Painful progress
Robin Oakley
If I had been a horse last Saturday you wouldn't have taken me out of my box. A back spasm had me pretty sore and nearly rigid. But at the moment the enthusiast takes his racing anywhere he can get it. It is wonderful what you can do with Ibuprofen, the prospect of an eight-race card and a couple of stiff ones on arrival at the course. In the end it was only my wallet which was feeling sore. But with the course like a quagmire and the first three races confined to military amateurs there were others too quite clearly feeling the pain.
The horses in the first race may have got two-and-a-half miles: few of their riders did. Winning the race on Secret Streams, Simon Sporborg travelled nearly as far sideways as forwards after the last as his mount, seemingly intent on joining the bookies' ring, headed for the stands until they met the running rail. On the third, Genetic George, Officer Cadet J. Snowden was performing the equestrian equivalent of running on the spot as the gelding slowed to a walk before the post. I am in no position to criticise. I would have trouble riding a bicycle round the corner to Sam Prashar's Kennington newsagent's shop. And in the second race, the Barclays Handicap Hurdle, the experienced Major 011ie Ellwood rode a copybook race. He had the nerve to keep the Queen Mother's Bella Macrae covered up at the back even when the leader, It's Wallace, went 15 lengths clear coming up from the railway end and then timed his run perfectly to coast to a popular win in the presence of the royal owner.
Henry Norton, who rode King's Mistral to a surprise 33-1 victory in the Alvis Grand Military Gold Cup, showed the value of fitness. Since returning from duty as second in command of B Squadron Light Dragoons at Banja Luca in Bosnia in the autumn, he has ridden out whenever he could and worked on the rowing machine in the gym three times a week to strengthen his legs. In these amateur races the serious punter needs to know as much about the rider's performance out of the saddle as about the horse's performance under one. Henry Norton's victory was a nice consolation for Basingstoke trainer Patrick Chamings who had been working King's Mistral all winter with the talented Golden Eagle, who was sadly killed when brought down at Ludlow recently.
The three amateur races confirmed the gulf between what the world of cricket used to refer to as gentlemen and players. But one amateur who has closed the gap this season and will shortly acknowledge that by turning pro is the chunky little Ben Hitchcott, who won the day's big prize, the Sunderlands Imperial Cup, with a coolly professional ride on Dina Smith's five-yearold Ibal. If the 16-1 price made that a popular win with the bookies it was one greeted with enthusiasm too by anybody with a racing memory.
In the 1980s Dina Smith trained plenty of winners, taking the Triumph Hurdle, for example, with Shiny Copper. But then the recession struck, the winner rate slowed and the pressures increased. As she puts it: 'It wasn't working out. It was time to stop. So we did.' Last year, owner Tony Hayward persuaded her that the millennium made it time to have another go and after an 11-year gap, 'long enough for the children to grow up', she renewed her licence. With just seven horses she has already had a winner on the flat and two with Ibal. 'It's unbelievable,' she said of the Imperial Cup victory. 'He does go in the ground. No horse actually likes it but he does act on It.
There were other significant victories at Sandown too. Richard Phillips may still be searching for new premises with J.P. McManus having bought the famous Jackdaws Castle before he had completed a year there, but he is not letting that distract him. The gutsy victory for his Picket Piece in the handicap chase was Richard's 21st of this much interrupted season. Given a decent horse or two, he will make his mark in the training ranks as well as on the afterdinner circuit. Unless the handicapper has a bad kipper for breakfast Picket Piece should score again.
And longer term there were other performances to note at Sandown. Henrietta Knight was all smiles after Delayed had won the Special Cargo novices chase. The mare had taken to jumping fences like a duck to water, she said. But she also declared that she adored One Nation, a decent fourth in the Imperial Cup: 'He is our chaser for next year.' From the woman who was excited by Best Mate even before he saw a racecourse that is advice worth taking. And Nicky Henderson was excited too after Irish Hussar, with the aid of a penalty, had landed the bumper by eight lengths from Noel Chance's talented Beethoven. 'This is very nice,' he said, including the Supreme Leader gelding in his batch of promising youngsters for next season.
Sandown's atmosphere, despite the quality of the racing, was strangely muted, all of us aware that the continuance of racing cannot be certain. Should we be racing even now? I still think so. Many livelihoods are at stake. There is no compensation for trainers forced out of business by a lack of racing and as Christopher Sporborg, farmer, owner and trainer of Secret Streams, put it: 'If you believe the science, the chance of a foot-and-mouth infection on a properly regulated racecourse is not negligible, it is non-existent. Everything else is about emotion and there is no reason to destroy the racing industry just to make the farmers feel better.'
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