Positive thinking
Robin Oakley
Everybody seemed to have the lawnmower out on my way to Lingfield on Saturday. If the poet Adrian Mitchell’s observation that the suburbs are where sex is a reward for mowing the grass is true, it must have been a jolly night in Surrey. Lingfield itself, with neat gardens and everything in touching distance, is a clubby little course where everybody seems to have time to smile.
‘JD’ Smith was certainly grinning after bringing home James Fanshawe’s Lightning Flash to win the first at 33–1. JD, whose hair curls over his collar Kieren Fallon-style but whose countenance has not yet acquired Kieren’s world-weariness, had made his point. He had been miffed when the Racing Post’s Spotlight suggested that the choice of jockey implied that Lightning Flash was the least favoured of Fanshawe’s trio in the race. Fanshawe praised JD and pointed out that he was the only one of the three riders he employed.
Alan Jarvis was smiling after Spring Goddess had been backed down from 8–1 to 7–2 and had won the Fillies’ Handicap. ‘That’s paid for the summer holidays,’ he declared. Jarvis is still smarting from Frankie Dettori telling him at the last minute to find another jockey to ride the filly in a race at Ascot last year, for which he reckoned her a sure thing, and then having her finish third in the hands of ‘some kid who I didn’t know’. Having resolved in the past to follow when this stable’s money is down, I did so on Spring Goddess and shared Alan’s smiles. But I only got the 7–2. And while Charlie Hills was grinning too, after father Barry’s Primo Way had taken the Tandridge Handicap at 33–1, I was kicking myself. Spotting the first-time blinkers, I had planned a small each-way but was put off by the race programme notes and 30300–0 form figures.
The widest, slowest smile came from John Dunlop after his Persian Lightning had won the Buckhounds Stakes. Albinus and Razkalla, the odds-on favourite, had set a crazy pace; Razkalla could not handle the hill and everything went Persian Lightning’s way.
The shrewd and experienced Dunlop is one of those who has given advice along the way to a young trainer whose yard I visited the other day and whose infectious enthusiasm seems to be bringing results.
Nathan Rossiter’s riding career ended prematurely with a shocking head injury. At 23, he began his training career from Lingfield’s stables, becoming the youngest trainer to saddle a winner since 1956. When he claimed Cast Iron for £2,000, his previous trainer said, ‘I’d have given him to you.’ When he then won with the supposedly intractable animal, his previous handler inquired: ‘Do you walk on water, too?’ Last year Nathan moved to a dual-purpose Somerton, Somerset yard which was beautifully developed in the days when Sheikh Ali Abu Khamsin was a leading owner over jumps. Two winners in particular have helped Nathan to get established. First he produced Sworn In, a £5,000 purchase from Tattersall’s Sales, to take a hot bumper at Newbury at 50–1, paying 90–1 on the Tote, then he followed up with Frontlinefinancier over 1 mile 6 furlongs at Wolverhampton at 33–1.
Backed by his parents, both shrewd business people, Nathan always planned to train, and he used his time riding to absorb all the experience he could. Mentors included Sarah Williams in the West Country, jumping owner/trainer Geoff Hubbard, Charlie Morlock and champion National Hunt owner David Johnson, one of the first in with a six-figure offer for Sworn In and whom Nathan describes as ‘a proper gentleman’. Racing is full of whingers, but Nathan Rossiter keeps telling you instead how good people have been to him — including the auctioneers, who’ve christened him ‘the bargain hunter’, and the Jockey Club.
Nathan has confidence without cockiness. The seller of Springfield Farm wanted the yard to stay in racing and asked him if he could train there. ‘If I’m good enough,’ said Nathan, ‘I can train in a carpark.’ He doesn’t have the horses he is buying trotted up. ‘I don’t see why I should. They aren’t going to run in trotting races.’ Nor does he have his bargain buys checked over by vets. He feels their legs, of course, but goes by the overall aura. ‘When you get the feeling you’ve got to go with it, and I got the big tingle with Sworn In.’ Sworn in, he says, ‘was only 50–1 because he was only 5,000 guineas and was trained by me’. Having ridden the horse at home, he knew how good he felt, and told jockey Jodie Mogford to ride the King Mambo colt like a 5–4 favourite. When he watched the horse lower his neck and power away in the final furlong, how did he feel? ‘He impressed me to the extent of not breathing for a minute or two.’ Nathan treats his horses as athletes and has consulted trainers of human athletes on methods. He won’t let his horses back into racecourse stables after their races, fearing that downtime is when they pick up bugs. He doesn’t like to defeat a horse mentally. And I was intrigued by a prominent notice posted in the airy stables: ‘No shouting. Patience please. Positive thoughts only. Leave other mental shortcomings outside.’ When Sworn In won his race, says Nathan, ‘I had to have a little bit of a cry because it was a huge effort from the horse and from the team. All of my past really came to fruition there because I said wellbred horses will out. They’ll win if they are given the chance, and, sure enough, he won.’ In his yard are several other well-bred horses, like Three Counties (by Danehill), Border Saint (by Selkirk), Salisbury Plain (by Mark of Esteem) and Solipsist (by Grand Lodge). I will watch for them with interest over the next few months. Thinking only positive thoughts.
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