The turf
Good sports
Robin Oakley
One of my least favourite family mementoes is a honeymoon photograph of a whey-faced Oaldey propped against a palm tree on Italy's Ligurian coast, clearly incapable of doing anything more for Mrs Oakley than facing her reproachful camera lens. In a chapter of disasters which had included our car breaking down on the way to Heathrow, diversion to a different desti- nation airport and the loss of our baggage, the worst was being taken ill on the first full day of wedded bliss. My fever turned out to be a particularly pernicious ear, nose and throat bug which nearly cost me my hearing but for the Italian doctor first sum- moned by our hotel a simpler explanation sufficed. 'Ali, English,' he said, with a visi- ble curl of the lip. 'Too much sun.'
The scorn with which he said it has ran- kled ever since, and it was solace of a kind when poor Mirco Demuro, the talented Italian jockey who rode more than 200 win- ners last season, was forced to beg off his ride on Lord Hartington's Awake in the third at Ascot on Saturday — because he was finding the heat too much. Those Con- tinentals just can't take our summer ...
Demuro had been imported along with stars like Australia's Damien Oliver and Greg Hall, Masayoshi Ebina from Japan and the Singapore champion Saimee (like Pele he uses only one name) for the second Blue Square Shergar Cup, a horse-racing team event in which the Rest of The World riders (mysteriously captained by Frankie Dettori, now as essential to any English racing occasion as ciabatta is to any Isling- ton dinner-party) were pitted against Europe, represented by Pat Eddery, Richard Quinn, Kevin Darley, Michael Kinane and Johnny Murtagh. As well as the individual prizes on offer, two worth I'm anxious to encourage the older devotee.' £100,000 and two worth £50,000, team points were scored for the first five home. There were team leaders too, with race- horse owner Kevin Keegan managing Europe.
I had missed the event at Goodwood last year and I have to admit I was sceptical of the whole concept of trying to make racing appear to be a team sport, especially after the lure of the prize money and free entries had failed to encourage owners to fill the card. Horses may be herd animals but rac- ing to me is all about individual effort. As 1 Corinthians puts it: 'Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?' The writer didn't add anything about points down to fifth place. Before racing I discovered, chatting to Sir Peter O'Sullevan, that he shared my suspi- cion of gimmickry, reckoning that owners were more interested in the big meetings with black-type Group races to enhance the stud values of their stars than in seeking Shergar Cup money. But as the day wore on I became a reluctant convert. The pre- sentation with coloured breeches and pad- dock-team tents helped. So did the cheery enthusiasm of course commentator Mike Vince. I could not believe that it was the first-ever racecourse call for the experi- enced radio presenter and I am sure Sir Peter would have approved his efforts. The sun and a winning wager on John Hills's Dominant Duchess were equally warming. And the competition proved quite superb, every one of the six races resulting in a photo-finish.
I could have become a little narked, I suppose, that my bets on Littlepacepad- docks and Murghem both went down by a head. But I would not have dared to grum- ble. Not after I encountered trainer Mark Johnston grinning cheerfully as the horses came back in after the Shergar Cup Oaks in which his Littlepacepaddocks had been caught on the line by Paul Cole's Sailing (a fine ride by Damien Oliver). 'We were beaten fair and square,' he said. 'She was outsprinted.' And I then saw Mark John- ston again after the thrilling contest for the mile-and-a-half Dubai Internet City Sher- gar Cup Classic in which Murghem went down by the same margin to James Fan- shawe's Arctic Owl. Once again he was grinning with pleasure. He had every right to do so: once again Murghem had showed his battling qualities. But so many people in racing are as sour about coming second as they are about coming last. It is so nice to come across a trainer who is a genuine sportsman.
Fanshawe, the skeleton man with the lean figure of an adolescent, grinned that it had taken them until he was six to find the right distance for Arctic Owl. 'We'd always thought he needed two miles on soft or heavy ground. But he's got speedier and sharper as he has got older.' If only we could all manage that. But it was anyway a marvellous day. The proof of the pudding was that Ascot drew a hefty 19,000 crowd. That was 50 per cent up on the same fix- ture the year before, and a hefty chunk of them stayed on for the final presentations and the bands. Course executives were beaming. So was Peter Savill. Singapore's Saimee told me he would love to come back. And there was comfort too for one racing wife. The weekend before Frankie Dettori had been so knackered by his comeback rides that he'd hoped publicly that Catherine would not be making too many demands on him that night. How was he this time, I asked. 'I've put myself to the test and come through,' he replied with a grin. Good news for Mrs Dettori. Not too much sun for Frankie then.
Robin Oakley is European political editor of CNN.com.
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