The turf
Lingfield's crucial role Robin Oakley When they first started racing on the all-weather sand track at Lingfield Park, the attendances were so sparse that, instead of announcing jockey changes to the crowd, officials used to go into the weighing room and announce crowd changes to the jockeys. Nowadays, it is no exaggeration to say that Lingfield is crucial to the racing scene. With 71 meetings in a year on the all-weather and turf tracks combined, it is the busiest course in the country. They lost only one of their 46 meetings in the November-March all- weather 'season', and the distribution of £1.2 million in prize money in that period has helped to boost Lingfield's 'gallops cred', drawing the patronage of top trainers like Richard Hannon, John Dunlop, Jack Berry and Peter Chapple-Hyam.
Richard Hannon, there to saddle five runners last Friday, drew a blank, but his Emilyjill will be worth supporting in a simi- lar race after a promising run in the 6f sell- er, her first for the Marlborough trainer since changing stables.
You don't, on the whole, go to Lingfield expecting the equine equivalent of caviar. It is more like the jolly neighbourhood Ital- ian where the pasta has an extra zest and you don't tell too many friends for fear of not being able to get a table the next time. Its friendly atmosphere was epitomised on Friday by the 'Jim Wall is 70' Handicap, sponsored by four younger members of Mr Wall's family. Never mind that none of the first three home seemed overly keen on seeing it through to the line, a good time was had by all, and notably jockey Ray Cochrane, who was riding his first winner since returning from injury. Ten furlongs seems to be about Philistar's trip.
Trainer Sir Mark Prescott, that most astute placer of horses, has a good record at Lingfield and his three-year-old filly Frog won nicely over lm 3f. Indeed, stable jockey George Duffield was looking over his shoulder so often in the straight you felt he might have become an urgent case of agoraphobia, seeking urgently for compa- ny, One of the features of this season has been the pleasure the entire racing com- munity has taken in the success of Prescott and his ever-faithful stable jockey after their big race Ascot win with Pivotal and their near success with Last Second. They have shown what they can do with moder- ate horses. Now at last they have the chance to confirm it with some good ones too.
George Duffield told me that Last Sec- ond is likely to go next in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood. Pivotal, he said, blew for 35 minutes after his failed effort in the July Cup at Newmarket. 'That's not the horse that won the King's Stand at Ascot. That race ran the bottom out of him, tak- ing on the older horses, and he'll be given an easier time for a while.' Earlier, he had ridden Charles Cyzer's Time for Tea in a six-furlong fillies handicap. The Cyzer filly, available in the ring at 'cock and hen' (10- 1) had been the subject of a significant press room punt, but did not appear to show much interest in earning the undying gratitude (well, until the next day's paper anyway) of the expectant scribes, never going well and never even looking like fig- uring in the finish. George Duffield said she had never been balanced, finding the Pace too sharp. She needed softer ground, he reckoned, and at least a furlong more. There is no flannel with George Duffield. Now knocking 50, he has been in the same yard since 1962, having started there with Sir Mark's predecessor, Jack Waugh. He has ridden winners of the Oaks and St Leger and he took the Eclipse with Environment Friend, a horse on which he thought he would win the Derby after the Mecca Dante but who failed inexplicably on his big day. The changes in his time, he says, have been more in racecourse disci- Pline and social style thari in the ability of the riders. 'The technology has improved, You've got cameras coming out of your ears these days.' But it's not as Edwardian. 'You wouldn't have dared to come to the races in jeans when I started as the lads do today. It was a suit and a tie and a trilby hat if you didn't want to be in serious trouble.'
Despite the wise way he talks a race and all the experience he's gained in the Prescott years, George Duffield has not the slightest intention of taking up training when his riding days are done: 'I've never even contemplated it for one second.' But then since his wife Gill trains Arabs for Sheikh Hamdan perhaps he will not have to.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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