Monday Musings: The Striker and the Mouse foiled by Dickens

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I suppose waterlogged Sandown on Saturday was one of the much heralded (but hard to find as far as my rubbish Internet researching skills were concerned) 170 Premier meetings that will enhance the racing experience in 2024, writes Tony Stafford.

Apart from the issue of expecting some extra prizemoney when unscheduled meetings such as Newcastle on Saturday are drafted on to live ITV coverage as a fill-in, there’s nothing much to remember about the weekend in the UK. The seven races at Gosforth Park had combined winners’ money of just over £29k. Scandalous really on a Saturday, especially if the course, as I would imagine, gets an ITV bung to go with the already-generous normal broadcast payment.

Meanwhile in California, Frankie Dettori was up to seven winners since Boxing Day after a Friday treble and a Saturday single at Santa Anita. No wonder, as he told Richard Hills, he’s enjoying himself and liking his percentages of the generous California prizemoney as well as the sunshine.

Then, over in South Africa, Piere ‘Striker’ Strydom, 57, so Frankie’s senior by four years, and with more than 5,000 career winners to his credit, was also coming to the close of his mainly domestic but similarly stupendous career. He went to the races on Saturday hoping for a record-equalling seventh success in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate over a mile at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth. (Do you mind if I just call it the King’s Plate at Kenilworth from now on?).

Piere seemed to have the whip hand leading up to the King’s Plate as his mount See It Again had beaten 7/5 joint-favourite Charles Dickens quite comfortably when they met late last year in the WSB Green Point Stakes over the same course and distance. Then again, Charles Dickens hadn’t got the best of runs and could get going only soon enough for second.

See It Again is trained by Michael ‘Muis’ (or ‘Mouse’) Roberts, 69, many times champion jockey in his native South Africa, with two wins in the King’s Plate. He rode with great success in the UK and was champion jockey in 1992, and is probably best remembered for his partnership with the brilliant multiple group 1 winner Mtoto. That sound middle distance champion was twice successful in the Eclipse Stakes for Ahmed Al Maktoum and the late Alec Stewart. I will return to Master Roberts later.

The first of Strydom’s six King’s Plate victories came in 1990, coincidentally the year that Aldo Demeyer, partnering his main rival Charles Dickens on Saturday, was born. Strydom wasn’t the only jockey aiming to match Anton Marcus’ seven wins. Bernard Feyd’herbe made it six when upsetting the odds-on Charles Dickens last year with Al Muthana, who was also in the field with Bernard in the plate.

In the event, Charles Dickens didn’t just gain his revenge on those two, he obliterated them with a show of class and speed.

He had two and three-quarter lengths to spare over See It Again. Once more, Al Muthana’s run in fourth bettered what was expected of his 33/1 status.

The first two are slated to go to stud shortly. See It Again, until he beat Charles Dickens last time, had been racing over longer distances and Roberts has that option again before the final decision on a stud career is made. Successful owner-breeders Drakenstein Stud and trainer Candice Bass-Robinson can now anticipate a lucrative career as a stallion for Charles Dickens who stands at ten wins from 13 runs with three places on the racecourse.

He’s a son of South African champion sire, the US-bred Trippi. There’s a UK element to See It Again’s background as he is a son of Twice Over, a four-time Group 1 winner for Henry Cecil and Khalid Abdullah, including two Champion Stakes.

The tough, durable and honest Twice Over, whose final race was when fourth behind stablemate Frankel as a seven-year-old in the Juddmonte International at York, was bought and syndicated as a stallion by my friend Bernard Kantor.

Twice Over has proved a great success at stud. Bernard, of course, was co-founder and chairman for many years of Investec, the bank that sponsored the Derby for much of this century, helping it regain its international status.

Earlier on the card, the filly that was preferred to those principals in the big race for Horse Of The Year honours last time around, Princess Calla, was beaten in a 1m1f fillies’ and mares’ Group 1 race, Beach Bomb coming out on top by a neck. One of the performances that earned her award was when beating See It Again last July; Charles Dickens must be favourite for that distinction this time.

My Michael Roberts tale is simply told. Some bright spark suggested during my Daily Telegraph days that it might make a good feature if we would follow him around as he moved from course to course by small plane. Another couple of jockeys were with us but they were riding elsewhere. The pilot, Neil, who used to fly Frankie very often, warned that when he dropped us off for Leicester, time was limited with the other jockeys going on elsewhere; so as we went to get out, the plane was already moving gently forward.

The nimble Mr Roberts skipped out and away from trouble, but the more cumbersome pressman lingered a second or so, collecting his luggage when bash, the tail wing smashed into his back.

I was knocked flat, well flattish anyway. As the plane continued its progress, I assured Michael I was okay, and we moved over to the waiting taxi for Leicester races. By the time I got home that evening, there was a wide bruise across the middle of my back and it stayed there for much of that summer! That must have happened at least 35 years ago.

When I saw the result of the King’s Plate, indeed all through the winner’s career, I’ve internally reminisced about his namesake, a chaser with, I thought, Alex, but apparently Alan Kilpatrick. After such a long while, time and horses coalesce, but it was more than 50 years ago that the remarkable Major (later honorary Colonel Sir) Piers Bengough rode Charles Dickens to three consecutive wins (1970-72) in the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown Park.

Old Etonian Bengough already had an interesting life in the army, stationed in Germany where he found time to train up to 11 of his own horses, winning races at Hanover, Dusseldorf, and Dortmund. Then it was back home with the Royal Hussars as the regiment’s Commanding Officer between 1971-73.

A long-standing member of the Jockey Club, he held several senior positions, but nothing was more appropriate for the tall, moustachioed army officer than to become for 15 years Her Majesty’s Representative at Royal Ascot, following the Marquess of Abergavenny.

It was he who had the final say when access to Ascot’s Royal Enclosure held much more of a social meaning than nowadays. One memorable occasion which made all the red-top papers was the exclusion of Joan Collins on the basis that she was wearing someone else’s badge! Fair enough Joanie!

Lady Bengough was a remarkable woman too. At the age of nine, Bridget Adams was the youngest in the UK to have earned a silver medal for figure skating and developed that skill to the extent that she represented the UK at the Olympics. Dutifully by his side at the races for all their years together, Lady Bengough survived her husband by 15 years.

- TS

New Year Musings: Of Moore’s Grand ‘salam

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They were certainly getting excited after Galopin Des Champs came back to form with a 23-length romp in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Thursday, writes Tony Stafford. They reasoned that in beating market rival Gerri Colombe by that margin, he was reasserting his place at the head of the steeplechasing tree. He probably was.

The 2023 Gold Cup winner had been beaten twice since the Cheltenham centrepiece, each time by Fastorslow, at Punchestown in the spring and then on his comeback to action in November. Therefore, he needed to do something to restore his reputation.

Even after those two less than sparkling shows, the surprise to me was that the two horses on Thursday had been as close together in the market on the day as they were, with an official 11lb between them before this encounter.

Galopin Des Champs did indeed power away up the Leopardstown run-in, but just imagine a different scenario, one where Gerri Colombe, rather that Gordon Elliott aiming him at a very likely minimum second prize of €33k (the winner got 70k more), he would have gone elsewhere.

Had Gordon declined this clash, would we have been quite so enamoured of a 23.25 lengths defeat of the 80/1 Willie Mullins field bolsterer Capodanno, who almost denied the Elliott horse that handy runner-up money? Capodanno is rated 20lb inferior to Galopin Des Champs and ran almost exactly to his rating. Nice enough, but it’s easy to take a secondary view, that Gerri Colombe simply did not run to form.

Over the week, there were many good performances either side of the water, with novices over here from such as Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls leading the way. In other words, they were provided by those trainers with the financial owner firepower to challenge the Mullins/Elliott and De Bromhead otherwise open goal into the Irish pointing (and French) marketplaces.

That triumvirate took some collective stopping at home and most of the big level-weight races had the look of, and proved to be, Willie Mullins benefits. Willie’s brother Tony – a good friend for many years – did speak out against the obscene situation in some major handicaps, especially over fences, where multiple entries by a single trainer make success for him in them almost a formality. He was less critical of his brother’s total dominance in the big stuff, though!

The obvious example has been (and no doubt the one that caused Tony’s ire) last month’s 20-runner Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan. Elliott supplied 15 of the runners and duly won it with Coko Beach. That tough grey then showed his credentials for this year’s Grand National with a staying-on second in the 3m2f Becher Chase over the big fences last month.

Another non-winning but significant run over those obstacles had been made a month earlier by a six-year-old, already winner of three chases before that, making his season’s comeback. The son of Dream Well had evaded the, in his case, not so all-seeing eye of Harold Kirk and found his way into the Gary Moore rather than Mullins yard after an encouraging debut second in July 2020 at Clairefontaine, a nice track not far from Paris.

The horse is called Nassalam. He recorded wide-margin hurdle wins as a juvenile on arrival for Moore and now he was noted coming on late into sixth after getting a long way behind in the Grand Sefton over 2m6f.

Next time, early in December, he defied top weight with a convincing success in the Trial for the Coral Welsh Grand National over three miles of the course. Few, though, connected with the Moore yard, including the trainer, and rider Caoilin Quinn, can have expected what was to happen on Wednesday in the Welsh Grand National proper.

I have no hesitation in naming this overwhelmingly emphatic win as the National Hunt performance of the entire year. Nineteen long-distance chasers lined up, as should be the case in a 150 grand race.  Always close to the lead over the twice-round marathon in heavy ground, Nassalam was one of perhaps half a dozen with chances as they left the back straight. Here, Quinn realised to his amazement that his mount was still cantering and didn’t want to disappoint him.

He struck for home, a move that committed what was left of the feasible opposition much earlier than their riders would have wished, and once in the straight, most were taking turns to give up. In a rare show of power and stamina, he drew remorselessly away and, by the finish, had 34 lengths in hand of the strongly fancied Iron Bridge, winner of five of his nine career starts prior to Chepstow. Third, just behind, was Iwilldoit, last year’s winner of the race by nine lengths.

When the owners were interviewed as they waited to accept the prize – never the fairest time to talk to elated connections – they were asked about Aintree, and understandably that would have to be in the thoughts of Gary Moore, with his successful negotiation of the track in the Grand Sefton, but he’ll be going up a minimum of 14lb, maybe more I guess, on top of his 145 on Wednesday.

When Corach Rambler won the race last year for Lucinda Russell, he was off 146, 20lb less than the 2022 winner Noble Yeats, whose victory under Sam Waley-Cohen had also come off 146. That one did extra well considering the rise to be fourth last year. Incidentally, Noble Yeats was beaten at odds-on returning to action for the season in a four-horse conditions hurdle race at Limerick. The system doesn’t lend itself to rewarding extravagance.

Winning the Welsh Grand National, far from indicating an automatic follow-up at Aintree, if history is to be believed, connections might be better served having a good look at the Gold Cup. The chance of the heavy ground that didn’t inhibit Nassalam here is probably unlikely, but you never know.

But the Welsh race has a very decent record in throwing up future Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, and the sort of relentless gallop shown by Nassalam this week is just the requirement for the biggest level-weights test in the calendar. I’d love him to be trained for it. If he doesn’t measure up, there’s time enough to go the big step to Aintree later, if not in 2024.

Just to name a few, Burrough Hill Lad, Master Oats, Synchronised and Native River all completed the double, winning at Cheltenham following victory in Wales.

Gary Moore had an extraordinary day on Wednesday, sweeping up the three biggest prizes for a combined figure approaching £200,000 for his owners. It started with the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow, often one of the key races for Triumph Hurdle candidates. Many would have veered away from tackling unbeaten Burdett Road, but the Gredley family’s youngster was a late withdrawal because of the ground by trainer James Owen.

Running away from one star is not in Gary’s DNA. He ran the likewise unbeaten Salver, a gelding that had no flat-race career to call on, unlike the withdrawn theretofore favourite. A comfortable winner of his two previous starts, he ended up the 5/4 favourite and won like one, by 21 lengths.

A brother to Saldier, one of Mullins’ better hurdlers of recent times, he can go a long way and the Triumph is not looking too far off for him now. Messrs Mullins and Elliott would have been taking notes no doubt.

Then, in some ways, the crowning glory for the yard was over at Kempton, in between the two Chepstow cakewalks, when Editeur Du Gite, like Galopin Des Champs the following day, was on a career retrieval mission.

The surprise winner of last year’s Desert Orchid Chase when it was a conditions event, he now lined up under top weight for the newly installed handicap version. As with Quinn on the horses at Chepstow, Moore was happy to rely on Niall Houlihan who could claim 3lb, as was the case with Quinn in the Welsh Grand National.

