The turf
Sex and showers
Robin Oakley
At Glorious Goodwood the petunias are extra pink and the Pimms has a particu- lar zing. Leggy chestnut fillies carry them- selves with an especial confidence and the horses look up for it as well. Even on the Saturday, after others had enjoyed days of tabloid-scanning gossip while we at West- minster sweltered over the Reshuffle That Wasn't, the talk was still of only one thing, with the shower jokes renewed after cham- pion jockey Kieren Fallon had had to work really hard to win the first on Carousing.
Having lived with politicians for 30 years I am a little amazed at all the fuss suddenly being made over the sex in racing. It has always been there, probably long before even Steve Donoughue was enjoying the company of society ladies, although some- times it was handled more decorously in pre-tabloid days.
The wife of one pre-war trainer in New- market was once dallying with a lover when her husband returned to collect the binocu- lars he had forgotten. Showing great pres- ence of mind as her trouserless visitor cowered behind the couch, she slammed the drawing-room door shut and shouted, 'Darling, whatever you do, don't come in. The canary's got out of its cage.' The trou- ble is that these days the canaries do most of their singing, for five figures, to the tabloids.
After Henry Cecil's dismissal from his stable of champion jockey Fallon, following the trainer's wife's admission of an affair, I am sad for the families who are going through such obvious pain, pain they should be free to endure in private. More selfishly, I am sorty to see the break-up of a combination which had won three of the four Classics run so far this year and which seemed destined to win so many more over the years to come. But Cecil showed his ability to triumph over setbacks, and his loyalty, when Sheikh Mohammed took his horses away from Warren Place over what he regarded as unwarranted interference by the trainer's wife. And Fallon's riding at Goodwood showed that becoming the tasti- est morsel around for the media feeding frenzy was not affecting his concentration in the saddle. On Carousing few would have given much for his chances at half way, but the determination the jockey con- veyed to his mount and the courage of Peter Savill's two-year-old got them home.
It was a vintage week for jockeyship with Frankie Dettori demonstrating repeatedly that he has the skills to match his show- manship. He rode a dominating race on Slip Stream for Godolphin on Saturday, stringing out the field with perfect judg- ment of pace. In the Group One Nassau Stakes we were reminded just how much we will be missing when Gary Stevens brings a premature end to what was to have been a prolonged stay in Britain. Typical of the clock-in-the-head American riders, he led the field for most of the way but gave his mount a little breather and came again at the right time to prevail in a close finish.
But it was the veteran 51-year-old George Duffield who showed them all how to do it on ICnockholt in the Turf Club Rated Stakes over lm 6f. It was robbery. In fact it was grand larceny on the racecourse performed with the boldness and élan Cary Grant and the like used to show in those Riviera caper movies involving black gloves, beautiful blondes, priceless neck- laces and rooftop getaways.
Knockholt stays, but he has about as much finishing kick as I do on my third lap of Kennington Park. (I was passed last week by a hopping blackbird.) So six fur- longs out George Duffield, who had been sitting on Kieren Fallon's shoulder as he made the pace on Enfilade, suddenly kicked on and away. Before the rest of the field had woken up he was six lengths clear and motoring, and hard though the others tried they simply could not get back to him before the line.
'Half-way through I thought, this doesn't suit me, I'm off,' said the wily Duffield on dismounting. 'Absolutely brilliant,' said Sean Woods's representative, 'he killed the race.' Indeed he did and trainer Woods owes the veteran jockey, only just recov- ered from having a finger bitten through by an ungrateful mount he had dismounted on the way to post, a very large drink.
The final performance of note that day came from Richard Hughes in winning the Stewards Cup on Harmonic Way for Roger Charlton. A typical Hughes late swoop clinched success in the most competitive sprint of the season. What was interesting was the trainer's reaction afterwards. The four-year-old had run 16 or 17 times since his last win, a short head success in his first race as a three-year-old. It was the sort of record to suggest he could be lacking in resolution. But his trainer, neither a boast- ful man nor an unrealistic assessor of his own horses, said he had really believed he had a great chance on the form book, reckoning Harmonic Way well handi- capped with the horses really fancied for the race. He had looked a good thing sev- eral times and he could understand punters coming to doubt the horse's courage but he had never doubted his genuineness.
One we all missed, I guess. I was on Halmahera, who came through the pack to take second place. The lad brought him back saying consolingly to veteran owner Robert Hitchins, 'Oh, Mr H, what are we going to do with these seconds? That's five this year.' True, but on his only other run Ian Balding's fine gelding did win a Listed race at Newcastle. He has to be one of the most consistent sprinters in training and with the Tote paying £4.70 a place I was willing to settle for that. The handicapper is doing him no favours but I shall keep faith, especially if he gets a better draw on his next appearance.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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