William Buick guides Ombudsman to Godolphin glory at York despite almighty scare

Drama and uncertainty: they are at the heart of the best sporting thrillers, whether a ball is being kicked, a club is being swung or a horse is being ridden.

Crowds love a cliffhanger, they invest emotionally when time ticks away, and how they were absorbed at York, one of racing’s greatest stages. The £1.3m Juddmonte International, its flagship race of the year, never disappoints and the latest renewal left the towering grandstands humming.

Ombudsman, the 7/4 favourite, came out on top but that tells you only a fraction of what happened over a mile-and-a-quarter and two minutes and seven seconds of unrelenting drama. For a significant proportion of this championship event, it seemed as if one of the greatest shocks ever might unfold.

Birr Castle, trained in France by Andre Fabre, was supplemented for the race last Thursday at a cost of £80,000 by Ombudsman’s owners Godolphin. The intention was to set an honest pace and that’s why he was sent off at odds of 150/1.

But when the field turned for home, Birr Castle was skipping along in splendid isolation and, all of sudden, you began to wonder whether a shock even bigger than the one at Glorious Goodwood, when Qirat won the Sussex Stakes was about to unfold.

There were gasps when, with 500 yards to run, Birr Castle was still clear but then Ombudsman did what only the truly exceptional racehorses can do and shot clear with an electrifying turn of foot. One moment stage, he was six lengths behind; the next he was three lengths clear.

‘Andre said to me: “I would like the same result as Goodwood” and, you know, I thought his request was going to come true,’ said John Gosden, who trains Ombudsman with his son, Thady. ‘But when William (Buick, jockey) let him go, he absolutely flew. He’s a very, very good horse.

‘He went from second gear to fifth gear, just like that. He has taken it away from Delacroix, the runner-up, and turned things around after the Coral-Eclipse, where Delacroix had beaten us. I’m just going to have call Andre and tell him he frightened the living daylights out of us!’

The drama did not stop there, though, as it was sobering to see Lambourn, the dual-Derby winner being beaten so emphatically in the SkyBet Great Voltiguer Stakes. Victory went to Pride Of Arras, trained by Ralph Beckett, who improved after significant operation in July.

‘We had to geld him,’ said Beckett, who has dreams of running Pride Of Arras in the Breeders Cup Turf in November. ‘The game's gone as far as him being a stallion but he's now back to where we hoped he'd be.’