The latest injury to son Jamie has thrust these two young Irishmen into the spotlight and both have come through with many excellent performances. No searching around for big-name replacements for the Moore stable. Editeur Du Gite went off in his customary place at the front and, though challenged coming to the final bend, at the finish he was well on top.

A day to remember for the stable, but for me Nassalam’s display was one I will cherish for a long time.

Happy New Year to him, and to you all!

 - TS

Early Monday Musings: Shrinkage

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I’m quite good at guessing the time as I look out of my window early in the morning, writes Tony Stafford. Yesterday, I surmised 7.24 a.m. – yes, I allowed myself a Christmas lie-in – but it was 7.26. I’d obviously miscalculated that the days were getting longer again (hurrah). The clocks will soon be going forward, too, by which time we’ll have had Cheltenham!

Then it was starting preparation for the Boxing Day cards. Last year I was swamped with the number of calls needed to the trainers on the From The Stables and Trainers Quotes services – I think we had upwards of 80 runners on the day.

This year, having spoken to Sam Stronge, who while assisting his wife Ali in running their small stable in Berkshire, is also the new Dave Roberts, agent not to A P McCoy obviously, but the man who has picked up the slack of the master jumps agent since his retirement a year or so ago.

At last count, the engaging Sam is listed as having 28 almost exclusively jumps jockeys and conditionals in his care, notably Nico De Boinville, Harry Cobden, Charlie Deutsch and Daryl Jacob. There’s some earning potential there and as he says: “It not easy to get away to the races any more”. I know how he feels, at this time of the year what with those early starts.

He did say, on hearing my early bleat about how much work there would be in compiling my information for the members: “I think there will be small fields, so it should work out quite nicely for my boys.”

How right he was. With all the meetings lost to bad weather of one type of another, but latterly mainly through waterlogging, you’d have thought there would be plenty of trainers, and especially their owners, gagging to have a runner at one of the seven UK jumps fixtures on Boxing Day (Tuesday).

They range around the country from Wincanton in the southwest; Kempton and Fontwell in the south; Market Rasen in the east; Sedgefield and Wetherby in the north and Aintree in the northwest.

So, a better geographical split than we sometimes get – viz Friday last week when Midlands trio Wolverhampton, Southwell and Uttoxeter shared the programme with Ascot. That admittedly can be and was extenuated as the BHA is providing extra all-weather action where it can to make up for other jumps cancellations.

So, what’s my point?  I said above that you’d think jumping connections would leap at the chance of having a Christmas runner after the relative blight of cancellations. In the event, there has been an uncanny correlation, both in the average number of runners per NH meeting on the day, and likewise its diminution since 2022.

Also odd, is that after all the extra all-weather cards alluded to, the sole AW programme on Boxing Day, at Wolverhampton, has a much greater number of runners than was the case last December.

When that meeting comes along every year, I never forget how I voluntarily passed up Kempton’s King George back in 1993 to attend the first-ever UK fixture held under lights at the then still shiny and relatively new Dunstall Park track, inspired by Ron Muddle and Arena, a few hundred yards from the old turf circuit where jumping had an equal share of the fixtures with the flat.

In 1993, the weather had turned cold and there were four abandonments from the nine jumps fixtures planned, with no obvious geographical bias. Ayr, Sedgefield, Hereford and Wincanton were lost. Wincanton and Sedgefield are the only two of the four still on the roster. Kempton was joined by Huntingdon, Market Rasen, Newton Abbot and Wetherby as surviving the elements.

Newton Abbot no longer races in the winter and, until this year, Huntingdon had been a staple, but Jockey Club Racecourses have jettisoned it in favour of Aintree this year. It gave JCR the opportunity to switch Sandown’s Tolworth Hurdle from there, bolstering the overall winner’s prizemoney at Aintree by 45 grand, with the inevitable sting in the tail.

Now it’s called the William Hill Formby Novices Hurdle (formerly the Tolworth Hurdle). At least it will be run with a very nice field.

Let’s return now though to Dunstall Park and 1993 when seated at my private table in the crammed to overflowing grandstand, I had the novel pleasure of my own TV set as I ate what I remember as an excellent lunch – it’s still very nice there -  while watching Barton Bank beat Bradbury Star and The Fellow to win 45k in the King George VI Chase at Kempton.

Google tells me that the 2023 equivalent after the interim inflation is £137k, so a first prize now of £142,000, courtesy Ladbrokes this time, narrowly beats that figure. If it’s possible to do it for the big races, then why not the rest?

So numerically, none of the seven NH cards on Tuesday has more than a total of 62, that honour going to Market Rasen. Last time they had 76! The smallest is Kempton with 46 compared with 59 last time, but in mitigation there was an extra race. Six and out for the punters therefore, and time to go home for the next phase of turkey consumption.

Aintree basically has taken over from fellow JCR track Huntingdon – I’ve nice memories of Boxing Day there, too. Just 51 horses in Liverpool compares with 76 at Huntingdon last year and the pattern continues at Fontwell, 74 last year, only 51 this time around. Wetherby also has a big drop, from 85 to only 53.

The other alteration is Sedgefield coming in for Newcastle. The Co Durham circuit was certainly on when Michael Dickinson had his remarkable 12 wins on the single day around the country. I had a great HWPA lunch recently, sitting for half the time next to Chris Pimlott (half a lunch with the Editor is more than enough!), who told me the maestro had only 15 runners that December day in 1982.

Chris rode a double at Market Rasen but said he had ridden a winner on the Brod Munro-Wilson-owned Talon, a horse I bought for the late, great amateur and all-round “cad” – he wouldn’t have minded me saying that – somewhere else later on. Talon was possibly the least grand of the duodectet, but we were as thrilled with that as the first of three King George wins that year of Wayward Lad (my second favourite jumper of all time after L’Escargot).

With one extra race in 2022 that averages out to eight per race, compared with 11 last year. And that’s comparing declarations and the possibility of late withdrawals with actual runners.

Prizemoney may have jumped at Aintree, even without the addition of the “George Formby”, in relation to Huntingdon, but that is not the case elsewhere. Wetherby is holding close to last year’s total, but Fontwell is down from 42k to 32k, and Sedgefield is way down on Newcastle last year – 26 grand following 43k last time at Gosforth Park. Maybe that’s why trainers and owners aren’t as bothered to leave the Christmas home comforts?

Meanwhile over in Ireland, and while I was writing this piece, the runners for the first two days of the Christmas meetings at Leopardstown and Limerick have been published. Reserves are in place for several races, but St Stephen’s Day’s (Tuesday) final declaration reveals 115 at Leopardstown and 80 at Limerick.

For Wednesday it’s respectively 93 and 83. It might be hard to beat the big three of Mullins, Elliott and De Bromhead, but there’s still plenty of other talented trainers willing to try for the massive money on offer this week.

Finally, all that remains to say is have a great and profitable Christmas. I think Dylan Cunha’s Mart (1.50 Wolverhampton) on Boxing Day will be very hard to beat.

- TS

Monday Musings: Geneses

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I got a parcel in the post the other day, preceded by an explanation as to why my friend Peter Ashmore would want to send me “The Boss”, written in the year 2000 by John Budden and subtitled the Life and Times of Horseracing Legend Gordon W Richards, writes Tony Stafford.

Peter knows I speak regularly with Nicky Richards, Gordon’s son and successor at Greystoke stables in Cumbria. He also thought I might find it interesting that Gordon basically was sent away from home in Bath, where he had learnt to handle all manner of horses associated with his father’s business, at the age of 11.

It intrigued Peter that young Richards’ first stop was at Sandbanks in Dorset, now the most valuable stretch of real estate, excepting certain parts of London, for instance Hampstead and Mayfair, in the UK. In 1941. When he arrived during the early stages of the Second World War, the beach was split into no-go areas by the military’s prolific use of barbed wire.

That didn’t faze Louie Dingwall, in effect and indeed practice, one of the first horserace trainers in the UK, even though it took the Jockey Club thirty years to accept that she and any other female should hold a licence, originally officially in her husband’s name.

What Peter didn’t know is that there is a small connection with me here. In the early 1970’s soon after I joined the Daily Telegraph and a few years after Mrs D, as everyone who worked for her called her, had been officially sanctioned as a trainer, I headed up a syndicate in the first horse in which I ever had an interest.

Looking in the Sporting Life, which I devoured just as I had the Greyhound Express in my first Fleet Street job a few years earlier, the racehorse sales were always an interest. I noticed that a three-year-old called Princehood had been acquired from Doncaster the day before by Mrs D for £300, or maybe even £260. I called her and asked whether she had a buyer. “Yes, my dear, me!”

As an article commissioned by the Poole Museum about this remarkable woman revealed much later, her horses usually cost £500 or under. I reckoned this impressive winner by five lengths of his debut for the classy Newmarket trainer Atty Corbett, but a disappointing fourth next time, had to be a snip. (In those days I had no idea that horses could go wrong!)

I thought putting together a syndicate (at £30 a shot!) from the paper and the reprobates, including long-term friend Trevor Halling (father of boxing commentator Nick) and band leader Chris Allen, habitués of the Corals shop across the road from the paper, would be an easy task. It wasn’t, and fifty odd years later, it still isn’t!

But in the end, we did it, and Princehood ran a few times in the name of Mrs S Carroll, a Roedean teacher who was married to my racing desk colleague, John. We were all excited and I had a couple of trips down to Sandbanks, to the stables which had its own petrol pump, a remnant of the garage she ran when she also had, among others, a successful bus business, that serviced the area.

Those days more than half a century ago, the multi-million pound properties to be were a distant illusion, but any coastal place which has water on either side of valuable land is to be treasured and that’s where we had a family lunch at Rick Stein’s restaurant a couple of years ago.

By the time I met the trainer she was already in her 80s and was poorly sighted, so that she could a couple of years earlier have driven her horsebox to Nice in the South of France and won a £6,000 prize (big money in those days) with the unconsidered veteran Treason Trail at Cagnes-sur-Mer says much for her endurance and tenacity. Then she drove it all the way back, drawing on all those days driving buses before the War.

Mrs D’s main jumps jockey in those days was the talented Gary Old, but instead of slogging through the hot Dorset summers on horseback, he used to trade that for hiring out deckchairs and his extreme good looks on the beach at Bournemouth, barely five miles along the coast.

His true potential was only really revealed when he left the Dingwall yard to join Donald Underwood near Guildford, and he had a great association with True Song, a smart hurdler who won the big novice race at Chepstow on the eve of the Cheltenham Festival. Sadly, Gary Old died very young.

Another Sandbanks inmate was Pat Butler, whose time there didn’t exceed Princehood’s by long as he has been training in his own right in Sussex since 1976. When we bump into each other on the racecourse, Pat always reminds me of those distant days.

Princehood left to join Ken Payne when he moved from the New Forest to Middleham and broke the 5f track record at Lanark at 14/1 as we looked on in concerted disbelief in the Kings and Keys pub. Two days earlier we were all on when he got stuffed in a seller at Doncaster.

When I began today’s jaunt I had intended to give rather more prominence to the journey Gordon Richards made to the top of the jumping tree. As when in his early days as an apprentice jockey with the Tom Waugh stable at Chilton, the clerk of the scales asked his name. “Gordon Richards”, he replied. “I don’t think we can have two Gordon Richards”, was the clerk’s response, referring to the perennial champion who set even greater records than Tony McCoy’s over jumps as the leading flat jockey either side of and during WW2.

Young Gordon was asked who he worked for and when he replied, “Mr Waugh”, Gordon W Richards was born, never to be altered for the rest of his highly-successful life and career.

Reading John Budden’s studiously researched missive, understandable as his original occupation was as a schoolteacher in Cumbria, for me it was a series of human and equine names that also exactly mirrored the most active of my betting days.

Names like Playlord, the horse that got him going in Yorkshire and enabled him to take the Greystoke stables across in Cumbria previously the home of Tommy Robson, through to Noddy’s Ryde and after that many more, lastly in Gordon’s life, One Man, the enigma that could win any race – apart from the Cheltenham Gold Cup – provided vivid reminders of those days.

The brushes with authority were detailed, often with some humour, as he always stood his ground and supported his jockeys. But then came the gradual and eventually rapid decline in his health, which meant Nicky had to take control. He has done so with great skill and dedication for 25 years already – and he’s now approaching, unbelievably, the age his father was when he died from cancer in 1998.

