The turf
Truth will out
Robin Oakley
Prhaps the time has finally come for me to confess as well. We all have our dark secrets, our youthful indiscretions, our moments of mistaken personal identity and I had mine, too. At a tender age we can all be unsure what we want to be, where our desires are pulling us. As with Mr Portillo's Peterhouse it was, perhaps, the ambience of my college that was to blame. And before I put myself forward as a potential syndicate head the skeleton has to be dragged out of the cupboard. The truth has to be told.
Brasenose being the sporting place which it was in my day and the elder brother of one of my friends being a dashing diplomat who turned up to take us out for a pint or two in the Shaven Crown at Shipton-under- Wychwood for a Cotswold pint or three in a very sporty Lancia, there was just a small period of my life when I thought I might want to be a racing driver, when the appeal of four wheels screaming round a corner with a cluster of well-tanned blondes screaming in the pits seemed the ultimate enticement. Fortunately, the lack of the wherewithal or the contacts for motor racing, a couple of 16-1 winners on my early visits to New- bury and Sandown and an energetic telly with a horsey young lady from Cheltenham soon put me on the right track. Indeed, I had forgotten all about my early desires until advertisements for the mechanised sport on the public address system at Goodwood on Saturday reminded me what a different direction I might have taken: And if there is a pastime to beat a compeh" tive card on a sunny late summer's day against the Goodwood backcloth it certain- ly isn't watching a noisy procession round a tarmac circle before three overalled idiots douse each other in perfectly drinkable champagne.
Where on a motor racing circuit would you encounter David Elsworth celebrating the victory of his Lear Spear over Godol- phin's favourite Kabool in the Group Three Caffrey's Premium Ale Select Stakes in characteristic style by saying, 'This is a f***ing good horse ... he could win a Champion.'
The 9-2 available against Ascot winner Lear Spear was generous despite his 5lb penalty for a Group Two win and `Ellsie' pointed out, 'Those blue Godolphin colours seem to have some kind of hypnot- ic power but they don't have a divine right to win.' The horse, he reckons, could improve further at five and though Lear Spear tied up in the last 100 yards after a 70-day lay-off he had relished the strong gallop set by stable companion Wolf Tooth: 'When it hurts, he excels.' In the subsequent unsaddling enclosure broadcast interview, the trainer, who wants to take Lear Spear to race in the Cox's Plate in Moonee Valley, Australia, then conducted what were virtually public negotiations with owner Raymond Tooth, who doesn't.
Where in motor racing would you see jockeyship of the quality displayed both by apprentice Neil Pollard and by Jason Weaver in the two-mile Highland Spring/ ROA Stakes? On Temple Way, who has to be held up for a late burst, Pollard nursed and nursed, waited and waited before strik- ing at what seemed the crucial moment one-and-a-half furlongs out. But on the 9st 101b top weight, Star Rage, Jason Weaver had played an even longer waiting game. Coming into the straight it looked all over for him but he stoked up his mount and pounced in the final 50 yards to land the prize. You never see a race on four wheels like that.
Before the off, crowds were milling round Barry Dennis, walking proof that it does pay to advertise. On the Morning Line the high-profile bookie had correctly predicted Ramruna's downfall in the St Leger and he was doing ten times the busi- ness of the layers around him. They all wanted to back the favourite Male-ana- Mou and Jeremy Noseda's Bergamo. I had fancied Temple Way but I could only stand and gasp at the timing of jason Weaver's swoop after I had been sure the talented Young Pollard had the race in his pocket. Fortunately, aware of Mark Johnston's ten- dency to send good horses to Goodwood, I had taken the precaution of coupling him with Star Rage in the forecast, by then direly needed to restore my fortunes. Owner David Abell commented that Star Rage must be the only nine-year-old on the flat who is still improving. The highest handicap mark he had won off previously was 75 and this victory was off 85. The old horse, who was a flop when tried over fences with David Elsworth, possibly too late in his career, has now won 19 flat races and seven over hurdles, including a County Hurdle at Cheltenham and Newcastle's Fighting Fifth. He may go hurdling once more but he won't be put to the bigger obstacles again. The Abells have had around 160 winners but this, amazingly, was only their second at Goodwood. They, and Star Rage, deserved their victory. But I hope they bought a nice drink ,for Jason Weaver. We won't see many better rides this season.
As for next season, put the two principals in the one-mile European Breeders Fund Royal Navy Maiden Stakes on your list. Air Marshall, owned by Lord Weinstock and trained by Sir Michael Stoute, was an odds- on favourite, having finished second when running very green first time out at Leices- ter. There was significant market support, too, for Mick Channon's Halhoo Lammtar- ra. Darryl Holland rode a well-judged race to lead all the way on Air Marshall, and when he asked the colt to do so he quick- ened nicely to go clear by four lengths. But the way the winner streamed sweat after- wards showed he had had a race and the Channon colt was 11 lengths clear of the chasing pack. We should hear more of both of them.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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