The virtue of patience
Robin Oakley
It isn't always the pulsating finish or the dramatic leap which provide racing's magical moments. Many in the crowd had already left Newbury before the 25-strong field came back home in the Weatherby's Stars of Tomorrow Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race, the seventh race on the card. The sky was already darkening. The cold was seeping up through our boots from the damp grass of the winner's enclosure. But as saddles were unshipped and tucked under jockeys' arms, as owners and trainers gave each other satisfied glances at the promise shown by first-time runners and as the steam rose from heaving flanks you felt as though you were part of the tableau in an Alfred Munnings picture.
I always stay on for the bumpers when I can, largely to watch for the potential of horses which are entering a new phase in their education on the racecourse and which are responsive enough to their lessons to run on at the end through the pack of tiring animals. I was admittedly sharing the cheeriness of the Noel Chance party as they celebrated the success in the race of No Collusion. Every stable dog in Lambourn had been barking this one for as long as I could remember. The Buckskin gelding, owned by Looks Like Trouble's owner, Tim Collins, was, as Noel admitted, a real talking horse before he had ever done anything on the racecourse. Everybody seemed to know of his potential, and when I saw Mary Chance wearing the fine black hat she'd worn to celebrate Looks Like Trouble's Gold Cup victory, I doubled my bet. With Noel's record in such races I could not believe No Collusion was allowed to start at 7-2 and it was another example that he possesses the prime quality of a top trainer: patience.
No Collusion had been scheduled to make his debut in the same race a year before. But it was lost to foot and mouth or the weather, and when the opportunities came round Noel reckoned from his homework that No Collusion had gone over the top and put him away for the new season. The only question was whether No Collusion, who can be a bit keen at home, could be settled, but Seamus Durack kept him at the very back of the big field and found he switched off beautifully until the buttons were pressed.
Make a note, too, of the Chance yard's other runner in the race Intymcginty, who was also held up at the back by amateur David Crosse and who ran on nicely in the pink and green diamonds of the Let's Get Ready To Rumble syndicate to finish fifth. They should have lots of fun with him. Venetia Williams's Fragrant Rose, a runaway winner on her previous outing, did it the hard way from the front and put up another good performance in third.
Most of the press pack, those whose employers pay for their travel to the races, had gone to Leopardstown to observe the seasonal debut of Istabraq. It was not a classic day's racing that they missed at Newbury in the post-Christmas period but there were some other interesting pointers to future success on a track that always provides some racing of substance.
The ex-bumper Classified brought some consolation to Tony McCoy who had been moaning that he'd gone two whole days without a winner and who had been beaten on an odds-on shot in the first. The champion jockey was pleased with the way the little novice hurdler quickened off a slow pace. Alex Hales, formerly a member of the Lambourn brat pack as assistant to Charlie Mann and Kim Bailey, has made a good start on his own as private trainer to Andrew Cohen, the former owner of Uplands. Like Noel Chance he is a believer in patience and has a yard of 20, many of them nice young Irish horses who will take time to mature. Both owner and trainer were 'quite surprised' by the style of the seven-year-old No Forecast's all-the-way victory in the novices handicap steeplechase. Running for the first time in 406 days, after finishing fourth of seven on his chasing debut at Huntingdon, he went clear and stretched the field, who were never able to peg him back and he triumphed by 12 lengths. Suggesting that a novices chase for horses rated 0-110 hadn't taken much winning, Andrew Cohen said that he bought the horse for a store as a long-term prospect. Sometimes the long term comes sooner than expected, although I doubt whether connections will thank jockey Jason Maguire, Adrian Maguire's nephew, for that winning margin.
I was grateful to him, though, as the winning rider of Tremallt, 20-1 winner of Kempton's Pertemps Asap chase the day after Boxing Day. Keen students of this space might recall that, in plumping for Tom George's Historic (already a winner at 10-1) as one of our Ten to Follow, I noted that the trainer 'should score a victory or two with Tremallt'. Tremallt's winning odds at Kempton were 20-1, although unfortunately I had taken a bookie's price of 16-1 that morning.
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