Sandown strengths
Robin Oakley
If in doubt about your selections, goes the old saw, back the mounts of the first jockey you see at the racecourse, The tradition doesn't extend, sadly, to owners and syndicate chiefs. The first cheery face I saw last Saturday in the carpark at Sandown Park, the Esher building site currently doubling as a racecourse, was that of James Stafford, the power behind the successful Thurloe syndicates.
Having had to detour via King's Cross to despatch a recuperating Mrs Oakley to peaceful paddocks in Rutland 1 had had no time for the form pages. Was there a Thurloe horse running, I inquired. Oh yes, it turned out, it was a hurdling debut for their latest French purchase, Volano. He had been schooling nicely at Nicky Henderson's, said James, non-committally. What he didn't let on, and why should he, was that the boys behind the ex-French Volano had been investing solidly at 40-1 and 33-1 for Cheltenham's Triumph Hurdle. Showing a nice change of gears, Volano, who was bought for £70,000 out of the profits the same syndicate has already made with his compatriot Geos, trounced a useful field and was duly installed after his Sandown debut as the 8-1 favourite for the Triumph.
Nicky Henderson himself was away in France looking at a few more four-legged prospects, but the day showed that, as ever, he has his horses coming ready just in time for a big impression at the Festival. His Tiutchev cheered us all by scooting home by 12 lengths in the Elmbridge Handicap under the top weight of 12 stone. After a disappointing time last year, the winner of the Arkle Trophy two years ago showed real zest. Perhaps he knows how lucky he is to he out on the track. Last summer, when out to grass, he nearly died of colic. One of his Liars Poker Partnership owners, Jerry Wright, dashed to be with the horse and walked him round for three hours before • Tiutchev was shipped to the Royal Veterinary College for successful treatment. Tiutchev and Volano were both ridden by Mick Fitzgerald, who is the complete article when it comes to jump jockeys.
But the third Henderson winner Iris Royal showed us something of the strength in depth of the Seven Barrows riding team as well as its horse power. Even with John Kavanagh as the stable No 2 there are opportunities for ginger-haired Marcus Foley, the stable conditional. Tall for a jockey at 5ft 10 ins but still only 9st 31b stripped, the 20-year-old showed confidence and composure. Iris Royal had looked cooked two out and he half missed the last hurdle in the Tote Scoop 6 Handicap. That enabled Richard Johnson, desperate for winners after his lay-off with a broken leg, to come back and get his head in front on Surprising. There can be few more daunting sights than Britain's No 2 jump jockey alongside you driving like a dervish. But despite the accomplished Johnson throwing everything at Surprising (and earning a two-day rest for excessive use of the whip in the process). Marcus Foley kept it all together, rallied his mount and prevailed by a neck. 'He is tough as old boots,' he said of Iris Royal. 'I knew he would keep galloping to the line.' Marcus is racing bred, his father having worked with Captain Charles Radelyffe, who tutors the Queen Mother's horses, and both his parents were at Sandown to see the young rider's biggest success yet.
Johnson reckons he is not quite back at his peak yet after the lay-off but you would not have known it to see him in action. All the old dash and panache is there and he had his consolation in the Agfa Diamond Handicap Chase on Philip Hobbs's Billingsgate, As a horse who had finished third to Looks Like Trouble in a big Cheltenham race three years ago. Billingsgate was well in at the weights with only list 11 lbs. Richard Johnson had tipped the 7-2 shot as a likely winner in his Racing Post column, but I lacked the courage to back a seemingly fragile horse who was on only his second visit to a racecourse since. How wrong I was. The ten-year-old showed courage in battling to the line with Echo's of Dawn (sic) and must now come into the reckoning for the Grand National if his owner and trainer decide to give it a go. Looking 50 despite having a decade more on the clock, owner Dr David Chesney, who partnered a number of Sandown winners himself in Grand Military Gold Cup meetings, still goes down to ride out Billingsgate every Saturday. Richard Johnson was to have partnered Golden Goal, the 10-1 winner of the 2m 4f chase for Venetia Williams. but the ride was reclaimed by stable jockey Norman Williamson, re-routed from Wetherby. At least Richard had the consolation of having tipped him too. But such is the hunger of these jockeys for winners that that won't have been much consolation.
The final point to note from the Sandown card was the victory of Bilboa in the Agfa Hurdle, her prep race for the Champion Hurdle. On sticky ground she does not like, the mare accelerated nicely to end a frustrating row of seconds. Her French trainer Francois Doumen, the man who puts the Cordiale into the Entente Cordiale, said of her row of five second places, 'One could say she has always been beaten. But you can also say she has never been worse than second . . . I prefer to think of her not as a glass which is halfempty but one that is half-full.' He may be lifting a full one to her come Festival time.
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