True grit

Claude Charlet (pictured last year with his namesake Claude Berry) made a good point recently on the subject of race-meetings being abandoned because of safety concerns: "How can you call a race-meeting off because it's not safe? When is racing ever safe?". That's not dissimilar to Capt. Blackadder's resigned rhethorical question in the very moving final episode of 'Blackadder Goes Forth', when he had failed in his attempt to be taken out of the Big Push because of insanity: "How could you spot one madman in the middle of all this?". This is actually (don't you worry) leading somewhere, because, in defiance to the obvious point that one oughtn't to highlight the bravery of one National Hunt jockey when they are all brave, I'm going to give particular praise to Peter Toole, who rode for us at Stratford yesterday (after the meeting had finally been given the go-ahead at 1 pm when the frost from the previous night's minus 8 had finally come out of the ground).

I didn't know Peter Toole before yesterday but, notwithstanding the fact that the horse (She Is A Cracker) ran poorly, I was delighted by his service. He excelled for two reasons. Firstly, he obeyed his instructions (to settle her on the inside just behind the leaders) to the letter - and the lesson of many years of racing horses is that finding a jockey who will consistently do that is easier said than done - and so the fact was that the mare ran badly despite the ride, rather than (as is sometimes the case) because of it. Secondly, he showed courage well beyond the call of duty to fulfill his commitment to take the ride. He was badly kicked at the start of a previous race and was only able to take the ride after grinning and bearing it when assessed by the doctor, who had just finished putting several stitches into his leg just below the knee. Riding the horse was clearly very painful for him (and the thought of falling under those circumstances would have been truly off-putting) but one wouldn't have known that from the way he rode her. Unsurprisingly the knee has blown up badly overnight and he is now signed off for a few days - it wouldn't surprise me if some of the stitches had torn during the race - but not only did he show great courage to ride our mare, he rode her as if he was in peak condition. He is surely a jockey of whom we are going to hear a lot more. (Mind you, we shouldn't be surprised, because he showed both courage and horsemanship in 'Lawrence of Arabia').

Plaudits should also be given to some of our friends from down under following the last few days' racing. Particular praise should go to Patrick Payne (pictured here with the redoubtable Statistician on his visit to Europe a dozen or so years ago) for saddling the quinella in the Adelaide Cup, thus achieving the rare feat of having won that big race as both trainer and jockey, having ridden the George Hanlon-trained Our Pompeii to win it in 1994, at the principal expense of Tony Kneebone's mare Sweet Glory. The winner Capecover (who descends from Slip Anchor's dam Sayonara and who thus provided a triumph special to myself and the others who were lucky to be able regularly to pick the brains and enjoy the friendship of the late Leslie Harrison, former long-time stud manager for Slip Anchor's owner/breeder Lord Howard de Walden) was ridden by Steven Arnold who, to my untutored eye, has taken on the mantle formerly held by Patrick of being the best jockey in Australia, while Patrick's younger sister Michelle rode the runner-up Kerdem, on whom she had finished second in the same race 12 months previously. So, if that was a good afternoon's work for Michelle and her brother, the day proved even more productive for another of the Aussie hoops whom we had riding out here last summer, Clare Lindop (pictured here on Douchkette) who rode a Group Two winner (Majestic Music) and a Group Three winner (dear old Augusta Proud, on whom she had won the Magic Millions Classic two seasons ago) on the same card. So that was all really nice. As was the racing in Melbourne at Flemington two days previously on 'Super Saturday', not that one would necessarily have described the day as being 'really nice' had one been caught in the storm there. Happily the Newmarket Handicap was able to be run (just) before the storm broke, enabling a colt who I really hope will come to Europe this summer, Wanted, to land his first Group One success. He's a lovely horse and it would be lovely to see him here, along with his regular rival Starspangledbanner, who should be heading for Ballydoyle shortly. The day was already going well thanks to the Sires' Produce victory of Shamrocker, in whom our friend Lawrence Wadey has a share, and the Kewney victory of Faint Perfume, the Oaks-winning daughter of my favourite young stallion Shamardal, and Peter Moody's post-race interview after the Newmarket was the icing on the cake. When we were in Victoria in January last year we were lucky enough to spend a few hours one morning with one of the state's more brahmatic trainers, Quinton Scott (pictured above, holding Stoneage Romeo while Joff Dumas looks on), at Cranbourne. A large part of Quinny's business is pre-training horses for Peter Moody, and when we were there he had Riva San (pictured right), winner of the previous season's Queensland Oaks/Queensland Derby double, in the stable. It was good to see her then - and on Saturday it was equally pleasing to hear Peter Moody give much of the credit for the win to Quinny and his team, saying that Wanted had spent the week since his last run down at Quinny's property, living in the field and jumping a few logs. That was really nice to hear - and it would have been even nicer to have been able to show up at Quinny's stable the next morning and spend a few hours hearing all about it!