A MILLIONAIRE horse Aidan O’Brien has been branded “a sorry sight” – with the Classic-winning superstar reduced to a pacemaker against huge odds.
Continuous seems to have made the whole world admirewin the St Leger in Doncaster in September 2023 .
Driven by Ryan Moore and watched by King Charles in the crowd, Continuous finished by nearly three lengths to win the £421,000 first prize.
He then finished a commendable fifth at the Arc de Triomphe in his next running, just three lengths behind unbeaten superstar Ace Impact.
Continuous picked up another Group 3 win in the 2024 season but in his last three outings he has been sent off at odds of 50-1, 66-1 and 100-1.
Continuous, a horse with career earnings of more than £1 million, was never ridden for serious competition in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh last month.
Wayne Lordan spurred his horse forward after it slowly gave up – paving the way for the eventual winner and fellow Los Angeles stablemate.
Continuous was again tasked with running under Lordan at Derby in the Coronation Cup at Epsom earlier this month.
In the end, he finished fourth, losing two positions in the final race, in a race which was won by teammate Jan Brueghel.
Last week, he achieved triple-digit odds in his most recent run in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Los Angeles were favorites 13-8 in the blockbuster Group 1 match but this time, O’Brien, Moore and the Coolmore team made tactical mistakes.
Both Ballydoyle horses failed in the race which was won by John & Thady Gosden’s 7-1 Ombudsman.
Los Angeles nowwill have to miss all the big races over the summerdue to “accident”.
But while he will be back aiming to win the Arc in October, Continuous’s odds for upcoming contests suggest any victory would be a miracle, despite the five-year-old gelding’s multiple entries.
He will contest the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket next July but has a record of 20-1.
He could race nine days later in the Curragh Cup – and has a place in the King George at Ascot but the odds are 100-1 for it the following week.
While O’Brien took him into the Goodwood Cup at the end of July, he also has 100-1 odds there and will certainly be used as pacemaker again for second place in the Gold Cup and pre-match favorites Illinois at 7-4.
A punter who followed Continuous at Ascot wrote on X: “It is disappointing to see a horse like Continuous being used as a pace horse this season!
“With his pedigree and excellent racing record, he could really be a good horse for breeding. It’s crazy that people are using him for that today.”
Respected horse racing journalist Alistair Jones was another who noticed this tactic and wrote in the Racing Post that Continuous was now a “sad sight” on the track.
He wrote: “He has sacrificed his last three races for the benefit of others in the field and it is a shame to see such a talented individual drop out of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.”
