Utterly fruitless trip to Yarmouth in the week with Turn Of Phrase, but no lives were lost. Her work earlier in the month with Kryptos had been very good and I thought that she was entitled to run very well in that race, but she didn't. But if I haven't learnt to cope with disappointment by now, I never will. Hopefully that will prove to have been just a temporary setback. Time will tell. What was good about the trip, though, was seeing Harry Eustace's first winner. James was (well, is, except that he is no longer the trainer) everything that a trainer should be, and Harry is very much his father's son.
I was very pleased to see Harry's first winner (Coverham, returning to scale in the second photograph) and very pleased to note that he doubled his tally three days later when Astrogem, one of Mystic Meg's horses who came to the stable when Mark Tompkins retired, won at Doncaster. The timelessness of that second win is rather nice: Ryan Tate, whose father Jason rode for James for many years, rode him. I enjoyed seeing an even greater note of continuity the other day when I saw Michael Tebbutt in the string, 30 years on from when he was first riding for James. (He was James' jockey before Jason). There's something reassuring in those arrangements, as is the sight of James still riding around with his erstwhile string on his hack - and reassurance never goes amiss.
Aside from Harry, three other new or sort-of-new trainers have got off the mark recently so we're due for another installment of our local overview. Alice Haynes and Darryll Holland are in the former category, Sean Woods in the latter. Sean was a certainty to make a good start, having been so successful when he trained in Lagrange around the turn of the century, having spent so long as a trainer in Hong Kong and having been so thorough in getting his operation together in Shalfleet prior to beginning to have runners. He's currently two wins from seven runs, 29%.
Talking about percentages, Michael Stoute has had a great start to the season and is currently on figures for 2021 of 11 wins from 41 runs, ie 27%, but I think that Chris Dwyer is still top of the pile. Since resuming training towards the end of last year, he has had 33 runners for 10 wins (provided by seven of the 11 individual horses whom he has run) which equates to 30%. George Boughey is on 26 wins for the year from 102 runners, again a terrific strike-rate. (Stuart Williams has had so many winners in recent months that I don't have the energy to calculate his strike-rate.) We have commented previously on how well Mark Crehan has done since transferring to George and we can make that comment again. The fact that Mark rode a winner for Juddmonte and Michael Stoute the other day speaks volumes for how well he is going. And also on local apprentices, how nice it was to see Gavin Ashton get off the mark again since coming back to town (to Roger Varian).
I suppose we can't discuss local apprentices without mentioning Benoit De La Sayette's suspension. I don't envy the BHA having to decide how to play it with failed drugs tests by participants. Ideally we as a sport/community should have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs, but set against that is the principle that everyone deserves a second chance. Particularly young people. There are no easy answers, and there seem to be no easy answers as to how we can get it across to budding sportspeople that being a professional sportsperson and taking drugs is an 'either/or', but not a 'both', situation. You'd have hoped that with our jockey-coaching programme in place the message would be getting across, but disappointingly that does not seem to be the case.
The other story on which we ought to touch is the very quiet ride given to the narrowly-beaten Stowell at Lingfield. The most startling thing about this is how quickly the stewards' inquiry was concluded. I just don't understand that at all. Common sense should have dictated that when a horse is ridden like that, consulting with the betting industry to see if there were any identifiable 'unusual betting patterns' and with the exchanges to see whether there had been any noticeable laying of the horse should go without saying. It just wouldn't have been possible to do that in such a short time.
I would imagine that, had one done so, nothing unusual would have come to light, but that's no reason not to go through the motions. The only reasons not to do so would be if one had decided what conclusions the inquiry was going to reach before it took place, so that collecting evidence wouldn't achieve anything beyond demonstrating that the job was being taken seriously and that cases involving establishment figures are treated the same as those involving the more minor players. It might have been more tactful at least to pretend to investigate the matter thoroughly, even if the result was always going to be the same.
Oh yes, and before I finish, we should have one runner this week: Cloudy Rose (the chestnut in the final three photographs) at Yarmouth on Tuesday. We'll be having a Jason Tate / Ryan Tate moment as David Egan will ride her. David has obviously ridden for us previously but not since he took his career to the top level by riding the winner of the most valuable race in the world, ie on Mishriff in the Saudi Cup in February. It'll be great to have him on board and we'll be putting him up on a nice filly, even if she is one who has gone into the handicap rated more highly than I had expected and one whose ability to handle what is likely to be fairly fast ground has yet to be ascertained.
2 comments:
Hoping this finds you slightly less leaden hearted than no doubt you were. I was watching Brighton races this week and I swear there was a apparition on the wing of the field heading down the hill.
I was interested to read your views on the hands & heels incident regarding the Gosdens and Rab Havlin. Not sure if you will agree but you can imagine Gosden telling Rab not to get stuck in on the young, progressive Stowell and Frankie doing the minimum in order to win. That’s all fine and understandable and the way I would like my horses to be handled. BUT, and it’s a big one....what about the punter who paid out expecting the fullest exertion from his pick? ...and how much money was laid on the race?...and, as you say, why didn’t the BHA hold an enquiry as a minimum?
Surely this lack of governance leads to a lack of trust from the punter and reinforces the theorists who think racing is fixed. There are enough natural variables that distort form and performance without poor oversight from the governing body to give these fears foundation. Quite a dilemma. In this case surely Stowell should be banned and Gosden warned against training in public.
Thank you, David.
To my eyes, it didn't look a case of Rab riding as if he believed that the instructions had been to achieve his best possible position while not being any harder on his mount than necessary, and not using the whip. Surely he'd have won if he had been riding to such a brief? The only way I can understand him riding as he did would be if he believed that his instructions had been not to beat the stablemate, hard though it is to believe that such an instruction would have been given. The whole thing makes no sense.
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