The turf
Ups and downs
Robin Oakley
Life is all about perspective, as was first brought home to me by the tale of the small boy at Rome's arena-side plucking at his parent's toga-sleeve and complaining: 'Look, Daddy, that poor lion hasn't got a Christian.' I was glad on Saturday that when the aptly-named Young Spartacus, by Teenoso out of Celtic Slave, won the Racing Post Chase at Kempton his trainer Henry Daly was absent saddling another winner at Haydock. We racing scribes always tend to concentrate on trainers rather than on those who pay the bills and if Henry Daly had been present we might have missed the chance to talk to an owner with a particularly good sense of perspective.
Propelling his wheelchair forward to congratulate jockey Richard Johnson and the horse, who had burst a blood vessel at the very end of the race, giving his all in a driving finish, Bart Hellyer was positively radiating a delight which we were all able to share. Mr Hellyer told us that this was the biggest success yet for his family of smallscale owner-breeders, the sort who keep the whole sport going. His father Andrew had bought Young Spartacus's great-grandmother, Brand X, winner of the Mildmay at Aintree. They bred Branded Slave from her, and her daughter was Celtic Slave, Young Spartacus's mum. They had watched them all grow up.
Mr Hellyer himself had been a rider, winning a handful of point-to-points, until one day at the age of 20 some 30 years ago when a fall at the Garthorpe broke his back and put him in Stoke Mandeville for six months and in his wheelchair for life. What the fall did not do was to diminish his enthusiasm for the wonderful sport of jump racing. 'You love the game. You can't blame a horse for something like that,' he said. It just made him change direction a little, so he became an international lawyer specialising in personal injuries. 'Well, I had to do something sitting down.' I certainly wouldn't mind having one of Celtic Slave's sons as Young Spartacus showed real courage in winning at what is probably his absolute maximum distance of three miles. Commanche Court ran a fast-finishing cracker in second place and for the future do not discard Tremallt. He and poor Tom Jenks, who deserves more better-class rides, had led all the way looking good until toppling at the last.
There was sadness at Haydock, meanwhile. We lost one of the boldest and bravest when Peter Beaumont's Young Kenny, winner of 11 races over jumps, broke a leg and had to be put down. It came only a day after poor old Cavalero, John Manners's hunter-chaser who was another brave Aintree type. broke his back. There are not many horses who win for you at 33-1, as Cavalero once did for me at Aintree, and who later win for you at Cheltenham at 16-1, as he did for me last year. I rarely let him run unbacked. But it is Cavalero's change of gear in the finish which I will remember, not just those rare collection days.
Racing Post Day at Kempton brought us an excellent pre-Cheltenham programme (and let us pray that we do reach the main course after such tasty aperitifs). Just when we had all begun to believe that Francois Doumen's horses were being sent across the channel half a gallop short of fitness, Bilboa scored an easy victory in the juvenile hurdle. She was a comfortable three lengths clear of 'Janus du Cochet with the rest out of sight and looks nicely primed for the Festival. At last we are getting some better going and on faster ground at Cheltenham than they had at Chepstow; she could be a real threat to the Triumph Hurdle favourite Jair du Cachet. And on only his second outing First Ballot scored an impressive victory for David Elsworth in the novices hurdle, beating Nicky Henderson's useful Razer Blade at a tasty 4-1.
I had been hoping to get a word earlier with David Elsworth, who was like me a guest of the Racing Post in the Desert Orchid Room, named after the wonderful chaser whom he trained. I failed. But it seems it would not have done me any good. Apparently over lunch Elsworth was telling his table that he had been out the previous Sunday walking First Ballot with a touch of colic and they were not encouraged to invest.
First Ballot is owned by Jeff Smith, who keeps a classy string of flat horses and who ventures only rarely into the winter game. He was doing so on this occasion only because the horse was sent to the sales and did not make the £50,000 they were looking for. Since David Elsworth reckoned First Ballot still had some potential on the flat and he jumps hurdles well they decided to keep him. Jeff Smith was apparently telling friends that First Ballot might now be heading for Cheltenham 'wherever that is'. A joke, I am sure. But when most of us winter game enthusiasts would be prepared to have various parts of our anatomy cut off in order to get there (no, not that part, darling) it just shows again, does it not, how life is all a matter of perspective?
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