John Budden, known as Lord John Budden in the press rooms in the north of England for his plummy tones, used that term to describe the great radio commentator Peter Bromley. John also commentated in points and under Rules and was a very popular man with colleagues and professionals in the sport. He was a good tipster to boot and wrote for the Cumberland News from 1966 until his death last year. Dedication indeed.

There were parallels with my other much treasured book that ended in a similar period. Horsetrader, subtitled Robert Sangster and the Rise and Fall of the Sport of Kings, was written by Patrick Robinson with (no relation) Nick Robinson as early as 1993, yet it has become such a must-read that it has been re-printed and also voiced as an audio book.

I have my old copy and find that the events chronicled therein ended as far back as 1993! As with The Boss’s joint-author, Nick Robinson died only recently, in his case this summer aged 87. He was a major influence in the development of syndicate ownership, through Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds which continues to thrive under Nick’s protégé, Sam Hoskins.

It was Robinson, in a coffee shop in Liverpool attended regularly by sons of wealthy businessmen in the Liverpool area, that first whetted the young Robert Sangster’s appetite for horse racing.

The book details how winning (and losing) gambles gradually persuaded the son of the founder and chairman of Vernons Pools, in the days when football pools were the only way for the public to land onto massive riches. That was before even Premium Bonds (launched in 1957) and the lottery in the UK, although Ireland’s lottery was the driving force behind upgrading the Irish Sweeps Derby in the early 1960’s.

Sangster, off his own bat, studied his new-found obsession and decided Vincent O’Brien was the best trainer and acted on his opinion. Decades later, Robert, Vincent, and Vincent’s son-in-law John Magnier, ruled the world of horse racing.

Without Robinson there wouldn’t have been a Sadler’s Wells, thus Galileo and Frankel. It all came down to that coffee shop!

Just as Nicky Richards has assimilated the skills of his father, The Boss, so Robert Sangster’s sons and grandsons have made their mark either as breeders, owners, bloodstock agents or, in the case of grandson Ollie, an emerging trainer. A rich legacy indeed!

Horsetrader’s conclusion is that the arrival of the free-spending Arab owners altered the equilibrium, we thought once and for all. But look at racing in 2023, thirty years after Horsetrader’s publication, Coolmore stills thrives in its modified form, and while Arab owners are still very much in evidence, the growing threat and indeed the money to sustain it now comes from Japan.

That is epitomised by the brilliant Equinox, highest-rated horse in the world and about to service his first book of mares, including the wonderful Japanese champion Almond Eye.

They certainly adhere to the old racing adage, breed the best to the best and hope for the best. Then again, Coolmore, 30 years on from Horsetrader’s publication, might say that in daringly sending Rhododendron to mate with Deep Impact in Japan and getting Auguste Rodin they weren’t far off!

- TS

Monday Musings: Sleepy’s Fighting Fourth

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It’s only about ten weeks ago that I went through the lengthy career of Not So Sleepy, writes Tony Stafford. Of course, any time in competition for a racehorse that began with a win as a juvenile nine years before is unusual. Even more remarkable was Saturday’s romp to victory in the Grade 1 Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle, a race switched from Newcastle the previous weekend to Sandown.

This was Not So Sleepy’s fourth run in the race and his second triumph although he had to share the previous one in 2021 with Epatante, the pair impossible to separate in a dead-heat.

The previous year, Sleepy messed about at the start and unseated his rider soon after, prompting winner Epatante’s trainer Nicky Henderson to become paranoid about what the veteran Hughie Morrison gelding might get up to at the start in subsequent meetings.

He needn’t have worried. Last year when Constitution Hill came into the picture for his first Fighting Fifth on the way to that explosive Cheltenham Champion Hurdle success, Not So Sleepy was no problem.

I spoke to Hughie on Saturday morning, and it was he that alerted me to Henderson’s withdrawal soon after 8 a.m. of Constitution Hill. Also, it stopped the hastily changed plan for Shishkin, denied a run in the Rehearsal Chase that day at Newcastle, a week on from his standing stock still at the start at Ascot.

Hughie said, “Can you believe he’s the outsider of the four that are left? When I looked at the prices, he wasn’t just the outsider, but a double-figure price.”

The opposition included two mares. One, Love Envoi, is rated higher than the Morrison horse and, like the other, You Wear It Well, a Cheltenham Festival winner and fit from a recent winning comeback, they received 7lb from their two male rivals. They took the bulk of the market.

Then there was Goshen, back on his favoured right-handed way of going but hardly the most reliable. The ground was heavy, and as Hughie said, “That will be no problem for us!” And how.

Goshen had a 1lb higher rating over jumps than Not So Sleepy, but they met as recently as October in the Cesarewitch when the Morrison horse, trying in the race for the fourth time, finished seventh, 30 lengths ahead of the tailed-off Goshen. His flat-race mark of 101 exceeds Goshen’s by 15 lb, and how far did they finish apart at level weights on Saturday? -  just about 15 lengths.

https://youtu.be/CmZfLDs_FYo?si=FAYdUn4tMCcf8YMU

In 66 races since 2014, Not So Sleepy has raced six times on official heavy ground. In his three-year-old season he was third in a Group 3 race in France on such going, and next time, four years on, was second in a Nottingham handicap.

Further investigation, though, should have alerted me to what must have been one of the bets of the year [they often are with hindsight – Ed.] without the Henderson horses to complicate matters.

These are the results, the last four times he has encountered a heavy surface: December 21, 2019, Ascot Grade 3 Handicap Hurdle 85k 1st of 13, by nine lengths, 9/2 JF; December 19, 2020, Ascot Grade 3 Handicap Hurdle 57k 1st of 17 from Buzz, 20/1; September 23, 2023, Newbury 1m5f handicap off 98, 36k, made all 15/2. Then on Saturday where he bolted up by eight lengths from Love Envoi with the other pair battling for third a similar distance back, he earned owner-breeders Lord and Lady Blyth another 45 grand!

In his last ten races, he has earned his owners around 170 grand and only twice in that spell has he started at shorter than 10/1, including Saturday. His average SP in those races has been 42/1!

As I say, the bet of the year! Hope Hughie had a bit on!

What is remarkable is the way this unique horse has been able to cope with such a long time on the track; and his only breaks have been early on in his career from one turf flat season to the next and since then planned absences, but never more than seven months at most.  Despite two long barren spells as far as wins went, he never slipped below a mark of 92 having won Chester’s Dee Stakes on his third time ever on the track. Derby winners Oath and Kris Kin had that race as their prep for the Classic in 1999 and 2003 respectively.

He started hurdling late, aged seven, and while he stays every yard of the 2m2f of the Cesarewitch in which he has been in the first four three times, he is quicker than most hurdlers over two miles as the trio ranged against him on Saturday found to their cost.

Expect Hughie to keep him going as a 12-year-old and already he has survived in his career longer than Alcazar, Morrison’s winner of the Group 1 Prix Royal Oak in France wen aged ten. He had a couple of runs the following season without success, racing in all 31 times.

Originally with John Dunlop, with whom he won three times, Alcazar then had two very long absences, broken only by a first-time win for Hughie at Nottingham before resuming four years and four months after his last run for Dunlop.

In effect then, his active career could be regarded as six seasons. Not So Sleepy will be embarking on his 11th if he remains in training.

It was great that Betfair found room on the Sandown card to switch the race on a day when of the 41 races on offer around the country – Wetherby was abandoned – one was sponsored by the Pertemps Group, a qualifier for its long-standing Final at Cheltenham in March and one a Rachael Blackmore charity vehicle. The other 39 were all bookie-backed.

It was very nice money at both Aintree, where Boylesports underwrote the entire card of eight races including the Becher Chase, while Betfair was the benefactor of the Sandown card in its entirety. Coral got a nice Black Friday deal for the rather bargain basement (in comparison) card at Chepstow, which featured the Trial for their forthcoming Coral Grand National on the course just after Christmas: Gary Moore won that and a couple of nice pots at Sandown, too.

The two all-weather cards at Newcastle and Wolverhampton were shared between Bet UK and Bet MGM – reckon there might be some connection there! I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course.

There was big money on offer for the Grade 1 races at Sandown and the top prizes at Aintree, but it does pose the question, what would happen if the big bookmakers decided to take a unified stand and withdraw their support with little warning or as their deals expired?

In Ireland, there was a decent card at Navan, featuring a Listed handicap hurdle, a Grade 3 steeplechase, and the Foxrock Cup, but nothing like what will be on offer over there for the days immediately after Christmas. Still there was €130k to be sliced up.

I do like the feel of the variety of race sponsors, emphasising the homely feel to Irish jump racing. It started off with Mervyn Gray Construction; then the Headfort Arms Hotel, the Tote (what happened to them and race sponsorship over here?); Bective Stud, Tea Rooms and Apartments (love to stay there!), Durnin Workshop and Timeless Sash Windows. Oh for 1990!

As well as their three winners and a third, which pushed stable earnings beyond £100,000 on Saturday, Gary and Jayne Moore must have been still brimming with pride on the news that eldest son Ryan, unbelievably now a 40-year-old, was awarded the World’s Best Jockey accolade in Hong Kong on Friday evening.

He was there to ride four Aidan O’Brien horses in the handsomely-endowed International turf races at Sha Tin yesterday. In the first of them, the twelve-furlong Vase, Warm Heart ran another good race in defeat where, as when caught late by Inspiral at the Breeders’ Cup, she led into the last furlong but ultimately finished third to the Andre Fabre-trained Junko.

Two disappointments followed, but in the Cup, although not winning, anyone watching his ride on Luxembourg, finishing a short head second to the favourite Romantic Warrior in that mile and a quarter showpiece, would not question Moore’s best in the world status.

Always a couple of lengths behind the favourite on the way round, Luxembourg looked likely to be swallowed up as the challengers queued up entering the final furlong. With the favourite running on doggedly, another disappointment loomed, but Ryan conjured a final flourish, narrowly fending off his two nearest rivals and getting within an agonising short head of the fully extended winner.

In just missing the £2.1 million first prize, the Aidan O’Brien/Coolmore/Westerberg team still picked up £805,000 for second place, only £80k less than Auguste Rodin collected in the Derby. Also, it was considerably more than the £712k Auguste Rodin garnered when holding off Luxembourg in the Irish Champion Stakes on yesterday’s runner-up’s latest appearance.

The winner, a son of Acclamation, has earned more than £12 million in claiming 12 of 17 races since being bought by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for 300k at the 2019 Tattersalls Book 2 yearling auction. I will be writing next week about the various excitements in the same ring last week when one mare fetched 4.5 million guineas.

The other star yesterday was Golden Sixty, in the Mile. Like Romantic Warrior a 27/20 chance on the day, he made the local punters very happy, making short work of his field, bringing his career stats to 26 wins in 30 career starts, and pushing his earnings beyond £16 million.

- TS

Monday Musings: Snowden’s Gino Beats the Snow

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I remember many years ago, walking out of my office in Fleet Street to be greeted by a healthy, or rather unhealthy, fall of snow, writes Tony Stafford. It was just before Christmas and that winter racing was decimated.

Some years we escape snow until well into the New Year and the jumps season appears to continue largely without meaningful interruption. With global warming and all that, you would have thought temperatures at the end of November would be temperate enough.

But here we were on the opening weekend in December, with the far north of England suffering large deposits of the white stuff, causing the formality of the cancellation of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle. With it evaporated the chance for Gosforth Park’s jumps adherents to get a second view of the great Constitution Hill as he sets off on his ceremonious way to a repeat Champion Hurdle, only three and a bit months from now.

My fear is that such an early start to freezing and snowbound conditions could set in for quite a while. With still three weeks to go to the shortest day, there is so little time in the mornings to address frozen tracks, so inevitably more meetings will be lost.

Yesterday’s unfortunate abandonment of Southwell’s all-weather (sic) card because of frozen hailstones must make the BHA wary of too many panicked extra flat or jumpers’ bumpers fixtures. Carlisle’s jumps card yesterday meanwhile was little short of a fiasco with 18 non-runners, mostly due to travel problems that reduced a 40-horse card almost in half. Three matches hardly made for value for money for racegoers.

Nicky Henderson was relieved to hear that the Fighting Fifth Hurdle was preserved – added to the Tingle Creek Chase card at Sandown next Saturday.  It wasn’t all positive in compensational terms for the Seven Barrows trainer though, as Shishkin’s planned attempt at rehabilitation in the undercard featured Rehearsal Chase is apparently unlikely to be rescheduled.

It was more than something of a cliff-hanger before Newbury’s superb, effective deployment of frost covers and the three hours it takes to lay them – just an hour to remove them – that enabled both Friday’s and Saturday’s cards to proceed.

