JULY 2023

7 Aug

**Defiance (2yo colt by Camelot) is admired by his owners at Roger Varian’s picturesque Carlburg Stables**

By Harry Herbert

It’s been an interesting time since our last newsletter with the weather causing absolute havoc with the horses’ running plans. Some love very soft ground but most hate it and after making a mistake by running Soprano on it at Sandown one’s nerve goes and we began to take horses out left, right and centre which sadly led to only two runners at Goodwood last week. Spycatcher is one of ours though who loves it and what a race he ran in the Prix Maurice de Gheest (Gr 1) to finish second, beaten by the shortest of short heads at Deauville. A drier spell is now forecast thank goodness so we are expecting many more runners and hopefully more victories are lurking!

I am very grateful to our shareowner, Robert, who has written such a good piece on affordability checks. Make no mistake, these checks are potentially an absolute disaster for our sport (clearly spelt out by Robert) and they must be stopped so please click on the link at the end of Robert’s article to have your say. Tom Kerr, the editor of the Racing Post wrote recently “Everyone who bets, cares for the future of racing, or believes the rights of the individual to reasonable privacy and freedom are worth protecting must respond to the consultation and make their views clear. It is no exaggeration to say the future of betting as we know it – and the racing industry which relies on it – is at stake.”

Our National Hunt horses paraded in front of over 130 guests here at West Woodhay and thankfully the weather Gods were on our side as the sun shone down on a stunning array of jumping talent with all looking in great shape after their summer holidays. Our two new recruits, Mojo Ego and Valgrand were very well received so do check out their launch videos below if you would like to get involved as we do have shares available.

The week ahead is packed full of excitement as our handsome son of Camelot, Defiance, trained by Roger Varian, makes his debut at Sandown and both Mannerism and Soprano reappear at Haydock and Newmarket respectively. The very beautiful Soprano runs in the Sweet Solera Stakes (Gr 3) and on ground that she should relish. Here’s hoping for another George Boughey trained Group winning filly. Meanwhile Atrium and Truthful chase the big money in races with a combined prizemoney total of some £180,000! Bring it on!

With my best wishes,

Harry Herbert, Chairman

On The Track

By Emily Scott

Spycatcher has been a revelation this year as a mature 5yo gelding and his narrow defeat in Sunday’s Prix Maurice de Gheest (Gr 1) was as much heart-breaking as it was exhilarating. He had a lovely position through the early part of the race under Maxime Guyon and cruised into contention inside the final quarter mile. He was forced to commit for home early as nothing was able to take him any further into the race and he bounded clear in a matter of strides. There were a couple of dangers coming out of the pack, including the eventual winner King Gold and the arguably unlucky Saint Lawrence who had to overcome some traffic problems. I think the only moment Spycatcher was headed was on the line and with an official winning distance of a short head, it’s agony to be the horse that loses a race of this calibre ‘on the nod’! Hopefully Spycatcher will get his chance again at Group 1 level on his favoured soft ground.

**Spycatcher losing out on Group 1 glory by the shortest of margins**

**Maxime Guyon driving to the line on Spycatcher**

Atrium has been one of our busier representatives this year and he’s been highly tried in some top class handicaps, including the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot and the Spring Cup at Newbury. It was therefore very pleasing to see him get his head in front (well not quite in front as it was officially called a dead heat!) at Doncaster. It was his first run in Class 3 company this year and he managed to capitalise under Callum Shepherd, who certainly earned his fee as Atrium needed a strong jockey to get the best out of him. He is likely to head to Chepstow on Thursday where he will run in a Racing League 7f handicap worth £100,000.

**Atrium recording his sixth career win at Doncaster**

Soprano ran an admirable race to finish third in the Listed Star Stakes at Sandown where she was unsuited by the testing conditions and tired inside the final half furlong having been a little too keen through the first half of the race. George has always felt she would be better over 7f, but as we know Sandown is a stamina test and she was outstayed by two smart looking fillies. We have always thought the world of this filly and I’m sure there is plenty more to come from her on better ground as the season progress and into next year as a three-year-old. She has been entered to run this Saturday in the Sweet Solera (Gr 3) over 7f at Newmarket where hopefully conditions should dry to suit if this dreadful summer weather finally improves!

**Soprano is narrowly beaten in the Star Stakes (Listed) at Sandown**

There was some promise shown amongst the two-year-olds with both Drama (James Ferguson) and Mannerism (Karl Burke) making very pleasing debuts at Newbury and Haydock respectively. Both horses were green from the gates and therefore dropped out last. Drama showed a tenacious attitude to pass over the half the field inside the final furlong and finish fourth under Saffie Osborne. Mannerism showed his inexperience by hanging this way and then that before finally being organised by his jockey to run on into third, beaten just a length. Both horses look sure to go very close next time and with Mannerism set to run over a mile at Haydock on Friday and Drama due to run in a 6f restricted novice at Windsor on Monday there’s plenty to look forward in the coming week!

