Racing
Luck of the draw
Jeffrey Bernard
My run of luck came to a temporary end, as it had to, last Saturday. I worked really hard on the afternoon's cards in the morning too, concentrating to such effect on the Newmarket events that I'd forgotten two recorded deliveries and a final demand by the time I met my bookmaker in Soho. That was at 11.30 am. It was what happened between then and the first race that caused ruination and that was two bottles of a rather astringent white wine. By the time they came under orders for the first, the wit was utterly out. It was five minutes before the Champion Stakes though that I suddenly got a very strong hunch that Rose Bowl was going to get beaten. But by what ? Certainly not by the eventual 22-1 winner, Vitiges. I thought Malacte might have a squeak so I put a hurried £5 each way on him. I then read a glowing account of a recent gallop by Konafa and put £5 on her. Just one more glass of wine before the off and it occurred to me that what with the Bruce Hobbs stable being in such good form and his horse Jolly Good having displayed a certain relish for soft going last time out at Lingfield, he must represent really good value at 25-I so I had a rushed and wildly optimistic £5 each way on that one as they were going into the stalls.
Half an hour later I had a sudden thought. Grinling Gibbons is about to get stuffed, 1 said. Furthermore, I mumbled inwardly to myself, it won't be by John Cherry since nothing is going to win this test of stamina humping 9st 131b on its back even if it is largely in the form of Lester Piggott. lothen had a wonderful experience and a rare one It was a vision. Tug of War was hacking int° the final furlong, drawing away from the field and then winning doing hand-springs. So I backed him. A minute later, and just to be on the safe side, I had a saver on Belfalas. As you can imagine, funds were now running out. There was only one thing for it get out of trouble by backing a few jumpers at Kempton Park. Two hours later, sitting under a portrait of a disapproving-looking Mustafa Kemal in a Turkish restaurant, the proprietor approached me with a large, free glass of Raki. It was on the house, he said because he hated to see anyone look as sad as I did.
Looking back on the afternoon, the thin that really chokes me more than anything IS the business of the draw at Newmarket. Malacate had the worst possible draw and managed to finish fourth. What might have happened had he been drawn on the far side ?Come to that, what on earth is going to happen if Group I race results and therefore breeding eventually are going to have to
depend on the luck of the'draw ? The luck element is so important and the proof of the Pudding is in human beings. Take my own disastrous career on the Turf. I was sired by a scenic designer who was himself by a theatrical impresario out of an actress. My dam was a singer who was by an itinerant Pork butcher out of a gipsy.
Another strange example is the case of my Yorkshire-bred friend. He comes from really sound stock being as he is by a disPensing chemist out of a Salvation Army Choir contralto. Full of promise, he came to London at the outbreak of war, attempted to take the publishing world by storm and now, thirty years later, he earns a living writing Pornography in the snug of a seedy public house behind Bourne and Hollingsworth. Taking matters like these into consideration IS what the Jockey Club should be doing. Where they say the draw has little effect they should double-check and reorganise draining in cases of the slightest camber or move the running rails so as to prevent fields splitting into two groups as they did in the Champion Stakes. My Yorkshire friend and I have been running with the group on the stands side for the past forty years and from where I'm standing, you lot on the far side have got a ten length advantage and there's only two furlongs to go. (God, I'm going to cry in a minute.) Anyway, as far as tipping goes, you can pick your own losers this weekend. I shall move back to the drawing board and see if I can unearth some hurdlers and steeplechasers that might do us a good turn in the near future. Having backed Arctic Tribune and Frisco Bay who won at 25-1 and 10-1 respectively last Tuesday at Sandown Park I feel distinctly optimistic.
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