Family affair
Robin Oakley
Dick Francis spent more than ten years gathering material for his biography of Lester Piggott, a man not famed for his spendthrift ways with cash or words. ‘I know you think Sir Ivor was the best of your nine Derby winners,’ Francis said to him one day. ‘Tell me about him.’ Piggott thought for some five minutes and replied, ‘Nice horse.’ So helpful.
The story came to mind when I picked up a racecourse whisper for the Martin Pipetrained Nice Horse in the last at Sandown on Saturday, but when he drifted from 13–2 to 10–1 it seemed best to leave well alone. Fortunately, I sided with another Frenchbred import, Nicky Henderson’s Temoin. He, too, drifted in the market in the face of a gamble on Ian Williams’s Oscatello, ridden by Paul Carberry. But we will hear plenty more of Temoin. I haven’t seen such a cheeky winner in ages. Mick Fitzgerald always had Temoin, a useful stayer on the Flat, well placed behind the leaders. Two out, without the slightest effort, he closed on Oscatello. After the last he drew alongside, eyeballed his toiling rival and then, with Mick Fitzgerald still motionless, eased past him with his ears pricked in the final 50 yards. I doubt if Temoin knew he had had a race. He could be very good.
If you go back far enough in the note book, you can always find a reason for backing a winner you have just missed and it was another Henderson runner, Tysou, who took the feature race, the Victor Chandler Chase. After his last run at Sandown behind Mark Pitman’s Dempsey, Nicky had said that what suited Tysou was a fast-run race. The Mark Pitman-trained Dempsey, carrying my money, and Paul Nicholls’s Hoo La Baloo, also a Sandown winner last time, set off in a private duel at the front which played into the hands of Tysou, who came through in the slog after the last to win by two lengths. Just as well, really, for one set of marital relations. Tysou is owned by Bill Brown, Dempsey by his wife Tracy. Two victories in a row for Dempsey could have led to a certain edge over the breakfast table, although Tracy insists she doesn’t mind which of them wins. Dempsey, mind you, was giving Tysou ten pounds, and on only his second run this season Mark Pitman was well pleased. ‘He’s a proper horse and he’s run a great race. No disgrace.’ There had been high hopes at Seven Barrows, the Henderson yard, for its Royals Darling in the first. When I encountered the horse’s sporting owner Paul Green before the race, he confided that Royals Darling had ‘not only been chasing pigeons but catching them’ at home. At a turnaround of 7lbs they fancied Royals Darling to overcome the Philip Hobbs-trained Detroit City, who had prevailed by 11/2 lengths last time.
In the event, the burly grey Detroit City took the lead two out and forged clear impressively to score by seven lengths.
Trainers with realistic owners are blessed, and Paul Green conceded afterwards, ‘Either we’ve gone back a stone or the other fellow has improved a stone.’ Though I suggested Seven Barrows could maybe do with some faster pigeons, he clearly did not feel his horse had deteriorated, which makes Detroit City an interesting prospect for Cheltenham. Trainer’s wife Sarah Hobbs was not ready to start making comparisons just yet, but Detroit City bears the black and yellow colours of Terry Warner, owner of the much-loved and now sadly deceased Rooster Booster.
Less well known are the black and red quarters of Boris Thompson, Andy Chard and Alan Jackson, whose nine-year-old Alflora gelding Alph, trained by Brett Johnson, ran a promising race to finish second to Royal Shakespeare in the Agfa Hurdle. With his handsome, imposing head and well-arched neck, Alph truly caught the eye in the paddock, though his massive frame remains comparatively unfurnished. He is the sort you cry out to see over fences, but his owners are having the sense not to rush him.
Boris Thompson, an ex-international three-day eventer and showjumper who spent 16 years in the Household Cavalry, where he was a chief instructor, says the horse has never stopped growing. ‘He still needs more time. We’ve had to pump food into him and he shovels it all away, but you don’t mind if you see an end-product.’ For a nine-year-old, Alph, who has wins to his credit already at Fakenham and Plumpton, has remarkably few miles on the clock. He did not see a racecourse until he was seven. But Boris says, ‘His technique over fences is brilliant and I cannot wait for him to go chasing.’ Let us hope Alph rewards his connections’ patience. And since Eddie ‘The Shoe’ Fremantle joined me to quiz Boris about his prospects, I suspect Alph won’t go unbacked when he does come good over fences.
Now a farmer, owner Boris Thompson says that it is the horses which keep his head above water financially. Lucky man. Most of the time they tend to keep mine well submerged. Perhaps I should take a leaf out of Haverfordwest trainer Peter Bowen’s book. Before the Agfa Diamond Chase his Dunbrody Millar won the ‘Bestturned Out’ award, a contest for which his trainer, with his red jerkin and stablestained trousers, would never be a candidate. The relentless galloper then went on to capture the £28,000 prize, but when I told Peter Bowen that the bookies were still offering 50–1 against his chance of winning the Grand National his response was, ‘He could be 500–1 but there still wouldn’t be a penny of my money on him.’ Lester would have approved.
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