**James Ferguson with Saffie Osborne at Newbury for Drama’s debut**

National Hunt Parade in pictures

National Hunt Horses - new for 2023/24

VALGRAND

This is a striking 4yo gelding by up and coming French sire Bathyron. Dan had been told to look out for Valgrand prior to his debut in an Irish point, and he was straight on the phone to me after watching the race! He was beaten just a head by a horse with previous experience - it was a really eye catching performance; he travelled powerfully throughout, jumped like a stag and showed a tenacious attitude (click here for the race replay). We wasted no time in making an offer, and were delighted to secure him for £70,000.

Valgrand arrived to us a shell of a horse but has transformed physically for his summer break. We are so excited to see what he can do in the hands of Dan Skelton. As Dan discusses in the video below, he is an athletic sort with plenty of speed and clearly a powerful engine – he really could be anything this horse!

The Grand Syndicate consists of 20 shares and the cost per share is £7,400 plus VAT.

MOJO EGO

Mojo Ego is a gorgeous 3yo gelding bought from France – he boasts very decent form on the flat having won his maiden and finished 5th (beaten 4L) in a Group 3. He has also shown huge promise in two starts over hurdles; beaten just 2L on his second attempt in May – with a much improved, slicker round of jumping and we bought him privately soon afterwards (click here for the race replay). The form has been franked as the winner later bolted up by 9L under a penalty in a fast time. His price tag of €65,000 now looks very good value!

Mojo Ego ticks so many boxes as a juvenile hurdler – he has no shortage of speed, stays 2m and is very efficient over his obstacles. He has done really well physically for his summer break, I am sure there is a huge amount of improvement to come from this horse and he looks a seriously exciting prospect.

The Mojo Syndicate consists of 20 shares and the cost per share is £6,300 plus VAT.

Affordability Checks and The Future of Horse Racing

By Robert (Highclere owner)

Affordability checks from bookmakers have been introduced over the last year or so and are intrusive and in many cases have stopped ordinary punters from enjoying the pastime they have loved for a lifetime.

How did all this come about and who are the Gambling Commission?

The Gambling Commission has been empowered to stop problem gambling which official figures show is 0.3% of people who bet. I am sure that everyone wants to protect them and supports the measures that are already in place to help them. But what about the other 99.7% who enjoy a bet online or in their local bookmaker?

Bookmakers have had to introduce affordability checks on punters to not fall foul of the Gambling Commission. These checks are intrusive in that they ask for bank statements, savings and proof of earnings and in some cases much more. Most people feel that it’s none of anyone’s business how they spend their money; no one stops them buying a new car, expensive wine, putting money into the stock market or buying shares in racehorses!!

Those that have completed the affordability checks are only allowed to deposit a fraction of what they used to bet and many have given up. Those who refuse to comply with these requests have had their accounts closed.

Letters containing affordability checks are being handed out to customers in bookmakers’ shops now. Those refusing to comply are no longer welcome in the ‘bookies’ they have frequented for many years now losing touch with friends they used to meet there sometimes every day.

Many feel that this process is an affront upon their civil liberties. What next? Will we be told that you are only allowed to buy a certain amount of wine per week probably not because of the duty we pay) or you can’t buy that car because the government thinks you can’t afford it. Surely, we can make these choices for ourselves. None of us want to live in a nanny state.

Now how does all this affect horse racing generally?

Bookmakers pay a percentage of profit or turnover to the government to form part of the levy which goes towards prize money. We are all aware that prize money in this country is pitifully low compared to other racing jurisdictions but racehorse owners like you and me do it for thrill of the win and to meet likeminded people who quite often become good friends.

With lower prize money the burden on trainers becomes greater with several giving up in recent months. Many smaller trainers must be living on a knife edge. Therefore, with a reduced levy due to fewer people betting matters will only get worse.

If these affordability checks are not stopped it’s not difficult to imagine some stable staff who do an incredible job being made redundant along with bookmaker staff as bookmaker shops carry on closing in our high streets along with their back-room colleagues.

I have spoken to a few owners some high-profile ones who are unhappy with prize money levels anyway have now been faced with intrusive affordability checks. These owners only ever bet on their own horses and now have had their accounts closed due to not complying with these checks and understandably are seriously considering their future investment in bloodstock going forward.

The horse racing industry cannot afford to lose any owners let alone owner breeders who are such an important part of the sport we all love.

