Robin Oakley

The turf | 25 May 2017

If Litigant can win the Ebor again it will be one of the training feats of the decade

issue 27 May 2017

Most racehorse trainers, those at least who didn’t have a legacy from Aunt Agatha to lubricate their way into the business, have attended the School of Hard Knocks, their tutors including some famously celebrated deliverers of colourful reprimands. Think Gordon W. Richards or Barry Hills. Having worked for Jenny Pitman and served eight years as assistant to the seemingly almost permanently incandescent Mick Channon, Joe Tuite, a Lambourn trainer in his own right since 2010, probably has the ultimate degree in bollockings. He was one of five stable lads who on one famous occasion misheard Jenny Pitman’s instructions. They galloped the horses a mile further than she had intended, thinking that the anguished arm-flapping and the steam rising from her ears as they passed was merely a warning to avoid a hole in the ground, although he points out with a grin that four of the five came out and won two days later.

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