The turf
We'll miss you
Robin Oakley
The blues composer W.C. Handy once observed, 'It may well be that true riches are laid up in Heaven. But it's sure nice to have a little pocket money on the way there.' Wherever it is that successful race- horse owners and sportsmen go in the Hereafter, I can only thank Eric and Budgie Moller for a nice little contribution to my racing pocket-money with their brave little horse Pentire, winner of Ascot's King George VI and Queen Eliza- beth Diamond Stakes last Saturday.
When the bachelor Moller brothers died, they left a family trust fund to go on racing their horses, trained by Geoff Wragg. Those horses include Pentire, win- ner of six of his seven races in 1995 and by no means disgraced when fourth to the great Cigar on sand in the Dubai World Cup earlier this year.
I had fancied Pentire for the King George since his third in the Eclipse on his turf debut this season, over a distance too short for him. Indeed, when the rac- ing-friendly Home Secretary sought my opinion on the race shortly after the pub- lic-spending round Cabinet, I recommend- ed a wager on the four-year-old, who had only gone down narrowly in last year's race to the high-class Lammtarra. It was something of an encouragement, with Tory luck running as it does these days, that he decided he was sticking with Shaamit. It seemed another omen when jockey Michael Hills, whose predicament was discussed here last week, unusually won his midweek appeal on a disciplinary offence and was freed to take the ride. Successful appeals in Portman Square come round about as frequently as politi- cians' public apologies.
The King George, the mid-season cham- pionship of Europe in which the three- year-olds rust take on their elders over the Derby distance, is nearly always a thrilling contest and this year was no exception. But when the race began, those of us who had taken the surprisingly generous 100-30 about Pentire had plenty to worry about. Jockey Michael Hills says he had virtually gone to sleep in the stalls and he came out with about as much enthusiasm as a drunk being encouraged to leave a park bench. By the time they had gone a furlong he had given the field five lengths' start and showed little interest in the early proceed- ings. He was being pushed along as early as Swinley Bottom while Annus Mirabilis pushed the pace for the proven stayer Clas- sic Cliche, a St Leger and Gold Cup win- ner. Three furlongs out, Derby winner Shaamit and Pentire were still at the back of the field. But when the Derby winner made his effort Pentire went after him still on a tight rein. A burst of speed over a fur- long out saw Pentire go clear, with the four-year-old Classic Cliche and the gallant Shaamit battling it out but only ever for second place.
No wonder Pentire had managed last year to run Lammtarra so close. His win- ning time this year has only been bettered by the great clash between Grundy and Bustin() in 1974. The first three home this year were ten lengths clear of Oscar Schindler in fourth, and he in turn was 11 lengths clear of the other four in an above average field. On this showing I would back Shaamit confidently in any ten-furlong race he tackles in the rest of this season. A com- paratively inexperienced horse despite his Epsom victory, he will have learned from his Ascot run and I am sure there are big race victories to come. I will need a lot of persuading, too, to back anything other than Classic Cliche for the Prix de I'Arc de Triomphe in the autumn.
But what now for Pentire? He likes it good to firm and his trainer reckons that with the going nearly always soft for the French race at that time of year he is more likely to go for the Breeders Cup in Toron- to, and possibly for the Japan Cup. Of course Japan is the pocket-money country these days for racehorse owners. The aver- age race held now under the auspices of the Japanese Racing Association is worth £170,000 and the winner of the Japan Cup will collect a handy $1 million.
In all probability, his trainer thinks, Pen- tire will be retired at the end of this season. But what a tragedy it would be if that scin- tillating burst of speed we saw from him at Ascot last Saturday was the last we will see of Pentire on a British race-course. We need to see the quality horses here. It was that prospect, I am convinced, which brought no fewer than 30,000 customers to Ascot last Saturday. You would not have
had half that number for a string of handi- caps, however well-framed.
Over good or firm going Pentire is the best mile-and-a-half horse in the country. Isn't there something that Eric and Budgie Moller can do from up there to ensure we get one more glimpse of him in action here? Perhaps a medium-sized thunder- bolt in the middle of Geoff Wragg's New- market yard would be taken as a signal ...
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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