With snow in the north, how appropriate was it that the Lambourn trainer Jamie Snowden – pity the Welsh mountain isn’t spelt correctly! – took the biggest slice of the 250 grand on offer for the Coral Gold Cup. In its days as the Hennessy, Betfair and Ladbroke before its present identity, it has always been one of the races that trainers and owners most wanted to win and clearly nothing has changed.

Snowden had two runners, both second-season chasers, in the race - the Ayr Grade 2 winner from last year Datsalrightgino, and last year’s Paddy Power Gold Cup hero Ga Law - as the local trainer chose the most valuable chase handicap of the season at his home track to explore his pair’s stamina.

Over the years, I’ve always maintained that the perfect formula for the Hennessy was a seven-year-old in the lower half of the handicap and in its second season’s chasing. Thatsalrightgino fulfilled all three requirements. Stablemate Ga Law, whose career has revived splendidly after a near two-year injury hiatus, is a year older.

Six of Saturday’s 20 runners were age seven, including the first three home. Datsalrightgino was a 16/1 shot, getting the better of a splendid tussle from the final fence with the Irish gelding Mahler Mission (15/2) with the Jonjos’ Monbeg Genius a respectful six lengths behind after running out of puff from the final fence.

Jamie Snowden was full of praise for his jockey Gavin Sheehan who waited in the pack with his mount before making his move near the inside and challenging at the vital moment. One fellow jockey that might not have been quite so chuffed was Tom Cannon, due to ride Datsalrightgino until Newcastle’s abandonment enabled Snowden’s regular rider to change direction. A share of £142k doesn’t crop up too often for even the top jumps riders.

The bookmakers would presumably have accepted forecasts and tricasts on the race, and I recently joined with my vote against the affordability checks – funnily enough from a Nicky Henderson email.

It takes 30 bets for a six-horse straight forecast combination and £120 for a full-cover £1 tricast. The bookies’ version of the two paid not extravagantly generous with respectively £129 and £859 for a £1 stake, The Tote version was close to twice as productive with £230 for the Exacta and £1,539 for the Trifecta. Of course, I forgot all about it.

Thirty-one years ago, I found what I thought to be the handicap certainty of all time. Datsalrightgino carried 10st7lb on Saturday, 5lb more than the Peter Beaumont-trained and Mark Dwyer-ridden Jodami, who had slipped into the 1992 race with 10st2lb.

He started favourite but could not cope with the gutsy Ferdy Murphy runner Sibton Abbey, who was 21lb out of the handicap. In a preview of the race three decades later, the first two came six lengths clear of third-placed The Fellow, trained in France by Francois Doumen. The winner was owned by Geoff Hubbard and ridden by Adrian Maguire, the best jump jockey never to win the championship. Blame Richard Dunwoody and then A P McCoy for that.

All three (among five in the race) that year were also seven-year-olds and the runner-up, amazingly, went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup just over three months later. I’ve never actually asked Mark Dwyer all the times we’ve met since, “What went wrong?” merely because when he shakes your hand, it stays shaken for minutes afterwards. Such a question might cause permanent injury! I’ll check again when I see him at the Tattersalls mares’ sales sale tomorrow when seven-figures will be a feature of the Sceptre section during the afternoon.

After his Gold Cup win, Jodami returned in 1994 and finished runner-up to The Fellow. You could say the form stood up and no doubt Saturday’s will, too, though whether Snowden will be thinking Gold Cup is another question.

Jamie Snowden may be a less high profile member of the jump trainers’ firmament, but he certainly knows how to exploit the material in his yard. Last season You Wear It Well went through the grades and impressively won the mares’ novice hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. The way she resumed her winning ways by beating a Nicky Henderson hotpot in Listed company at Wetherby suggests the big prizes will continue to come her way.

Formerly for a brief time in the Army, but long enough to qualify for the Military races at Sandown, where he was a multiple winner of the two top races, Snowden had a year as a pupil assistant to Paul Nicholls before spending three years as Henderson’s assistant trainer and amateur rider. You could hardly ask for better schooling than that.

Over the 15 years since taking out a licence, Jamie has developed to the level where he routinely trains between 40 and 50 winners (his best in 2021-22) and last season he passed the £700,000 mark in earnings for his horses, easily his best. These are exciting times ahead.

There are also exciting times – not that they’ve been short on them already – for the Geegeez syndicate mare, Coquelicot. When this column’s editor reminded me last Monday of his invitation to join him at the Horserace Writers’ lunch in London later today, he neglected telling me the seven-year-old mare would be returning to action in Listed company at Kempton that afternoon.

Usual result, she made all and won pulling away for a six-length margin over odds-on shot Kateira. In winning that race she was overturning a 10lb ratings deficiency, and her 127 mark is sure to go up by at least a few pounds in tomorrow’s updated list.

If it still leaves her a little short of, for instance, You Wear It Well, on 140 after her Wetherby success, I’m sure the always-adventurous Anthony Honeyball would not be averse to a tilt  at the younger lady as the season progresses. They would need to come a bit nearer to three miles with the Snowden horse though, for that to happen.

- TS

Monday Musings: Parabola

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Ed Byrne's classic study of chaser Pendil in full flight

Ed Byrne's classic study of chaser Pendil in full flight

I don’t know if you ever saw the famous Ed Byrne picture of Pendil jumping a fence, Fred Winter’s great chaser being revealed at the top of his flawless arc, writes Tony Stafford. It was a thing of rare beauty.

Pendil won two King George’s and was pipped on the line in the Gold Cup by The Dikler but avenged that defeat under top-weight in the Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup, also at Cheltenham. He had run a few times over fences before Ed’s classical study.

At Thurles racecourse on Thursday, a nine-year-old having his first race over fences, approached his first 13 fences taken in battle and was perfection over 12 of them. The exception, if you want to be pedantic, came at the one in front of the stands first time around when he gave himself a small extra step before again soaring easily across and to the other side

You occasionally see mention in these parts of the “clockwork horse!” and for some reason the latest before this to be lumbered with that appendage escapes me. Here instead goes, Klassical Dream, a seven-time Grade 1 hurdle winner as well as multiple placed at that level.

I owe it to Mark Smith, advisor to Joanne Coleman, for some of the insight to Klassical Dream’s story. Joanne is the widow of the man who struck the private deal for the then four-year-old after he had run seven times in France for just one win. Mark was a long-standing friend of John Coleman’s and was mortified, as was the family and friends, when John was struck down by illness before he could see Klassical Dream on the racecourse.

John would have been thrilled from day one. The tally since under Willie Mullins has been nine wins (seven at Grade 1) from 17, despite two long breaks – one of almost 18 months and another of nine. Mark tells me it was intended that Klassical Dream would be going chasing until Mullins made a late change of plan, pitching him into the Grade 1 Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown in May 2021 after the first of those breaks.

Despite Mullins’ suggesting he would be happy with a run in the first six, KD, with trainer’s son Patrick on board, was backed down from 25/1 to 5/1 on the day and sauntered to victory. This was replicated with rather less largesse from the bookmakers in each of the next two campaigns, this year avenging previous a defeat at Cheltenham by Flooring Porter.

Those hurdling exploits – to which you can add places in second and third in France’s big summer championship stayers’ hurdle race the past two years, not to mention the Supreme at Cheltenham in his first Mullins season – equated to a rating of 160.

Running to anything like that would mean he would make mincemeat of the opposition lined up against him at Thurles. He did, but with a mixture of elegance and unleashed power, the latter quality hinted at for a few strides as Paul Townend allowed him a tiny encouragement after the final fence, which he had measured immaculately this time around.

Mark says he’s had a small bet at 33/1 (it’s almost impossible to get any bet on at all nowadays, he says) for next year’s Brown Advisory three-mile novice chase at The Festival, but fears that Mullins has at least a couple that might at this stage take precedence, most obviously Saturday's easy debut chase winner Gaelic Warrior at Punchestown.

Led over the first three fences by a pliant stablemate, Paul Townend couldn’t restrain Gaelic Warrior any longer and the fast-improving winner of the big three-mile novice hurdle at the same course in the spring, sauntered into a 30-length advantage after halfway before coasting in 15 lengths clear of a fair tool in Inothewayurthinkin. It could easily have been doubled and 2m3f was hardly the limit of his stamina. He jumped well enough, but effective rather than startling would be my uneducated view. Not a parabola in sight!

Klassical Dream might have to defer to the National Hunt Chase over 3m6f. “It would be lovely and at the same time worrying to watch him bowling along at the front of a big field for that far and over 23 fences. Not that having Patrick on board will be a handicap, as we know from previous experience!” he said.

Two more notable winners on the same card were Mullins’ State Man, winning the Morgiana Hurdle by six lengths at 1/6 to confirm his status as the number one contender to Constitution Hill’s probable retention of his Champion Hurdle crown, but more interest with the future in mind came in the opening juvenile hurdle.

Here, debutant Mighty Bandit, unraced on the flat and a son of top Aidan O’Brien stayer Order Of St George, ran right away from a field including three Joseph O’Brien candidates. Leading shortly before the last, he won by just under ten lengths with Jack Kennedy having to do very little to prevent an even wider-margin success.

Mighty Bandit must be an early contender and challenger to whatever Mr Mullins and Howard Kirk can unearth (or presumably already have) from France. The sire, one of Coolmore’s National Hunt band, had only a single runner before Saturday, Gore Point, slightly unlucky when 2nd on debut for Anthony Honeyball in a bumper at Ludlow. Order Of St George’s services are sure to be sought from now on.

Saturday also featured a mulish display from Shishkin, 8/13 for his comeback run, but immobile at the start of his valuable race at Ascot, won almost by default by Paul Nicholls’ Pic D’Orhy.

The weekend continued yesterday with a couple of UK jumps cards and one more fixture in Ireland, but the crowning glory was yesterday’s crushing victory of Equinox, the 100/30 on favourite for the Japan Cup at Tokyo racecourse. He did get beaten twice as a 3yo, but his seven wins from nine starts have amassed prizemoney of more than £14 million. The highest-rated horse in the world, nothing we saw here will have dented either his status or reputation.

Second-favourite at 27/10, so almost to the exclusion of anything else in the 18-runner field, was the filly Liberty Island. Before yesterday the winner of this year’s Japan fillies’ triple Crown had suffered only one defeat in her career, as a juvenile, but here she was no match for the favourite, although comfortably best of the rest.

The race is simply described. Confirmed front-runner Panthalassa, repeating the tactics that had won him the Saudi Cup early in the year, defeating the smart Bob Baffert horse Country Grammer, set up a massive lead, almost in Saturday’s Gaelic Warrior dimension.

He was still several lengths ahead coming to the home turn but, approaching the final furlong, he was spent and Equinox and Christophe Lemaire went by him, stretching easily to the line four lengths clear with Liberty Island in his wake. To indicate the level of the race, third-home Stars On Earth had never been out of the first three in her career to date and won last year’s Japanese Oaks. Her rider, William Buick, collected his share of 800k for his trouble.

Last year’s winner, Vela Azul, a 7/2 shot then under Ryan Moore, was seventh this time under substitute Hollie Doyle and therefore out of the prizes. His win last year took almost two seconds longer to achieve than yesterday’s race in which he started 99/1!

Speculation is that if Equinox is to race again before his highly-lucrative future career as a stallion it is unlikely to involve another overseas trip, tempting though some of the massive winter prizes on offer nowadays might seem. I wonder what mares Coolmore might have lined up for him when he does go to the breeding shed?

- TS

Monday Musings: Two Young Guns

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Last week, as I detailed the overwhelming power of the big yards in the UK and Ireland, on the flat and it seemed even more so over jumps, I should have conceded that there is always room for a talented upstart to pick up a piece of the pie, writes Tony Stafford.

He or she has to have at least one well-heeled and convinced supporter to crash the big boys’ party; but two young Newmarket jumps trainers showed at Cheltenham this past weekend that they are on the fast track to success.

Both are based in the least likely of hotbeds for training jumpers in the UK. Newmarket, for all the merits of the schooling facilities of the Links, just behind Newmarket golf club and across from the Cambridge Road polytrack gallop and thence the Rowley Mile, has fewer jumping trainers than ever. Maybe that will start to change.

Cast your minds back 14 hours to the last race of Cheltenham’s three-day Paddy Power Gold Cup meeting. The favourite, a 9/4 shot, was sent out by a young man who didn’t have his first jumps runners until earlier this year. He made a great start, collecting five wins between the beginning and end of the 2022-23 season in late April.

