Talking Horses: Baaeed trainer’s plan for fixture cull would be a reckless one

The exceptional and unbeaten Baaeed will face six rivals – including two stable companions at the William Haggas yard – in his much-anticipated step up to a mile-and-a-quarter in the Group One International Stakes at York on Wednesday, when a 10th career success for the four-year-old would see his Yorkshire-born trainer move alongside Charlie Appleby, the defending champion, in the title race.

Baaeed is the best horse to set foot on a track in Britain since Frankel a decade ago and like Sir Henry Cecil’s flawless champion, he will set off at long odds-on for the feature event on the first day of York’s Ebor Festival. Mishriff, last year’s winner for the John and Thady Gosden stable, and the Appleby-trained Native Mission, 2021’s champion juvenile and the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner earlier this year, are his most serious opponents on paper, but both should still have plenty to find with the favourite if his stamina lasts out over the extended 10-furlong trip.

It promises to be a memorable afternoon for Yorkshire-born Haggas, who will be hoping to win a fifth Group One in a single season for the first time in his 35-year career, and the long-time stalwart of the National Trainers’ Federation has also found time to emerge as a key campaigner for a big reduction in British racing’s fixture list, in an attempt to address falling field sizes and improve competitiveness.

A modest plan to cut 300 races from next year’s schedule fell through earlier this year after opposition from Arena Racing Company (ARC), which operates 16 tracks and would have been expected to take most of the cut. In Haggas’s view, however, this would not have been nearly enough.

“We as a body, the National Trainers’ Federation, were very much in favour of