Worth every penny
Robin Oakley
Despite bedtime in Brussels past 2 a.m. following the heads of government meeting on Friday, and that without the moules et frites I had promised myself, I still made it comfortably to the first race at Newbury, thanks to an impeccably on-time early Eurostar. 'You must be mad,' said a colleague with no feeling for racing. But I wasn't. It was worth it alone for Barry Hills's grin when his Al Mohallab, backed down to evens favourite, comfortably took the seven-furlong maiden and I asked him, 'You were never in any doubt about that one, were you?' It was worth it for the way the horse himself, flaring a red nostril and dripping sweat, cocked his head with the confidence imparted by victory. He knew he'd done what was expected of him. The most backward of the bunch Barry received from Dubai in March, he had originally not looked like racing this year, but Al Mohallab has the physique and the temperament to make a nice miler next year.
It was worth the short night and the dash from Waterloo to Paddington to Reading and on to Newbury to see Vivienne Cracknell talking to her filly Foodbroker Fancy in the winner's enclosure after she had taken the Listed Dubai Duty Free John Musker Stakes, demonstrating in Dane O'Neill's hands that that horses need character as well as pace to win races. You would have thought that horse and owner were a couple of chums chatting over a Caesar salad at Le Caprice.
I would have made the journey from Brussels simply to see Michael Blanshard's flying machine The Trader break the course record for a second time in the Listed sprint. I have noted before how Michael does seem to have a way with sprinters. The Trader, who needs it good to firm and who has improved no end since being gelded, could now be heading for the Prix de l'Abbaye. But if the going is too soft in France he may be Hong-Kong bound for a big prize in December.
I would have thought the journey justified, too, simply to see Grandera win the Dubai Arc Trial. The beaming James Fanshawe, with no sign of tension in the coat-hanger shoulders that top the Skeleton's frame, was soon talking of the possibilities of supplementing Grandera for the real thing, reckoning it pretty cheap to do so for only £40,000: 'After all, he's won three-quarters of that today.' Some of those looking at Grandera's form figures before the Newbury race might have reckoned a tilt at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe a bit ambitious. It was the first time the Grand Lodge colt had got his head in front in five runs this season. But his 2322 figures conceal a lot. One second was by half a length to Medicean in the Eclipse, another was to the brilliant Sakhee in the Juddmonte. His third was in the French Derby after being bumped. As jockey Michael Hills said, 'The better the race, the better horse he is', and if it took him a while to wear down Mubtaker that was only because the early pace had not been enough to test them.
Grandera is the kind of horse who seems to improve with every run, just what you want for a top-class contest at the end of the season, and while we cannot yet be certain of a run, 20-1 looks a nice each-way bet. The only trouble is that we may have to wait awhile. James Fanshawe, who would not run Grandera on the soft, was exulting that the decision does not have to be made until three days before the big race in France.
Newbury sensibly broadcast the Ayr Gold Cup to the large crowd. Encouraged last week by trainer John Akehurst's confidence I had gone for Marsad, rejecting Continent as a horse who had let me down once too often this season. Race after race there would be a hard-luck story, as David Nicholls's charge was baulked, barged and battered through a series of top sprints, at one stage even by a stable companion. He was hotly fancied for the Stewards Cup at Goodwood but finished 12th, beaten only by three lengths, after every kind of traffic problem. At Ascot, Continent spread a plate on the way to the start, missed the break and never saw daylight.
I had, unfortunately, taken the view that you make your own luck in racing, as in other walks of life, and that a horse who came back with as many bad-luck stories as Continent should probably take up fishing instead. But I was wrong and he is every bit as good as his connections had suggested.
In fact, at 10-1 I was painfully wrong. Trainer Nicholls, who had won the Ayr Gold Cup the previous year with Bahamian Pirate, had clearly maintained his confidence, making Continent one of only three entries compared with something like ten the year before. The horse was absolutely flying at the finish to catch and pass Brevity, and I should have taken the most obvious hint, available from the winning jockey. Darryll Holland had delayed his honeymoon to ride the horse. He must have believed the hard-luck stories.
Previous page
