Star quality
Robin Oakley Keeping thin enough to star in your sixties comes hard, and the recently sadly deceased George Melly once inquired of Mick Jagger why the rock supremo's face was so lined. 'Laughter lines,' replied the Rolling Stone. Nothing's that funny,' replied Melly. But, facial creases or not, Mick Jagger still pulls in the millions because he has star quality. On the racing scene we have been yearning for a British sprinter with enough star quality to beat off the Australian challenge and at last our cravings were satisfied when Sakhee's Secret took the six-furlong Newmarket July Cup last Friday, resisting the late challenge from the 2,000 Guineas second Dutch Art in Europe's richest sprint race.
British-owned and bred by the experienced Bridget Swire, British-trained by Hughie Morrison and even steered home by the British jockey Stephen Drowne, it was a sweet home victory after all the celebrated sprint successes in recent years by the likes of Choisir, Takeover Target and Miss Andretti from Down Under. We now have our own equine Lewis Hamilton.
It was an extraordinary success. Sakhee's Secret is only a three-year-old and he was not only tackling a Group One race for the first time, he was also running in his first Group race of any kind against horses who had amassed 28 Group victories between them. Not surprisingly with £375,000 on offer there were challengers from Germany, France and Ireland.
'Financial Advice' said the logo on Steve Drowne's breeches, and having admired Sakhee's Secret's powerful muscularity in the paddock I should have taken it. (Looks like a four-year-old at least,' said my scrawl in the programme) but I had committed ante-post to the Irish raider Dandy Man, who led much of the way and ran his usual good race to finish fifth.
Sakhee's Secret had won all his three previous races this season. But nobody could be sure quite how good he was. Sprinting at the top level is a rough-and-tumble game for hardened horses who have nearly all been there, done it and got the embroidered travelling rug. Jockey Steve Drowne said afterwards, 'He's short of experience. He's never been off the bridle at home, there's nothing else fast enough. But after we made the mistake of trying him over seven furlongs last year at Ascot he's been trained as a sprinter from the word go.
'In a Group One I thought there wouldn't be any problem settling him behind, they'd be going at such a pace, but after a hundred yards I had to get him covered because he might have run a bit free — he's got so much speed. Once in behind he settled lovely. He can travel and he can go and pick them up. He's got the speed to get you out of trouble.'
I have always taken it that 'hell for leather' began as a racing expression rather than with earringed bikers aboard Harley-Davidsons, and the hurly-burly of a sprint race where jockeys have to be smart enough to make split-second decisions and horses have to be brave enough to go for rapidly diminishing gaps the size of a hair grip are a rare test of man and beast. Once Steve found him the room two out, Sakhee's Secret began to fly, but he was looking for company in the latter stages and still a trifle green. Amazing to say, but there is surely more improvement in him still.
Steve Drowne declared, 'Last time out at Salisbury was the first time I ever gave him a smack, just to teach him, thinking he might be coming here. He's still pretty raw but he took the preliminaries very well. He can only get better.'
After the race the ever-candid Hughie Morrison, a versatile handler who has trained a Cheltenham Festival winner too, declared, 'I was pissing myself with worry. You can never quite believe that they are that good when they have only won at Listedrace level. It's quite a performance to go up four grades.' But he must have had a shrewd idea. After all, the Berkshire trainer, who started with just ten horses after describing himself as a 'failed industrialist' and deciding 'if I'm going to go skint I might as well do it enjoying myself', did take the July Cup only two years before with Pastoral Pursuits. Bob Mottram, his experienced work-rider, not only rode Pastoral Pursuits but also the great Dayjur for Dick Hem in his time.
Hughie, an advancing star himself in the training ranks, admitted to the likelihood of the telephone ringing with plenty of offers for his beautifully bred sprinting star, a good-looking horse blessed also with a equable racing temperament. In our speedcrazy world Sakhee's Secret will be just what some want to inject into their breeding lines. But with a tinge of relief he insisted of 82-year-old Miss Swire, 'She breeds to race, she doesn't breed to sell.'
Steve Drowne was quick to point out that the Morrison star is 'just what the division needs' to enliven the racing scene and with the Nunthorpe Stakes, the Haydock Champion Sprint and the Prix de l'Abbaye in France to come, three more of the top five sprints in Europe, we have plenty of excitement ahead.
'He's entered in everything,' said Hughie, 'and with his speed I wouldn't be frightened to go back to five furlongs.' Watch him go.
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