Great judgment
Robin Oakley
Germany, next in the European Union presidency, won’t be trying anything too adventurous. We know that from the Berlin official who cautioned memorably against having too many ambitions: ‘Put too many stones in your rucksack and you will not move an inch.’ British racing fortunately boasts bolder spirits. At Newmarket on Saturday trainer Barry Hills took on what looked like mission impossible with his filly Spinning Queen, and by scoring a remarkable victory in the one-mile Sun Chariot Stakes demonstrated that he remains one of the shrewdest brains in racing.
Earlier in the season there were doubts whether Spinning Queen lasted a mile or could handle soft going. So when her rider Michael Hills took the filly straight into the lead on the soggy ground it looked like he was really overloading her rucksack, especially as she was the outsider in a field of five, including those prolific Group One winning mares Soviet Song and Alexander Goldrun. But the further they went, the more Spinning Queen extended her lead. The filly, who has clearly improved with racing, looked as happy as a seal in a fish farm and the expected challenge from the big guns never materialised. From two out Soviet Song and Alexander Goldrun, tussling for second, were chasing a disappearing tail and at the line Spinning Queen was nine lengths clear.
‘There’s still some artistry in it, isn’t there?’ said a beaming Barry Hills as she returned. ‘But you’ve got to get the script right. We got the script right today because they were all hold-up animals.’ He had reasoned that there would have been no point in letting two horses who had won eight Group Ones between them dictate the pace and then hope to take them from behind. So the plan was to let Spinning World do her own thing and wind it up from the front.
So she did, with son Michael Hills riding a beautifully judged race. And as he came in he confirmed, ‘That was Plan A. All the front-runners had been taken out of the race so I had no option.’ Sometimes we forget the value of distilled experience. Barry could even recall riding a winner on the track back in 1953, for George Colling — at a riding weight of 6st 10lb. As for the others, Oscar Urbina, reunited with Soviet Song for the first time since her three-yearold days, acknowledged they had never been in the contest. Oscar summed it up in four words: ‘The winner? Bloody ’ell’, which resonates even better in his Spanish accent.
I had been impressed enough with Spinning Queen in the paddock to do a reverse forecast including her with my idea of the winner, Alexander Goldrun. Naturally, Soviet Song beat Alexander Goldrun by a neck for second and an exact dividend of £53. For me it did not get any better in the next race, the Cambridgeshire, where my hope, Andy Turnell’s Blue Bajan, also finished second at 25–1 to Formal Decree. There again was a beatific smile to contemplate. Part-owner Jack Ramsden, husband of former trainer Lynda and a man whose account no bookie feels comfortable holding, looked as sleek as a well-groomed cat as the winner came back into the paddock. You could be sure it was not just because son-in-law Jamie Spencer had ridden the four-length winner, who looked a Group horse in the making and will clearly stay further than the 1m 1f of the Cambridgeshire.
The unlucky man was Dean McKeown, down to ride Formal Decree until Cesare was pulled out by James Fanshawe and the champion jockey became available. As Jack Ramsden said, ‘Of course, Dean would have won it, too. I could probably have won on him myself. But the ride was only offered to Dean on the basis that if Jamie became available he would ride and we had heard Mr Fanshawe’s horse might come out.’ Few ears are glued more closely to the grapevine. At least Jamie Spencer was planning to do the sporting thing and send the jocked-off McKeown a suitable present.
In their training days the Ramsdens, who re-retired last year and who had had Formal Decree in their yard, had never sent out a Cambridgeshire winner although they did have horses placed in the race. They were quick to pay tribute to Alan Swinbank for doing a fantastic job with him. Watch for the gelding at the Dubai Spring Carnival, and try to get on before the connections if he goes.
The hard-luck story of the day, though, was that of the Norwegian trainer Roy Kvisla, nowadays based in Lambourn. Saturday winners at big meetings are what a new kid on the block needs more than daily bread and his Puggy was beaten by only a short head in the Listed race for fillies. She showed good pace, despite meeting some interference and only lost it on the nod in the last few yards.
Roy, an amiable former jump jockey who won the Swedish and Norwegian Grand Nationals, was champion trainer at the Taby track in Stockholm, with Group and Listed among his 136 winners. When his principal owner decided to have his horses trained outside Sweden, Kvisla rented Brian Meehan’s old yard and set up this season in Lambourn. It has proved, he admits, a whole new snowball game. He has been adjusting steadily to training horses on the Lambourn gradients. The 13 horses he brought over with him from Sweden have been finding it hard to win from their handicap marks, and Puggy’s success in her maiden is his only victory so far. But that could be about to change. His two-yearolds have been getting in the frame and it will be worth watching the progress of his 20-horsepower yard next season.
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