No one's perfect
Robin Oakley
Everybody complains that politicians don't admit their mistakes. But don't let me hear any jockeys complaining as the post mortems continue on this year's Breeders' Cup races. After his bizarre riding lost Swain his race in the Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs in 1998, Frankie Dettori blamed everything except himself. He didn't really apologise to Swain until the Cartier Awards dinner. After Michael Kinane put an unnecessary blot on Rock of Gibraltar's record by giving even that tough customer too much to do at Arlington Park this year, he put the blame on the horse for getting upset and starting badly and claimed, surprisingly, that Landseer's fatal stumble cost them ground. I don't expect to see any better flat jockeys than Dettori and Kinane in my lifetime. They have ridden some wonderful races. But nobody rides a perfect race every time and it would be nice if just occasionally these little millionaires put up their hands and admitted an error.
The brilliant attheraces coverage of the Breeders' Cup by the not yet familiar team of Richard Perham, Angus McNae and, especially, James Willoughby pointed out rightly that speed, speed and more speed is the essence of American racing. The British style is to settle a horse. In America the whole orchestra plays full tempo from the first stroke of the maestro's baton. If you miss the break you are dead. If you have had to use up energy in a mid-race surge to get to the leaders, the odds are that at the pace American races are run you won't have anything left to take on the leaders when you get to them. That Rock of Gibraltar so nearly managed it despite Kinane's misjudgment shows his true greatness. The record of European horses in the Breeders' Cup remains poor and it does have to do with the style and habits of our jockeys.
We can now concentrate with relief on jumping. But it will be a jumping scene lessened by the enforced departure of jockey Adrian Maguire, after one serious injury too many. I have been an admirer since Adrian brought borne Sibton Abbey at 40-1 in the Hennessy ten years ago. He was a gutsy, compact horseman who on his day could electrify even no-hopers into winning. But he was never a lucky jockey. Four times in his prime forced to miss the jumping mecca of the Cheltenham Festival,
three times with injury and once because of his mother's death, he also rode 194 winners in 1993-94, enough in any average year to ensure being champion jockey. But that year he was duelling with an even more driven Richard Dunwoody, who pipped him to the title he was never to collect. We will miss Adrian Maguire's style, his decency and his grin and I hope he finds the enforced early retirement easier to bear than Richard has done.
I hope, too, that I can avoid inflicting too much misery on faithful followers with my Ten to Follow for the jumps this year. There were moments last year. My first selection Best Mate did, after all, win the Gold Cup. Historic did us a good turn at 10-1 and The Bajan Bandit rattled up a few wins. Unfortunately, I note that I said, 'He looks to me a real Cheltenham horse', and the only time he got beaten was at Cheltenham. Take that as an example that correspondents at least say sorry occasionally. Among my biggest hopes this year is that Lavinia Taylor's Gingembre will return from a year out with a tendon injury as good as before and that Mark Pitman's Monsignor will live up to his potential as a chaser after his spell on the sidelines. But I won't encourage backing any former invalids until they have shown their fitness under fire. I will be intrigued, too, to see what Martin Pipe can do with the biggest flop in my Ten last year, Montalcino, who has left Venetia Williams for his Somerset yard.
There must be a Pipe horse or two for this year's list. There are big hopes for his hurdler Puntal and for young chaser Chicuelo. Classified will pick up some longdistance hurdles. But my Pipe pair are It Takes Time, who rattled up a string of successes over hurdles last season while looking like an obvious chaser in the making, and the talented newcomer The Biker, an Arctic Lord five-year-old with good bumper form in Ireland. We need a long-term hope for the Champion Hurdle and with Hughie Morrison in such devastating form both on the flat and over jumps this past month why look further than Marble Arch, second in last year's contest? Another up and coming trainer is Gloucestershire-based Tom George. His Galileo won the Royal and Sun Alliance impressively and seems bound for the big time. Let us stick with Len Lungo's The Bajan Bandit as he goes novice chasing. From Paul Nicholls's imposing team I like the look of Azertyuiop, the yard's highest rated hurdler to go chasing since Flagship Uberalles. And with Philip Hobbs holding such a strong hand I will plump for an old favourite, the grey What's Up Boys, to go one better this year than his second place in last year's Grand National. He always seems to go well on the big occasions and can fly at the finish. From Nicky Henderson's yard I am including First Love, previously owned by the late Queen Mother, who pleased Nicky with his speed over hurdles while clearly
destined for bigger obstacles, and Got One Too another hurdler of whom I heard him exclaim, 'He'll be some chaser next year.' For my tenth selection I tossed up between two more of Philip Hobbs's charges, the hurdler Rooster Booster, so impressive at Kempton on his first outing and Gunther McBride, the stable's selected for this year's Hennessy. It was Gunther, who won the Racing Post Chase last year with most of his tail missing, who got the nod. Good luck to them all. We'll need it.
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