The turf
Old favourites
Robin Oakley
The pundits had Newbury's Geoffrey Freer Stakes set up as a racing equivalent to the Gunfight at the OK Corral. The two shortest-priced horses in the betting were the Henry Cecil-trained Craigsteel, ridden by Cecil's stable-jockey-to-be Richard Quinn, and Sir Michael Stoute's Blueprint, ridden by the man whom Cecil had sum- marily dismissed and who is clear favourite to become Stoute's next stable jockey, Kevin Fallon. But if there was a script then neither the veteran jockey Pat Eddery nor his brave mount Silver Patriarch, trained by John Dunlop, had read it.
After Quinn on Craigsteel had set a decent gallop and then tried to slip his three rivals, who also included the Dunlop- trained Sadian, coming into the straight it became a battle royal. Silver Patriarch looked boxed in on the rails, but the deter- mined Eddery found his way through, the old grey (who takes time to do it these days) engaged top gear and they battled all the way to prevail from Craigsteel and Sadian.
It was a heart-warming reminder that you don't need a cavalry charge of handi- cappers spread across the course to provide an enthralling race. The knowledgeable Newbury crowd applauded horse and jock- ey, and not just for the day's achievement. Both are old favourites. Eddery has had a tough season, missing weeks with a painful back injury, but there is still no more deter- mined rider in the saddle than the 11 times champion jockey. Silver Patriarch, the grey on his flanks now turned almost to white, has earned his place too in our affections. Second in Benny the Dip's Derby, he won the St Leger that year and the Coronation Cup last year. The tenacious five-year-old may just lack that extra touch of speed which marks out greatness and he has to be ridden hard for most of the way in most of his races. But he is strong, courageous and genuine, a formidable galloper when fully stoked up.
What was remarkable at Newbury was the extra round of cheers when eventually the beaming owner Peter Winfield, leaning on his silver-topped stick, made his way to the winning enclosure. Generous applause for well-known trainers and jockeys is one thing. But few owners attract the same attention. Mr Winfield, as generous in defeat as he is cheerful in victory, is one who has made that breakthrough. And the crowd would have cheered even louder if they had realised the effort which had brought him there. He had just started a holiday in Venice and his trainer advised him to stay there. But this owner has a spe- cial bond both with Silver Patriarch and with his trainer. So at 72 and despite the poor health which has dogged him for two years he had risen to see the sun rise over the lagoon and caught a 6.20 a.m. flight to get him to the course on time. He was planning to be back in his hotel room before midnight. People had been asking him, he said, if it was necessary to make such a trip but it meant the world to him see the old horse run the way he usually does for Pat Eddery. And he threw in a philosophy lesson for us all: 'We only have a leasehold on this life and I intend to make the best of what is left of mine.'
There was a stewards' inquiry into the traffic problems encountered by Pat Eddery and his fellow riders which eventu- ally left the placings unaltered. But I do not believe the outcome was ever in any doubt. When Lord Carrington, then in her Cabi- net, was asked once what would happen if Margaret Thatcher were to be run down by a bus, his reply was simply 'No bus would dare', and it would have been a remarkably daring bunch of stewards who chose to take such a race off Silver Patriarch, Pat Eddery and Peter Winfield, even if things had been a dozen times rougher.
The stewards were busy after the first race, a handicap in which John Gosden's Original, a well-backed favourite, finished last. They reported the trainer's comment that the horse, fitted with a visor for the first time, had 'sulked'. I have some sympa- thy with Original. Although blinkers and visors do make some horses concentrate better I would prefer to be able to see what is going on about me if some little animal with a whippy bit of leather was on my back screaming at me to run faster than the others.
Luckily it was far from a sulky day for me because I encountered before that race an owner whom I had last met at John Hills's stable. Hills's Bold King, he told me, had been specially prepared for the race and was well fancied. I got on at 9-1 and the horse came home nicely at 13-2.
John says Bold King has been an unlucky horse and should have won more races. The ground was too fast for him on his pre- vious run at Newcastle and they'd wiped the blackboard clean, given him a break and targeted the Newbury race. He should win again.
Impressive, too, was Marcus Tregoning's speedy winner of the five-furlong Swetten- ham Stud Stakes, a Listed race for fillies. I mislaid a chunk of my earlier winnings here on David Chappell's See You Later, who had been very impressive on her Sandown debut and looked good value at 8-1. What I did not know was that she had pulled a muscle in her first race and been temporar- ily sidelined and that the stable were wor- ried she would be too fresh on her return. They were right to be. She did not settle and threw away her chance with inexperi- ence. But See You Later was running on well at the finish, to be denied second place only by a head. I would not back her against Elaflaak, now a winner of three races, but she is undoubtedly a fast filly too and she stays in my notebook.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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