Another eight successes under NH Rules have followed this campaign and, in between, 13 have come off 50 runs from 25 individual horses in his first campaign on the flat.

Ben Brookhouse is the name and the winners have flowed ever since from the nicely compact and centrally situated Saville House stable, occupied to good effect for many years and still owned by Willie Musson.

Ben’s jewel in the crown as far as buying horses is concerned is his father Roger, a long-standing owner for the Pipe stable. Brookhouse senior has some well-regarded animals sprinkled around a few major Irish yards, notably with Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead.

But the decision was made for Ben to train all the UK runners and yesterday’s impressive second bumper win for Brechin Castle under Jack Quinlan was as decisive as it was noteworthy and eye-catching for both trainer and long-neglected jockey. It ran in Roger’s colours, too!

Jack Quinlan has been just about the only professional jump jockey to be based in Newmarket for several years. Many questioned his stubbornness in remaining close to his family, but the association with Brookhouse has coincided with a general wider appreciation of his qualities.

An Irish point-to-point winner, Brechin Castle was prepared by the champion of the Irish pointer ‘conditioning and selling-on lark’ in Colin Bowe. He upgraded an original €52k yearling buy to a €165k project, merely by winning a point by a length; but as they say, it’s how they do it.

Pointers that turn into bumper and then jumping stars can come from all types of background. Brechin Castle’s sire Shantou died as a 28-year-old: yes, I kid you not, when Brechin Castle was already three years old. His dam’s sire, dual Derby (French and Irish by seven and then four lengths for Henry Cecil) Old Vic was 25 hen he passed away in 2011. Plenty of proven breeding talent to go with Classic performance.

The trick with Irish point winners is to find the ones with a touch of speed. We saw it from Brechin Castle on his UK debut at Sedgefield last month when he stretched 19 lengths clear. Yesterday, he drew alongside a Paul Nicholls previous winner up the home straight and had a comfortable two-and-a-quarter lengths to spare at the line of this Listed contest.

Of Ben’s five National Hunt wins before the season change-over, one was Listed bumper horse Aslukgoes, and he won twice with veteran hunter chaser Espoir De Teillee, each time ridden by Fern O’Brien, Fergal’s daughter. He also had a juvenile hurdler and staying novice to complete the eclectic score.

The flat campaign continued to reflect both his versatility and the varied composition of his stable. When we talked at an Epsom evening meeting in the summer, he said how lucky he is to be able largely to buy what he likes when he goes to horse sales. “Sometimes, though, if when I got one home, Dad doesn’t want it, I’m stuck with it until I can find an owner!”

Among the dozen winners, there were a couple of smart two-year-olds, Ben clearly intent on making his name as a dual-purpose trainer. In that respect he is following the example of his latest employer, Ian Williams, to whom he was assistant trainer until branching out this year.

Amazingly, James Owen, the other ground-breaking Newmarket handler to show his credentials at Cheltenham, also only took out his training licence this season. Before that, he had been one of the most successful trainers of Arabian horses in the UK.

He is now fully committed to the new job, though, and recently moved into Green Ridge stables in the Hamilton Road. When I had a connection with horses trained in Daryll Holand’s Exning yard – at the time the late Shaun Keightley was in situ – James Owen stabled his horses in a smart, but small, much newer building just to the right of the entrance.

Gay Kelleway was next door. As I mentioned, Owen was the top trainer of Arabian horses and the old maxim that if you can train one type of horse, you should be able to make a go at others seems to be ringing true in his case.

Owen started even later in the year – after the 2022-23 season end – than Brookhouse, but when Burdett Road, owned by the Gredley family, bolted up in the Triumph Hurdle Trial that opened Saturday’s programme, it made a lot of people take notice of this young man, probably many for the first time.

Burdett Road isn’t the only horse to give a salute to Bill Gredley’s East End of London heritage, Burdett Road going from Mile End Road to Commercial Road [and where the editor plays football on a Saturday morning! - Ed.] For this most successful businessman and Classic-winning owner (User Friendly won two Oaks’s and the St Leger against the boys in 1992), Owen has seven among those to have run so far this year. I doubt that this speedy gelding will be the last to win a good jumps race for his talented trainer, who is already up to 22 for his initial season.

Burdett Road had been a nice three-year-old when trained by Michael Bell, winning the Golden Gates Stakes at Royal Ascot and two other races on the flat before running third in two Group 3 events. A 100-rated horse ought to make a decent hurdler if he stays and on Saturday Harry Cobden was at pains to give the Muhaarar gelding a chance to last out the trip on the testing Cheltenham track.

He sat an exaggerated last of nine and only when they came down the hill approaching the home turn did he make any sort of move. Still three lengths adrift at the final flight, Cobden only needed to clear the obstacle safely. That achieved, he sprinted up the hill for a six-and-a-half length success.

As was pointed out afterwards, none of the Irish we’ll see and fear next March was there - no doubt Mr Mullins is honing the skills of the latest batch of Auteuil acquisitions - but rarely do you see horses scoot up that hill on soft ground in that manner.

James Owen said afterwards he would look forward hopefully to good ground at the Festival next March to harness his speed.

As Nicky Henderson wisely averred yesterday after Jonbon’s authoritative return in the Shloer Chase, a lot can happen before then, but Ben Brookhouse and James Owen will both be picturing a repeat of this weekend’s spectaculars to warm the long winter nights.

- TS

Monday Musings: Crossing Borders

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You might not have noticed, but the British flat turf season ended with a whimper, as they say, on Saturday – on the Tapeta surface at Newcastle rather than on the swamp that was Doncaster, writes Tony Stafford. The end-of-season highlight, the November Handicap, sponsored by whoever they can drum up these days, was a denuded affair of half a field compared with its heyday, not that Brian Ellison or the owners of Onesmoothoperator minded as they picked up 36k of Virgin Bet money.

The last actual turf meeting to be completed had been Newmarket a week earlier and it wouldn’t have needed much creativity to suggest to trainers and owners that a decent turf surface there would still have been more likely than anywhere else in the country and could accommodate 20 runners with ease. The horses that turned up had presumably been geared up for a big race opportunity on autumn (or worse) grass and that’s what they could have got at HQ.

Instead, in addition to Newcastle, we had Aintree in the north-west and Kelso in Scotland over jumps, with Wincanton in the West Country and an all-weather card at Chelmsford in deepest Essex. There was again a mystifyingly small field for the first go over the Grand National fences this season in the not-so-Grand Sefton which attracted just eleven.

Meanwhile down at Wincanton, Paul Nicholls had a field day, sending out the first four winners before Anthony Honeyball spiked his guns winning the main race, the Badger Beer, with Blackjack Magic and then going on to complete a double, both with Rex Dingle in the saddle, this time on Good Look Charm.

Nicholls was still happy enough having swept up the other two main prizes, the Elite Hurdle, for the umpteenth time, with Rubaud, and the Rising Stars Chase with Knappers Hill.

I’d been wondering about the definitions of the United Kingdom, Great Britain and the British Isles before offering today’s quiz question. Bearing in mind Nicholls and his Wincanton four-timer, I ask, which trainer sent out most winners in the UK on the Friday and Saturday of last week?

The answer: Gordon Elliott, who provided 11 of the 14 winners at the two-day Down Royal meeting. Benefiting from a minimal representation from Willie Mullins, he had the first four on Friday and the last two after missing the fifth. Then on Saturday, he could not improve on his first five, despite having an odds-on chance in the last of seven races that day.

His tally there equalled his entire score of 11 more on Irish (non-UK) tracks over the previous 14-day period. Down Royal is close to the town of Lisburn, in the Six Counties, and situated around 40 miles from the border with the Republic whether you are travelling south or south-west as the border meanders its way across to the sea.

Of course, all the Down Royal stats apply to Irish racing. Its meetings, and those of Downpatrick, the other (and jumps only) Irish racecourse are staged under the Rules of Irish racing and all their statistics are included in the Irish returns. Many of the top domestic English, Scottish and Welsh jumps stables get a decent portion of their better imports though from the flourishing Northern Irish point-to-point field.

If the successes of Elliott and Nicholls tell you anything, the top stables have been stocking up avidly over the past 12-18 months and are going to be more formidable than ever. £300,000 plus is not unknown for a smart point-to-point prospect and, even then, success is not assured.

To illustrate that observation, three former Irish point winners lined up for yesterday’s finale at Ffos Las. Two that cost 100 grand and 85k respectively finished miles behind the Isabel Williams-ridden (and sourced at the sales) Followango. She paid 8k for the Evan Williams-trained five-year-old and owners W J Evans Racing could increase that probably by at least ten-fold if they wanted to leave the risk to someone else!

Gordon Elliott’s rehabilitation seems to have been largely achieved following the embarrassment of that infamous picture on his gallops. Talent will out as they say, though whether the major owners who decided to leave will ever return is another matter. But training is never plain sailing as he will be quick to admit. Yesterday’s nine runners at Naas, so back home in Ireland, produced no wins and just a couple of consolation second places.

The flat season may be over, the awards having been handed out a while ago at Ascot, but several trainers and jockeys have still been aiming at some of the major prizes available elsewhere. I’m not sure how Hollie Doyle is after unseating from her mount at Fukushima racecourse in Japan yesterday, while Ryan Moore would have been happier if the mare Geraldine, second choice for the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Kyoto, had done better than finish in 5th place.

He has the consolation of the rider’s share of 85k, one tenth of the winner’s prize won by Christophe Lemaire on the favourite Brede Weg in this race for 3yo and up fillies and mares.

And the Melbourne Cup last Tuesday week had been a frustration for Simon and Ed Crisford as their former inmate Without A Fight collected the multi-million first prize having previously narrowly denied their present high-class performer West Wind Blows in the Caulfield Cup.

West Wind Blows, again ridden by Jamie Spencer, turned out on Saturday in the TAB Champion Stakes at Flemington but despite starting favourite for the £1 million plus first prize, could fare no better than 9th of 11. Prizemoney went almost all the way down but stopped at £33k for eighth!

There was a trio of UK jockeys riding in yesterday’s Group 2 at San Siro in Milan. The Crisfords targeted the race with hat-trick scorer Poker Face, ridden by James Doyle, while Archie Watson had two representatives with Oisin Murphy and Luke Morris doing the steering on Roman Mist and Brave Emperor respectively.

Once again, the Crisfords were disappointed, Poker Face started odds-on but the honours and the £100k pot went to Watson and Morris, with Brave Emperor striding to a four-length success over the favourite. The second Watson runner Roman Mist was denied third by a short head.

The Paddy Power Gold Cup and Greatwood Hurdle are the big races to anticipate next weekend as the jumps season now gets into full flow. The Paddy Power looks too complicated at this stage, and I’d like to see the first lot of acceptances later today before starting to formulate an opinion.

But I’m more than happy to put forward a tip for next Sunday’s Greatwood Hurdle. I always have a great respect for anything that Dan Skelton shows up with and can understand why his Knickerbockerglory is prominent in the market.

However, I was so impressed with the way Punctuation won going back on the flat at Doncaster, after a long layoff for Fergal O’Brien. That powerful win suggested he’d improved since his highly successful jumping stint last winter. Punctuation for me.

- TS

Monday Musings: They Did It!

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So Auguste Rodin, Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore did it, writes Tony Stafford. At the forefront of the Irish stable and its Coolmore ownership team’s £2.7 million return from their trip to Santa Anita, the dual Derby winner emerged as a true champion, not least because of the courage of his trainer.

When the son of Deep Impact trailed home a distant last in the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot following his odds-on success at the Curragh, the knives were out.

The Derby form is rubbish they said – “when isn’t it?”, you might ask – and even his win dropped to ten furlongs for the Irish Champion Stakes still had its detractors.

But now, fully justifying (more of that word later) the decision to skip Ascot’s Champion Stakes day and the almost certain heavy ground – I sincerely believe the authorities need to do something about that – he came onto fast turf at Santa Anita and showed the sort of instant acceleration that has impressed the Ballydoyle cognoscenti from day one.

As ever with Aidan, the back-up riders are just as vital. Didn’t Padraig Beggy in 2017 and, three years later, Emmet McNamara emerge from the Chorus Line on the home gallops to win the Derby? They partnered back-up horses, Wings Of Eagles (Beggy) and Serpentine for McNamara, only to disappear from view pretty much thereafter, left with just their memories of that incredible career-garnishing achievement.

There was a bit of a Beggy/McNamara element to this year’s Breeders’ Cup, but it wasn’t that Aidan picked from the 70 or so riders that normally partner first and second lots of the incredibly talented team back home.

