My nomination for hero(ine) of the week is easy: Lanwades Stud principal Kirsten Rausing. I both like and respect Kirsten, who presides over a lovely, well-run stud at which she stands my favourite stallion Hernando (pictured last November, with Selkirk looking on) as well as the excellent Selkirk and the very promising young sires Sir Percy and Archipenko. She has also been the only breeder to stand a son of Sunday Silence in Britain, which raises her further in my estimation, and she has also bred some really good horses: one can pay no higher tribute to her than by saying that Alcalde, of whom I think the world, is far from the best horse she has bred, which is understandable when one considers that her proteges include the likes of the wonderful racemare Alborada, as well as Fame And Glory (whom she co-bred).
Kirsten also does and has done great work in a lot of other areas, including for the TBA - and also in organising the Nell Gwyn sponsorship in memory of her and our late friend Leslie Harrison (who would have been even more saddened than we were last week that his lovely Derby-winning child Slip Anchor - pictured in May last year - had finally shuffled off this mortal coil at the grand old age of 29). However, Kirsten last week posted arguably her greatest achievement to date: she managed to brow-beat Sir Mark Prescott into running a 77-rated horse in a Group One race! I suspect that in the fullness of time her filly Albamara (who is by Galileo from Alborada's Group One-winning sister Albanova) will indeed prove up to Group One standard - but, even so, persuading Sir Mark that her filly should run in a Group One race while possessing a 77 rating really would have been easier said than done!
Which brings us nicely on to our trip to Haydock yesterday, where the aforementioned Alcalde (pictured after the race with Rab Havlin) ran a very nice race on his first start since the spring and in his first Flat race for this stable. I'd been happy with his work and his all-round development and demeanour, so I hoped that he'd run well. And he did: he wasn't placed, but he didn't finish too far behind the placed horses. If this lovely Indian summer (which seems to have settled over the south east, if not the rest of the country) does not make the track too firm, he can run in the Cesarewitch 13 days hence. But if the Rowley Mile is as firm for that as it was yesterday, then we probably ought
to have a re-think, and he could either run in another Flat race in the turf season's dying weeks or go straight back over hurdles. Either way, his resumption was encouraging - which isn't a word one could use about Batgirl's run at Wolverhampton yesterday evening. Batgirl, pictured cantering to post on a pleasantly warm night under Tom McLaughlin, still looks tremendous (she won her third best-turned-out prize of the season yesterday, which is remarkable bearing in mind that, as far as I am aware, only three such prizes have been won by this stable in 17 seasons, those three being her prizes this season) but she's been up a long time now (she won first up in April) so I think that she can be excused for having decided that she is now due a break. So no harm was done, even if it was a very poor run.
No review of yesterday's racing would be complete without my saying how pleased I was to see that Marc Halford had ridden Dick Doughtywylie at Chester. There are many very good things about John Gosden's stable, one of them being the fact that he keeps his riding in-house wherever possible. He has an excellent stable jockey (William Buick) and excellent second jockey (Rab Havlin) and then Nicky Mackay, Saleem Golam and Marc Halford on the team too. He is very good to his lower-profile jockeys, whose job is principally work-riding, and he uses them whenever possible. He has completely resurrected Nicky's career, and now Marc (pictured, second left, alongside Nicky in the string back in the summer) can thank him for giving him a kick-start too: yesterday's victory was Marc's first of the season, and it would have been very easy for John to put a more obvious, outside rider on the horse (who is a half-brother to the stable's Lancashire Oaks winner
Gertrude Bell, who is named after a relative of Lord Derby - strange but, I believe, true). So Marc is one low-profile jockey riding out for a stable down the far end of the Bury Road - and another who deserves to be mentioned in dispatches is Julian Gadsby, who I have been pleased to see appear in Clive Brittain's string. Julian (pictured on one of Clive's horses in the Bury Road last week) was in the UK a few years ago. I seem to remember him riding a bit for Lynda Ramsden when she was training in Yorkshire, and then he was in Newmarket for a while, riding for Ben Hanbury. He was starting to get going in a small way as a jockey, and I remember him getting very good reviews for winning on a horse trained by Stuart Williams in a decent handicap at Chester. However, he then headed overseas and I hadn't seen him for several years until he reappeared in Clive's string recently. Whether he's in the UK for good now I don't know (he is South African, I believe the son of the good jockey Paul Gadsby, who I believe was apprenticed to our late friend Fred Rickaby) and I don't know whether he'll be race-riding again, but it's good to see him back. As Marc proved yesterday, good riders can't be written off - they just need a break.
