The turf
Goodwood camaraderie
Robin Oakley
With Frankie Dettori, Kieren Fallon and Pat Eddery all sitting on something softer than a saddle through suspensions, it was a reminder of how many good riders we have who do not figure quite so frequently in the headlines. Richard Hills scored an impres- sive, unshowy treble for Hamdan al Mak- toum on Ta-Lim, Masha-il and Muhtathir, Ray Cochrane showed real strength in the finish to score on the Lady Herries-trained Rock Falcon and, after his Galapino had scored a 16-1 success in the claimer under Richard Quinn, Lamboum trainer Mick Channon declared that he hadn't known much about the horse: 'It's all down to Quinnie, he gave it a hell of a ride.'
Ta-Lira's connections did not go over- board after the absence of Sadian with a snuffle had limited the value of the open- ing Sport on Five March Stakes as a St Leger trial. Sheikh Hamdan's racing man- ager, Angus Gold, merely remarked that the colt was turning out to be what he had been bred to be. Sending a Sadlers Wells mare (Alkaffeyeh) to a sire with as much stamina as Ela-Mana-Mou had been 'brave breeding', likely to provide either a nice horse or something rather slow. They now have that nice horse and, whether or not he goes for St Leger, which Angus Gold acknowledged would be a step up in gear, Ta-Lim goes into my notebook for next year's Cup races.
Thank goodness we do have some like Sheikh Hamdan who are not obsessed with producing two-year-old equine whippets but who are prepared to go for stamina. On the track where that fine long-distance athlete Double Trigger, another sired by Ela-Mana-Mou, had scored some of his greatest victories, it was a reminder that being one of Britain's most popular race- horses does not make you a star in a speed- obsessed breeding industry. On his retirement to stud at the end of the season, Mark Johnston's grand old stayer will not be going to one of the five-star Newmarket hotels of the breeding world but to an obscure corner of the West Country. Those sending him mares are likely to have to be patient, although it is worth a reminder that Double Trigger did win at two, albeit over nine and ten furlongs.
It is almost always an education, if some- times a brief one, listening to John Gosden after a race, and his long-striding Muh- tathir, impressive both in the paddock and in racing, has now earned a tilt at Europe's best milers after his success in the Tripleprint Celebration Mile. The hand- some chestnut will now go to the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot at the end of September. His astute trainer spotted an illness before Royal Ascot in time to avoid damaging the colt by running or working him too soon. And although he is a natural front-runner, Muhtathir is always worked from behind at home: 'If you work a front- runner in front, they never really learn to relax and use their stride properly.' It paid dividends in that Muhtathir was entirely relaxed despite the pressing attentions of Starborough for much of the race.
Gosden was diplomatic when asked about the overnight watering of the course, which had suited his horse but which had upset a number of trainers who claimed to have been misled about the going. There had been a lot of soft going this year, Gos- den conceded, and when we get a bit of summer at last in August the good-to-firm horses should have their chance. But clerks of courses do their best, he emphasised, to be fair to the horses. Grounds manager Seamus Buckley was adamant: 'At Good- wood we have to water. I always say it's like running a racecourse on the side of a mountain — two inches of topsoil and then all chalk.' As one with a chalk-based Epsom garden I concede his point.
Some trainers and owners have little to say about their winners. That is not a com- plaint that can be made about Enn Reitel, the Spitting Image and advertising voice- over specialist, who took over the unsad- dling enclosure with a one-man show after his Rock Falcon had won the Pertemps Rated Stakes. Had he enjoyed much of the 14-1? Well, it hadn't been one of his days when it had been a case of 'the horse or the house', he conceded, but the bookies had not been left unscarred. What concerned him more, after Rock Falcon had been headed and come again to win, was that the Timeform squiggle denoting a lack of genuineness should be removed from his horse's assessment. 'Like me, he's totally underrated.'
As for the racing programme, it was a disgrace, run only to suit the mediocrity demanded by the bookies. 'Good horses hold their form. But there's only one race a month for horses like this. We want com- petitive racing, but good class competitive racing. There's only one place for horses like this and that's America.'
The amiable Reitel had a short spell as an amateur rider. At Goodwood once, he recalled, he was run away with and finished up underneath his horse at the start. 'I quit most things at the bottom. But I did man- age to ride a winner at Lingfield before I quit riding.' Now there's a man to whom no one would begrudge a success.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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