Heroes

This is an interesting story, and one which will provide food for thought for those who mistakenly believe that the top-class horses are better than their less talented peers because they put more into their races. When Brief Goodbye ran at Sandown on Saturday he stumbled on the final bend. As soon as this happened, I expected him to drop out, because he, like all sensible horses, has been known to err on the side of caution when unable to find a sure footing on the surface on which he is galloping. However, he proved me wrong by plugging on bravely up the straight to finish fifth (subsequently promoted to fourth because Frankie Dettori weighed in one and a half pounds light on the third-placed Pass The Port). This basically meant that Brief and Pass The Port had run exactly to form from their previous meeting at Newmarket three weeks earlier, when Brief had finished second and Pass The Port third: at Sandown Brief was theoretically 1lb worse off, but actually 2.5lb worse off bearing in mind that Pass The Port carried less than his correct weight, and he went from finishing 0.75 lengths in front of Pass The Port to 1.75 lengths behind him. Consistency doesn't come much better than that. Except ... Except that Brief didn't look himself at Sandown after his stumble: we are used to Brief, when he is on form, coming with a finishing surge, whereas this time his progress was laboured; and his run petered out in the final 100m (Ted Durcan said he was running on empty in the closing stages and concluded that he doesn't really stay the mile and six, which was exactly the opposite of the impression the horse had given at Newmarket). All of which was more than enough to make my first thought that I should book Carol Whitwood in to see the horse on Tuesday morning (ie today).

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my belief that most times that a horse loses his footing in a race he will sustain a back injury. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Carol found Brief to be very sore today in both his pelvic area and his hind quarters. She has realigned his pelvis, and now he must rest for a week to allow his pulled gluteal muscles to mend. I don't know if your first thought has been the same as mine, but mine is that it is astonishing that Brief can have still run on after his stumble. He clearly hurt himself at that stage and it hardly seems possible that he can have run so well - but run well he did, which suggests that he is as genuine a horse as you'd find. In his wonderful book 'Chasing A Dream', Les Carlyon writes of Beau Zam winning the 1988 AJC Derby despite the fact that as he returned to scale "the rain was washing blood down both hind legs" from where he'd been galloped on during the race. Carlyon's explanation is simple: "In the rush of battle, heroes feel no pain". So it is with Brief, and once again we have an illustration of just how genuine are some of the horses who provide us with such great sport - and not only the most obvious heroes too.

Today's session was yet another illustration of how blessed we are to be able to call on the services of Carol. I'd be lost without her, and how the minds work of the many trainers who believe that the assistance of someone possessing her skills isn't necessary is completely beyond me. And if you require further evidence of her expertise, consider this quote from the late Leslie Harrison (not quoted word for word, but it goes something like his) on the career of Diesis, Kris' full-brother who won both the Middle Park and the Dewhurst at two but who did nothing at three: "We had such high hopes of him because he was such a good-looking horse and had been a considerably better two-year-old than Kris had been. But in the spring of his three-year-old career he was just as stiff as a board, and I remember going up to Warren Place, seeing him walk across the yard like a crab, and having Henry tell us that he was jarring up and that we'd just have to run him and see what happened. Anyway, he ran terribly so we retired him. But, of course, that was before we had discovered THE GENIUS OF CAROL WHITWOOD (and that is a direct and exact quotation), so if the same thing had happened a few years later Diesis' three-year-old career would probably have been completely different".

And, while we are mentioning one person whose services we are lucky to be able to use, I might as well take the opportunity to express my appreciation another: Dave Boyce, our farrier. It's timely to do so, because Dave is currently off injured, with a broken bone in one of his hands (not caused by one of these horses, I hasten to add). He has kindly arranged for another good Dave to shoe for us while he is off: I'm ashamed to say that I don't know Dave Mark II's name, but I've known him for years as he used to be sent up to Woodditton Stud sometimes when I worked there and when he was apprenticed to the Curtis family farriery firm, since which time he has spent many years as the farrier for, among others, Neville (and now obviously Simon) Callaghan's stable. So we've got Dave Mark II for a while - and it won't be long, as it is not within Dave Boyce's character to take any more time off than absolutely necessary. It, incidentally, speaks very well of Dave Mark II that he hasn't been put off by the fact that the first horse he shod for us (yesterday) was Ben Bhraggie who, although he is making good progress physically and mentally, still hasn't quite got used to the idea that having his feet done isn't optional. And when a horse his size decides that he doesn't want to be shod, it's no laughing matter. And all of these events, of course, combine to make one realise that, although in one sense farriery is a relatively straightforward way of earning a good living, in another sense it's a bloody tough job, and we are very fortunate to have good people such as the Daves Mark I and II to call upon to get it done.

This is actually the second time that I have written about farriery today, because earlier on I was filling in a questionnaire (yet another bloody questionnaire, that should be) one of whose topics was rising expenses. It speaks very well of the owners in this stable that none of them has queried it, but Dave Boyce recently put his charge for shoeing a horse up by 50%, which is obviously considerably above inflation and, as such, one might have expected the subject to be raised at some point. However, long-time patrons of the stable will no doubt have realised that this was the first price rise that Dave has made in the fourteen years that he has been shoeing for me, so it's fair to say that we were overdue a rise! And the 45 pounds which Dave now charges still ranks as very good value compared to the fees charged by other farriers (most of whom lack both his skill and his reliability) so it is a rise which is very easy to justify. But, even so, I still appreciate the fact that not one of the owners in this stable has asked me to justify it.