The turf
Lesser lights
Robin Oakley
The best advice in racing is: 'Keep yourself in the best company and your horses in the worst.' Sadly I will not have been among the best racing company in the world at Cheltenham's National Hunt Fes- tival, all but concluded by the time these words appear. There are some snags about the day job. But those of us who had to make do with Sandown's Grand Military Gold Cup meeting at the weekend enjoyed excellent fare too at what remains one of the best viewing courses in the country.
The epic battle in which Tony McCoy on Lord Dorcet held off a renewed effort from Graham Bradley on Senor El Betrutti, on ground which did not suit the bold front- running grey, was one I'll be replaying over the toasted crumpets for years to come, even if the ripped-up heap of betting slips on Saturday ensures that it is not exactly `emotion recollected in tranquillity'.
Marching Marquis's victory in the bumper was a reminder that Noel Chance has more than Mr Mulligan on which to build a future. And Guy Harwood clearly has the talented hurdler Amancio back to his best. His victory in the Sunderlands Imperial Cup over Silver Groom was a con- vincing one.
Readers may recall my recommendation earlier this season of Mick Haynes's Kings- fold Pet as a prospect to watch for later in the season. After a couple of promising runs he had duly obliged at Newbury the week before, and connections, though fear- ing the Sandown race had come a touch too soon after that, were hopeful, especial- ly as the overnight downpour had given him the going he likes. But though David Skyrme gave him every chance he could only finish sixth behind Amancio.
Watching the helicopter land, bringing in Richard Dunwoody and the 18-year-old ris- ing star from the David Nicholson yard, Richard Johnson, after they had already had the pick of the rides at Chepstow, I could not help but compare their racing world with that of Kingsfold Pet's jockey. David Skyrme had driven down to Sandown after keeping the cash flow going by riding work that morning for Berkhamp- stead trainer Peter Harris. He'd had to sort things out at home too, where, in order to make a go of things, he runs a seven-strong livery yard and trains four point-to-point- ers.
In seven years, Richard Dunwoody has had 185 rides at Sandown Park alone. Tony McCoy has had 45 rides at the Esher track in little more than a season. David Skynne will be lucky if he collects 100 rides in total over all Britain's tracks this season, and it makes him grateful to smaller trainers like Mick Haynes and Richard Mitchell who don't just give him the bread and butter mounts but keep the faith and do not engage a better-known jockey when they have something stepping up in class.
There are plenty more like David Skyrme. Typically, he left school at 16 and was apprenticed first to Jeremy Tree at Beckhampton. But he soon became too heavy for the flat and transferred to Peter Harris, for whom he rode some decent NH winners, including Acarine in the Charisma Gold Cup at Kempton, before Harris switched his main focus to the flat. As a claimer he was winning 15-18 races a sea- son. But when he started trying to make a go of it as a fully-fledged jockey a fall which put him out of action for four months with a split kidney soon saw him sliding down the lists. It has been a struggle since to obtain enough rides and winners to make a go of it.
He has put together a lifestyle and busi- ness which enables him to keep race-riding and he says, 'It's a good life. I'm not moan- ing. I've got the freedom to do what I want and while I enjoy it I will keep on riding.'
He reckons the top flight riders of today, and he instances Jamie Osborne, Richard Dunwoody and Graham Bradley, are now better than ever, 'more stylish and stronger in a finish. They're fitter too. In Terry Bid- dlecombe's day it was a bottle of Guinness between every race. You couldn't do that today.'
But at just £85 a ride (plus 9 per cent of prize money) it is not, at his level, a richly rewarding game. And when I ask him about the impact of the top jockeys' agents on the livelihood of the rest, the mild David Skyrme is somewhat less so: 'They should be shot. Just look at the amount of rides and winners it now takes to be cham- pion jockey. When John Francome was at the top it took 70 or 80 to be champion.
`That could have been painted by a child of ... er ... oh.' Now they're riding nearly 200 winners to be champion. So the percentage of rides has to go up. And where do they come from? From the struggling jockeys.'
He concedes that agents like Dave Roberts do a brilliant job 'filling their books' for the likes of Adrian Maguire and Norman Williamson. But it is at the expense of the lesser lights making a living from race-riding. There is, however, a down side. Skyrme points out that every jockey can only put so many miles on the clock. If you have more rides, you have more falls. And bodies can only take so much. The implication is that the careers of those at the top may be ever more glorious. But they are likely to be shorter too. In a week that has seen a Cheltenham Festival without such stars as Maguire and Williamson, both sidelined by injuries, he has a point those at the top might consider.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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