Monday Musings: A Desperate Week

On Tuesday evening I left Brighton racecourse at around 7 p.m. after a frustrating day brought on by the closure of the A23, diversions from which cost me at least one and a half hours’ irritation, worrying that I’d get there in time, writes Tony Stafford.

At about the same time, John Hunt was arriving home in Hertfordshire having commentated at Lingfield Park’s afternoon meeting. He found a horrific scene which in one ruinous moment wiped out 75 per cent of the life he and wife Carol had built together for their three daughters.

The fact that three female members of one family, Carol and younger daughters Hannah and Louise, had become a target of a single malevolent individual is bad enough: the ordeal he subjected them to before administering the final sanction simply multiplied the horror.

My own view while waiting for news of the outcome of the search for the suspect – do we still today have to go through that charade when it’s all too certain who the triple killer was? - is anger. That’s right, anger that while being so gifted in sending the three blameless women to their deaths, this Army-trained killer didn’t have sufficient skill or guts to end his own life.

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So now he has precipitated a farcical process that will mean an entirely futile murder trial sometime in the months to come that will make even harder the mourning process for John and eldest daughter Amy.

Everyone commenting on John Hunt, an exemplary commentator on numerous sports, is unified in describing him as a wonderful individual.

My recollection of him every time we’ve spoken over the last couple of decades is that infectious smile and a love for West Ham United. No doubt he was coming home ready to sit down with the family to watch the Spain-France Euros semi-final.

There must have been a moment, when the BBC’s coverage of racing was already confined to radio, that brought him to a crossroads as to whether to stay with them. At the time Cornelius Lysaght was the correspondent and John just did the commentaries.

These were often restricted to the last few furlongs of a major flat race or the final obstacles over jumps as the Saturday afternoon programme producers deigned to leave a Premier League game for one precious minute. John never cribbed about it even though it must have been utterly frustrating.

After Lysaght was moved on, Huntie’s status increased and then came the swimming commentaries at the Olympics and other major events. His eagle eye, developed from watching high-speed horse racing finishes, made him outstandingly better than the Olympic gold medallists that were previously the Beeb’s imprecise eyes on the pool.

Even soccer and other equestrian activities at the Olympics have since come within his range, at the same time never interfering with his initial job as a race commentator or increasingly in the Sky Sports racing studios as a genial and impressively fluent, knowledgeable presenter.

I hope John will feel able to resume that Olympic Games role this month. It might be a little easier than having to bump into all the regulars he would see if his first resumption was to be at the races.

We all, of course, wish him well, and wonder how such wickedness has come into our world: bodies in suitcases killed by someone from Colombia allowed to be living here, left on a bridge in Bristol, and an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate.

 

*

 

The world and racing go on and on Saturday we were back to the bizarre fixture clash of Newmarket’s July Cup, York’s John Smith’s Cup, both Premier Racing fixtures, and Ascot’s non-Premier card which carried the Group 2 Summer Mile. It must have seemed a bit of a joke at Ascot that they could put on a programme with £200k in winners’ prize money and be the least important of three meetings on the day.

There was additionally in previous years Chester, but they were forced by the authorities to revert to a teatime start and apparently didn’t like that too much. Salisbury and Hamilton made up the numbers at more conventional evening start times.

Then yesterday, when Chester, Hamilton or Salisbury might have been able to stage a nice Sunday afternoon card, instead it was jumps only at Perth in Scotland where the weather was rubbish and Stratford, at least under sunshine in front of a decent attendance.

Newmarket on Saturday featured the latest example of Jane Chapple-Hyam’s expertise (as if it were needed), the Australian-born step-daughter of the late Robert Sangster, landing the £340k first prize for the Group 1 July Cup with the progressive Mill Stream.

The four-year-old son of Gleneagles is still a colt and, boasting also a Group 2 win at York earlier this year in his locker, he could be a potential stud prospect when his racing career is deemed to have finished. It was a major triumph for Peter Harris, once famed for top-class jumpers and a former trainer, but now happy to have Jane do the work while he supplies the raw material (and the cash that is needed to acquire it).

Earlier, the Chapple-Hyam stable was also on the mark in a £25k to the winner fillies’ handicap at HQ. Asian Daze had been bought out of Johnny Murtagh’s stable at the Goff’s London Sale on the eve of Royal Ascot for £200k on behalf of Australian Gai Waterhouse and co-trainer Adrian Bott.

She ran well in the Sandringham Stakes, when her 9th of 30 would have been improved considerably with a clear run. Transferred after Ascot to Jane, this was her first run since, and her fellow Aussies will be looking forward to Asian Daze clocking up some serious money when she gets Down Under.

Talking of money, I made only one visit to the July HIT sale at Newmarket, the Brighton escapade draining my physical resources, and I thought three days at Newmarket races would be enough to cover Thursday onwards.



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That just left me with Thursday evening. As I arrived half an hour before the action started, in time to find my old sparring partner John Hancock in his customary seat in the buffet, I bumped into Dylan Cunha. The South African trainer has made a great impact over the past two years, and he has been particularly sharp at spotting bargains at the yearling and HIT sales.

I asked him, “Have you anything in mind? I’ll keep an eye on whether you get something.” He turned to his left at the same time pointing out three bench seats backing onto the pre-parade walking area. He said, “Do you see those gentlemen? They are all from various parts of the Middle East” – so nine in all. “They’ve been there for ages and when one stands up, someone else comes across and takes his place.”

Buyers from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar and increasingly Bahrain all want to buy horses from the UK, Dylan said. “It works both ways. I sold a horse yesterday <Wednesday> that I valued at 4k and he went for 18 grand. Unbelievable!”

The common view was that if a horse was worth ten thousand it would fetch 25k, if 20, treble it. So it proved.

Some of it is down to the system where three horses are needed to fill a crate for export – one, two or three on the crate costs the same. Buyers may have bought two to bring home and will be desperate to secure a third. It seems that they will always be able to find someone back home to believe it’s worth the money.

Tonight, I’ll be off to Windsor hoping for a repeat Monday night win there for the Jonathan Barnett/ Newsells Park stud-owned and Michael Bell-trained Wootton’s Jewel.

To give you an idea of horse prices these days, especially for those aged three as he is: at Windsor last time on his first start of the year, Wootton’s Jewel was a short-head winner over the Andrew Balding-trained Star Runner and Oisin Murphy didn’t look too chuffed that Hector Crouch had got the better of him. Last week, Star Runner, rated identically on 77 with his Windsor conqueror, was sold to William Durkan for 105,000gns, presumably to go jumping, rather than for export to the Middle East. When Wootton’s Jewel wins again tonight, what will he be worth, 150 grand?!

- TS

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