The turf
Drastic reduction
Robin Oakley
After such a regime most of us would be too weak to lift a tennis racket, let alone `Oh, hello . . . Im staying in. I've got the grandchildren.' ride in a race. McCoy not only did so, he rode a finish on Nordance Prince which few jockeys riding in their prime at their natural weight have ever bettered. With Joe Tizzard excelling too on the top-weight Flagship Uberalles, we all saw a race that has etched itself on the memory for tension, bravery and sheer strength. Ascot's chief executive Douglas Erskine-Crum told Victor Chan- dler, home from Gibraltar for the occasion, that it was probably the best steeplechase ever seen at Ascot, although Victor, ever the realist, reflected with a grin, 'He probably says that to all the sponsors.'
Nordance Prince had led out of the back straight but Flagship Uberalles, oozing class, began to eat up the gap despite the 241b he was conceding. Before the final fence Flagship was ahead. But whether it was the weight, or whether it was a case of his young jockey's nervousness at taking on the great McCoy from the last (some jock- eys do tend to flap as the iron man looms alongside them at the business end of a race and that sort of thing transmits itself to their mounts), Flagship Uberalles did not jump quite as cleanly as Nordance Prince at the last.
With all the energy of precocious youth, Joe Tizzard drove his brave mount all the way to the line. But you just knew that on such a day, after paying such a price to be in Nordance Prince's saddle, McCoy was not going to be denied. Using every ounce of his strength he drove home Nordance Prince by a neck. It was, quite simply, a privilege to watch both the determination of the great McCoy and the bravery of Flag- ship Uberalles, who currently looks unbeat- able at the level weights those who face him in this year's Queen Mother Champion Chase will have to carry. Just to show how much his stable think of him, the owners have backed him at 250-1 with Chandlers to wi' three Gold Cups before 2005. They will collect a cool half million if he does so.
In the unsaddling enclosure, when he dismounted, McCoy's face was chalky white, the cheeks were sucked in and be looked close to collapse. He suffered stom- ach cramps before the presentations and had to endure posing for the cameras before a loaded table as the sponsors had offered him the prize of a slap-up meal for two at the restaurant of his choice. But this extraordinarily talented and driven jockey then went out and completed a treble on Rainbow Frontier in the next. Friends who know the champion jockey say that it is not so much the desire to win that inspires him as the determination never, ever, to be beaten. He can be consumed with anger and despair after losing the smallest race that he had expected to win. Given what he does to his body, a desperate desire for success is understandable. But you have to look after the 'mind as well. In racing there have to be defeats and disappointments as well and when they come it is important to be able to cope, to give yourself the chance just occasionally to stop and savour the colour of a daffodil. Or even the odour of a well-done steak.
For Nicky Henderson it was a mixed afternoon. Garolsa ran unaccountably badly in the novices chase, Boro Sovereign and Masadamas failed to figure in their respective hurdle races and Get Real never got into the action in the Victor Chandler Chase. Something of an Ascot specialist (he cannot go left-handed) Get Real is an exciting chaser but one who likes to jump off and dominate his field, and his jockey, for that matter. He had no chance because, as Diana Henderson pointed out, the starter insisted on a standing start, proba- bly to ensure that Nipper Reed, who is inclined to 'plant' himself, got off with the rest. Get Real was caught flat-footed, missed the break and in consequence never really got down to business.
There was, however, some exciting con- solation for the Hendersons when, as the trainer put it, he 'got out of gaol' in the last with Dusk Duel. Another fine big chasing sort, he showed real athleticism in the Chandler National Hunt Novices Hurdle. Venetia Williams's Crocadee, who had won his two previous starts, may have run too freely for his own good in the early stages but the way in which Dusk Duel cruised up to him and then went away had the stamp of real class about it. Both trainer and jock- ey Mick Fitzgerald are enthusiastic about the horse's natural jumping ability and he has gone down as the first entry in the new lightweight leather racing notebook which Smythson's of Bond Street have been kind enough to send me. I don't imagine the odds next time will be too kind, but he looks to me like a real Cheltenham horse.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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