Terrific

That was terrific. Kadouchski won the two-miler at Folkestone today, and in doing so he provided Hannah with her first winner, on her tenth ride and three days after her 17th birthday. That was just lovely, and I hope that these photographs, starting with one of Kadou passing the post with one circuit to go, give a flavour of the victory. I believe and hope that that will prove to have been the first of many winners for Hannah, but I am sure that this victory will always remain special - because as of now it is very special indeed. Hannah must have been feeling a degree of pressure because Kadou was a horse who looked as if he really ought to win, notwithstanding the surprising fact that he didn't start favourite. However, beforehand I emphasised that, whether a mount is a hot favourite or a 100/1 shot, the task is still the same: just get from A to B as efficiently as possible, and if the horse is good enough he will win (and if he isn't, he won't). The rider doesn't have to do anything either better or worse on the favourite or on the outsider - and to move from the general to the specific, she only had to do exactly what she had done on him at Kempton 15 days ago. If she did that, he would probably win; and if she did that and he didn't win, it would simply be that he wasn't good enough, just as at Kempton when he finished second.

I was interviewed before the race today on ATR by Gina Bryce, and after the interview I was rather kicking myself that I must have come across as very confident. And I'm never confident because we've seen all too many occasions when horses appear very likely to win but do not win. But basically Kadouchski is bang in form, as his run of consistently good runs, Flat and National Hunt, has demonstrated; while there wasn't one of his out-of-form opponents who could be seriously fancied to beat him. The Racing Post had Kadou in as the 2/1 favourite and Astrovenus, Seb Sanders' mount, as the 4/1 second favourite. I felt that if Kadou were ridden by a former champion jockey and Astrovenus by an unknown 7-lb claimer, then he would have been put in at even money or shorter, and Astrovenus at 6/1. As it was, Astrovenus went off the 9/4 favourite with Kadou as the 5/2 second favourite. But that's punters for you: the identity of the rider is always deemed to be a major factor, when in fact it is completely irrelevant. What matters is not who the rider is, but how well he or she rides the horse in that particular race - and when the rider does everything right, as Hannah did both today and 15 days ago, then it makes no difference whether people have heard of her or not. But hopefully a few people will have heard of her now, and just to try to give a few minds a jog I will reproduce part of the analysis of the race from the Racing Post's results: "However, one thing is quite clear, 7lb claimer Hannah Nunn looks a rider to follow after she steered Kadouchski to a comfortable victory. She did everything right, not panicking when she met some trouble in running, and was tidy in the finish while using her whip effectively. The horse doesn't race on the Flat very often on turf and wasn't easy to fancy (sic) for a few reasons (only Flat win came on the AW off a mark of 48, and wins over hurdles came with some ease in the ground), but he was full value for his success." On the subject of the ground, by the way, it is worth pointing out that the ground was very close to good at Folkestone today. The track has an undeserved reputation for providing very firm ground in the summer (which probably explains why there were only 36 runners today) but such a reputation can only be in the minds of those who haven't set foot on it this century: it is, and has been for several years, generally very well maintained, and generally provides better ground than most other courses, Flat or National Hunt.

So that was all lovely. Mind you, the real key to the race probably wasn't Kadouchski's merit and genuineness, nor Hannah's riding, but the fact that Gus came along. His presence had done the trick for Frankie (Douchkirk) and for Nigel (Must You Go) at Stratford and Market Rasen respectively, but he had been absent more recently when both Frankie and Batgirl had run well, finishing third, without winning. But he was back on course today, and that probably proved decisive. So you won't be at all surprised to hear that he is booked in for a trip to the July Course tomorrow afternoon when we take Batgirl up there. Tough race, so we best give ourselves every help we can!