Monday Musings: Things Just Grand in Yorkshire

When you are a grandson of the great show jumper Harvey Smith, what do you do other than become an international show jumper, like your father Steven Smith before you?, writes Tony Stafford. As Yorkshire as they come, Harvey was showjumping’s equivalent to another blunt speaking but highly talented man of his county, in his case from cricket in the middle of last century, Fred Trueman, in the days when both sports got plentiful live coverage on the BBC.

Add the surname Parkinson – remember the chat-show legend? – and the county theme continues. But if you want some historic nomenclature from horseracing, how about your parents call you Joel, recalling the Classic winning owner-breeders Jim and Stanhope, whose family made its money from gold mines in South Africa.

For those of more tender years, Harvey was as famous for a single V-sign to the judges after he won the 1971 British Show Jumping Derby as anything else. They withheld the £2,000 prizemoney for the “obscene gesture” which Harvey explained was merely a homage to Winston Churchill’s wartime victory salute. When Fred was asked by 13-year-old me as the players milled about in front of the pavilion on a rain-ruined day at I think Valentines Park, Ilford, “Please Mr Trueman, can I have your autograph?” “Fook off sooon!”

Twenty years later, standing in for Jonathan Powell doing the People weekly racing article, I was invited to sit in Fred’s seat. I declined.

It was to surprise in many quarters when Harvey joined with wife Sue to set up a training stable at High Eldwick, near Bingley in West Yorkshire. They opened for business in time for the 1989/90 season and, for the next 36 winters, Sue Smith was a regular winner of major races – mostly chases. The highlight of course was the victory of Auroras Encore in the 2013 Grand National.

For the past few years, her young relative Joel acted as her assistant before she had notched a single winner at the point in her final solo season when the joint training agreement came into play. Sue had gone from a peak of 70 wins at one stage to more modest high teens returns in her two final campaigns in sole charge.

The benefit of the new arrangement where, as in several other well-publicised partnerships, the younger element takes increasingly more prominence, was soon evident. Last season, the pair added 27 to Sue’s solo single and, after the weekend, with four wins in the last 14 days, they have already collected 22 and are within a jot of matching that season’s improved prizemoney tally.

Why the preamble? I’m getting to it. A horse trained by Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith was backed as if defeat was out of the question on Saturday and won accordingly. The race, the Tommy Whittle Handicap Chase at Haydock Park, is a three-mile contest named in honour of one of Haydock’s chairmen.

It was inaugurated in 1982 and among its first dozen winners were northern-trained Cheltenham Gold Cup heroes Little Owl, Forgive ‘N Forget and The Thinker, along with the phenomenal grey One Man. Sue Smith won the 2004 race with Chives, ridden by Dominic Elsworth.

It’s now a 0-145, so the likelihood of its ever offering a hand-up to another Gold Cup winner – they tend to be rated in the high 170s – is remote, except possibly in the case of Saturday’s extraordinary winner.

If ever a chase of this fame – however slightly tarnished the Tommy Whittle might be by that upper limit of 145 – has been won by a horse that had never previously won any race, I’d need someone with better historical records to remind me.

Six-year-old Grand Geste had been bought by Harvey Smith for £13,000 at the Goffs UK Spring sale in 2022. Before Saturday, he had run 11 times without winning, in two bumpers, seven hurdle races and a couple of chases.

On Saturday he was 2lb out of the handicap, so running off 119 in a 12-runner race which featured Nicky Richards’ previous Tommy Whittle winner Famous Bridge. That rival was never in contention as Danny McMenamin sent Grand Geste to the front from the off, jumping with amazing alacrity and agility.

There’s something about a front-running, bold-jumping grey horse – Desert Orchid? – and while it might be premature to talk about these two horses in the same breath, come a couple of years down the line, the relevance of Saturday will have been reinforced many times over, I’m sure.

A six-year-old as I mentioned, he is one of five of that age to win the race, more common nowadays with its being an event for emerging talents rather than established stars that have gone beyond the upper limit bracket.

