Gorgeous George can orchestrate dirt music

Breeders' Cup: Brian O'Connor says it's hard to over-emphasise the scale of the task George Washington has been given in trying to land next Saturday's Classic

To the original George Washington, Kentucky was a wild frontier so far into the sticks that its only use might have been providing raw material for those mythical wooden dentures the old slave-lasher is supposed to have got his gums round.

In contrast, his equine namesake happily has a set of gnashers sharp enough to cut through any unsuspecting redneck that might venture too close when he arrives in Louisville early next week for Saturday night's Breeders' Cup extravaganza.

But despite the hype and excitement surrounding the 23rd renewal of an event that purports to be thoroughbred racing's world championships, there will still be a very real element of the unknown when Ireland's finest racehorse lines up for the last race of his career.

Put simply, if George Washington can win, he will have proven himself the best in the world. It really is that simple. The modern sporting habit may be to throw superlatives around like confetti but this is one tag that will be unarguable.

Racing horses might just be the most imprecise and nuanced sport of all and yet, for once, this will be a scenario even the most hopelessly disinterested can understand. The sort of put-up or shut-up show that sport does better than anything else.

Plus, for dramatic purposes, the Breeders' Cup could hardly have found a more suitable leading man.

Pinning human characteristics onto animals is an anthropomorphic habit usually best left to middle-aged, cat-loving singletons. Yet it's not just lazy shorthand to point to the four-legged George Washington as being just a little bit unusual.

The all-too-brief careers of top flat horses usually make it hard for the public to warm to these blue-blooded investments but "Gorgeous George" as he has become known is an exception.

Even last spring, as Aidan O'Brien introduced his big hope for 2006 to an assembled media throng, the centre of attention bared his molars and made a more than passable attempt at sinking them into Kieren Fallon.

Just a month later, after a display of raw ability in the 2,000 Guineas that drew favourable comparisons with great Classic names of the past, George decided to forego anything as predictable as entering the winner's enclosure and steered his way to the stable block.

O'Brien for one has been enthralled by the challenge of figuring out maybe the most talented horse ever to go through his hands. The Master of Ballydoyle is not known for his verbosity but at times this year he has sounded like some Nietzsche-inspired therapist trying to understand this arrogant, bullying uber-hero. Whatever he has been whispering to him has worked though.

A breathtaking victory in last month's Queen Elizabeth II Stakes restored a reputation slightly tarnished by a surprise defeat at Goodwood and propelled him to the top of the world rankings.

Since last year, a fascinating development for anoraks the world over has been the rating and comparison of the top horses, be they in Europe, America, Australia or Japan.

The international federation of handicappers meet regularly to draw up a list of these top horses and somehow manage to rate them. The aim is a ranking system along the lines of the ATP in tennis.

As always such opinions are subjective and, as ever, there are plenty willing to believe said handicappers have the deductive powers of Laurel and Hardy. But now we have a situation that if something four legged between the Poles shows a turn of foot, then there is an anorak likely to come along and slap a rating on it.

Sure enough, George Washington currently struts on top of those lists on an official mark of 127, along with three other horses. The Arc winner, Rail Link, is finished for the year but the two American champions, Bernardini and Lava Man, are waiting for the Irish horse in the $5 million Classic that will bring the Breeders' Cup to a climactic finish.

In a perfect scenario, all three will eyeball the hell out of each other all the way down the famous stretch and only the strongest will survive. It almost never happens like that though, and even if it did, Bernardini and Lava Man will still have a crucial home town advantage. This, after all, will be on their turf, or rather their dirt, and as any tabloid editor will tell you, the dirt is the thing.

Whatever about racing beyond a mile for the first time, George Washington's real frontier will stretch for the mile and a quarter of compacted sand over which the Classic will be run. And it's hard to over-emphasise the scale of the task he has been given. The lessons learned in a career devoted to the demands of racing on lush European grass have to be forgotten in one go and a new game learned on the hoof.

It's something akin to asking Brian O'Driscoll to suddenly switch to rugby league after playing union all his life. Sure the basic requirements of running and catching and tackling are the same but no one would throw O'Driscoll into a final and expect a grandstand performance.

