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The Turf

Robin Oakley

Wednesday, 6th August 2008

Where there’s a will . . .

Observing a short-eared owl beating over the marshes like a huge, predatory moth, an osprey finishing off the fish meal he had snatched a few minutes before from Loch Don, an otter carrying home his supper across a rippling inlet were highlights of a few days on the Isle of Mull this week. But the most illuminating moment was watching a kestrel twisting and diving in aerial combat with a buzzard.

The buzzard was three times his size but it was the smaller raptor who performed the aerobatic equivalent of kicking sand in the big fella’s face. Finally the buzzard flapped off with weary wingbeats as if to say, ‘OK, OK, if this patch matters that much to you...’

In taking on the big boys confidence is crucial, and on a visit to Gerard Butler’s new racing base a few days before I had seen the same jaw-jutting determination as that kestrel displayed. Previously a salaried trainer operating from Erik Penser’s Churn Estate on the Oxfordshire Downs, Gerard has now set up on his own in Cadland Stables at the foot of Warren Hill in Newmarket, within a stone’s throw of Sir Mark Prescott’s Heath House yard.

Wasn’t it a bit daunting, I asked him, on setting out on your own operation to move straight to ‘Headquarters’ in competition for owners with the likes of Sir Michael Stoute, Michael Jarvis and Luca Cumani? There was not a moment’s hesitation as he replied, ‘This is the place to be. If you want to make movies you’ve got to go to Los Angeles. If you want class football you go to Wembley. If you want to make it in racing you come to Newmarket. This is the hub of it all. This is where it happens.’

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