My nomination for hero(ine) of the week is easy: Lanwades Stud principal Kirsten Rausing. I both like and respect Kirsten, who presides over a lovely, well-run stud at which she stands my favourite stallion Hernando (pictured last November, with Selkirk looking on) as well as the excellent Selkirk and the very promising young sires Sir Percy and Archipenko. She has also been the only breeder to stand a son of Sunday Silence in Britain, which raises her further in my estimation, and she has also bred some really good horses: one can pay no higher tribute to her than by saying that Alcalde, of whom I think the world, is far from the best horse she has bred, which is understandable when one considers that her proteges include the likes of the wonderful racemare Alborada, as well as Fame And Glory (whom she co-bred). 
Kirsten also does and has done great work in a lot of other areas, including for the TBA - and also in organising the Nell Gwyn sponsorship in memory of her and our late friend Leslie Harrison (who would have been even more saddened than we were last week that his lovely Derby-winning child Slip Anchor - pictured in May last year - had finally shuffled off this mortal coil at the grand old age of 29). However, Kirsten last week posted arguably her greatest achievement to date: she managed to brow-beat Sir Mark Prescott into running a 77-rated horse in a Group One race! I suspect that in the fullness of time her filly Albamara (who is by Galileo from Alborada's Group One-winning sister Albanova) will indeed prove up to Group One standard - but, even so, persuading Sir Mark that her filly should run in a Group One race while possessing a 77 rating really would have been easier said than done!
Which brings us nicely on to our trip to Haydock yesterday, where the aforementioned Alcalde (pictured after the race with Rab Havlin) ran a very nice race on his first start since the spring and in his first Flat race for this stable. I'd been happy with his work and his all-round development and demeanour, so I hoped that he'd run well. And he did: he wasn't placed, but he didn't finish too far behind the placed horses. If this lovely Indian summer (which seems to have settled over the south east, if not the rest of the country) does not make the track too firm, he can run in the Cesarewitch 13 days hence. But if the Rowley Mile is as firm for that as it was yesterday, then we probably ought 
to have a re-think, and he could either run in another Flat race in the turf season's dying weeks or go straight back over hurdles. Either way, his resumption was encouraging - which isn't a word one could use about Batgirl's run at Wolverhampton yesterday evening. Batgirl, pictured cantering to post on a pleasantly warm night under Tom McLaughlin, still looks tremendous (she won her third best-turned-out prize of the season yesterday, which is remarkable bearing in mind that, as far as I am aware, only three such prizes have been won by this stable in 17 seasons, those three being her prizes this season) but she's been up a long time now (she won first up in April) so I think that she can be excused for having decided that she is now due a break. So no harm was done, even if it was a very poor run.
No review of yesterday's racing would be complete without my saying how pleased I was to see that Marc Halford had ridden Dick Doughtywylie at Chester. There are many very good things about John Gosden's stable, one of them being the fact that he keeps his riding in-house wherever possible. He has an excellent stable jockey (William Buick) and excellent second jockey (Rab Havlin) and then Nicky Mackay, Saleem Golam and Marc Halford on the team too. He is very good to his lower-profile jockeys, whose job is principally work-riding, and he uses them whenever possible. He has completely resurrected Nicky's career, and now Marc (pictured, second left, alongside Nicky in the string back in the summer) can thank him for giving him a kick-start too: yesterday's victory was Marc's first of the season, and it would have been very easy for John to put a more obvious, outside rider on the horse (who is a half-brother to the stable's Lancashire Oaks winner
Gertrude Bell, who is named after a relative of Lord Derby - strange but, I believe, true). So Marc is one low-profile jockey riding out for a stable down the far end of the Bury Road - and another who deserves to be mentioned in dispatches is Julian Gadsby, who I have been pleased to see appear in Clive Brittain's string. Julian (pictured on one of Clive's horses in the Bury Road last week) was in the UK a few years ago. I seem to remember him riding a bit for Lynda Ramsden when she was training in Yorkshire, and then he was in Newmarket for a while, riding for Ben Hanbury. He was starting to get going in a small way as a jockey, and I remember him getting very good reviews for winning on a horse trained by Stuart Williams in a decent handicap at Chester. However, he then headed overseas and I hadn't seen him for several years until he reappeared in Clive's string recently. Whether he's in the UK for good now I don't know (he is South African, I believe the son of the good jockey Paul Gadsby, who I believe was apprenticed to our late friend Fred Rickaby) and I don't know whether he'll be race-riding again, but it's good to see him back. As Marc proved yesterday, good riders can't be written off - they just need a break.
2 comments:
As you know John, there are lots of under rated jockeys who just need a bit of luck and they have the ability to ride lots of winners,
I think James Doyle is a very good jockey who is getting used by a few trainers now and he should have a good aw winter.
great blog as ever, any future runners?
thanks
Ian
Ethics Girl runs on Thursday. Other entries might be dependent on the ground not being too firm, which could be an issue during the current Indian summer. That's not a problem for her, though: she loves fast ground.
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