This time he “borrowed” a young jockey that has quickly got to near the top of the Irish riding tree, from son Joseph. Dylan Browne McMonagle – still only 20 – has ridden 59 winners in Ireland this year from 539 rides, putting him third only behind champion Colin Keane and Billy Lee.

In a year made difficult for Aidan by the long-term injury early in the year sustained by Wayne Lordan, you might have thought the master of Ballydoyle would have cast his net a little wider. From his 105 domestic wins, Ryan Moore has travelled over for 52 from 123 at 42% and ultra-reliable Seamie Heffernan has 32 from 150 at a more than handy 21%. With Wayne eight from 54 in the spring, there’s just 13 to go round. Surely Dylan would have picked up the pieces. He did, one win from nine rides.

His employment by O’Brien in the UK has been even more sparing, just a single ride on Champions Day at Ascot on Broome, and there he was again on Saturday on the same quirky old veteran apparently making up the numbers in the deep Turf field.

At Ascot, over what has become more his distance in the near two-mile Stayers Championship race, he faded to finish sixth of eight. His perceived role at Santa Anita was to help make the running and ensure a decent pace for the favourite. In the end, Dylan’s knowledge of the horse gained from Ascot did not help at the start as the seven-year-old dwelt as the rest of the field hurried on their way.

Maybe it was good fortune, but McMonagle didn’t rest on his laurels, trying to get to the front and Broome was prominent until understandably beginning to weaken as the last turn approached. Inevitably he fell into the laps of still travelling rivals and certainly Frankie Dettori on King Of Steel and Jim Crowley on Mostahdaf took a rapid diversion to the outside to avoid him.

The trigger effect was a nice gap on the inside. If ever you needed to know how much distance a horse can lose in the US when going wide on the bend this was evident as without doing too much, Ryan, having been some way back in seventh or eighth, was able to enter the straight just behind the lead.

The rail runner route was never more famously displayed than by Calvin Borel in his successive Kentucky Derby wins in 2009/2010, and when it works it looks very clever. Ryan confessed there was an element of good fortune in it but, again, to have a horse talented enough to accept the invitation is rare.

Clearly, Aidan O’Brien doesn’t need to employ a rider regularly to appreciate his talent and here we come to the day before when I’m sure McMonagle must have feared the worst when the local veterinary panel deemed River Tiber unfit to run in Friday’s Juvenile Turf race.

O’Brien took it on the chin in a little more restrained manner than Jessica Harrington, there with an owner who had nothing else to show for their trip. Aidan, of course, had back-up once more but, with Ryan Moore’s first pick an absentee, Frankie Dettori was booked for second string Unquestionable with McMonagle on longshot Mountain Bear.

Although only a winner of a maiden race previously, Unquestionable made plenty of friends with his second, a length behind Richard Hannon-trained Rosellion in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at the Arc meeting. Ryan promptly pulled rank leaving Dettori without a mount, unless…

Well, “unless” didn’t happen, and while Ryan came the inside route to get by the Americans in the straight while Dylan went widest of all, collecting with a flying finish the not inconsiderable runner-up prize of £141k as the trainer supplied the one-two.

If the Coolmore partners didn’t have enough pockets to cram the £2.7 million (less deductions!) into by 24 hours later, I’m sure Joseph’s protégé would have been planning what he might be doing with what must have been an unexpected windfall.

European horses once again made the Americans look ordinary in most of the turf races, with Mick Appleby’s Big Evs more than living up to his sprinting prowess back home by giving the home speedsters a lesson in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. If Godolphin had a quietish time of it, the identity of Big Evs’ sire, their first-season sensation Blue Point, would have kept them smiling wherever Sheikh Mo and co were last weekend.

While the two best male and female stars from the Ballydoyle academy were back home munching away unaware of their joint objectives in next year’s 2000 and 1000 Guineas, their paternal relatives, Just FYI in the Juvenile Fillies’ and Hard To Justify in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf which followed, were adding both lustre and the degree of versatility to their sire.

City Of Troy’s and Opera Singer’s return to action will be awaited with interest. I can tell you, if you are being impatient, the first weekend in May will come around quicker this time than any year previously. Then we can see if my exaggerated comments about City Of Troy are indeed Justified.

- TS

Monday Musings: The Rising Star of the Rising Sun

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Back in the spring, the racing world, both in Europe and the United States, was in a state of panic, writes Tony Stafford. The cause? The belief that horses raised and trained in Japan were becoming impossible to beat when they travel over to Dubai or indeed the United States for the Breeders’ Cup in the late autumn.

This fear was exemplified by the remarkable four-year-old colt Equinox, easy winner of the Dubai Sheema Classic over a mile and a half on Dubai World Cup night at Meydan last March. Soon in the lead he wasn’t remotely bothered to see off Ralph Beckett’s smart colt Westover, winner of last year’s Irish Derby and, more recently, runner-up to Ace Impact in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe three weeks ago.

Equinox was given an official rating as the world’s best racehorse after that performance. Yesterday at Tokyo racecourse, he made his record six wins and two second places in just eight runs, taking his earnings above £10 million. Then again, prizemoney over there is pretty good.

Before Dubai, Equinox’s last win had been in the Japan Cup and that remains his immediate target even though he had been eligible both for the Breeders’ Cup meeting and the Arc. In between Dubai and yesterday, he raced only once, picking up a handy £1.4 million when a narrow winner at Hanshin.

Yesterday’s prize was similarly remunerative and while he had only a narrow margin to spare back in June, there was never a doubt in regular jockey Christophe Lemaire’s mind that he wouldn’t win. He was slowly away, which needed the jockey to alter planned tactics. Coming wide, he took the lead inside the last furlong, then comfortably held off the five-year-old mare Through Seven Seas.

Lemaire has a great relationship with many leading Japanese trainers, so it was no surprise, given his status as one of the top jockeys in France, that when she was aimed at this month’s Arc, he was booked for the ride. Through Seven Seas finished fourth, three lengths behind the winner and barely a length adrift of Westover.

Although that was an excellent run, it didn’t alter the fact that no Japanese-trained horse has ever won Europe’s autumn all-aged middle-distance championship.

The form lines suggest Equinox probably would have broken the duck for Japan had he not been reserved to clean up millions of Yen at home. The Japan Cup is expected to be at his mercy once more in a month’s time.

Equinox’s name on yesterday’s results jolted me into having a look at the Japanese representation in this week’s Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita and the Melbourne Cup at Flemington on Saturday week. That left me with the strong conclusion that a fair degree of consultation goes on behind the scenes before overseas plans are confirmed, or should I say permitted?.

I made it that there are nine Japanese horses entered at this stage on Saturday’s card with only one on Friday. There is never more than two in one race. In the Melbourne Cup tomorrow week, there’s just a single Japanese entry,

I’ve noticed several mares are scheduled to take part while all the male horses are entires, with six-year-old Ushba Tesoro a prime contender for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. Winner of his last five, that includes a comfortable success, coming from far back, over the Crisfords’ fellow six-year-old Algiers last March in the Dubai World Cup, a race normally a cinch for the American raiders.

He had a soft warm-up, collecting a puny 250 grand for a little exercising of his ageing limbs in a race in the summer, his one run since Dubai. With £7 million already in the bank, another £2.6 million wouldn’t come amiss before he goes off to stud. He’s Japanese-bred on both sides of his pedigree and as such will be in big demand when he does retire.

Last year’s Breeders’ Cup meeting in Keeneland didn’t seem to interest Japanese stables, with just one token unplaced runner on the entire two days of action. The previous year in Del Mar, though, two females were successful, Loves Only You in the Filly and Mare Turf and Marche Lorraine in the Distaff on dirt.

Both were five-year-olds and, interestingly, 50/1 shot Marche Lorraine was ridden by Oisin Murphy, who might not have had such a long-term association with Japan as Lemaire, but he has spent plenty of time there in recent years. Marche Lorraine, incidentally, is by Ushba Tesoro’s sire, Orfevre.

The Japanese horse whose chance I like best is Songline in the Mile on Saturday. Normally this five-year-old mare – yet another one – would be facing a formidable European contingent, but after Paddington’s defection, there’s just two Godolphin UK runners, one each from Charlie Appleby and Saeed bin Suroor, and the French filly Kelina. Clearly the Americans are reacting to the criticism of and danger of injury too on the dirt tracks that have been the foundation of the US sport for more than a century, targeting the increased number of turf opportunities.

The 2021 2000 Guineas runner-up Master Of The Seas has been in decent form this year but I have greater regard for this year’s 1000 heroine Mawj, trained by bin Suroor. She didn’t run between Newmarket in the spring and two weeks ago at Keeneland. Ridden there by Oisin, continuing the association cemented in the season’s first classic, he partnered the filly for a comfortable success in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

Songline, though, another multi-million earner, has had an excellent season at home, winning two late spring Grade 1’s in Tokyo before returning from her break with an unlucky nose second also at Tokyo three weeks ago. This is one race where there are two Japanese entries; the other, Win Carnation, was fifth in that Tokyo race, starting 18/1 compared with Songline’s SP of even money.

Charlie Appleby does well at the Breeders’ Cup, especially with his juveniles, and he was delighted when front-running Ancient Wisdom stayed on well to win the Kameko Futurity at Doncaster on Saturday. The significance for Charlie was that it was a first Group 1 winner for the stable since May, and at least it will send him across the water with renewed optimism.

Ancient Wisdom’s previous run had resulted in a stylish, also front-running, win in a Group 3 at Newmarket on Dewhurst Stakes Day. The brave course for next spring would be to tackle City Of Troy, the unquestioned juvenile champion of 2023. As they say, someone needs to do it.

The runner-up on Saturday at Doncaster was the David Menuisier colt Devil’s Point, a wonderful result for always-enthusiastic owner Clive Washbourn. The French-born trainer could hardly have gone into the race in better form, having won two stakes races the day before at Chantilly and another double five days earlier at Saint-Cloud, including the Group 1 Criterium International with Sunday. Three of the four winners were two-year-olds.

The main Aidan O’Brien hope on the Santa Anita card has to be dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin who erased the memory of a sub-standard run at Ascot in the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes with a smart win in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown. Fourth that day was King Of Steel, the Epsom runner-up who won for Frankie Dettori in the Champion Stakes at Ascot a couple of weeks ago.

Roger Varian also has the Amo Racing three-year-old entered for the Classic on dirt on Saturday, but I assume he takes on his two-time nemesis, although he did finish third when Auguste was tailed off in the King George behind Hukum. There’s a lot at stake for both these smart horses, their owners and trainers this weekend.

- TS

Monday Musings: Farewell with a flourish

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They were all at Ascot on Saturday for Frankie Day part two, 27 years after the seven out of seven, writes Tony Stafford. But in many ways his double there, including the Champion Stakes on King of Steel, was even more compelling, after his cumulative intervening effect on the sport of horse racing. It’s a business too, and these days the financial aspect has become even more crucial at all levels.

Later, in the evening, many of the highest in the land of horse racing had transferred the 30 miles east to London’s Mayfair and were in attendance as Frankie Dettori joined Ronan Keating on stage in a duet at Grosvenor House. According to one friend – my recurring ailment precluded me from either engagement – he didn’t do a bad job of it either.

https://youtu.be/caWQViU6FSs?si=r_APIh1S_t4bc2W7

Frankie certainly knows how to maximise his marketability. At £15k for a top table for ten and 10 grand for one of the remaining of 70-odd in the cheap (sic) seats, it was a high-profile and highly remunerative affair for the jockey, and the hotel; presumably also for Mr Keating and the band, and event organisers Esmond Wilson and James Wintle, son of my late, great friend Dave Wintle, who would have loved to have been there.

There were some who had questioned his idea of a lucrative “retirement” extravaganza only days after the revelation that he would be riding on through the winter in Santa Anita for Bob Baffert, but I thought that was already well documented. Apparently not, and sometimes things you had heard as early as York in August to be fact, hadn’t filtered through to the general public.

My on-the-spot informant, Shaun Ellery, had also been a close friend of Dave Wintle’s and a fair few of the older attendees on Saturday evening might well have taken the trek west to visit Shaun’s Cardiff spot, The Bank Café Bar, in the 1990’s and 2000’s.

Frankie of course is from the next generation, but he’s now in his early 50’s with no sign of slowing down in his life or of being diminished in his ability in the saddle.

If his win in the Champion Stakes, when Man Of Steel came through late to catch Via Sistina on a day when all the other races were won from the front, seemed pre-ordained, it also probably owed a little to good fortune, a recurring theme through his career.

