The turf
A perfect gent
Robin Oakley
The Racing Post said ungenerously, `3,500 (Irish) gns foal from a stable hardly associated with first-time out winners.' `This first outing will probably be required,' noted the racecard, tersely, if accurately. It was indeed intended purely as an educa- tional experience, a first trip to the race- course for our son of Magical Strike (USA) out of Palace Blue (IRE), to learn what racing was all about.
Six-furlong sprints will not be Rhap- sody's future. His canny trainer Andy Tur- nell, who had him looking a picture, told us he will almost certainly need further. He was the biggest horse in the parade ring at Kempton and jump jockeys who visit the stable are already looking at his impressive frame and inquiring about the chances of getting a leg up on him over timber in a couple of years. But he did everything right. Bright of eye, ears pricked, he strolled around the ring with athletic digni- ty, led by conditional jockey Colin Rae. When he first arrived in the stable Rhap- sody had been somewhat coltish, his mind rather less on the job of getting fit than on mounting anything from passing lasses to the stable door to the visiting postman. But whether it has been his working regime or whether he had caught the whispers about a possible visit to the vet to deprive him of his wedding tackle, he has turned into the perfect gent. At Kempton's Irish Night he was not distracted in the slightest by the barbecue smoke, the strong whiff of Guin- ness on the breeze nor the ghetto-blasting efforts of the energetic Irish band. But what about the serious part of the evening? He went down comfortably to the Start, entered the stalls without a fuss and set out, more or less, with the others under the coaxing hands of Nicky Adams, John Reid having initially decided he couldn't make it from York to Kempton, only to turn up riding the favourite in Rhapsody's race. All we cared about was that our horse returned safely from this first experience. And after the first furlong it looked as though that would be all there was to care about, with Rhapsody's yellow jacket, striped sleeves and blue epaulets showing clearly last of the 24 runners.
But as the charge up the centre of the Kempton track went on he began to realise why he was at the races. After two furlongs he began picking off the stragglers. And with his owners on collective tiptoe, no mean achievement in some of our cases, suddenly in the last furlong and a half he was steaming through the pack, having engaged another gear to do all his best work at the business end of the race.
`Never near to challenge' said the next day's Sporting Life, which had taken an unac- countable interest in the first eight home. But for 15 proud owners and the delighted trainer a ninth place, that could have been improved upon, had his jockey been harder on him, was the ideal introduction. 'Just what I had hoped for, but you never know until you get them onto a racecourse', said Andy Turnell, as Rhapsody, the treacly horse sweat rolling off his neck on the clam- my evening, paraded comfortably before us with the air of a child who'd come home a plucky fourth in the egg-and-spoon race on parents-day. He had enjoyed it too. When I spoke to Andy the next day, Rhapsody in Blue had dived into his dinner with relish and tucked away his breakfast with no both- er. 'I couldn't be happier with his attitude.' Trainer Turnell, a brave jockey who suc- ceeded a famous father in the training game, is better known for his string of suc- cesses over obstacles, including a Grand National and a Hennessy Gold Cup, but he has been deliberately increasing his flat rac- ing interests in recent years. The flat win- ners have been increasing steadily and he and partner Lisa Venables have a plan for those with an interest in becoming owners. Pay £13,000 up front to their Blenheim Thoroughbreds and you get a one-tenth share in three well-bred two-year-olds, a grey colt by Distinctly North out of Sabev, a chestnut gelding by Archway out of Dream Academy and a grey filly by Thatching out of All Ashore. Your pay- ment secures you a one-tenth share in the three and covers all training, transport, rac- ing and vets' expenses until the end of their three-year-old career. It is an ingenious scheme and may well be the pattern of things to come. Good luck to those who choose that particular gamble. And to those of us still plugging on with the instal- ment plans too. There is nothing like the feeling of watching your horse parade around that ring.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC
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