Big Orange © Photo Healy Racing
Michael Bell has trained a Derby winner, Nunthorpe speedsters and a dual Oaks heroine. But few horses have given him as much pleasure in his career as Big Orange.
It may have taken him four races to break his maiden, but he hinted at what was to come when finishing fourth in the Queen’s Vase on his very next outing.
Big Orange won his next two races at Listed level and ended his three-year-old season at Ascot on Champions Day, not disgraced behind Dermot Weld’s Forgotten Rules when fifth in the Long Distance Cup.
Understandably connections had high hopes for him the following year, and while his first two performances were bitterly disappointing those who kept the faith were rewarded at 25-1 when he dropped back to a mile and a half to win the Princess of Wales’s Stakes.
Then his love affair with Goodwood began. Back-to-back Goodwood Cups went his way, and only an emerging superstar in the shape of Stradivarius could deny him the hat-trick in 2017, the year he had won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.
“He had slightly lost his way a bit at the start of his four-year-old career, so we schooled him over hurdles and it obviously did the trick as he went and won the Princess of Wales’s for the first time. It just freshened him up, whether it made a difference, I don’t know,” said Bell of his slightly unusual preparation for a Group Two Flat race.
“The first time he won he beat Quest For More with Trip To Paris just behind and actually that day Trip To Paris had a 4lb penalty for winning the Gold Cup, so you could argue on the day he was the best horse. He was a good horse for Ed (Dunlop).
“The Goodwood Cup was a race that suited him down to the ground, but unfortunately when he was going for the hat-trick Stradivarius appeared as a three-year-old and trying to give him 13lb just proved beyond him.
“He was only beaten a length. There was a deathly hush when Stradivarius walked in as at the time Big Orange was very popular, but it really was a case of the prince taking the crown.”
Reflecting further, Bell said: “I don’t think there was anything specifically about Goodwood that suited him, he also had a good record at Ascot, he ran well in a Melbourne Cup and at Meydan. The key to him was just fast ground. When he could bounce off fast ground he was a top-class stayer,” said Bell.
“Big Orange was an absolute joy to train and the day he won the Gold Cup I would say was my favourite ever on a racecourse. It was such an amazing atmosphere and to do it in the style he did was very rewarding.
“It’s very hard to beat Coolmore in the Gold Cup, but it was an excellent ride by James Doyle I always felt. I know Ryan (Moore) felt it might not have been his finest hour on Order Of St George, but Ryan is his own harshest critic.
“For me, Order Of St George got to Big Orange and then Big Orange found more.
“He had a huge fan base, I think it was because he was so big and his whole demeanour on the racetrack. He quickly became very popular.
“When you look back at the likes of Persian Punch, Double Trigger, Yeats – there are loads of stayers who became popular as they go on for a long time and they are great to watch.”
