Curate's eggday

"Well, you've had a good day", were Henry Moszkowicz's parting words to me as we left Folkestone racecourse yesterday, "Two runners: a winner and a second". And yes, I had had a good day, but it just didn't feel like it at the time. But yesterday's gone now, and it was the day that Lady Suffragette won at Market Rasen - in my colours, too - so it was definitely a good day.

It was just that I took a while to recover from the Milton's Keen debacle. The problem has been that to Henry and to me, Milton's Keen was two very different kettles of fish. To Henry, he was a horse whom he'd bred and owned for four largely unproductive years, during which time he'd achieved not much more than a reputation as a horse who could charge off in front in a race in a promising manner, but fade tamely at the end and continually fail to deliver on that promise. To me, he was a most welcome addition to the stable, a horse who had been making great strides physically and mentally all year, a horse who had run very well on his only run from this yard - a very promising resumption in a handicap at Lingfield, drawn one of eighteen in a race where the higher you were drawn, the better - and a horse who was on the point of starting to compile a record to make all his connections proud. To further emphasise the differences in the way we viewed him, Henry owns his sire and his dam, so any achievements he can rack up subsequent to changeing hands will still be to Henry's benefit by advertising the merit of both parents, plus earning breeder's prizes. To me, any future achievements subsequent to leaving this stable as a maiden claimer will just make me look an idiot. My suggested plan for this week for Milton was to run in the seven furlong apprentice handicap at Newmarket today under Kirsty Milczarek; Henry's was that he ran yesterday at Folkestone in the six furlong claimer, ridden by John Egan. And, of course, while the outside world often thinks that the trainer is responsible for every part of a horse's career, that is not true (except in the cases of the horses he owns himself) because my job is not to treat the horses as if they were my own and to do with them as I please (or even as I see as being in the owners' best interests), but rather to make constructive suggestions and offer advice; and then to await instructions and then to carry out those instructions as best I can.

Anyway, Milton ran in the claimer yesterday and, although I approached the day with some reservations, not even in my worst nightmares had I envisaged the outcome that transpired. I'd guessed that we'd either be good enough to win and would win, or we wouldn't be good enough and so wouldn't win, and would be taking a disappointing horse home with us. Stupidly, I never thought that we'd prove ourselves clearly good enough to win the race, and not win it. This is, however, what happened, and of course the horses who are most likely to be claimed are the patently unlucky losers, the horses who pass the post just behind the winner carrying the subtitle, 'I'll win next time'. For the benefit of anyone who didn't see the race, the horse's close-up in the Racing Post was: 'tracked leaders, not clear run over 1f out until inside final furlong, ran on well last 100yds, went 2nd near finish'. He was beaten a head, after being boxed in in a 6-horse field. The analysis in the same paper reads: 'Milton's Keen was held up behind front-runner Ever Cheerful on the rail and he wasn't getting a run until the leader edged away to the right. Once he saw daylight he began eating into the winner's lead, and would have been in front in another three or four strides'. I hardly need add that he was claimed (while the winner, whose claiming price was only half the price we'd put on Milton, was not claimed). Still, Henry is happy with the price he got for the horse, happy that he ran well and has at last proved that he can hit the line strongly, and happy that he now, at last, looks as if he is going to do something to promote the credentials of Largesse and of his dam Not A Word, and to earn some breeder's prizes. That's what mattered, and the fact that I came away from Folkestone feeling as if it hadn't been a satisfactory outing isn't really relevant. Nor is the fact that, from a personal point of view, it was a sadness to say 'Goodbye' to a horse whom I really liked and loved riding in the mornings.

To be fair to Egan, he was in a way unlucky because had he been riding against a different line-up of jockeys, he'd have got a gap earlier and would have won the race, and would have been saved the embarrassment of losing a race he should have won by getting boxed in in a six-horse field. It was just unfortunate for him that the jockey between whom and the rail he was was a good one (Dane O'Neill), and even more unfortunate that the one farther out controlling the race was one of the best jockeys in the world, Daryll Holland. Had a lesser hoop, say one of the usual gaff track regulars like V.Ordinary or F.Hopeless, been in Holland's seat, the horses would, as usually happens there, rolled off the rail as they approached the crowd in the final furlong, and he'd have sailed through. But Daryll is far too good and competitive a rider to allow that to happen, so he kept the two horses on his inside as tight as possible, controlling the race where a lesser rider would either have tried to control it and failed, or done nothing about trying to control it at all, so that even when the gap did come it was only tiny, and Milton had to be very brave to get into it at all. But then again, part of John's job is knowing his opponents, and a jockey has to be aware of which other riders are around him, and ought to be able to weigh up the likely outcomes of various potential maneouvres on the basis of knowledge of the skills or otherwise of the other hoops. So that, I am afraid, was that, and sadly I left Folkestone feeling as if it hadn't been a good day at all. So please, if and when Milton puts together a string of good runs from Taffy Salaman's stable over the forthcoming months, please don't hold it against me.

