The turf
Sporting spirit
Robin Oakley
Even at Ascot, there is another side to life. It is not all Jasper Conran couture, bowler-hatted officialdom and the over-fed complaining that the canapes lack sophisti- cation. Certainly not on the jumping day last Saturday with the sort of edge on the breeze to leave brass monkeys looking ner- vous. To little Katharine Hogan, aged two, the horse everybody was making a fuss about in the unsaddling enclosure after the Holloways Gate Novices Hurdle was 'Artie' — short for RTF, the friend to whom she had fed carrots while he had spent most of the past two years in a field 30 feet from her mother's kitchen window. To the watching crowd he was Resist The Force, by Shadeed out of Countess Tully, who had just come home the winner of his first-ever race over hurdles. And to those of us scrib- bling in our notebooks (Sorry, Katharine, we weren't actually drawing Artie as you thought) he was an example of the best side of National Hunt racing.
Martin Hogan has been the trainer Josh Gifford's blacksmith for nearly 20 years. He had liked the look of Resist The Force when he was in Charles Cyzer's yard, and after the horse had suffered a long series of injuries and unsuccessfully been through the sales he bought him privately for use as a hack. After Artie had had his tendons pin-fired and been given a long rest for most of the past two years, his faithful owner asked an initially reluctant Josh Gif- ford to train him. He went into work in June and duly turned out on the racecourse on Saturday for the first time since 1993, running in Mrs Barbara Hogan's colours. Held up nicely by Philip Hide, he came with a great run at the end to beat the well- supported favourite Carlito Brigante, a particularly nice win double for Mrs Hogan who had last weekend presented Katharine with a baby sister. If he stays sound after that run on pretty firm ground then the force should be with RT for a few wins yet and you could warm your hands on the sheer unadulterated joy among the geld- ing's connections.
The same was true after Lear Jet, trained by Bob Jones, came home the winner of the other novice hurdle on the card, staying on well to hold off Mark Tompkins's well- backed Blurred and incidentally providing the comparatively rare sight at a jumping meeting of Newmarket horses finishing first and second. The trainer, who doesn't have a lot more winners than he has hair- cuts, has a nice Archway filly to run on the flat next year for the Godorphal Racing Partnership, as Lear Jet's owners have called themselves. Sorry, Sheikh Mohammed, they have better taste in horseflesh than they do in puns. Do the 15 members of the syndicate have anything particular in com- mon, we asked its leading light Duncan Cameron? 'Well,' he said, after a few moments' thought, 'they all drink a lot.'
They come, it seems, from all walks of life. And while it may be more often at Fontwell or Plumpton that you see the lit- tle man triumph rather than those like the racing politician, of whom it was once said 'He has a nice farm ... it's called Wilt- shire', it was good to see it happen at Ascot too. Nice, too, to see that tricksy character Oh So Risky win at his first attempt over fences at the ripe old age of nine after so many disappointments in top class over hurdles. David Elsworth reckons he'll have him better next time out as well.
The truly impressive sight of the day was that of Geoff Hubbard's Strong Promise running a favourite's race to pick up the £20,000 prize for the First National Bank Gold Cup, a nice consolation after his nar- row defeat the weekend before in the Mur- phy's Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Even though he was well in at the weights many of us had wondered if a horse which had had such a gruelling race up the Chel- tenham hill only seven days before (being touched off on the line by Richard Dun- woody on Challenger du Luc) might not have suffered from the experience, espe- cially as his little-known jockey on that occasion, Kieran Gaule, was penalised by the stewards for excessive use of the whip. It was too his sixth race of what has already been a busy season for the hefty Strong Gale gelding. But Strong Promise was there or thereabouts all the way and came home an impressive winner of a race which trainers with some lighter-framed horses had ducked because of the firm going.
The owner-trainer Geoff Hubbard has a real hope for the future with this fine big horse, which could even go next for the King George V. Remember, he is only five, probably two to three years short of his peak. If he were with Tim Forster or Jenny Pitman he might well not even have jumped a fence in public yet. Hubbard deserves reward for his boldness. And he deserves credit too, after top jockeys came begging for the ride, for keeping faith with his young rider, who handled his mount with impressive calm. It isn't only the small- scale owners who show that sporting spirit which so distinguishes the jumping scene.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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