The turf
Crucial confidence
Robin Oakley
Complaints do not always bring the anticipated result. When a couple of golfers missed their putts on the 18th green on one famous northern course, they turned the air blue with expletives, upset- ting two members' wives taking a gin and tonic on the overlooking terrace. The ladies complained to the committee, who in consequence issued a firm ruling: in future, members' wives were not to be allowed to drink on the terrace. Those who had been hoping that the Bosra Sham affair would bring about the downfall of Kieren Fallon as Henry Cecil's retained jockey must be feeling a little like those lady complainants. After a turbulent ten days, Fallon is now more firmly established at Warren Place than he was before his error in the Eclipse.
What is more, Fallon has turned the affair to his benefit. This, remember, is a jockey whose colleagues have borne the bruises to testify to his short fuse, whose disciplinary record once ran a close second to that of Billy the Kid. Instead of cracking under the pressure, Fallon has been a model of restraint, despite his jocking-off the Wafic Said horses. He has faced the heat in the hottest of kitchens with the composure of an elder statesman. His answer to the critics was to go out and ride 14 winners in the next week, six of them at the hotly contested Newmarket July meet- ing.
After the public criticism from Henry Cecil that was no mean feat. An owner was telling me at Lingfield on Saturday not to back one of his horses because the jockey was going through a crisis of confidence, his stable's main owner having refused to put him up on his horses. And that was without a whisper of publicity for the deci- sion.
Writing as I had to for this column soon after the Eclipse was run, I never imagined that the Fallon/Bosra Sham affair was going to become the epic it did. I remain critical of his ride in the Eclipse, although I begin to have my doubts how much the sta- ble team had worked through the tactical options for the race before it was run. But I had no wish to be part of a pack hounding the jockey and I remain confident that, when advising readers of this column last August to back Fallon (then available at 4-1) for the jockey's title this year, I was offering sound advice. He is currently at 5-4. In terms of the return to a level stake on his mounts he is well clear of the field.
But if Fallon has shown a champion's confidence he has come rather better out of it than the brilliant trainer for whom he rides. One senior figure in racing, who counts himself an old friend, was appalled both by Cecil's verbal assault on the canny Mick Kinane at Ascot and by his public criticism of his own jockey, before he announced he was keeping him on for next season too: 'If you are going to get rid of somebody, you do it. Otherwise you shut up.' Getting ratty with the media, as Cecil chose to do, is never an answer. We are not always convenient to have around. But Enoch Powell once said that politicians who complain about the media are like ships' captains who complain about the sea. That goes for trainers, too, at Henry Cecil's level.
Confidence of the kind that Kieren Fal- lon has continued to show through this tur- bulent period should never be underrated. There is nothing more crucial to riding horses. A rider who is on song and knows it can do a horse as much good as a seven- pound drop in the weights. Just look at the way the underrated Willie Ryan has been bringing his mounts home since he scored in this year's Derby. Watch 50-year-old George Duffield this season, riding like a man half his age after a few well-publicised successes.
Looking for the confidence factor at Lingfield on Saturday, I noted that Seb Sanders had a good book of rides, several of them for Reg Akehurst. Not only does he ride regularly for the shrewd doyen of Epsom trainers, he is being employed fre- quently these days by the equally canny 'I can't think why they're backing mine' Sir Mark Prescott. There was no doubting that Seb would be riding with panache after his biggest ever success during the week, driv- ing home James Toiler's Compton Place to a surprise victory in the Newmarket July Cup. And so it proved. Seb scored for Reg Akehurst on Master Mac at 6-1, on Peppi- att at 4-1, and also brought Tregaron into second place for him under 9st 71b, again at 6-1. The 66-1 third place on Fulke John- son Houghton's Versatility in the opening maiden was an unexpected bonus.
Unfortunately, unlike my cheery com- panions at Lingfield who had plunged enthusiastically on Pat Eddery's mounts (all unplaced) in combinations, I stuck only to singles. And cutting it too fine before the race as the price was drifting, I missed getting on to Mister Mac at all. I still cheered him home though, Reg, honest.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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