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The Turf

Robin Oakley

Wednesday, 6th February 2008

Robin Oakley surveys the turf

A straight answer is always the best one as we were reminded at Sandown on Saturday when Straw Bear, a potential Champion Hurdle fancy owned by J.P. McManus and trained by Nick Gifford, was beaten by Nicky Henderson’s Afsoun. Why the failure? we inquired. Often in such circumstances, with an edgy owner standing by, you get a load of old flannel about the unsuitable going, a wrongly paced race or a hiccup in the horse’s preparation. From Nick, with JP’s racing manager Frank Berry standing by, the response was admirably candid. ‘He was beaten by a better horse on the day. He came to win his race and didn’t. We were outstayed.’

Winning trainer Nicky Henderson was equally straight, admitting that Afsoun gets too keyed up before his races. He will have to take his chance in the Champion Hurdle now, says Nicky, but he warned openly that, with the massive crowds and the drawn-out preliminaries, ‘Cheltenham gets to him’.

Jockey Paddy Brennan, who has been catching the eye this season with some beautifully judged rides and an outstanding record on novice chasers, is another whose candour is refreshing.

At only 26, Brennan has packed in useful experience with a range of top stables. He began with Jim Bolger in Ireland and had his first winner fewer than ten years ago at Gowran Park. When he became too heavy for the Flat, he moved to Britain and joined Paul Nicholls as a conditional. He went on to Paul’s Somerset rival Philip Hobbs where he worked his way up to be no. 2 to Richard Johnson. Then came the big break race-goers had been anticipating: an offer to be first jockey to Howard Johnson and his free-spending millionaire owner Graham Wylie in the north when the yard mysteriously dispensed with the services of leading northern rider Graham Lee.

That brought the first big thrill of Brennan’s career, riding Inglis Drever to win the World Hurdle at last year’s Cheltenham Festival (though he had had his first Festival winner on the 40–1 shot Shamayoun in the Fred Winter Hurdle). But, equally surprisingly after their regular successes together, Paddy’s contract with Howard Johnson was not renewed after the first year. He remains as puzzled as the rest of us, saying only that ‘Howard is Howard’ and that Graham Wylie is a ‘true gentleman to ride for’. ‘Putting those colours on made me feel good about myself.’ But it is typical of such a focused young rider that Paddy goes on to say, ‘I learnt more in that year than I had in the rest of my racing career.’ Why? ‘Because I was riding better horses in better races and even when I was making mistakes I was making them on good horses. It teaches you a lot.’