Raiders pray for tears from heaven

If Frankie Dettori employs his trademark dismount during the Breeders' Cup series at Woodbine this Saturday, he should not be surprised if the public response is less than tumultuous. They have seen it all before.

It is said Dettori copies the flying leap from Angel Cordero, but those with considerable memories around here insist the copyright belongs to Avelino Gomez, the Cuban rider who arrived in town in the 1950s.

The feats of "Gomey" (the world is not deteriorating in the standard of nicknames at least), a multiple champion jockey and four-time winner of the Queen's Plate, are commemorated in a statue by the paddock here. There were pools of water around its base yesterday.

If there is a reason to believe a British-based horse can succeed on Saturday (and that has happened only three times so far in 84 Breeders' Cup races), it hits you in the face as soon as you arrive in Ontario's most populated corner. Toronto, it seems, is twinned, climatologically at least, with Manchester.

The small valleys that accommodate Canada's largest city protect it from the keenest edge of the wind which sweeps off the north shore of Lake Ontario, but nevertheless the weather this week is not far from the miserable.

This is a considerable factor as many Breeders' Cup aspirants from Britain in the past have been burned away in the furnaces of Florida and California.

Galoshes were the requirement at trackside yesterday, where the corona of lights surrounding the main circuit in the morning blackness gave the arena the appearance of the spacecraft that visits Washington in Independence Day.

The rain continues and water is standing everywhere, though the work riders at the course will tell you the surface could quite easily dry out substantially before Saturday.

Britain's horses arrived in the middle of yesterday afternoon at Woodbine's recently completed quarantine station, a mint green edifice which still looks catalogue fresh. The forecast has yet to assemble, however.

There is no sign yet of the serried ranks from D Wayne Lukas' division, nor an appearance from the great one, Cigar himself.

However, the horse who pulled a black cape across his face and twiddled the moustache tips to the hisses of the audience at Del Mar, where Cigar was beaten earlier this season, has touched down and could well be a malefactor again.

Dare And Go tipped Cigar out of his throne in the Pacific Classic in August and is the only animal to have humbled the big horse who tries again this weekend. Skip Away, Cigar's conqueror in the Jockey Club Gold Cup last time, is out of the Classic because of illness. Not to him, but his trainer, Sonny Hine, who has an abdominal blockage.

Dare And Go is one of three Breeders' Cup Series runners saddled by the leading Californian trainer, Richard Mandella, who is also represented by Atticus in the Classic and Talloires in the Turf. Mandella understands that plenty of observers are happy to treat Del Mar as a freak occurrence, especially as Dare and Go has subsequently been beaten.

"I don't know if it was a fluke, but we'll find out next Saturday," he said yesterday. "The horse is doing great, he's as well as he can be, and, in fact, I'd say the three of them are in nice shape.

"Of course, I've got the utmost respect for Cigar and everything he's accomplished. God knows I've tried hard enough to beat him. But the only way you keep a horse from getting beat is not run them, and I've got to hand it to his people. They don't hide.

"I don't want to let myself think Cigar is vulnerable. Maybe his last race wasn't his best race, but he's a great horse and he's in great hands. I can't underestimate him."

Underestimation, it must be said, has never been applied to Britain's horses. They call this city T.O., which is alarmingly similar to the form book entry (tailed off) many of our horses have earned in 12 Breeders' Cups, events that invariably bring moisture to the eyes of both participants from Albion and punters who support their horses.

Tears, incidentally, are not a rarity in Toronto at the moment. At the Church of Mother Portaitissa and Saints Raphael, Nikolaos and Irene, in the suburb of East York, an icon of the Virgin and Child apparently started to weep last month.

The priest, Father Katseas, who, rather too conveniently for some, has been associated with a paranormal lachrymation before, declared this a miracle.

It may be that the British will need one themselves on Saturday, or perhaps just a touch of Father Katseas' serendipity.