Just as Oisin Murphy sent the comfortably-travelling Via Sistina – also coming from the rear – into the lead on the outside at the furlong pole, he dropped his whip. From there the filly seemed to be in quicksand – it was testing ground anyway – hanging right. Frankie spotted the weakness and pounced.

It made a massive difference in prestige terms to owner Kia Joorabchian of Amo Racing, and trainer Rogar Varian, as well as the jockey and stable staff. The winner’s prize of £737,000 would probably not have been too far removed from the entire amount generated by the Grosvenor House bash, one way or another.

But here comes a supreme irony. If the whip episode hadn’t happened, then the first prize rather than £279k for second, might well have gone to Mrs R G Hillen, owner of Via Sistina. Coincidentally, Mrs Becky Hillen, wife of bloodstock agent Steve Hillen, is none other than James Wintle’s sister!

The first prize would have been nice, of course, but Via Sistina, bought originally for 5,000gns at the 2019 December yearling sales by Steve Hillen, must rank as one of the bargains of the century. The 279 grand for Saturday’s supreme effort – and a magnificent training achievement for George Boughey – has taken her career earnings to £674,000 from 13 races, with five wins and as many places.

Originally with Joe Tuite, who retired from training after the filly’s initial unsuccessful run last year, she won two of seven races for him – I wonder what Joe’s thinking now? Since switching to Boughey, she has never been out of the first three, winning the Pretty Polly at Leopardstown (Group1) and two more races, at Group 2 and Group 3 respectively.

She goes to the December sales and in these days of extravagant demand for hard-running fillies and mares, another massive payday can be anticipated.

I mentioned above the financial difficulties for owners in these days of inflation, high fuel costs for horse transportation and administration fees. Even a trainer at the top like William Haggas must be aware of costs. I recall him and Richard Hannon both being concerned early this year about not having full stables.

In William’s case it was because he didn’t have enough highly-skilled staff at the time to deal with more horses than he felt was viable. Now he tells me this week that when it came to deciding whether to sell at the Horses In Training sale, he needed to be aware of the potential costs for an owner balanced by whether the horse in question was worth retaining.

He said that if he was unsure about an unraced horse winning even a small race, balanced by the amount it would cost to achieve it, he would probably recommend taking up the sale option. Fortunately, for William’s owners, there is a demand for horses from his yard, both from smaller stables in the UK and overseas buyers.

The Horses in Training sale has always been one of my favourite weeks of the season and not least because of the days when I used to loiter on the final day for the drafts of Cheveley Park Stud and the Aga Khan’s lesser individuals to go through the ring.

Sometimes, I would pick up unsold lots privately for 500 quid from Cheveley Park - rather than the stud take them home – or even for nothing in the case of the Aga Khan “boucher” (butcher) horses, as the owner described them to me. He would hardly have wanted to send them back to France to end up on a meat counter.

I recall I did have to cough up £500 for Karaylar from the Aga Khan, but he proved a great buy, unlike most of the others! He became one of David Batey’s first 25 winners, all preserved for history in a video produced for the owner. All bar the last had been sourced by me and trained by Wilf Storey.

Karaylar’s four winning siblings were all sprinters and never tried jumping. Karaylar wasn’t quick, but won twice at Sedgefield, including a John Wade sponsored selling handicap hurdle final over 2m5f and worth £7,000 to the winner, a nice pot in 1996. Wilf truly was (and still is!) a magician.

Group 1 winning trainer Dylan Cunha is hoping to achieve a similar level in the UK as at home in South Africa. When he settles down after Saturday’s dual ending of England’s hopes in two World Cups (cricket and rugby) he will continue moving his string of horses the few hundred yards down the road to his new base in William Jarvis’s yard, Phantom House’s long-time incumbent retiring at the end of the season.

In a year when Tattersalls October Yearling Book 1 sale averaged almost a quarter of a million pounds per horse, and the overall four books still averaged 100 grand despite a falloff in parts of Books 3 and 4, Cunha did some serious shopping.

“We just happened to be there when everyone seemed to have disappeared. We got a nice bunch, in terms of the individuals and the prices we paid that day. Overall, we managed to get 19 at the various sales, and I’m delighted with that.”

Here’s a trainer going places.

- TS

Monday Musings: Troy Worth Weight in Gold

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There was a space next to me for Aidan O’Brien to slide into as we had a late lunch on Saturday, delayed by the excitements we’d just seen on the track, writes Tony Stafford. To my observation that I’d written that City Of Troy was the best two-year-old I’d ever seen, performance-wise, after the Superlative Stakes back in July, Aidan simply said: “He is”, adding, “I know you did, I read that in your column again last week”.

Ever generous with his comments, I’m sure ITV viewers would have heard the same sentiment a little earlier, but like many other people I was at the time too carried up in the euphoria of seeing a performance so rare in a championship race. Even some of the great horses have made hard work of winning the Dewhurst Stakes on their way to 2000 Guineas or Derby triumph the following year.

Frankel comes immediately to mind as one that didn’t struggle, having comfortably beaten O’Brien’s Roderic O’Connor (Irish 2000 Guineas winner the following May) in his Dewhurst on his fourth start of a 14-race unbeaten career. Two other Group 1 winners were his victims in his first three two-year-old appearances.

Nathaniel (two King Georges) gave him a tussle on debut on Newmarket’s July Course while O’Brien’s Treasure Beach (Irish Derby) was only third when they met in the Royal Lodge immediately before the Dewhurst. These were notable early scalps for the colt that brought such lustre to the end of Sir Henry Cecil’s epic career, and to Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms.

That Frankel is the yardstick to which City Of Troy has aspiration to be measured was immediately and inevitably emphasised as Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith called Saturday’s winner “our Frankel”. If Aidan and Ryan Moore are to be believed, he is.

They waited for Ryan to report back after finishing second in the opener behind one of two smart Charlie Appleby winning juveniles on the day before taking the final fateful step to run. Ryan said, confounding the relatively quick time, which he explained was due to the strong following wind, that the ground was deep and holding.

A quick consultation between trainer and Messrs Tabor and Smith resulted in the decision to let him take his chance. As Michael said: “He can only lose”, a throwback to the 2000 Guineas debacle for subsequent dual Derby and Irish Champion Stakes winner Auguste Rodin. It isn’t the races you lose that count, but those you win. Now they know he can handle deep ground.

Of course, I wasn’t by any means the only media observer of the July humbling of subsequent Vintage Stakes winner Haatem to express extravagant comments. On Racing TV, Nick Luck’s first words as Ryan pulled up the son of US Triple Crown winner and Coolmore stallion Justify were: “Find me a better two-year-old and I don’t think you will. Not this year anyway.”

On his programme on the channel yesterday morning, he had Hughie Morrison, Racing Post’s Lee Mottershead, and recently retired jockey Louis Steward, and all three agreed with the presenter that here was a horse out of the ordinary.

Luck confessed that as the year went on and various other options rather than the conventional UK Classic format were being mentioned, with the Middle Park and Kentucky Derby as tentative plans, and I quote, “I cashed in my Guineas and Derby bets”. Silly Nick!

Back to Aidan, and when you think that he and the Coolmore partners have won a joint-record eight Dewhurst Stakes, six of them since 2013, for him to consider City Of Troy unquestionably the best, that is some recommendation indeed.

As we munched away, he explained, “We’ve never been able to get him tired and that hasn’t ever been the case with any of our horses before him”. To go back and watch the last furlong of his three runs – on debut at the Curragh challenged in the form the furlong pole but pushed out before going away for a comfortable victory; on the July Course exploding clear of decent opposition; and now, when asked, again surging away going up to the line, without ever seeing a hint of interruption in his perfect stride pattern in any of them.

 

Sectional times by furlong for the Dewhurst Stakes field, the winner accelerating impressively away on soft ground

 

It’s one thing to do it on fast summer going, quite another to replicate it on deep ground, but as he sailed along happily in front, initially at a steady gallop and then one marginally increased by Ryan before a quickening between the penultimate and final furlongs, the gulf in class was starkly evident.

As with Frankel in his 2000 Guineas, when the fringe performers were catching him to a minor degree at the line after the verdict was long decided, so it was on Saturday. Willie Ryan, a Derby winning jockey in his younger days and long-time observer of all the greats with a close up of Frankel’s career and more recently all the best Godolphin horses in Charlie Appleby’s yard, was adamant. “I know the Rowley Mile is a great front-runner’s track, so Ryan was right to dictate, but to do it like that in any championship race, and especially the Dewhurst, was very special.”

Justify may have won the 2018 Triple Crown in the US, as had another Coolmore America stallion, American Pharoah, two years earlier, but the equivalent feat has yet to have been achieved here since Nijinsky and Vincent O’Brien from the same yard in 1970. Camelot went close for the team in 2012, winning the 2000 Guineas and Derby before finishing runner-up in the St Leger, but if ever a pedigree suggested they can finally end the long wait for another, City Of Troy surely has it.

Galileo’s final crop of two-year-olds this year signals an imminent end of a golden era for Coolmore and the partners’ trainer, but he leaves Frankel as his top successor. Inevitably, Galileo appears prominently in City Of Troy’s pedigree and increasingly we will see the Justify on Galileo mares cross as it becomes obvious how effective it is, with so many high-class racemares the great champion has bequeathed the operation. Like his ill-fated but still highly influential sire Scat Daddy before him, Justify, who was bred by John Gunther, produces top-class turf horses.

With eight three-year-olds and a dozen juveniles to represent him in 2023 from Ballydoyle, the results have been spectacular already. City Of Troy’s exploits against the boys have been almost mirrored by Opera Singer, five-length winner of the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at the Arc meeting two weekends ago. She is by Justify out of a mare by Sadler’s Wells, of course the sire of Galileo.

City Of Troy’s dam, Together Forever, had already produced four classy winners before City Of Troy. She is by Galileo and if that wasn’t evidence enough, her mother was by Theatrical, another noted stamina influence.

The year of 2024 promises to be tremendously exciting with potential dreams of the first Triple Crown for 54 years. Whereas Frankel did not get the opportunity to show that he would have been just as superior to all-comers at a mile and a half – the ten furlongs and 56 yards of the fast York track in an easy demolition of his Juddmonte International Stakes rivals on penultimate start was the furthest he attempted - I’m sure City Of Troy will tackle that longer trip. Hopefully that will happen at Epsom on the first Saturday of June.

As media director Richard Henry observed to fellow Coolmore executive Christy Grassick as they walked towards the winner’s circle straight after witnessing the sublime performance of their stable star, “Now we know what we’ll be thinking about through the winter”. Clearly, he cannot wait for the first Saturday in May.

Neither can I!

- TS

Monday Musings: An Expensive Game

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Last week’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1 in Newmarket highlighted the extravagant cost of owning a high-class racehorse, writes Tony Stafford. Top price was two million guineas – yes, Tatts are still in the Dark Ages financially speaking – which actually pales in comparison with some double digit million-dollar sales in Keeneland, Lexington, Kentucky in the1980’s.

It’s still steamy enough, though, even when the Frankel colt in question is shared out between the Coolmore partners and Peter Brant, of whom I spoke last week.

Of course, they didn’t buy only one, but the thought’s just the same. Add up to £100 a day (or more) to that initial investment for their young horse after initially breaking and pre-training, to inhabit one of the premier yards in the business and you begin to understand the extent of the investment.

Then, when this routinely “beautifully bred” individual eventually arrives in his yard, the top trainer is liable to say, “He [or she] will need time. If he/she runs as a two-year-old, it will be in September or October, or we may even have to wait for the all-weather in mid-winter.”

I watched on Thursday in the buffet dining room – no, if you were wondering, I’ve only ever in all my 55 years at this sale been invited once into the posh dining room. Thus, it’s dish of the day (at 18 quid!) for me and John Hancock, bloodstock insurance man extraordinaire, but he couldn’t be there last week due to dog minding duties. He’ll be in his usual spot today onwards though for Book 2 when the prices will have cooled more than somewhat, but not for Dish of the Day!

So, we gathered by the screen, watching the second run of my friend’s horse (he was invited to lunch) at Salisbury. We thought he would win but a combination of soft ground, a longer trip and different and, as it proved, less judicious riding tactics, brought disappointment.

That’s an aside. My point is that this race was worth £5,400 to the winner – the owner gets around 70% of that - second prize was £2,535, third £1,268 and fourth £634. That works out as around two months’ keep being retrieved for the winning owner, without of course the additional fees for the extras needed during his training at home and the now excessive diesel costs of getting the horse there.

