Some alien force keeps attacking my laptop. Every few seconds my anti-virus security system pings me with an audible warning of attempted forced entry, a process which paralyses all thought and makes working in a library impossible. It clearly isn’t a hacker from the News of the World, so who could it be? My wildest surmise, rapidly dismissed by a sceptical Mrs Oakley, was that after the success of last winter’s Twelve to Follow some crazed punter is trying to get at my sources of information. With what I lost at Royal Ascot this year, good luck to him, although it has to be said that the Flat Twelve aren’t doing too badly. Both David Simcock’s Shamardal Phantom and Mark Johnston’s Halifax have won at 4–1, and the victory which pleased me especially was that of William Haggas’s Green Destiny, who took the John Smith’s Cup at York at 6–1, and was available at 8–1 that morning.
In racing loyalty, otherwise known as chasing your losses, is usually expensive and Green Destiny was my biggest bet at Ascot when he flopped completely. I had been so captivated, though, by the manner of his earlier victory at Newmarket that I stuck with him and even got the early price. If only I had done the same at Newbury on Saturday with Andrew Balding’s Charles The Great, another of my Ascot fancies who had failed to deliver in the Norfolk Stakes.
One of three runners in the Weatherby’s Super Sprint for horses bought at the sales for less than £50,500, Charles The Great made virtually all the running to collect the £98,000 first prize for one of Nick Robinson’s Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds syndicates, who had three runners in the race. His price was a tasty 25–1, but alas I had not this time kept the faith. Ridden by Jimmy Fortune, Charles The Great held on by a short head.
Explaining the horse’s improved showing, Andrew said, ‘He got a bit crowded in the Norfolk. He is a horse who likes a bit of daylight. He likes to bowl along and it may be that we restrained him too much there.’ He was pleased to win for the Kennet Valley team for whom he once trained the useful Firebreak because, as he said, ‘They had a horse with me even before I had a training licence, one of my first owners. They have been extremely loyal and supportive.’ Loyalty, too, has paid off for Andrew, who picked up on a long association with Jimmy Fortune when he was discarded as John Gosden’s stable jockey and has given him plenty of good rides since. They don’t have a formal retainer and the yard has the useful young David Probert riding for them, too, but it has been a fruitful partnership. Incidentally, another of the Kennet Valley syndicates may have an ever better prospect in the Richard Hannon-trained Redact, who finished like a train in fourth. Jockey Ryan Moore told connections that Redact is potentially a Group class horse.
The Weatherby’s race was a treat for the Newbury crowd who had mostly braved monsoons on the way and yet enjoyed a mostly sunny afternoon on which a string of favourites won. One of them, one of two winning rides for Moore, was the four-year-old Heavenly Dawn, owned by the Cheveley Park Stud and trained by Sir Michael Stoute, who took the fillies handicap. She is a great big strapping wench of a filly, definitely not an Audrey Hepburn, more a Jennifer Lopez with a backside on her to match. At more than 16 hands she has had to be given time to grow into her frame and has been very lightly raced so far, a typical example of the kind of horse the Stoute team bring along so well. I noticed she was blowing quite hard after her victory and she is likely to come on for the race.
Talking of slower developers, I was much struck at Newmarket the week before by the northern jockey Barry McHugh, who bravely carried out the tactics planned by owner Marwan Koukash and trainer Richard Fahey. When all the other runners bunched in the middle of the track he stuck to the stand rail and raced alone to come home the winner on Brae Hill. ‘What was the point of getting unbalanced and losing ground by moving over?’ he said afterwards. And, realising the opportunity he had been given after a Saturday winner on TV, he told every interviewer in sight, ‘Perhaps these southern trainers will realise now that there’s a few of us up north who can ride a race, too.’ Some might, since other trainers were visibly upset by jockeys who had failed to note the better ground up the rail. Barry McHugh didn’t ride out his claim until last year and is now 28 but here is a jockey with his head screwed on who can be relied upon not to panic. He deserves those chances down south.
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