Out of sync
Robin Oakley
Sometimes life just doesn't go your way. On a plane to Glasgow the other day I cautioned Mrs Oakley, 'Watch out for that instant-milk container. The last time I opened one on a plane it went all over my tie.' Aiming the tear-off strip carefully away from me, I watched the milk spurt malevolently out of the container, splash on to the seat-back in front of me and cascade gently back, this time over my trousers. On the return journey to London I resolved to do without refreshment — but got it secondhand anyway as the lady in the row in front came on to the flight with a large takeaway coffee and stumbled just enough to pour the top few inches down the front of my shirt,
On form like that I should have had the sense to keep my betting hand in my pocket at Sandown on Saturday. Instead it was a bit like Eric Morecambe's piano-playing, which he once defended to Andre Previn by declaring, 'Look, sunshine, I'm playing the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order,' With the jockeys' championship on fire between Kieren Fallon, Frankie Dettori, Seb Sanders and Darryl] Holland (and Sanders away that day at Chester). I decided to concentrate on the mounts of the other three wherever the form book offered encouragement. So, in the first two races, I backed Darryll's mounts. Silk Fan and Propinquity, only for Frankie Dettori to triumph in both. In the third I switched to Dettori. with a saver on Tom Keddy's course specialist Silvaline. Silvaline finished a gutsy second, but the winner was the unconsidered Telemachus, a 16-1 shot ridden by Michael Fenton. In the fourth I was tempted by Fallon's mount Smokin Beau, but plumped for one of my old favourites, Mikael Magnusson's Mutawaqed. Mutawaqed went down in a short-head photo finish, beaten by Smokin Beau, of course.
Finding it hard to choose between the mounts of the top three in the fifth, this time I went for Kieren on Rydal, only for Frankie Dettori to score again on Out After Dark with Darryll second on Sky Harbour. Pausing only long enough for a large blonde deep into the Racing Post to spill her pint of lager over my rather dashing new pair of trousers (Mrs Oakley of course blamed me for the damage, but I was on soft drinks to help the concentration), I went for Frankie in the sixth. You don't often see him on Mick Channon's horses. But here it was another long-priced victory for Michael Fenton on Ian Wood's I'm Spartacus, this time at 20-1.
All the racecourse dogs were barking for Kieren Fallon's mount Go Supersonic, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, in the last and so I played safe, reckoning that Frankie Dettori had used up his luck by then. Frankie. of course, completed a four-timer. with a 9-1 victory on Porthcawl for Amanda Perrett, and Kieren came nowhere. So the Top Three had scored five victories between them, and I hadn't backed a single one. I should have remembered Napoleon's old adage about no plan surviving contact with the enemy. Indeed, the day's only consolation came when I backed into another motorist and he got out of his car for a quick inspection. It wasn't much of a bump, hut it was my fault and I was expecting verbal, if not physical, abuse. Instead he grinned and said, 'Nice car you've got there.' So it was, several years ago.
The day, though, did provide some positive items for the notebook. If I had been asked to name an up-and-coming young trainer at the start of the season sure to provide a regular stream of winners, it would have been James Given. Instead, he is down below 50th place in the table, with only 20 victories. Success for Telemachus was a sign that the stable is back to form, and there should be a good few more winners where that one came from. 'They've just started to come right,' said the Gainsborough trainer, who explained that Telemachus does not wear blinkers, sometimes called the rogues' badge, because he needs them in a finish. It is simply to get him involved early on. 'He has never shirked the issue at the end of a race.' They will be looking for another similar contest for him before too long, and Telemachus, who got a bump at Haydock and ran too freely at Goodwood the first time they fitted the blinkers, could be worth watching. Also, don't ignore Silvaline any time he runs at Sandown. He won the William Hill Handicap last year and finished second this time. Proud owner Andrew Duffield said that the horse, who cost only 8,000 guineas, has now run three times at the Esher course and won twice there, as well as finishing second. He was quick to play tribute to trainer Tom Keddy, who has only 13 horses in his Newmarket yard and who will be getting an extra one from him after the October sales. 'Make it two,' said the trainer with a grin, after the owner had insisted what a good job Tom Keddy had done considering that when they acquired Silvaline he was alleged to be 'half-dead and unrideable'.
Make a note, too, of Frankie Dettori's second winner Windsor Knot, who took the 7f Iveco Solario Stakes from a good field after leading virtually all the way. John Gosden's big, strong Pivotal colt was quoted at 25-1 for the 2,000 Guineas after the race. Gosden's assistant George Foster said that they were happy for Frankie to
jump out and let Windsor Knot use his stride as they knew he would stay and did not want to let the race develop into a sprint. He looks to have real class.
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