Congratulations to...
Alpha Centauri
We'll have to ask the Editor what he saw in Alpha Centauri to make her a single pick in his title-winning team. There were two 6f wins at Naas in May 2017 but the filly was turned over as a short-price favourite in her other two outings that year.
There was no joy in her first run of the season either, finishing 10th of 13 over 7f at Leopardstown. That was on heavy ground though and Jessica Harrington's star was a different prospect over a mile on better ground.
Alpha Centauri's first win of the year was in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh. Sent off at 12/1 after that run of defeats Colm O'Donoghue timed her run to collar the Aiden O'Brien pacemaker Could It Be Love in the final 100 yards to take the spoils.
The next target was the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. The bookies took no chances this time and sent her off as the 11/4 favourite. She won like one too. Shaken up at the furlong pole she came home a six-length winner with the English and French Guineas winners well beaten.
Three weeks later Alpha Centauri was odds on for the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and was an easy four and a half length winner. Next stop was Deauville in August for the Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Jacques le Marois. She was taking on a mixed age and sex field but still an odds on shot and only had to be kept up to her work in the final furlong to see off Olivier Peslier's previous Group One winner Recoletos.
Now a winner of over £1m Alpha Centauri was expected to take another winner's purse in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown in mid-September. It wasn't to be. Denied by another excellent filly in Laurens, Alpha Centauri was found to be clinically abnormal after the race. The announcement soon came that she'd chipped a joint in her right front fetlock and would be retired.
O'Donoghue said: "She was the leading three-year-old all year. She was an incredible filly. She didn't just beat them, she annihilated them."
The top three were:
264.6 - Alpha Centauri (75.8 + 82.4 + 52.6 + 53.8)
233.8 - Roaring Lion (23.8 + 52.4 + 53.6 + 51.6 + 52.4)
205.8 - Kew Gardens (68.2 + 54.8 + 82.8)
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