The turf
Backing Brighton
Robin Oakley
Frankie Dettori may have taken the glory at Ascot on Sunday with his three- timer. But the People Who Matter were watching a rather different class of racing round the undulating horseshoe at Brighton, Pauline Prescott in a hat which would have done credit to either venue and her husband John bounding about with the braggadocio of a labrador that had just retrieved a bagful of pheasants. Which, as Labour's most tireless nationwide cam- paigner in May, is just about what he had done politically.
I encountered him just after the first race in which, naturally, he had backed The Boy John. 'Finished second,' he grinned. 'Story of my life. deputy leader, deputy prime minister.' But we both backed Marran, the 5-2 winner of the second, and when I checked the Prescott card-marking at the end of the day he'd had another winner with the 15-8 Father Dan, as well as a place with Supreme Sound at 9-2.
Mind you, I hope that most of the party prove better at running the country than they are at picking winners. The recently ennobled Doug Hoyle, former chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, asked me to check the numbers of two runners at Nottingham for whom he had had an owner's hot tip. They finished 11th out of 12 and 14th out of 18. When I met the union leader Ken Cameron he had been urged by Alan Meale, one Labour MP who really does know a pastern from a procedu- ral motion, to back Most Welcome News. Since Gary Moore's five-year-old had never troubled the judge in a long racing career I wondered what Mr Meale had against his colleague and told him the bookie who'd only given 80-1 had been robbing him. Most Welcome News did beat one home, though.
It was, however, a good day for Prescotts and coincidence backers. Apart from the coincidence of the name, some of the polit- ically conscious present noted the orange 'MP' on the brown rug of Farmost and duly Plunged on Sir Mark Prescott's top-weight- ed runner in the feature event, the Mirror Handicap, oblivious that the Newmarket trainer, a leading coursing enthusiast, is unlikely to be a Labour voter. The gelding duly led all the way, despite the stable's head lad Colin Nutter, who was riding his first winner of the season, dropping his whip two furlongs out. Perhaps it was a gesture to political correctness.
Perhaps the best-timed win of the day was that of another topweight, the seven- year-old Toujours Riviera, ridden by Gary Bardwell, who got his nose in front in the final strides of the Scottish Equitable Stakes. The owner Jim Furlong, a long- time supporter of the Newmarket trainer Jeff Pearce who recently sold him his yard, was due the next day to make a presenta- tion for the British Horseracing Board on the thrills of ownership. There is nothing like the voice of recent experience.
Jim Furlong was quick to praise his train- er, who was giving him the 17th winner they have had together, and insistent that he deserves more good horses. It is nice to have an owner who looks after your PR, but Jeff is doing his own talking at the moment with his results. Toujours Riviera was his third winner in three days. But the talking point among the women round the unsaddling enclosure was the lad who won the £50 best turned out prize for the Pearce horse.
The diminutive Dominic Fox, son of for- mer jockey Richard Fox, is 16. But he could hide behind a three-foot drainpipe. Weigh him in the scales against a feather duster and they'd go clanging down against him. Most of the ladies round the parade ring wanted to pick him up for a cuddle and read him a bedtime story. But he is said to be a very determined young man and if breeding means anything he will be a name to note in time.
The other youngster to catch the eye at Brighton was 71b claimer Jason 'Billy the Kid' Wilkinson, formerly with Lord Hunt- ingdon, now with William Muir. Gay Kelle- way had written in that morning's Sporting Life that Father Dan was her best hope of the day. Two furlongs out it looked like a forlorn hope, but Wilkinson conjured a blinding burst of speed from his mount in the final furlong and once again got up on the line. Gay was late into the unsaddling enclosure, having stopped to watch the video to be sure they'd won. 'Don't you ever frighten me like that again,' she told the young rider. 'But you can come and work for me anytime.' He got a two-day ban for excessive use of the whip and she was fined £230 for not telling him that the gelding marked easily. But they are a part- nership we will clearly see together again.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
Previous page
