As political editor of the BBC I once had to appear on the Today programme just after the 7 a.m. news to discuss the passing of an MP who had tragically died experimenting with auto-eroticism. Two minutes before we went on air I was still engaged in a conference call with BBC executives anxious as to whether I would mention the women’s stockings he was wearing or the orange in his mouth. I never had such interference when I was reporting on political skulduggery: what concerns BBC managers is ‘image’ and whether the Corporation might finish up in the newspapers.
Similar thinking has had much to do with the BBC’s pathetic surrendering of its coverage of major horse races such as the Grand National and Royal Ascot. BBC Sport executives, who know nothing about horseracing and care less, have been whittling down the Beeb’s coverage of the sport, which has an audience second only to football. It had already been cut to a mere 13 days a year, next year it will fall to zero. Never mind that we racing lovers are like everyone else subject to the BBC ‘poll tax’ that the TV licence represents. Our sport is no longer to be carried on the national broadcasting system, largely so that those BBC panjandrums will be spared embarrassment if a horse ever happens to die in the course of its coverage. Never mind that in the likes of Clare Balding the BBC had top-rate racing presenters, the BBC’s negotiation for its remaining few fixtures lacked credibility, effort or any sense of realism. They simply weren’t trying.
It is not that Channel 4 is in any way lacking: the likes of Alastair Down, Alice Plunkett and John Francome communicate brilliantly their passion for the sport. It is just that there should be diversity in the coverage of racing and our national broadcaster should be part of it.
The BBC’s abject surrender overshadowed a wonderful Cheltenham Festival. We sometimes forget as Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls rack up their totals of Festival winners that former jockey Jonjo O’Neill fires in two or three Festival winners most years as well, particularly in the staying chases. His success in the Gold Cup with Synchronised, whom most of us had wrongly categorised as the sort of worthy plodder whose successes would be confined to a Welsh Grand National, was glorious confirmation of that. It was confirmation, too, of the extraordinary talent of ‘AP’ Tony McCoy. No other jockey riding would have managed to keep Synchronised in close enough touch to go on and win it up the hill as he did.
My only sorrow was that we did not get another ‘Norton’s Coin’ result in the shape of victory for David Bridgwater’s 50–1 second The Giant Bolster, especially for Tom Scudamore, his rider, who is one of the most approachable and articulate characters in the weighing room today.
Tom’s grandfather Michael rode Oxo to win a Grand National and his father Peter, the former champion jockey, rode 1,678 winners. It hasn’t been so easy for Tom to scale those heights because David Pipe’s yard doesn’t have quite the same firepower as when David Johnson had squadrons of horses there. But he has still racked up big winners in races like the Hennessy Gold Cup, the Victor Chandler Chase and the Long Walk Hurdle (with his old favourite Lough Derg).
While stars such as Ruby Walsh and Barry Geraghty fly in from Ireland to partner the superstars for Nicholls and Henderson, Tom, who has been stable jockey now for six years, is there much of the time riding work and schooling David’s young horses, helping to shape their careers. ‘It’s a straightforward relationship: all the decisions are with him but we consult about a lot of things. Like Jason Maguire with Donald McCain we are similar ages and have known each other for a long time. I rode for him when he was point-to-pointing. When he took over the yard he told me I would be getting a few rides and within six months I was made stable jockey.’
Some riders pass you on the weighing-room steps ashen-faced and agonised; Tom usually has a smile and a word. When he won on The Giant Bolster at Cheltenham in January his two little daughters joined in the photo as if it was a family day out. So is there no sense of strain? ‘Oh, there’s probably plenty of paddling underneath but I don’t feel any outside pressures. It does help when you know exactly how you want to ride. I am always sure of what I want to do.’
With the Pipes that often means riding a race from in front. ‘The horses are always fit and well and they don’t like giving away track position. I’ll do what gives us the best chance of winning races and most of the time that means playing to our strengths — they are fit, they are tough and they jump well.’
For all that obvious, and necessary, confidence Tom does confess to the habit that drives jockeys’ wives wild. When his grandad rode a National winner jockeys were lucky if they saw themselves on film once a year on the Pathé News. Now they can all press the DVD rewind button 20 times a night to analyse how they might have done better. As Tom says, ‘You’ve got to do it. At the end of the day it’s not a game: it’s your livelihood.’
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