Thanks for the memories: Luca Cumani and Darryll Holland speak to Graham Dench in an appreciation of the eight-time G1 winner who died earlier this month
One would search long and hard to find a more admirable competitor than the formidable Falbrav, a warrior of a racehorse who died recently at the age of 26 in Japan.
Falbrav raced in three continents over four long seasons, accumulating 13 wins, eight of them at the highest level, and earnings not far short of £4 million ($5.1m). Besides being supremely tough and versatile, he had a dazzling change of gear and film-star looks. It’s no wonder he was such a fan favourite.
Falbrav was the best horse in many years to emerge from Italy, from where Luciano d’Auria’s audacious tilt at the 2002 Japan Cup resulted in a thrilling victory by the minimum margin, ridden for the first time by the trainer’s celebrated compatriot Frankie Dettori.
Even better was to come. Switched to the Newmarket stables of Luca Cumani as a five-year-old, he enjoyed a truly exceptional international campaign which climaxed in an impressive defeat of Rakti in the Hong Kong Cup.
Falbrav’s 2003 season was nothing short of remarkable. As robust as they come, he raced from April to December, taking in no fewer than 10 successive G1 races in five countries on three different continents.
The son of Fairy King won five of them, including also the Coral-Eclipse, Juddmonte International and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, each of those UK successes under regular partner Darryll Holland. With better luck it might have been seven – witness his agonising defeat in the Breeders’ Cup Turf of 2003, where he was touched off over a distance slightly beyond his optimum in what was unquestionably one of the most exciting race in the event’s rich history.
Cumani has the fondest memories of Falbrav and rates him as “very likely my best” – high praise indeed from a trainer who won the Epsom Derby with both Kahyasi and High-Rise, a King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes with Postponed, and a host of major international races with the likes of Alkaased, Barathea, Presvis, Starcraft and Tolomeo.
“My big regret was that I didn’t have him from the beginning, but what he did in one year was absolutely phenomenal,” Cumani adds. “We won five Group 1s with him, but it should have been six and it could have been seven.
“He would have won the Irish Champion Stakes if Mick Kinane on High Chaparral hadn’t pinned him against the rail, and then if Darryll hadn’t made his move so early he could also have won the Breeders’ Cup Turf, where the dead-heaters High Chaparral and Johar caught him in the last strides.
“The mile and a half at Santa Anita stretched him, and in hindsight he perhaps should have gone for the Mile, as he’d won the QEII over that trip, or even the Classic, which was over his best distance though on dirt, but he still might have won if Darryll hadn’t been so bold.
“Unfortunately when he was asked to quicken on the bend he just took off, and as a result he was walking for the last 50 yards.”
Something special
Cumani, who retired in 2018, had trained for owners Scuderia Rencati before Falbrav, but he had no inkling that the recent Japan Cup winner was coming his way until the phone rang with the exciting news in January. On arrival Falbrav made an instant impression physically, and his first piece of work confirmed that he was something special.
“He was extremely strong and a very special looking specimen of a horse,” recalls Cumani. “He was built like the proverbial brick shithouse, and I described him as the Muhammad Ali of the racing world.
“He wasn’t at all easy to deal with in his box, which he regarded as his space, but the moment you put somebody on him he was like a kid’s pony and very compliant. In his first proper bit of work he went past his galloping companion in a flash and I knew then that we had something.”
Cumani admits Falbrav was “probably undercooked” for his first race, but for the remainder of the season he proved the most formidable of opponents when distance and going were to his liking. His wins in the Coral-Eclipse, Juddmonte International and QEII, all in Holland’s hands, were gained with a burst of speed a furlong or two from home that immediately had the opposition in trouble.
Many would have called it a day after the Breeders’ Cup defeat, but Falbrav had such an extraordinary constitution that Hong Kong was too tempting to resist. Cumani has seldom been more nervous, fearful that the long campaign and regular forays abroad might have left their mark, but he need not have worried.
“I was afraid that it might be one race too many, so it was a great relief when Falbrav won so well at Sha Tin,” he says. “He beat another international star in Rakti, and it made it even more special having Frankie on board because of our long history together.
“Falbrav had all of the qualities you look for,” Cumani says. “He was a beautiful specimen of a horse and had a terrific will to win. He was extremely tough and versatile and a joy to have around.”
Darryll Holland: ‘What a horse!’
For his part, Holland has no doubt whatsoever about Falbrav’s standing within his own impressive canon. A top-level rider for the best part of 30 years and now an up-and-coming trainer, he never rode a better horse than Falbrav, whose Eclipse-winning photo has pride of place on his kitchen wall.
“What a horse!” he says. “I got on him for the first time in the Eclipse, where he travelled round beautifully and put it to bed when he got first run on Nayef. Then at York, Luca had him spot on and I had no doubt he’d win. He was exceptional that day and won hard held, with his head in his chest.
“At Leopardstown he was the best horse in the race but just got beat, and then he dropped back to a mile in the QEII and beat the 1000 Guineas winner Russian Rhythm, which was very special. I don’t think I was to blame at Santa Anita, where he was only just beaten by two exceptional horses on the day.
“I’ve sat on a lot of horses, but none quite like Falbrav,” he goes on. “His biggest attribute was his heart, but he had everything you would want. He was without a doubt the most complete racehorse I ever rode.”
Teruya Yoshida having bought into him, Falbrav spent most of his stud career at Shadai, where his Group and Graded winners all fell well short of his own high level. That does not detract in the slightest however from the racecourse memories he left with us. He was one of a kind.
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