3 minute read
Ed Walker paid tribute to his “absolute superstar” Dreamloper after the dual Group One-winning mare brought the curtain down on her racing career at the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday.
Having made a successful start to her campaign in the Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket, the five-year-old went on to beat the boys to top-level honours in both the Prix d'Ispahan and Prix du Moulin in Paris.
Hopes were high she could repeat the feat in Kentucky, but after racing keenly she faded to finish 12th of 14 runners in the Breeders' Cup Mile behind Charlie Appleby's Modern Games.
Walker admitted to being disappointed with his stable star's farewell effort – but can rightly reflect on her season with great pride.
He said: "I think her Breeders' Cup run was down a culmination of factors really. She lost a lot of weight travelling and didn't put as much back on as I would have liked.
"She was actually a bit quiet until the morning of the race, which was the first morning I saw her with a bit of light about her.
"I think the journey took plenty out of her and the preliminaries got to her a little bit and she just wasn't quite herself.
"I was very bullish when I put her on the plane a week before the race and there's no question it was a very disappointing end to her racing career, but she owes us nothing. She won us two Group Ones and has been an absolute superstar.
"It's been a fairytale story really, we just didn't quite get the fairytale ending."
Despite her below-par performance, Dreamloper still garnered plenty of interest when sent through the Keeneland sales ring on Monday – eventually being knocked down to Katsumi Yoshida for $2.7million.
"Mrs Hoare (owner-breeder) was very well rewarded and she's off to Northern Farm (in Japan) now, where she'll be retired as a broodmare, so she's in very good hands," Walker added.
The Upper Lambourn handler admits replacing a horse of Dreamloper's calibre is not going to be easy, but that will not stop him trying.
He said: "We've got to try to find another one now.
"I remember my assistant saying to me after English King was sold two years ago 'where's the next one going to come from?'. We were standing in the indoor ride at the time and in that string trotting round in front of us were Starman, who went on to be champion sprinter, and Dreamloper, so you just never quite know.
"You've just got to keep working hard, keep trying to source good horses and keep owners happy and hopefully the rest will take care of itself.
"In the last three years we've had a couple of high-profile flagbearers and next year we'll have a very small string of older horses and a big team of younger horses.
"There's lots of three-year-olds and two-year-olds for next year there, so hopefully there'll be a star or two in there. It's a slight rebuild, but it's exciting."
