The turf
Thuggish but sensitive
Robin Oakley
The heavy morning mist was hanging wetly over the fields. Chaffinches darted in and out of the trees and a green woodpeck- er was yaffling in the woods. Only the dis- tant hum of the A24 traffic confirmed that this was stockbroker-belt Dorking rather than the deepest countryside, as Terry Casey and his team went through the morning stable bustle: mucking out, tack- ing up and preparing the team for exercise on their private all-weather track at Andrew Wates's Henfold House stables.
Some of the small string were out on the horse-walker warming up. And there, with that little white blaze on his head, was the main object of my visit: Rough Quest, the horse who finished second in the 1996 Gold Cup and who won that year's Nation- al. After missing much of last year with leg trouble after the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, Rough Quest is once again being aimed at the ambitious double.
Jumpers are around long enough to show their characters, and Rough Quest, the possessor of that precious ability to quick- en at the end of a slogging three miles plus, is certainly an individual. His companion on the walker, the talented novice chaser Even Flow, plodded on quietly. Rough Quest, by contrast, turned an inquiring head as if to say, 'Yes, here I am. It's me you've come to see, isn't it?'
The trainer's partner Joanna says, `Rough Quest hates the cold months and he's not really on song yet. But when he's in form he can be a complete thug. When he won the Racing Post Chase he was bundling horses out of the way. He's got no manners. He will barge other horses going to the start. But he's sensitive too. When he hears Terry coming across the yard he knows the sound of his footprints and will whinny at him.'
Terry Casey himself, who admits to `spoiling him rotten', says that Rough Quest does not like being at the back of the string at exercise and he will push his way to the front. In the King George VI and in Cheltenham's Pillar Chase this season, Rough Quest has been well beaten by See More Business. His trainer, who reckons they have cracked the muscle enzyme prob- lem which used to dog Rough Quest with back trouble, says he ran a bit flat on both occasions. He still feels there is a big race in him and insists that he is still capable of winning a Gold Cup.
Training a recognisable star like Rough Quest does not present special problems, he insists. At Beare Green they are in a quiet little backwater, and he is no publici- ty-seeker. 'It's just like training any other good horse, though he's an independent type and you have to watch his diet. He loves his food and his constitution is not all it might be.' Pressed to explain, he reveals that the National winner, like many in mid- dle age, can be prone to constipation.
As a salaried trainer for Andrew Wates, whom he praises as an understanding owner who does not rush his horses, and with a dozen horses for other owners in the 18-box yard, Terry Casey has the best of both worlds. Although he is a born worrier, there's no doubting his honesty when he says, 'Training is my hobby as well as my work.' He gets up at 5 a.m. to do the morn- ing feed himself and does the late-night feed at 8 p.m. too. 'I like the routine and I like to see how the horses are.' And though he is too modest to draw attention to it himself, his results outstrip those of many grander establishments.
Born in Donegal, the least horsy part of Ireland, he ran away from school in Dublin to join a racing stable. He was apprenticed to Aubrey Brabazon, was three years as head man to Paddy Mullins and began training successfully in Ireland in 1983.
John Upson brought him to Britain to set up his racing stables in Northants, then fol- lowed two years training in his own right in Banbury and four in Lambourn. He won with his first two runners in England, though one was disqualified on a technicality, and he has won good races at Cheltenham and elsewhere with horses like Glenrue and Over The Road. But in Lamboum the virus struck the stable, he had two nightmare seasons and temporarily ceased training before he answered Andrew Wates's adver- tisement and came to Beare Green.
There are some nice prospects now in the yard like the progressive chase Splen- did Thyne. The trainer reckons that Even Flow, who missed two seasons partly because he cannot run on firm ground, has lots of talent. Calm Down has won his novice chase and will be a decent horse next season, and the yard has an interesting recruit from the flat in Naked Welcome, who has been placed to Singspiel and Pil- sudski and who waits for a jumping debut next season after a bout of leg trouble.
Can Terry Casey pull off another big one with Rough Quest? There must be doubts whether, at 12, he has quite the same fin- ishing kick. But either at Cheltenham or Aintree if the each-way odds are appealing and I see Rough Quest with a spring in his step jostling the other runners on the way to the start, I shall be tempted to invest a little of the holiday money. He is, after all, a spring horse.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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