Time for dreaming
Robin Oakley
The supermarket availability of asparagus at Christmas and raspberries in February may have ruined the modern generation's sense of the seasons. But for racing folk it still exists: the autumn arrival in the yard of skinny little youngsters, the anxious winter wait to see if last year's twoyear-olds have trained on, the first serious spring trials on the gallops, and then the moment of nemesis on the racecourse itself. The only pity is that the Flat season tries to start itself with a hesitant clearing of breath before the Grand National, when punters are still more interested in the jumpers than in the sleeker, leaner beasts which preoccupy us from now on.
At sunny Newbury on Saturday, the Cheltenham roar for Best Mate was starting to fade into a comfortable memory and many, like me, were finally ready to switch our attention. I had not intended to have a bet. Year after year I promise myself 1 will hold off until the Guineas at the start of May, leaving time for the form to settle. But then wasn't Alkaadhem looking wonderful and hadn't he won the race his side of the track in the Lincoln and hadn't trainer Marcus Tregoning smiled at me particularly cheerily as he walked into the parade ring? I joined the Gadarene rush to install Alkaadhem as favourite and then watched dismayed as Richard Hills failed to get a good early position, sat behind a wall of horses down the straight, weaved about looking for gaps that a burglar's jemmy wouldn't have opened, and finally discovered daylight too late to do anything but improve into fourth. Serves me right.
But racing is all about dreams and even old warhorses can dream. Just imagine the kind of sore heads there would be after the party if Mick Channon wins the 1,000 Guineas and his old mate David Elsworth takes the 2,000. After the two Guineas trials at Newbury, it is not an impossible outcome. Going up to collect his prize for Majestic Desert's victory in the Dubai Duty Free (Fred Darling) Stakes, Mick had his right arm whirling like it did for a score in his footballing days. Afterwards he declared, 'I might be wrong but I just feel she's the one. Everything about her is professional. Every time we've worked her this spring, we've thought, "It can't be right, it's too good."' With full Channon twinkle on display he declared, 'Of course once the chimpanzees get on them anything can happen. But anyone could ride this one. The biggest compliment I could give her is to say that I'm not worried about how the race is run. She can make it all or settle. However the race is run, she sorts herself out.'
Having had most of Fraam's progeny, he reckons to know their potential, but this, said Mick, is from the heart and if Majestic Desert does take the 1,000 Guineas then nobody could deserve it more. He lost the brilliant Bint Allayl to injury on the gallops before her three-year-old career, and two years ago Queen's Logic won the same trial at Newbury after being the champion juvenile filly and then sadly never saw a racecourse again.
David Elsworth has seen visions turned into reality with the likes of Desert Orchid and Persian Punch but, like Mick Channon, he is yet to take his first British Classic on the Flat. He was another to declare. 'It's time for dreaming,' as Salford City, an offseason purchase by Michael Tabor, ran on impressively to take the seven-furlong Greenham Stakes under Johnny Murtagh after looking pretty adolescent early in the race. Salford City will clearly be suited by going further in the Guineas. 'He went through the gaps like a proper racehorse. He will have learnt a lot from it and it will have done him the world of good physically,' said the delighted Elsworth, whose colt had only once previously seen a racecourse.
There were dreams at the other end of the scale, even if they came accompanied in her case with floods of tears, for Stef Liddiard after her seven-year-old Malarkey took the cantorsport.co.uk Handicap. The slim, blonde trainer, who worked for some years with Paul Cole and set up on her own in January last year, recalled that she had always watched Malarkey's progress since losing a race on him three years ago at Beverley, riding for Jamie Osborne, which she reckons she should have won. Knowing the old horse has an engine', she watched him win a couple of stayers' races for Peter Hedger and take a definite dislike to jumping. When he turned up in a seller, she snapped him up for .E6,000, getting her husband to put up the cash because they did not have a buyer lined up at the time.
The Newbury prize alone was worth /7,700, so they have their profit already. But it meant far more than that. 'If I don't have another winner this year that will do,' she sobbed, 'He's a proper horse now. I thought we might win a nice early handicap somewhere, but this is Newbury .. .
Stef Liddiard is modest about her achievements, saying, 'After I've had a winner. I look round the yard and wonder where the next one is coming from.' But with only nine horses in training, she has rattled up 17 successes already, most of them on the allweather. She has orders to look for more horses but cannot find them for the moment at the right price as she likes to be economical. Keep an eye out for her runners. Small stables like hers often profit by taking on older horses like Malarkey and freshening them up with greater individual attention. Her Great Shefford yard looks like one with the knack of doing precisely that,
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