The turf
Modern cavalier
Robin Oakley
The jockeys past and present out on the town for the Lesters jockeys' awards the other night, the dapper Joe Mercer, the elegant Yves Saint Martin, the impeccable Lester Piggott, reminded me of those white tie-and-tails pre-war cavaliers whose mem- oirs I used to devour. After a Newmarket double they would round the day off with a nightclub, an actress or two on their arm, before the inevitable aftermath in the Jermyn Street Turkish baths.
Jack Leach chronicled it so well in an autobiography whose title, for me, will never be bettered: Sods I Have Cut on the Turf. He used to sweat off an extra three- quarters of a pound so that he could have a sandwich and a glass of champagne before racing. That, he said, used to make him feel a new man. And if the scales showed an ounce or two still to spare, the new man got a glass of champagne too.
One of the best Leach stories told of the inexperienced owner who bought a horse out of a seller and asked a racing veteran what he should do next. 'Find the lad who brought him to the races, slip him a few quid and ask him what he knows,' was the advice. The lad was found. The palm greased. And the response was: 'Well, guy, here's two things about this horse. The first is that if you turn it out in a field it takes a hell of a lot of catching.'
Fine, thought the owner. No real prob- lem. He would be paying others to do any catching. So what was the second thing? `Ah', said the lad: 'When you have caught it, it's no bloody good.'
Which takes us naturally to the start of the flat, as another few hundred new own- ers set out dreaming that their heart's delight is going to waltz them through the winner's enclosure at Newmarket, York and Ascot, while their nervous trainers are wondering if they are going to get the mul- ish finicky-feeding beast onto a racecourse at all, let alone win a race with it.
So who are going to be the stars of this flat season? Will Henry Cecil be stung into striving for extra success to show that he can do very nicely thank you — without the 40 horses which Sheikh Mohammed with- drew from his care when they clashed last year over the correct place in proceedings for Mrs Cecil's opinion?
Will John Dunlop, who won the trainers' title last year without training a classic win- ner, take one of the leading prizes this year? Is there another little-raced Lamm- tarra waiting out there to surprise us all?
The Sheikh Mohammed-Henry Cecil sit- uation will add a little space to the first of this year's fillies' Classics. Favourite for the 1,000 Guineas is the Cecil-trained Bosra Sham. And at the time of writing, the sec- ond favourite is the David Loder-trained Blue Duster, owned by Sheikh Moham- med.
A painstaking analysis in the useful Orchard's selections for the flat 1996 weighs the pros and cons of Blue Duster being able to stay eight furlongs in the highest class. It finds eight pros and only six cons. But then it quotes Frankie Dettori as saying that the 5-1 then available for Blue Duster in the Guineas was the best ante-post value likely to be available all Mind if I borrow your pen?' season. And, as we all know, jockeys are the worst tipsters of the lot. I go for Bosra Sham on the basis of her authoritative vic- tory in the Group One Fillies mile at Ascot last autumn.
Others in my book for this flat season include Sheikh Mohammed's Helcion with Saeed bin Suroor — one of the lucky ani- mals who has been soaking up the Dubai sun while others have shivered through our miserable winter. He won his only race at Newmarket last September and could be in the highest class.
Some have been taking the Derby price already for John Gosden's Sacho, bred on similar lines to last year's Oaks winner Moonshell by Sadler's Wells out of Oh So Sharp. Another Sheikh Mohammed horse, he showed plenty of finishing speed on his racecourse debut.
John Dunlop himself rates his three- year-old Beauchamp King, a late foal who progressed every time he ran last season and who has wintered well. The winner of last year's Racing Post Trophy, he too could be anything. And I note that several good judges have picked out Roger Charl- ton's Cap Juluca as a horse to follow this season. After winning five races last year including the Cambridgeshire, he is expected to make the grade in Listed races this year.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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