Perseverance pays
Robin Oakley It was 7.30 on Christmas Eve, a time when all sensible people are filling children's stockings or starting on the single malt. I was instead armpit-deep with an Italian friend in a cottage-sized rubbish skip in the shadow of Battersea Power Station, feverishly flinging aside the recycled detritus of a thousand south London households.
The explanation? The moment some 20 minutes before when Mrs Oakley had asked me to 'bring in the turkey' from outside the French windows. Now this was no ordinary turkey. At £65 it was probably pound for pound the most expensive edible animal on the market, not so much an organic, free-range fowl as one which had strutted its life away in Elysian pastures playing pool with the lads and being massaged with soothing oils by nubile lady turkeys.
As my heart sank leadenly into my boots, I had to admit that it was, too, the turkey whose brown cardboard box our house-guest and I had wrongly assumed to be part of the discarded newspapers and packaging which we had some hours earlier cast merrily into the Battersea skip. Hence a wheel-burning dash to The Dump and a frantic search of the huge receptacle.
It was, however, a happy ending (for all except the turkey, who, in the shape he was in, was past caring anyway). There may have been no racing on Christmas Eve but just before closing time we brought off the long shot of the year. We found the bird, unsullied, still in its box and returned home in triumph. There Mrs Oakley, far from being ready with the divorce papers, was sportingly discussing whether thyme and sage stuffing would go with the leg of lamb which was her only available alternative. All that worried me was the glint in her eye as she confided a touch too sweetly how much she was going to enjoy telling the story to her friends. I know already what they think of a man who spends his Saturdays on the racetrack.
It does, though, show that perseverance pays, and there was the perfect example of that on Ascot's New Year Race Day from Liam Treadwell, yet another of the promising bunch of young riders (like Tom O'Brien and Wayne Hutchinson) who are so enlivening this season. When Sir Robert Ogden's Fast Forward, the favourite for the Press Red For ATR Active Chase, made novicey mistakes at the seventh and ninth fences and then appeared to be getting detached from the leaders down the back straight, trainer Venetia Williams confessed that her neck was feeling a little unprotected, since she had insisted with Sir Robert's racing manager Barry Simpson on putting up the 31b-claimer.
In fact, young Liam, who had caught the eye the week before, coming second in the Welsh National, is both capable and cool. He bided his time with Fast Forward, who is not the fastest mount in Britain, and slowly crept back into the race on a horse who was flat out all the way but gallops for ever. After a race in which most had given up the pair for lost, he then drove Fast Forward up to the leader before the last and won by a clear two lengths.
Among the first to congratulate him on the quality of his ride was Barry Simpson and there should be plenty more owners of decent horses ready to put him up after that. Young Liam, who spent a year with sprint king Dandy Nicholls and whose parents work for John Dunlop, is light enough still to ride on the Flat as well. He scored five winners from his 30 Flat rides this year and 14 of his 47 winners over jumps have come this season. He rides for a first-class, in-form trainer who has confidence in him, and with former stable first choice Sam Thomas now riding for Paul Nicholls, too, there should be some good opportunities for Liam Treadwell.
In fact, somebody up there must be looking after me as well at the moment. I not only backed Fast Forward but also won enough for a spare turkey or two with Nicky Henderson's Amaretto Rose and Noel Chance's Lord of Beauty. Noel's yard seems to be emerging from a bad bout of the virus and the glass-legged Lord of Beauty had been prepared with a couple of runs on the all-weather. Watch for the next invalid he does that with.
I also collected for the second time in recent weeks on John Quinn's promising hurdler Leslingtaylor, a recruit from the Flat who ran at Musselburgh. With the chaser Celestial Gold, one of our Twelve to Follow, now out for the season I suggest including him as a substitute. He could just be a Cheltenham Festival longshot.
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