The turf
Loyalty rewarded
Robin Oakley
You take road directions from an Irishman with caution. I met a chap this week who had been motoring around the Emerald Isle. He was puzzled enough at one stage to pass a notice which read: 'If You can't read this the road is under water'. He was even more perplexed by one a little later. It read simply: 'End of roundabout'. Certainly, after Saturday, I will think twice before taking tips from Irish jockeys.
In his column for the Daily Telegraph that day Tony McCoy revealed that in the first at Kempton Park Mick Fitzgerald had begged off riding Simon Dow's Chiefs Song, the ride he had himself then acquired, in order to ride Amanda Perrett's Amancio in the same race. The champion Jockey then dismissed his own chances for the day, with the possible exception of The Extra Man in the last. On the course Chiefs Song, burdened with that double lack of faith, drifted out to 7-2. But out of sheer loyalty, for Simon Dow is a friend and Chiefs Song has acquired the same status with what he has won me over the years, I stuck with Chiefs Song.
For once loyalty was rewarded. McCoy rode a peach of a race. He sensed the biggest threat was likely to be the classy Desert Mountain, who had been off the track for a season, and he knew that Chiefs Song can manage more than two miles. So he set off in front and gradually turned the screw. Coming into the straight he had beaten them all off except Desert Mountain, who for a furlong loomed omi- nously at Chiefs Song's shoulder, looking ready to go and win his race. But suddenly it was all over. Desert Mountain's ring rustiness told and he threw in the towel. McCoy took Chiefs Song over the last with victory assured and was cheered all the way to the line by an appreciative crowd. Such a reception was assured because the brave ten-year-old was winning at the same meet- ing for an astonishing fifth time in a row, and the Kempton executive, showing a nice touch, had named the race The Chiefs Song Handicap Chase.
Afterwards his elated trainer declared, `If I had five more in the stable like him, I'd get rid of the rest.' The great thing about Chiefs Song, he said, is that through eight seasons of racing he has stayed sound. 'I don't suppose he's ever missed a day.' The horse began his two-year-old career with Barry Hills and was then bought by Mrs Anne Devine for Simon's Epsom yard. Over hurdles and jumps since then he has won every season. He is on tar- get to collect over £200,000 in his career, which is a remarkable record for a handi- cap chaser. The horse loves it at Kempton but consistently runs well at Sandown too. He owed plenty last Saturday to A.P. McCoy. As Simon said, 'He needs an aggressive, take-it-to-him ride these days.' But Simon Dow deserves plenty of credit, too, for keeping him sound and for keeping him sweet.
The feature race of the day, the Charis- ma Gold Cup, always marks for me the beginning of the serious jumping season. This year it brought a welcome success for that under-valued rider Tom Jenks on Tom George's Tremallt. Tom George reckoned that Tremallt would improve a good bit for the run, saying, 'There's certainly more to come.' On a good galloping flat track with cut in the ground he looks likely to win again. Another who went into the note- book was Robert Alner's Spring Grove. A proper jumping sort ridden by a proper jumping jockey in Andrew Thornton, he came away from his field in the end to win the novice chase like a good thing. I had been about to back him until hearing from a friend that Alner had told him he was looking for no more than a clear round. Trainers, it seems, are no better at the tip- ping game than jockeys, and A.P. McCoy's tipping abilities once more stood in con- trast to his riding qualities in the Greene King hurdle. It took him a long time to get the old fellow going but he swooped to win in a tight finish on the ten-year-old Master Beveled. 'He tends to take a bit of roust- ing,' said trainer David Evans afterwards, and nobody rousts them better than McCoy. But McCoy's day did not end on a happy note, either as tipster or rider.
The Extra Man, on whom he had expect- ed to win, headed a well strung-out field on the first circuit with the Richard Phillips- trained Mini Moo Min, ridden by Richard Johnson, McCoy's great rival this season, struggling 15 lengths behind the rest of the field. Round the bend out of the back straight the others began to hit the wall and Johnson started creeping closer. In the fin- ishing straight, having closed down a gap of at least 25 lengths, he swept up to The Extra Man and passed him after the last. Despite all his urgings McCoy could not counter Mini Moo Min's finishing flurry. It must be one of the most extraordinary recoveries we will see all season. 'Can I have my heart back out of my throat please, Richard,' said one of the owners as the grinning Johnson dismounted. The rider confessed that he had not always believed he would be able to reel them in. But as he came alongside the fancied Red Ark in the back straight and found him cooked he realised the others had over- done the early pace and set out after them. McCoy, meanwhile, had a face as grim and grey as the rain clouds which had overhung the afternoon's sport. But that's racing.
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