A vicar at a wedding I was at last week told of a driver who broke down with a lorryload of penguins. He flagged down another lorry and offered its driver £100 to deliver his consignment promptly to the zoo. His own vehicle repaired, he was alarmed when he got to town a few hours later to see 50 penguins marching across a zebra crossing. He berated the other driver. ‘I thought I told you to take them to the zoo,’ he said. ‘I did,’ came the reply, ‘but that was hours ago. There was still money left from your £100, so now I am taking them to the cinema.’
I, too, sometimes have trouble fulfilling my instructions from the saintly Mrs Oakley, who asked me, en route back from Goodwood, to stop at Sainsbury’s for olive oil. ‘What kind?’ ‘Surely you know, the one we always have.’ A doddle, of course, for a trained observer…had I not found myself confronted with a choice between not only Spanish, Italian and Greek, but also standard or extra virgin. Not only that, you could have them flavoured with garlic, chilli, basil or rosemary, even before you looked at the ‘organic unfiltered’ version and something called ‘cold pressed unfiltered extra virgin’. I tried an each-way bet, bought two and didn’t get it right with either…
Choice in the 27-runner Stewards’ Cup had proved easier. I forgave Kevin Ryan’s Mutamared his poor run at Ascot and stuck with him each way at 14–1. He ran a cracker and even though he was stopped in his run he was beaten by just a neck by Borderlescott. As Kevin said afterwards, ‘There has to be a big one in him.’ And neither of us begrudged Borderlescott’s biggest ever success for the amiable Robin Bastiman, a Wetherby trainer with just 14 horses in his yard.
The black-shirted Bastiman, who has more hair in his moustache than Frankie Dettori currently has on his head, bought the four-year-old for 13,000 guineas at the Doncaster Sales. ‘I liked the way he walked and I always think that if they can walk they can run. After that it depends if they’ve got an engine. I soon knew he was a good horse because I’ve got so many bad ones.’
A trainer for 35 years like his father before him, Robin Bastiman says, ‘It’s a way of life.’ He praises daughter Rebecca and son Harvey, insisting, ‘I’m just the tractor driver now.’ He was surprised, though, that James Edgar, one of the three Scottish owners, bought the horse in the first place. ‘It was blowing a gale and when I took him in the field the horse promptly head-butted him. But he hasn’t been out of the frame since then.’
Of Borderlescott, he says, ‘He’s so laid-back at home he doesn’t show me anything. But then you don’t want these buzzed-up, whizzy things, and when he goes out he really wants to win.’ Here’s hoping the success brings Robin Bastiman some of the extra ten horses he’d like.
Anybody who cares about great horses had to be at Goodwood because the ten-furlong Nassau Stakes was almost certainly our last chance to see the great Ouija Board in Britain. Lord Derby’s mare, who has been so astutely handled by Ed Dunlop, did us all proud, wringing every last drop of emotion from the crowd in a race against another world-travelled mare with a string of Group Ones on her CV, Jim Bolger’s Alexander Goldrun. Racing veterans rated it among one of the greatest races they had ever seen, some even making the comparison to Grundy v. Bustino.
Both mares looked glorious in the paddock, coats gleaming, ears pricked, intelligent eyes reflecting the experience of 35 world-class races between them. In the race the astute Frankie Dettori, back on board Ouija Board after her nightmare run in the Eclipse under Christophe Soumillon, had her, unusually, in the van from the start because he was determined not to be beaten in a sprint finish by specialist milers. Modestly he said afterwards, ‘She was the class horse in the race. I know she stays 12 furlongs and we took it to them. I am just glad that it worked out and I didn’t mess up.’
Frankie opened a gap when he committed his mare fully three furlongs from home. But then Alexander Goldrun, her white blaze prominent, pulled out from last place and flew. Two furlongs out the hope of Ireland was in front and looking likely to stay there. But with Dettori and Kevin Manning throwing everything into it both mares stuck their heads down and battled inch by inch to the line. Both had pace, neither lacked for courage. The classic duel had the crowd on tiptoe and strong men drained with spent emotion afterwards.
Ouija Board, applauded past the stands on her way to the post, was given three cheers when she came back. But so was Alexander Goldrun. As Jim Bolger said, ‘I’ve never heard such applause for a runner-up.’ Racing folk will be wearing out their replay buttons on this one for years to come.
With such excitements we should not gloss over Mark Johnston’s Goodwood achievements. He scored his fourth success of the week with Prince of Light. Like Crosspeace, who won on both occasions, Prince of Light, who led throughout, was running for the second time in the five-day meeting. Asked how he seemingly tutored his horses in tenacity and why they always seemed to battle on when faced by a challenge the ever-thoughtful Johnston replied, ‘It’s simple physics. The effort required for half a ton of horse to accelerate is huge. It often looks as though a horse is coming to catch ours, but ours is staying on again. What is really happening is that when a horse accelerates it is bound to slow down again. If the post doesn’t come soon enough it looks as though our horse is going away again when it’s only maintaining a level speed. The way to win a race is to cover the distance in the fastest time. The best way to do that is to run at an even pace.’ The stable motto of ‘always trying’ could not be more apt.
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