The turf
Rules are rules but . . .
Robin Oakley
Before he received the irresistible call from Sheikh Mohammed to return to Britain and handle some of his best horses, John Gosden had learned and plied his trade in the United States. One of his men- tors there, the redoubtable D. Wayne Lukas, declared, 'I taught him all he knows — but not all I know.' Until this year's St Leger, even Gosden himself must have been wondering if there was some vital ele- ment missing, for, somehow, big race suc- cess had continued to elude him in the eight years that he has been back in New- market. He has suffered the frustration of saddling a Derby second, third and fourth, but never the winner of that or any other British Classic.
He had trained an Irish St Leger winner, but that was not enough to stop the whis- pers that something more should be expected of a man with the kind of horse power in the yard which he has enjoyed. Now at last, with the victory of the quirky Shantou in the world's oldest Classic race, he has one in the bag to hush them, in a season in which he has been particularly unlucky, with several of his best horses sidelined by injury. The race itself was a real thriller which will have given new life to what has become something of a Cinderella Classic. The Derby second and third fought a formidable battle, with Frankie Dettori getting Shantou up by a neck from Pat Eddery, on Dushyan- tor, in the final strides after both had ridden superbly judged races. But the aftermath has again caused ructions. Driving home two brave, willing horses (not quite Shan- tou's reputation before the race), the two jockeys both gave their mounts more than ten smacks with the whip. So just as in the finish of this year's 2,000 Guineas, when the first three riders home, including Dettori, were then penalised by the stewards for excessive use, the riders were both given two-day bans for using the whip with unrea- sonable frequency.
The two riders are ultimate profession- als, one the champion jockey, the other ten times the champion before him, and rules are rules. You cannot blame the stewards for implementing them. But, as Eddery says, it surely cannot go on like this. Not only does the intensity of the occasion make it likely that every time there is a close finish to a Classic all the jockeys involved are going to be collecting whip bans. It ensures, too, that on the occasions when the sport receives maximum atten- tion from the media and non-regular race- goers, the question of potential cruelty becomes the major focus.
What adds intensity from the jockeys' point of view is the 'totting up' procedure which nowadays applies. After you have received 12 days'-worth of bans for similar offences any further transgression triggers a reference to the Jockey Club's Disci- plinary Committee, with an automatic extra 14-day ban to follow. Frankie Dettori is now on the 12-day mark, Pat Eddery on ten and both will have to take extra care on future mounts, a fact which could be seen as a penalty on the trainers and owners who put them up from now on this season.
Had Dushyantor won the Leger it would probably have clinched this season's train- ers title for his handler Henry Cecil, whose eagerness to prove himself the best has been rekindled by Sheikh Mohammed's removal of his horses from the Cecil yard after their dispute last year. Currently he leads the Sheikh's Godolphion trainer Saeed bin Suroor by just a few thousand pounds in stakes won. But if Cecil is deter- mined to prove a point then so too, it seems, in a perfectly amiable way, is Pat Eddery, the man who stands to lose the most from Cecil's engagement of the younger Kieren Fallon as Cecil's stable jockey next year. After Frankie Dettori's sidelining for part of this season with a broken elbow, Eddery is not just running clear at the top of the jockeys' championship table, he is riding like a man inspired. His Haydock five-timer a week ago included a win on the two-year-old Besiege which few jockeys would have attempted let alone achieved.
He was hard at work three furlongs out and as the others set sail for home it looked all over. But gradually Eddely got him going and made up the leeway, keeping enough in hand at the end to then fend off a new challenge from Dettori on Sandstone and win by a head. If that race hasn't taken too much out of him, Besiege, an early quote for next year's Derby, should be worth fol- lowing now he's learned the game.
As well as Double Trigger's emotional comeback and Shantou's St Leger success, Doncaster gave us the winter's 'talking horse' in the shape of John Dunlop's Bah- hare, who broke the 29-year-old record in the Laurent Perrier Champagne Stakes and has become the favourite for next year's 2,000 Guineas. Cynics will point out that Aalhaarth, who is still to win this season, won the same race last year and went through the winter with the same sort of reputation. But Willie Carson says the dif- ference is that Aalhaarth was the complete horse at two whereas Bahhare is still a baby, yet to develop. The question is, is he good enough to persuade grandfather Willie to stay on for one more year in the saddle? Veteran American trainer Jim Ryan once put it, 'No man ever committed suicide or thought of retiring when he had a good two-year-old in his barn.' I suspect that goes for jockeys as well as trainers.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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