. A year later, the tempo was slower in the 2008 GoldCup and the time read 4'21''10. Finally, a few years ago, on June 18, the Ascot marathon was rounded up in 4'20''73. Mind Blowing! Nearly as good as when he landed his first Cup four years ago! In other words, this means that at 8, he displayed the same strength as in 2006, when he was much younger - (five years-old).

Interestingly enough, if we extrapolate, it seems reasonable to establish the following scale : Aged three, the physical ability of a thoroughbred would compare to that of a 18/20-year-old young man. Aged five, the tonus of a racehorse would be similar to that of a 26/28-year-old man, and an older horse - let's say eight! - could easily compare to a more mature individual, aged around 38/40 years old. Hence, the following thought : How come a given 40 y-o-individual would perform just as well as he did when he was 28? Isn't that something? It only takes an exceptional animal, the kind of horse that makes history and Yeats is now a Living Legend, an Immortal in the racing world.

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Sources : BBC Sport TV Channel
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