Yet, in a way, Grand Geste should have probably been operating off far more advantageous marks – to begin with at least. Many shrewd handicap trainers who know how to play the system would describe as “unfortunate” on the one hand or “idiotic” more likely the day at Carlisle when Grand Geste narrowly failed to record a 200/1 win in his final novice hurdle race before collecting a handicap mark.

That day, the grey entered the uphill run-in with two lengths to spare over the field, but Sean Bowen on Olly Murphy’s Barlavento conjured one of his flying and all-action finishes to foil the grey, who in the process probably added 30lb to what would otherwise have been his opening mark.

He operated decently enough last season, with a couple of third places in a light campaign, but when he returned to Carlisle for a first run over fences, he got within four lengths of Ben Pauling’s useful performer The Jukebox Kid. Next was a narrow defeat at Newcastle, caught late on by Alcedo, trained by Venetia Williams.

Here though, in his first race beyond three miles, from start to finish all that remained in the mind was the vision of that exuberant jumping and the six-and-a-half-length winning margin that Danny could have stretched if needed. Expect maybe 14lb or even a little more to be lumped on the 119 he ran off when the new ratings come out tomorrow. If anything, on present evidence, Parkinson/Smith will be saying, “the more the merrier” and “handicapper, bring it on!”

The way he galloped all the way to the line, something like the Peter Marsh Chase back at Haydock next month would be ideal. Sue Smith has won it five times, but Grand Geste needs to go up even more than the harshest assessor could contrive to get in the weights. Mr Vango, one of the favourites for next year’s Grand National won it last year off 140 – and he was bottom weight!  Who says he couldn’t win it from 10lb wrong? The trainers and the market are unlikely to be bothered at all.

Talking of Mr Vango, he came back to action this month and just failed in a thrilling tussle to win the Becher Chase over the Aintree Grand National fences. I can picture Grand Geste going over those before long, too.

Mr Vango was done on the line by Ben Pauling’s Twig and I remember when Twig got his first handicap mark a few years back, Ben was bemoaning the fact that he had started off with a far higher figure than was necessary.

After two unplaced runs from Ben’s yard, he switched to point-to-pointing, winning six times, all for stable owner Mrs Georgia Morgan and ridden each time by Georgia’s son Beau. Before rejoining Pauling from the Matthew Hampton yard, he added a comfortable hunter-chase win at Warwick. Had he run three times rather than two in that initial spell, he would already have had a mark and running in that hunter chase might have been avoided. As it was, he started off with 132.

That Ben could win to date nine times, three over hurdles and six chases, with him from that difficult starting point, shows that if the talent is there, the wins will follow given the abilities of trainer and rider.

On a lower level, on Saturday I was talking to Hughie Morrison about a filly of his that was lining up for a third run later at Wolverhampton. He said she had been working much better of late and that he expected her to run a decent race, despite the massive morning odds.

She still started at 40/1 but ran nicely all the way, only beaten by a once-raced Godolphin filly ridden by Billy Loughnane.

Hughie expected that this home-bred daughter of St Mark’s Basilica, for the Arbib partnership, would “blow” a potential favourable mark, but for such owners showing something on the racecourse, especially a two-year-old filly, transcends such trivialities.

Judging by the smooth way she travelled around the inside at Dunstall Park, and remained well ahead of the rest of the field, suggests she won’t be too far off in another fillies’ maiden, especially if Charlie Appleby suffers a touch of heat stroke during his winter sojourn in Dubai and forgets to enter against her.

Hughie got a result just over half an hour later when nursery winner Tinsel provided an apt moment for the Christmas season. With no racing after today until Boxing Day, he can sit back and enjoy the festivities.

I would like to wish all my readers a lovely holiday season. I’m happy that, as you may have noticed, the days are getting longer at last! Roll on Royal Ascot.

Mentioning Ascot, I must drop in a line about Sir Johnny Weatherby, the late Queen’s representative at the Royal course for many years. It was as much a shock to learn that that he was 66 when he died as that he had passed away at all. Many who knew him much better than I did have spoken so highly of him. His loss will be sorely felt throughout the racing world, but especially at the family firm, Racing’s secretaries, that carries his name. Nice man.

• TS

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