Monday Musings: A Little Bit of Rekindling

At my age it doesn’t take much to trigger long-hidden memories, writes Tony Stafford. I wondered as I sat down to open these words why the song “A little bit of soap”, an ordinary ditty from 1961 by the Jarmels (who they, I ask?) should be inhabiting my brain. The next visit to the bathroom revealed all, a tiny amount remained in the soap dish – barely enough to work up a passable lather.

I’d already had another memory from the 1950s/60s when I spoke to Jack Morland about his first-time two-year-old Spes Durat Avorum, which ran yesterday at Yarmouth. That Latin name is the school motto of Kimbolton School and my school, Central Foundation in London, has the school motto and song, Spe Labore Fide.

It still is, and the school remains where it was, at the roundabout between Old Street and City Road just north of the City of London’s boundary.

It meant “hope, labour, faith” and, even more than six decades since my three (or was it four?) years’ learning Latin, a fair remnant remains, still helpful in guessing the meaning of some more obscure words.

I’m sure my first wife retains that ability, too. She got 100 per cent in her first Latin examination, and the following time it was 99%. The teacher, a kindly soul, remarked, “You’re on the slippery slope, Gillian!”

I normally remark here on June 23 or thereabouts that we are on the slippery slope to ever-shorter days for the next six months until just before Christmas. It was during the period of maximum darkness that I embarked on something I hadn’t previously – gorging on a Netflix series.

I’d found the odd ten- or twelve-episode stuff to ease me into subconsciousness before going off to sleep, but his time I’d discovered the ultimate. It encapsulated hope, labour, faith in full measure.

On Netflix you get various menus and one day I noticed a series that I’d maybe seen the odd episode of from way back when first screened more than 30 years ago. It was the hospital drama ER, Emergency Room, situated in Chicago and the idea of novelist Michael Crichton, which began in 1993 and continued until 2008.

You click on ER and it comes up as Season 1 Episode 1. The first season ran for 25 episodes. Each of the next 14 – yes there were 15 seasons! – contained 22 shows, so a total of 333! On Friday night I finished them all, by way of two or three every night, so obviously from midwinter onwards.

When it rather cleverly ended on that ultimate double-length finale, it showed that, like life, everything in an ER goes on as before, however much the personnel changes. Nobody is indispensable. Bereft of my bedtime nourishment, I looked on the menu on Saturday for available shows and there it was. Season 1 Episode 1. I couldn’t resist a quick look, but after viewing for a minute, I switched it off, trusting that I never again will succumb to its addictive charms.

Racing’s a bit like that. You get to a point when you might think you are losing your enthusiasm and then something happens to rekindle the excitement. Goodwood is always a track that did that for me and my two visits on Tuesday and Thursday were no different. I enjoyed being close to the action as Scandinavia in the Goodwood Cup and Diamond Necklace in the Nassau Stakes reaffirmed the Aidan O’Brien team’s status as the top stable of 2026.

In between, hoping for a restful day in front of the box rather than another 280-mile round trip, I admired the power of Bow Echo’s finish under Billy Loughnane to catch old rival Gstaad in the Sussex Stakes.

George Boughey is such a cool customer. I remember one day when he was assistant trainer to Hugo Palmer in his Newmarket days, going up to watch one of Ray’s young horses make its debut at Thirsk. George was in his early 20s then, but he already had a calm assurance about him. The horse ran well but didn’t go on. George did, in spades.

If anyone on the TV teams on either ITV or Racing TV read this, none of them has bothered to change the pronunciation of Bow to Bough, meaning the echo coming from the bow of a ship. Who cares, apart from George Hill, or Mr Pedantic as we must call him from now on. He’s visiting some of his grandchildren in the US now, so he won’t be offended at the disrespect.

I remember sitting with Sheikh Mohammed in a car near a yard at Dullingham near Newmarket, it must have been more than 40 years ago, when he said, “To develop a serious breeding programme it can take 30 years.” His Darley Stud and Godolphin operation have pretty much achieved that now and are serious producers along the lines of Coolmore, if without that stud’s breadth of stallion and mare talent, Juddmonte and Shadwell and the Aga Khan Studs.

Another Middle Eastern power, this time from Qatar, has sought to make a short-cut to prominence in the game. Wathnan Racing, using the recruitment skills predominantly of Richard Brown, has gone for buying young horses from the sales to horses in training that have already shown ability.

Initially Wathnan’s ownership was secretive but now we know in its third full year of operation that the Emir of Qatar is the owner. If you own a country, that always helps; Qatar also is the main sponsor of Goodwood, pushing its prizemoney ever upward. Understandably, Wathnan targeted the meeting to showcase its development, and last week had a spectacular time.

They won seven races in all, culminating with a head victory for James Doyle’s mount Evening Saigon on the less-favoured far side in a typically tight finish for the week in the Stewards’ Cup. Their 37 runners were spread through most of the top domestic yards, but their home champion trainer Hamad Al Jehani showed his own talent when as well as the Stewards’ Cup, he also won another big handicap with Archivist earlier in the week.

Just as Ryan Moore sometimes gets on the wrong horse when Coolmore has multiple runners, so Doyle occasionally must watch on as another rider takes the prize. It happened three times last week, but I know how proud his mum Jacqui is at her son’s success in such a high-profile job. He rode four of his team’s winners, one fewer than Ryan Moore and equal second on the week with Dylan Browne McMonagle.

McMonagle is rising to the top with his boss Joseph O’Brien, leading trainer at the meeting with four wins. Dylan is a little older than the meteor that is Loughnane, who over the past fortnight has stretched his lead in the 2026 Championship table over four-time winner Oisin Murphy from four to 11, now 84 to 73 thanks to 18 wins in those two weeks.

As ever, agent Tony Hind has been the catalyst. Former champions Ryan Moore and William Buick’s agent also handles Loughnane. An example of his astuteness came on Thursday. Roger Teal was running his twice-raced filly Avalon Queen in the two-year-old fillies’ maiden. The word here before racing was that the Aidan O’Brien filly So Lovely, a daughter of Wootton Bassett out of 1,000 Guineas and Oaks winner Love, was a bigger certainty that day even than Diamond Necklace.

Roger told me, “They rang up for the ride for Billy on Avalon Queen. Tony Hind must have fancied her.” In the race Loughnane was always a couple of lengths ahead of the hot favourite and, although it was quite tight at the line, So Lovely didn’t quite get up.

I’ve called Billy a future champion many times and one reminiscent of a young Lester Piggott. It seems that the future is now and while Oisin has the Andrew Balding masses at his disposal, Loughnane is getting his rides from an ever-widening circle. I reckon it’s done and dusted. Maybe even for the next ten years! I hope I’m around to see it.

- TS

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