The turf
The Irish threat
Robin Oakley
The blazing sunshine at Sandown on Whitbread Gold Cup day provided the per- fect final flourish to the jumping season, and gave the top of the ground specialists their chance at last after a winter of slosh- ing through quagmires. (Yes, I do know that the National Hunt season continues officially until 1 June, but it is second-class fare from now on. Watching Frankie Det- tori drive home a treble in the flat races on the same card was a reminder that the little men with big pay cheques will dominate the racing scene for some months now.) The Whitbread itself was an entirely appropriate finale. Victory for Charlie Swan on Aiden O'Brien's Life Of A Lord was a reminder of what a good run the Irish trainers have had at Cheltenham and other big meetings this year. In fourth place under top weight the gallant Jodami, the 1993 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner who has given his trainer Peter Beaumont such a tricky season, showed that he retains plenty of ability. Both he and the winner will be trained for the Grand National next year.
O'Brien, who has been turning out win- ners in Ireland this season with the regular- ity of a bottling plant carousel, believes that it was weight and a couple of bad mis- takes which saw Life Of A Lord fade to seventh in this year's National rather than a failure to stay the distance.
I shall certainly listen in future to any race readings from jockey Chris Maude. Before he went out to ride Young Hustler in the big race, I asked him who he feared. He had no doubt: the threat was from the Irish horses. With Life Of A Lord first Have you noticed, they always put things to tempt children near the till.' home and Feathered Gale fifth that proved altogether accurate.
Looking back on a season that has seen Graham McCourt, Peter Hobbs, Mark Per- rett and Anthony Tory quit the saddle and which has been the poorer for Adrian Maguire and Norman Williamson being sidelined so long with injuries, the obvious new stars have been the unstoppable Tony McCoy and Martin Pipe's new stable jock- ey David Bridgwater, a sporting second in the Grand National. But two other names to watch for next season if they get any- thing like the breaks they deserve are Jim Culloty, currently still an amateur attached to Henrietta Knight's stable, and the 27- year-old Maude, an extremely fit six-footer who still manges to do ten stone with ease. He puts it down to working full time for Nigel Twiston-Davies , although looking at that well-upholstered young trainer it is hard to see the connection.
Chris Maude has ridden in his time for Philip Hobbs and Ron Hodges after start- ing with Captain Tim Forster when he left school, as well as for Paul Nicholls and Simon Sherwood. Currently third jockey in the Twiston-Davies yard to Carl Llewelyn and Tom Jenks, he has picked up some interesting spare mounts this season, notably on the ill-fated Draborgie, the front-running mare who gave him an exhil- arating, if hair-raising ride to win at Kemp- ton. Martin Pipe doesn't put just anybody in the plate and that was tribute to Maude's increased standing.
With Llewelyn and Jenks both injured, Chris Maude came in for the ride on Young Hustler in the Becher's Chase at Aintree. A genuine talent over the big fences, he won that and kept the ride for Young Hustler's thrilling display in the National. As he says, 'Rarely does a horse jump at Aintree as well as that and fail to win, but a few fences out I felt the tank beginning to empty ...' With real regret for the horse, not for his own lost glory, he feels niggled that Young Hustler is down as fifth in the big race when he was only just pipped for third.
His previous best season was in 1990-91 when he rode 28 winners from 220 mounts. But, as with many promising young jockeys, he found it a struggle when he lost his allowance. Rides and winners dipped for a season or two. This season, though, he has had 34 winners already and he is riding with the confidence that breeds. Working full time in a yard, he doesn't have the time for too much public relations and middle- of-the-table freelancers are always going to suffer with the top jockeys' agents working as hard as they do to canvas promising rides. But here is a jockey at the turning point of his career who only needs a break to join the top flight.
As for Jim Culloty, mentioned in this col- umn well before his Easter holiday treble and four-timer, he well turn professional at the end of the season with the amateur title in his grasp. Two whip bans within the space of a few days argue that he has some lessons to learn. But they argue too that he has the kind of will to win of which Maguires and McCoys are made. And working with Terry Biddlecombe at the Henrietta Knight yard he has the advan- tage of instruction from one of the true greats, a man who can tell from experience everything to do in the saddle and every- thing not to do out of it.
Previous page
