Money and mud

It would have been nice to be at Nad Al Sheba racecourse last Saturday to see the burly, majestic Curlin obliterate the pretenders to his crown as the best racehorse in the world and saunter away with the Dubai World Cup. We only see quality like that once in a decade.

Instead I was at Newbury, watching mud-splashed jockeys retreating thankfully to the weighing room like fighter pilots after a sortie, and soaking racegoers clustering ineffectually under blown-out umbrellas as the rain drove in from every angle. I was going to remark that it does not take a $20-million card for jumping folk to enjoy themselves. It is the sheer good-fellowship of the winter sport that warms the heart.

But, watching the racing folk queuing to congratulate the ever-approachable Oliver Sherwood after his double on the Newbury card with Caribou in the Ladbrokes Chase and the gutsy top-weight Jaunty Flight in the Mares Only National Hunt Novices’ Hurdle Final, I had to reflect how money is increasingly affecting the winter game too.

Oliver and Tarnya run one of the friendliest of jumping yards. Half a dozen past Cheltenham Festival winners testify to his ability to prepare good horses. But like many others in the upper middle ranks, Oliver has not found it as easy to pick up a string of top races in recent years, thanks simply to racing demographics.

Just before Cheltenham, I discussed with Oliver, for a study in another publication, what you have to spend these days to find a Festival winner. There were, he said, essentially three choices: ‘You can buy an unraced horse, a slow-developing “store horse” bred for jumping and chosen by its physical presence and pedigree, hoping that it will make the grade.