Racing: Race in the country just a stroll for Elusive City

These are days when racehorses are becoming like masterpieces, considerably more valuable properties as soon as the men behind them have left this world. On Saturday it was Golan, now a champion at four as well as three as a result of his victory in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. His value soared in the same week as the man who insisted he stayed in training as a older horse, Lord Weinstock, died at the age of 77.

Yesterday, on the first day of Glorious Goodwood, it was the turn of Elusive City, who runs in the green and white colours of the Thoroughbred Corporation, though there is no longer the head of the firm around to salute him. Ahmed Salman too died last week and did not see the graduation of a typically robust TC colt.

Elusive City had run just once before, on the sands of Lingfield, and it showed yesterday. He was immaturity itself in the preliminaries for the Group Two Richmond Stakes, trainer Gerard Butler on one side of him and his Blewbury yard's travelling head lad on the other. They looked as though they were trying to keep down a Zeppelin.

Elusive City may have two-year-old stamped on his passport, but certainly not about his frame and it was a considerable job for the boys as the big horse threw about his head coloured by a startling white bridle and a luxuriant noseband. He was, as they say, being coltish, which meant he already appeared to be practising for a stud career.

"He was very tricky here beforehand," Butler commented later. "He found this experience on a big day at a big meeting very different from what he has been used to at home and when he ran at Lingfield. He comes from a placid and playful yard and he doesn't see any other horses.

"He got quite excited when he was being saddled up and then when the time came to go out from the paddock he was very geed-up. They were anxious moments for everybody concerned as you want to keep the lid on him as much as possible. It could have been a bit of stagefright."

When the curtains parted, however, Elusive City certainly knew what he was doing in conjunction with a smart ride from Kieren Fallon. He planted his mount well in behind a pace which was unnecessarily fierce before appearing to reach his optimum speed just as the rest were at their weakest. Three lengths was the winning distance.

Coral go the top price of 33-1 for the 2003 2,000 Guineas, but even that hardly looks stunning value when his trainer questions he will stay, the horse runs like a sprinter and there are doubts about whether he will be even running in Europe next season. "He is a big fellow and a grand guy, but, pedigree-wise, he might come up short when it comes to staying a mile," Butler said, the slobber still evident on the sleeves of his grey suit. "We seem to have so much speed."

The Middle Park Stakes looks the next job and by then we might have learned if the Thoroughbred Corporation is to disband. Butler on his own has 14 of their horses.

Mark Johnston was also a happy man after Bandari's success in the Group Three Gordon Stakes, certainly much happier than when the same colt ran like a drain in the Derby while the ink was still drying on the purchase contract signed by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum. It was probably easy to hear the Arabic for "pig in a poke" at the time.

"That's more relief than delight," Johnston said. "The horse got a new owner a week before the Derby, and you can't blame him or Richard Hills [the jockey, who was on the owner's other horse Izdiham yesterday] for not having confidence in the horse. He has now had five spectacular wins and two disasters and unfortunately they were involved with one of the disasters. We were terrified of another bad run.

"If something goes wrong in a race he doesn't have the strength or maturity to recover. You can speculate until the cows come home about what went wrong in the Derby, but he was out of the stalls slowly then pushed and shoved to get a position. He's a big, nervous horse and I don't think he liked it. Look at his frame. He looks like a backward yearling at the moment. He needs more time and he'll be a different horse next year."

Willie Supple deserved this success. As his three rivals (Nysaean was an absentee because of the firmish ground) dallied in behind and waited for something to happen, the Irishman was proactive. When he judged the time was right, he put his mount's head down, did the same himself and went for broke. It was the others who splintered.

When he wins, Bandari wins very well. As he crossed the line, with sweat dripping off him like wax down a late-evening candle, he was seven lengths to the clear.

Soon we will finally find out if he chose his opponents well or he is, in fact, the real deal. The Great Voltigeur and the St Leger were ringing around as future targets in the immediate aftermath, but Johnston's race of choice seemed to be the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. That would tell us once and for all.