There isn't even the consolation of believing in a soaring, raw talent overcoming all difficulties.

Some magnificent European champions have failed in the Classic. Sakhee and Giant's Causeway were gallant in defeat. But the likes of Halling reacted to dirt with a horror that maybe only a compulsive cleaner would understand. The reaction of five other shots thrown at the Classic by Coolmore since 2000, including Galileo and Hawk Wing, was one of bemusement at something so alien.

Instead, Arcangues, a 100 to 1 no-hoper in 1993, remains Europe's only Classic winner and no one has ever pretended to get all Ryder Cuppy about stuffing the Yanks with that kind of long shot.

"It would be a huge achievement if George Washington could win but it's a huge ask too," considers Ireland's official handicapper Garry O'Gorman. "If it was an average Breeders' Cup Classic, then maybe a person could be more hopeful but there are two potentially exceptional dirt horses in there."

O'Gorman is hardly exaggerating. Lava Man has been earning comparisons with Sea Biscuit for his exploits in California this year while Bernardini has been so good since winning the Preakness in May that a sport left in gloom by the high-profile injury to Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro in that same Preakness is now considering whether the best horse won anyway.

"You've got Bernardini from the East Coast, Lava Man from the West, and they're meeting in the middle. If one of them wins, or if George Washington wins, then it's almost inconceivable that that winner won't be the official world champion at the end of the year. George Washington, though, will be on an unfamiliar surface, at a new distance, playing away from home, and against two possibly exceptional opponents," O'Gorman adds.

But if the task is monumental, then so is the pay-off. This is a world where the $2.7 million first prize for the race itself is comparative chicken feed. To the number-crunchers at Coolmore, a victory for George Washington is the sort of dream that keeps them awake at night. There's some serious pay in that dirt.

On what he has achieved to date, George Washington's likely stud fee is estimated by some experts at being in the €60,000 range. Being by Danehill, a sire largely unknown in the US, currently he is strictly a European and Australian deal. A Classic win, however, opens America wide open. His fee would rocket. One bloodstock insider reckons $150,000 to be a conservative estimate. Even at that figure, a couple of hundred mares a season means a $30 million-per-year dividend and it will be three years at least before its discovered if the horse can father anything near as good as himself.

In the high-finance world of elite flat racing, those sort of arguments were always likely to guarantee that John Magnier and his partners in the Coolmore syndicate were going to allow George Washington take his chance.

Almost every year since Giant's Causeway failed so narrowly, the best horse in O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard has been given the opportunity to turn that talent into a financial goldmine. None have come even close to bringing it off.

Logically, the odds are stacked heavily against George Washington succeeding where Galileo, Hawk Wing and the others failed. But there are always exceptions to any rule and as O'Brien never ceases to explain, in this case he is dealing with an exceptional talent. Maybe exceptional enough to provide Ireland with a genuine honest to God world beater.

And it shouldn't be forgotten that the original George had hippo tusk for dentures instead of wood.

So when it comes to bite, it's dangerous to underestimate any Washington. 2000 - Churchill Downs: Giant's Causeway (2nd) is narrowly beaten in an epic finish with Tiznow.

Michael Kinane briefly dropped his reins in the closing stages provoking "what if" questions in some quarters.

2001 - Belmont Park: Galileo (6th) and Black Minnaloushe (10th) never figure in a 13-runner field as Tiznow becomes a back-to-back champion with a desperate defeat of the Arc winner Sakhee.

2002 - Arlington Park: Hawk Wing (7th of 12) misses the break and appears to resent the kick back in his face. Never threatens to make a challenge behind the surprise winner Volponi.

2003 - Santa Anita: Hold That Tiger (5th of 10) is well supported after a good pre-Classic effort behind Mineshaft in the Jockey Club Cup. The top American rider, Edgar Prado, replaces Kinane but after threatening briefly at the turn in, Hold That Tiger fades behind Pleasantly Perfect.

2005 - Belmont Park: Oratorio (11th of 13), a son of Danehill, races midfield for much of the journey but cannot go with the pace before the stretch and is not factor as Saint Liam wins.