Very heaven
Robin Oakley
You could see yourself reflected in the shine on Kieren Fallon's riding boots. The benevolent sun, dare I say it of a lady, streamed through the whiskers on the chin of Chic, the filly he rode to a comfortable win in the Listed Miles and Morrison October Stakes. Frankie Dettori bounced and beamed. Course commentator Mike Vince, his tones as melodious as the church organs he plays on other occasions, struck the perfect balance between information, humour and excitement. And after a period during which I have found it as hard as the Tory party to pick winners, I found a string of them. In short, Ascot's final Flat racing day was very heaven. Normally by now I am chafing for the Flat to end and to see some serious jumping. But I can take more of this global warming.
Ascot's cards ooze quality even on the less fashionable days, always offering good pointers for the future. The opening Group 3 Tom McGee Autumn Stakes went to Richard Hannon's Fantastic View, who earned a 20-1 quote for next year's Derby with a smoothly impressive victory over Menokee. His trainer remains among the shrewdest both on the gallops and around the sale ring, and Fantastic View looks a bargain at 35,000 guineas. Finding good horses is getting harder, he admits, as Coolmore and the Maktoums dominate the sales ring. 'They don't miss much. You've got to whip in between them.' But he manages.
The second race, a five-furlong sprint, saw a duel between that marvellous old stager Halmahera, trained by Kevin Ryan, and Andrew Balding's three-year-old Speed Cop, in the familiar blue and purple colours of Jeff Smith. Speed Cop, who went clear two out, looked to have stolen the race, but Halmahera, once second in the Wokingham to Deep Space in what should have been a dead heat, knows exactly where the finishing line is at Ascot and made one final thrust. The horses were ordered out of the winners' enclosure while the judge was still deliberating over a race you did not want either to lose, and in the end neither did: a dead heat was declared. As Mick Channon. trainer of the third, remarked as the judge's magnifying glass pored over bigger prints, 'Once it's taken this long, the only possible thing is to call a dead heat.' He is right. The technology, I agreed with Stoker Hartington, has become almost too good. Judges should not worry about separating the combatants by a nostril's micro-pore in such close finishes. After all, they double the number who have had a winner, albeit at a lower price.
What added piquancy was that Halmahera, who also knew Ascot well enough to locate the water bucket for a well-deserved slurp while the others were waiting, was a long-time inmate of the Balding yard. Andrew was happy enough to divide Speed Cop's spoils with an old equine chum, saying he was pleased for the horse. It is still a sport and not just a business. Speed Cop's jockey, Martin Dwyer, was happy enough too — Halmahera had been his first Group winner.
In the other five-furlong race we saw an impressive burst from William Haggas's Majestic Missile. His easy victory in the Willmott Dixon Cornwallis Stakes stamped the Royal Applause colt as one destined for top sprint honours next year after his disappointment over six furlongs in the Gimcrack. Don't leave him off your lists.
You ignore Marcus Tregoning's Ascot entries at your peril. He has a 27 per cent winner-to-runner ratio on the course, and he scored with the classy-looking Oriental Warrior in the Mitsubishi Electric Hyperion Stakes. Uncharacteristically, though, Marcus had a grumble afterwards, saying that Oriental Warrior had not picked up as well as he had hoped on the ground. It's all very well taking the jar out of the ground but this over-watering has got to stop. At this time of year it just doesn't dry out the same.' These days it is not just beer barons and whisky magnates who own good racehorses. Oriental Warrior's owner, Hadi Al-Tajir, is apparently the big noise behind Highland Spring water. Good and healthy, but I guess it doesn't have quite the same ring when he tells his trainer, 'Thanks, I'll send you round a case on Monday morning.'
Water is definitely not the favourite tipple of Ben Hanbury, a champagne man if ever I knew one. But the champagne has not been flowing quite so copiously at Diomed Stables, as the country's most elegant trainer (blue socks, suede loafers, yellow handkerchief and polar bears tie on this occasion) has hit a downward curve on the rollercoaster. The Classic-winning Hanbury, who had 80 horses in the glory days, told us after Hamdan al-Maktoum's filly Itnab had won the Group 3 Princess Royal Stakes that he is currently down to ten. 'If it wasn't for Hamdan I wouldn't still be training.'
But when Lady Luck starts letting you down she tends to do so every way. Firstly, the technology was playing up, so there was no Saturday TV interview for the Newmarket trainer to advertise that if the horse is good enough then he is still good enough too. Secondly, the talented Itnab needs some give in the ground, and so her opportunities have been limited this year. Ben would desperately like to keep such a talented performer in training next year. 'This was only the fifth race of her career and she will surely progress.' But his biggest patron has a rigid habit of sending his three-year-old fillies off to the paddocks for breeding duties. Ben has a real job of persuasion to do on Hamdan alMaktoum. I hope he succeeds, and that her exploits next year bring him some more horses. He knows what to do with them and we would miss him if he went.
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