But the day was actually a good one. Nobody was hurt, no lives were lost, and WE HAD A WINNER. And what a dear winner it was too, as Lady Suffragette and her regular partner Tom Greenway gained the deserved reward for their consistent endeavour by saluting the judge in the novices' handicap hurdle at Market Rasen. I didn't actually see the race until the evening, because I was saddling Milton for the 3.30 at Folkestone as the 3.10 at Market Rasen was being run, but it was worth the wait. I'm told that Nick Luck again demonstrated why he can be regarded as one of the most astute pundits on television by pointing out that, although the filly now races in the name of Stewart Leadley-Brown, she was carrying my colours. I felt rather sorry for Stewart that the first winner he has (co-)owned in the UK wasn't bearing his livery of red, light blue crossbelts, but unfortunately Weatherbys hadn't received confirmation from the authorities in America in time that these are indeed his colours to allow their registration to be transferred to his name in Britain; therefore the filly had yesterday to run in the colours of her other part-owner, ie me. So, although I felt a bit sorry for Stewart, that was tempered by the rare thrill of seeing my own colours to victory, and the knowledge that, fingers crossed, the filly will be able to carry Stewart's colours on what we hope will be numerous future occasions. Stewart is a great addition to the stable's fold. He's an expatriate English horseman who lives in South Carolina, having emigrated to the States in 1979 when he was in his twenties and had just been working for William Hastings-Bass in Marriott Stables (now Rae Guest's Chestnut Tree Stables) in the Hamilton Road. He worked for William when the great Australian jockey Harry White was the stable jockey, when Greenland Park won the Queen Mary Stakes, and looked after a pair of good handicappers whom I recall, Better Blessed and Sailcloth. I presume the Queen's Silver Jubilee present from Australia, a Without Fear filly called Australia Fair, would have been there too, although I've never asked Stewart about her. She achieved nothing on the racecourse - I asked Richard Greenwood, who was the stable's vet, about her one day, and he said that the only noteworthy thing she did in training was bolt on the Heath one day and gallop through a hedge - but found a small degree of fame subsequently as the dam, courtesy of a mating with Lord Porchester's moderate stallion Town And Country, of Double Blue, who won numerous good sprint handicaps for Mark Johnston, and who is mentioned in Mark Johnston's book as completing a double for the stable at Newmarket one afternoon, the double having been initiated by Mister Baileys in the 2,000 Guineas. Anyway, making Stewart's acquaintance telephonically has been most enjoyable, and I look forward to meeting him when he's home in the summer. We'll have to make sure we can find a race for Lady Suffragette to run in while he's over in the UK, although whether we'll be able to produce another day as special as yesterday's can't be guaranteed. As we know only too well, you can never guarantee anything with horses, but the great thing about this filly is that she really seems to thrive on her racing, and comes back from her races as if she's just had a pleasant day out. Hugh took her up there yesterday and so she was obviously in very safe hands; plus hands that boded well for the outing, as he told me subsequently that this was only his second trip to Market Rasen, the first being when he worked for Nigel Twiston-Davies and four of the stable's horses went up together, of whom three came home as winners. Aisling, of course, is the one who can take the lion's share of the credit for Lady Suffragette's continuing enjoyment of her lot, because she rides her most mornings and treats her like the little princess that she is.

So that was yesterday. So the truth is that Henry was right: I did have a good day, even though it took a few hours to elapse after the Folkestone debacle for me to see that the positives of the day did indeed outweigh the negatives. Let's hope for another good day today as we head to Wolverhampton this evening with Jack Dawson. He's in great form, but a first-up win would be a very pleasant surprise, so we'll just settle for savouring the pleasure of watching this grand old horse continuing to enjoy competing. And if he can do anything more than merely compete with credit, that would be the icing on the cake.