Jack the lad
Robin Oakley
Eat your heart out, Stubbs. Wrong century, Sir Alfred Munnings. After Nicky Henderson’s Jack the Giant had won the Carey Group Handicap Steeplechase at Ascot last Saturday and stood in the winner’s enclosure quietly steaming with that unmistakeable gleam of achievement in his eye, his proud trainer revelled in his commanding physicality. ‘Isn’t he just what you would take if you had to have a model to paint a racehorse?’ he exclaimed.
Chasers don’t come much better-looking than the tall six-year-old. Jack the Giant is a perfect example of well-honed strength and athleticism, his big frame coupled with just the sort of boldness in the eye you would expect from a son of the great battler Giant’s Causeway. Nicky’s enthusiasm for his shape as well as his scope reminded us that racing is about grace and beauty as well as speed and strength.
In the latest stunning collection of Edward Whitaker’s racing photographs In the Frame (Highdown, £30), there is a picture of Henderson’s schooling jockeys mounting and dismounting the silhouetted string from Seven Barrows as the early sun chases away the wisps of morning mist. Along with a skyline shot of John Best’s string entitled ‘Red Sky in the Morning’, it comes as close to capturing the privilege of being among these magnificent beasts as any artistic endeavour you could name. If you can’t get on the gallops or go racing then Edward’s action shots from the track, his eye for landscape and composition offer the perfect substitute.
But back to more immediate business. Nicky Henderson is racing man of the hour, turning out winners by the handful. Most of the horses I back turn out to be the ones that have been on the John Sergeant training regime — sitting in their boxes reading the Racing Post and munching the equine equivalent of bacon butties while others are out on the gallops. But knowing that never applies to Seven Barrows’ entrants, I had resolved to back almost everything Nicky sent out on Saturday and I netted the sort of profit I rarely see.
It was much-needed since I had made the mistake while recuperating from a back operation of retiring to bed for a few hours with the formbook and a red marker pen, a practice opposed by Mrs Oakley both before the event and, rather more forcefully, after it. Never try to scrub away sins committed on a silk bedcover, I discovered, it only makes things worse. But thanks to Nicky’s treble at Ascot with Jack the Giant, My Petra and Chomba Womba and another victory at Huntingdon with Bonikos, Mrs O can now have her new silk bedcover.
Nicky also won the big hurdle at Haydock with Champion Hurdle favourite Binocular, but at 1-9 I did pass on that one. Outlaying nine pounds to win one is not my favoured way of making money. I was standing next to Nicky in the parade ring as the Haydock race was shown on the big screen, and hearing his ‘Thank God that’s over’ reaction to the tight rein success of J.P. McManus’s star was a reminder of the strain you face when handling highly-fancied prospects for multimillionaire owners who are happy to hazard on their horses what you and I would invest in a home for life.
Both My Petra and Chomba Womba are owned by Kelvin Hughes, who set out to base a breeding operation on classy jumping mares. ‘It’s the girls for them’ as Nicky puts it. ‘Though the idea is we get a bit of fun with them first on the racecourse. With these we could be in for quite good fun’. As for Jack the Giant, the trainer reminded us that he needs decent ground, not soft. And he reckons Jack the Giant, a stuffy sort, will come on for the Ascot race.
Another attraction of jump racing is the sportsmanship, which comes in the feminine gender too. Quickly across to congrat ulate Nicky on Chomba Womba’s success was Emma Lavelle, trainer of the second, Crackaway Jack. Those who have backed down Crackaway Jack from 33-1 to 6-1 for the Champion Hurdle should not be dismayed, even though he now carries the extra penalty of being one of this column’s ‘Twelve to watch’.
Crackaway Jack made a blunder at the second last which lost him a couple of lengths and crucial momentum. In only his sixth race, he still managed to close down the winner to only a length and his cruising speed was impressive. Emma and her lanky jockey Jack Doyle, while agreeing that jumping is the name of the game, reckoned that he would have won had the race been only two miles, the Champion Hurdle distance, and not three furlongs further.
The great Kauto Star, who fell at Haydock the same day, also reminded us that fences have to be jumped, whatever your cruising speed. But while one is always sorry to see a true champion come unstuck, the 33-1 victory in the Betfair chase for Snoopy Loopy will have been widely cheered. The perseverance which Snoopy Loopy’s rider showed in conjuring a fine late run out of him were due reward for 33-year-old jockey Seamus Durack.
A couple of times Seamus seemed on the verge of entering the top flight, only to be cruelly denied by three bad breaks of his right leg and other injuries. He stuck to the rehab through his latest 14-month layoff, worked his way back with rides for smaller trainers and is starting to be put up on some decent horses again. This will have been his biggest payday for a long, long while. All in racing will hope there are more like it to come. ❑
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