Luckily for the winner, another successful project for the Goodwood Owners Group, he was trained nearby at Guy Harwood’s Pulborough stables by David Menuisier. Gail Brown has headed up the now 30 years of the group and this representative of the 2023 intake, Goodwood Odyssey, has 140 members to defray the cost. He was a £50k buy.

Runner-up Sea The Thunder was also trained relatively close at hand, by Ralph Beckett near Andover, Hampshire. This horse was bred and is owned by John and daughter Tanya Gunther, who bought back their son of Kingman for 200,000 guineas last October.

I met the Gunthers later on Thursday at Newsells Park Stud’s cosy entertaining facility adjacent to the boxes where the yearlings from the farm that topped Book 1’s aggregate of sales were housed. I must thank Gary Coffey of Newsells for that invite.

The Hertfordshire nursery recruited the Gunthers’ Without Parole to join their stalwart sire Nathaniel (Enable and Desert Crown, no less) three years ago, and the couple were marking time waiting for the last of three of his yearlings to go through the ring.

In realising 120k, their colt out of Midnight Hush, who looked the part beforehand, was an excellent result for a first-season yearling whose sire stands for only £7,000, so this was a cause for celebration. Six more Without Paroles will be offered this week in Book 2.

Before the Gunther colt’s sale, as I munched a second piece of carrot cake and sipped a follow-up cup of Newsells’ excellent coffee, Tanya kindly gave me a Without Parole keyring, a substantial metallic piece that will help me avoid further losses of my keys. I said to John, “Without Parole probably describes life in any sphere of racing, breeding, training and even writing about it”. He agreed, saying he’d been involved since his mid-20’s. I’m up to more than 55 years now and there’s no sign of it ending and rarely ever a day off.

Back to that Salisbury race. The horses following the runner-up went through the ring for 60, 150, 150 again, 13k (bought as a foal as usual by the shrewd Julie Wood), 170, 78 and 70 while the last horse home never went through a sale ring. That’s an average of a little over 100k – not looking the most equitable of investments all round, so far, you might think. Then again, those that do well, can expect big bids, usually from overseas. That’s the crock of gold at the end of the UK racing rainbow.

The average sale price on the three days of Book 1 was almost 250k. I expect this week’s numerically bigger three days of Book 2 might come close to a six-figure average. In that context it might not be too churlish to suggest owners deserve to be treated generously by racecourses when they do go to the races.

Gail Brown, who also entertains the winning owners in her room within the owners’ bar at Goodwood meetings, will no doubt ensure a good number of “her” syndicate members can get in to see their horses run. Some tracks nowadays have syndicate rooms as well as the normal owner entertainment areas.

Newmarket on Saturday staged a meeting which featured the £165k to the winner Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes for fillies and mares and was won in brilliant style by the favourite Inspiral, trained by John and Thady Gosden for the Cheveley Park Stud, and ridden by a delighted Frankie Dettori.

Earlier on the card, the Tattersalls October Auction Stakes offered a guaranteed £150,000 total prizemoney. Entry in this was restricted to horses that had not been bought in either Books 1 or 2 last year, but for those recruited from the two lesser sales, Books 3 and 4, which will occupy Thursday to Saturday in Park Paddocks and some other lesser Tatts sales through the year.

As ever, it attracted a big field, so it was surprising that more of the owners and their friends did not take the opportunity to enjoy the excellent facilities and greatly improved food offered in the Al Basti Equiworld Owners Lounge, situated in the grandstand on the corner of the track where the horses come out. From there you can watch the races on several screens and even see the finish by looking through the large rear window.

Over the years, Al Basti Equiworld, from Dubai, has been instrumental in doubling the area of the facilities both on the Rowley Mile and during the summer on the July Course. It has been thanks to Michael O’Hagan, Al Basti’s representative in the UK, and Lynda Burton, the energetic, efficient, and very popular manager, that standards (and staff proficiency) have risen sharply over the past couple of years.

Now they compare with those on most major tracks, although they do not have the scope of, say, Chester or Ascot. On Saturday, some friends of a friend were looking for a day’s racing close to Cambridge where the three brothers were meeting for a rare weekend get-together.

When one, the eldest, turned up in shorts, I was horrified, probably still traumatised a dozen years on after my wife and a friend were excluded from the Members’ enclosure (they had the correct badges) for a Friday night meeting on the July Course because they were wearing designer jeans. We left in a huff and went to Cambridge for dinner.

It seems though that anything goes nowadays at the HQ of horse racing and he and his identical younger twin brothers were warmly welcomed, both into the track and the Al Basti room.  The brothers (one medical doctor, the other a scientist in Cambridge) were less acquainted than Mr Shorts, otherwise known as Rowan, with racing but, having enjoyed the day, they promised a repeat should not be long delayed.

They all backed the last winner – always the best one - about half an hour after they got a family picture taken with none other than Frankie, now in relaxed mood in the room after his big win. The photographer? No, not ham-fisted me, but another Derby-winning jockey in Willie Ryan. Frankie and Willie, like me, will both have enjoyed yesterday’s result from the Emirates, as did my son and grandson, the latter having a rare treat on his birthday weekend.

Space will be more at a premium in the Al Basti Equiworld room next Saturday when hopefully City Of Troy, the colt I believe is the best two-year-old I’ve ever seen, will cement his reputation in the Dewhurst Stakes. He’s a 4/7 shot. The day before, Ollie Sangster will be hoping that Shuwari, slowly away when runner-up in the Al Basti Equiworld Rockfel Stakes on the Friday of the Cambridgeshire meeting, when Al Basti sponsored the whole day’s racing, will make amends in the Fillies’ Mile.

As to the Cesarewitch, Hughie Morrison runs two strong candidates in last year’s runner-up Vino Victrix and the three-times placed in the race 10-year-old Not So Sleepy. I would love the latter to win but it will be tough under his penalty.

- TS

Monday Musings: Of Kubler’s King, and Double Impact

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I know I should be dedicating much of today’s article to celebrating France’s successful conclusion to their horseracing Holy Grail – finding an unbeaten three-year-old colt who can win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, preferably as the favourite for Europe’s greatest race, writes Tony Stafford.

As I watched on a nice big screen at a much more leisurely Epsom racecourse yesterday, I picked out the motionless Christian Demuro near the back of the 15-horse field and not for one moment did I think Ace Impact wouldn’t win.

The sprint, when it finally came, was prototype “Arc”, Ace Impact sailing past them all down the outside with any doubts about stamina, class, or anything else you care to mention, made totally irrelevant by the manner of the win.

France has a true champion, one going by an appropriate name that is sure to adorn many colts and fillies down the road. Sir Philip Oppenheimer can be proud of the sire, Cracksman, bred by him from Frankel out of a Pivotal mare and now standing at Darley Stud.

Unlike Golden Horn, which he also bred, Cracksman didn’t win the Derby, finishing third to one of the least remembered winners, Wings Of Eagles and Padraig Beggy - although one that John Gosden, Cracksman’s trainer, thought a talented performer who might have gone further had he not finished lame in the Irish Derby in which he was a close third to stablemate Capri.

Ace Impact’s owners, who shelled out €75k for him as a yearling at the Deauville August sale of 2021 can sit back and wait for the offers to come flying in. The previous Jean-Claude Rouget winner of the race was Sotssass, who is now standing at stud at Coolmore at a fee of €25k. His racing owner Peter Brant was at Newmarket on Saturday.

We had a chat as the juvenile Group races were adding lustre to the first part of the card but, in the manner of racing at the top end, I’m not sure Peter had much of a second glance at the Cambridgeshire. I said here last week how it’s one of my favourite races and having made the 20/1 winner Astro King my best bet of the day in Trainers Quotes, a line I manage every day, I like the race even more.

I did mention that had Silver Sword been left in by Dylan Cunha, he would have been my confident choice, but the South African, who will be moving into the soon-to-retire William Jarvis’ Phantom House Stables, thought it would be coming too soon after his run in a Listed race at Sandown.

He knows best and that at least eased up the chance to stay with a horse I’d latched onto before the John Smith’s Cup at York in July when he started the astonishingly big price of 50/1 considering what an eye-catcher the ex-Sir Michael Stoute horse had been two races previously on first start for his new stable at Yarmouth.

Daniel and Claire Kubler train the six-year-old Astro King, who had been coming to win his race at York, going narrowly past the leader with a thrilling late run only to be caught in mid-stride, not by the winner so much as the camera which just happened to be situated at the only spot that would have counted against him.

Victory in the John Smith’s would have been a feather in the double Kubler cap. Instead, they had to wait for the Ebor meeting to make amends, the gelding having been raised 3lb, but still having plenty left to continue his upward trend in the Clipper Logistics handicap earning £51k in the process.

Astro King had been a buy from the Sir Mchael Stoute stable at the 2022 Horses in Training sales at Newmarket, for £36k having been originally bought as a yearling for 375,000gns from Book 1 of the October Yearling sales there four years earlier.

Sir Michael had nudged him into the low hundreds by his four-year-old days but after a less successful than expected five-year-old season, Desert Crown’s owner decided to draw stumps.

He had finished second (2021) and fourth in successive Royal Hunt Cup challenges, so understandably that was the first major handicap targeted by the Kublers. That race came between the Yarmouth eye-opener and the John Smith’s so when he trailed home only 21st of 30 at the Royal meeting, it would have been understandable if they had lost faith.

Instead, they embarked on a path mirroring and far out-performing what Sir Michael had achieved two years earlier, the Hunt Cup excepted.

As a four-year old he was 12th of 20 in the John Smith’s as the 7/1 joint-favourite and a close third in the Clipper, again as joint market-leader. He was off 102 when beating only one home in that year’s Cambridgeshire on his final start.

On Saturday, having been raised to 107 after the Ebor meeting win, he topped the weights with a massive 9st12lb. I’ve been limited in my research, lists of pre-1977 winners appearing without the weights carried, but certainly over the past 100 years this has been the biggest weight carried to victory.

It came with quite a comfortable course along the favoured stands side from his draw right on the rail in 35. Richard Kingscote was unhurried and once his determined mount hit the front in the last furlong, he was always holding the excessively gambled-on favourite Greek Order by half a length. Winner and second are both by Kingman but the runner-up, who was receiving 17lb, is a Juddmonte home-bred.

Dan Kubler began training in 2012 and in his first nine campaigns never won more than eleven races in a season. Those numbers have moved up markedly since adding wife Claire’s name to the licence. Claire is the daughter of their principal owners, breeders Gary and Lesley Middlebrook.

A feature of their training pattern has been the willingness to target the valuable prizes on offer in such as the Racing League and Sunday series, so that already this year, from 18 wins at 15% they have amassed £462k, far exceeding 2022’s whole year tally of £326k.

Claire, a qualified accountant, grew up around horses at her parents’ stud. Dan didn’t waste his time either, working for Roger Charlton and Jeremy Noseda in the UK and having spells with Ben Cecil in the US, Francois Doumen in France and Gai Waterhouse in Australia.

Saturday’s great win will give their upwardly mobile career a big boost, not only because of winning a major, prestigious race, but also with a weight-carrying record to boot. I expect a lot of prospective owners will be looking up their Google maps to find their way to Sarsen Farm, Upper Lambourn.

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I enjoyed a first yesterday. I’ve often tagged onto the end of the scrum inside the Epsom winner’s circle after the Derby or Oaks and watched from near but at the same time oh so far away as the Queen, attended by Bernard Kantor in the days his bank Investec were the Classics’ sponsors, presented the winner’s trophy.

Yesterday, with neither of Strong Impact’s owners in attendance, I represented Ed Babington and my friend Jonathan Barnett as their promising maiden filly gained a facile first win after three good second places this year.

She was long odds-on to do so, but what was a surprise was when Anthony Kemp told me that Clare Balding was there to deliver the very nice glass bowl that went to the winner.

I understand the plan is to keep the 81-rated Roger Varian filly, a daughter of Saxon Warrior, in training as a four-year-old and she has the temperament and physique to develop into a high-class handicapper. The Gary Moore-trained runner-up Soigneux Bell should be watched out for, as he is about to make a start in juvenile hurdles after his second to Strong Impact, trying to concede 12lb. He won his sole race in France over two miles back in May, considering which he showed decent speed over this ten furlongs.

As we waited for the winner’s parcel to be made up, we reminisced that I had actually given Clare her first paid journalistic assignment in the racing pages of the Daily Telegraph. Everything is so long ago, and she revealed that the lovely regular walks she does for Radio Four have been going for 24 years. She has an idea for a special guest for the Silver Anniversary edition next year but I dare not reveal who she hopes willl join her.

- TS

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