Matters of trust
Robin Oakley T t is before 7 a.m. in the office at Lambourn's Kingsdown Stables. Trainer Jamie Osborne is on his own but brews fresh coffee from a cafetiere, served in matching mugs. Jamie, who always had style as well as courage in the saddle, does things properly as a trainer, too.
The huge flat cap and toothy grin give him the air of a charming ragamuffin who will never grow up. When he began in 2000 he was just another former jump jockey trying his hand at training. And since he had been a class act in the saddle, riding five winners at one Cheltenham Festival, many doubted if he would succeed. Isn't it only average to middling jockeys who make it as top trainers, like Philip Hobbs and Paul Nicholls?
Two winners at Royal Ascot this year, the two-year-old Drawnfromthepast and the Queen Alexandra Stakes winner Enjoy the Moment, plus the Glorious Goodwood victory of Docofthebay have been a reminder that Jamie Osborne, who opted to train Flat horses rather than jumpers, has for some time been supping at the top table. The first Royal Ascot winner came with Irony in 2001, his first Group One when Milk it Mick won the Dewhurst.
Few in the racing world are as much fun to spend a few hours with as Jamie. But for all the ready laughter he is a thinking trainer, well aware of Sir Mark Prescott's observation that horses are born with an insane urge to destroy themselves and that it is a trainer's main purpose to delay that outcome for as long as possible.
One among a group who had successfully bid in a charity auction for a morning on Jamie's gallops inquired why his horses were not wearing bandages on their legs like those of another string we passed. 'I don't bandage,' said Jamie. 'Bandaging is a considerable skill and done badly it can cause more problems than it solves. I have, too, seen some horrendous accidents caused by horses stepping on bandages which have come loose.'
His, he says, is a low-risk regime. He advances his horses only in small steps. 'Every time you do anything with a horse you take a risk.' As he coasts in his 4 X 4 alongside the cantering string the talking may continue but the eyes miss nothing. The Osborne string is slowed to a trot before the end of the gallop because he likes to compare each horse with how it looked in the indoor school before we set out.
All fast work is 'clocked' but he does not often have a jockey down to try out a mount before a big race ride. 'They're testing them for themselves. Horses can get bottomed out that way.' And he acknowledges that trainers too can push too hard. 'Often, the last gallop is for the trainer's benefit but you can be taking the edge off them.'
Partly because of his own riding experience he rarely gives a jockey a detailed game plan before a race. 'The key is how fast a pace they go. You've got to employ people you trust to judge that and then rely on the jockey's instinct. I always felt there was a direct correlation with a trainer's success. The less successful they were, the more they wanted to tie you down to orders.'
The racing practicalities you would expect from someone who has spent his working life among the best in the game but what is striking is the business edge of the Osborne operation. Jamie acknowledges he could be higher up the league table, training more winners. But he races to sell as well as to win.
One Royal Applause filly he purchased, Ticker Tape, helped frame his business model. Jamie bought her for 20,000 guineas and because she was small took a long time finding an owner. Eventually Chris Deuters took her on. 'We won £50,000 or £60,000 with her and then sold her for £100,000 and I thought, "Good little business". She then went to America, won two Group Ones and collected over $3 million When I had finished looking for which tree to hang myself from I learnt the lesson and started going to California. Now the business has succeeded because of the trade.'
Jamie trains for people who enjoy their racing but who understand, given the pathetic level of prize money in Britain, the need to balance the books at the end of the day by selling on. 'There is a premium on these horses once they've proved they can gallop.' And with California now switching from racing on dirt to racing on Polytrackstyle tracks the market there is expanding. 'We actually get people inquiring now, "Have you got something with form at Wolverhampton?"' The downside is that you are always gambling: 'No ability, no trade.' And inevitably you are selling your best, horses which, kept in the yard, might well have added to the trainer's winning totals.
Jamie fears for racing's future. It is too dependent, he reckons, on the willingness of a few rich people to go on providing the raw material which keeps the bookies in business. And he has one idea which might help to boost prize money.
For every race which currently requires an entry fee of, say, £50 to £100, why not require an extra £500 to £1,000 when the horse is declared to run. Put that, without deductions, in the pot for the race and suddenly a £1,500 prize is swelling to £10,000 or so, a sufficient reward to pay a large chunk of a horse's training fees for the year. Most owners are gamblers to a lesser or greater degree so why not involve them all in a side bet which leaves the winner with a prize worth winning?
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