The turf
Taken to the cleaners
Robin Oakley
The Captain of the French Rugby side Brive said after their 47-11 drubbing by the touring Auckland side at the weekend that it had been like spending the after- noon in a washing-machine. After Satur- day at Kempton I knew I had been through the wringer. But there is nothing irretrievable about money lost in good company.
Sitting at the Racing Post lunch between two kindly gentlemen who make their liv- ing from accommodating other people's bets, I was told by one of them that his firm had taken a lot of money for David Nicholson's L'Opera, making his hurdling debut later in the afternoon. The other informed me that his horse, running that day at Musselburgh, had been laid out for the race and was certain to win. I invested heavily. And on the screens I watched it run a promising race, finishing nine lengths behind an even more promising horse whose owner hadn't, alas, been lunching with us. Since that animal had single hand- edly, or perhaps it should be four-leggedly, blown my stake money for the day, I resolved to listen to no more advice. And later watched L'Opera come home nicely at 7-2 unburdened by any wager from me.
Some of our 'Eleven to Follow' have been prospering. The Grey Monk won again last weekend. Cyborgo has prepared for Cheltenham with two impressive victo- ries. And the grey Suny Bay ran away with Haydock's Greenall National Trial on Sat- urday at 7-2. Unfortunately, my earlier plunge had been followed by a vow that I would restrict any further wagers to horses I could see in the flesh. So instead I invest- ed on two more from the Eleven running at Kempton. See More Business, in his first attempt at handicap company, fell at the eleventh and Dextra Dove was pulled up. But if I thought it was not my day then I suspect poor Graham Bradley was feeling it even more. Last season he was ordered to ride the Charlie Brooks stable's number one hope, Black Humour, in the Hennessy and Dean Gallagher got the leg-up on Couldn't Be Better, the eventual winner. This time Brad was riding Couldn't Be Bet- ter in the Haydock National Trial and it was Jamie Osborne who triumphed on the stable's Suny Bay. It could have been worse I suppose. We could both have been on the field being tumble-dried by Auckland.
Racing Post day at Kempton always seems to produce good racing and the fin- ish to the Racing Post Chase was one you would walk over hot coals to see. After a head-to-head battle all the way from the last, Jenny Pitman's Mudahim triumphed in a photofinish over David Nicholson's King Lucifer. Both riders, Rodney Farrant and Richard Johnson, gave their all, as did their courageous mounts. But there has to be a special tribute to Farrant. He was only allowed to ride after being passed by the course doctor, having bruised his ribs and chest in a heavy fall from Flaming Miracle the previous day. You don't have to be a masochist to be a National Hunt jockey but it helps. The scenes in the unsaddling clo- sure were joyous. Welsh owner Salvo Gian- nini, who runs an earth-moving company and is built to match his machines, rushed around kissing everything on two legs or four, including jockey, horse and trainer. Amid his smiles and tears, the earth had clearly moved for him and the In Touch Racing Club. If Mudahim now goes on to win the National I fear Des Lynam will be in for a smacker too if they don't hose down the owner between finishing post and winner's stall.
I wondered, after Mudahim's blazing fin- ish, what David Stait, Jenny Pitman's deputy and husband to be, was going to say if his beloved's eye had fallen upon his comment in that morning's Racing Post that their biggest winner this season was a horse that hasn't quite got that second gear'. He can make it up to Mudahim with peppermints. With Mrs P. it might take rather more diplomacy. Otherwise of course, the day belonged to the all-conquering Nicholson stable, and W Adrian Maguire, who rode a five-timer on the seven-race Kempton card. The likeable Maguire, who once said he became a jock- ey because he was 'too small to be a win- dow cleaner and too big to be a garden gnome', had five winners in a day once before.
But that was on a quiet Monday at Plumpton, not a hotly contested series of races like those on Saturday's Kempton card. He has not had luck with him for a while, missing Cheltenham for the past two years, once with injury and once through a family bereavement. May he get there safe- ly this year. With his confidence running so high and the Nicholson team in such fine fettle, they could have a vintage festival.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
Previous page