So, the fewer people that bet, which is now a reality due to the Gambling Commission and their affordability checks, the more impact it has detrimentally on the horse racing industry as a whole including many people’s jobs and livelihoods.

Are you listening Mr Sunak?

There is a gambling commission consultation where your views can be provided at gamblingcommission.gov.uk/about-us/consultations. Or alternatively please feel free to contact the Racing Post whose concern for the future of horse racing is as strong as any of ours.

Rolf’s Rambling’s

By Rolf Johnson

THE GRASS IS GREENER FOR RICHARD’S REIGN – Senior Inspector of Courses ends illustrious career, in and out of the saddle

Who got the greater shock? Beforehand Richard Linley was innocent of the fact that all he had to do was point his mount in the right direction at Devon & Exeter? It was a ‘certainty’.

Or was it the bookmaker who’d banked the house on his own horse in the same race, defeat unthinkable?

On a violent night back in 1977 a horsebox arrived from Norway at Toby Balding’s yard in Hampshire. Two horses were unloaded; a small chestnut and a much bigger bay. The one was a novice, the other Scandinavia’s champion hurdler.

They were hurriedly ushered out of the storm, into their new homes.

Richard recalls the pair’s first schooling session. “I said, guv’nor this thing that’s supposed to be Norway’s best can’t jump a stick; the other’s a natural.”

The trainer of Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Hurdler heroes was on the phone to Oslo: “You’ve got me baffled Gunnar.” The owner, a redoubtable Balding supporter, laughed (in Norwegian). Wasn’t Toby ever the leg-puller?

“And then we went to Devon & Exeter and I dotted up on the bay, Driving,” said Richard. “Thank goodness I wasn’t sent to Nottingham.”

Things at the Midlands track had gone belly up. The racecourse vet was adamant that the little chestnut’s passport bore no resemblance to the animal before him. The stewards refused to allow Toby’s bemused travelling head lad to saddle up.

Back down in Devon the stewards were just as adamant that the Balding bay shouldn’t take part in the novices’ hurdle – after all, its passport said it was a chestnut. But time was ticking. The stewards’ secretary later let on to Richard that Toby, pre-Martin Pipe days king of the West Country, had bamboozled the stewards; they capitulated.

“All I had to do was steer,” said Richard. “After all he (the Norse champion) had had plenty of ‘practice’.”

He laughs at recollection of another ‘steering job’ at the same Devon track.

“Yes if I could have steered him (Fortune Cookie, David Elsworth’s first jump winner), I would have headed into the car park.” But ‘Percy’ (late of Toby Balding) and ‘not off’, carted Richard to victory. Worse, the horse, once Derby favourite for Henry Cecil, won not only unchallenged but unbacked.

Oh the times we had at Toby’s where Richard and I shared a house in the yard with a scion of a famous whisky family. We lived from one anecdote to the next – necessary because the winners weren’t that forthcoming at Fyfield House in the mid-1970s.

Our housemate’s title was ‘gallops man’ and he built a French-style hurdle with rhubarb for Decent Fellow to school prior to the French Champion Hurdle. When the blacksmith pricked Decent Fellow’s foot the gallops man made rhubarb chutney.

“Oh Decent Fellow was a good horse. I mucked up the Triumph Hurdle, he should never have got beaten by Monksfield, and we were the only horse to beat Sea Pigeon in a handicap. I had to follow Lester Piggott. He won the John Porter on him. Decent Fellow gave me great days – especially the last Irish Sweeps Hurdle.” (1977).

Decent Fellow or Gaye Brief? “Gaye Brief (1983) was a Champion hurdler which Decent Fellow, for all his versatility, wasn’t. And it’s odd you know, perhaps the best I rode at Toby’s ended miserably. The boss had a French jumper called Togolais. He got loose on the gallops, ran down the A303 and landed on an E-type Jag.”

**Richard Linley - Inspector of courses**

Hands on with horses since childhood on the family farm in Somerset, as a 14-year-old he led-up Sir Mark Prescott’s mount in the Liverpool Foxhunters, and was spotted by Toby Balding. His next stop was Weyhill just before the stable’s move down the road to Fyfield and the Kimpton gallops now occupied by Ralph Beckett.

Richard’s father maintained a “borstal for horses” decades before Retraining of Racehorses (ROR) came about. Richard is West Country through and through; his first ride was at Taunton in 1971. His first winner though was at Wye in Kent, a course not even a mile round and which, when Richard became Senior Inspector of Racecourses, he wouldn’t have passed on safety grounds. The then Senior Inspector called time in 1974 because the track’s owners couldn’t afford to camber the notorious bends.

“My horse, Less Curious, loved them,” said Richard. “He’d lean over like he was a motorbike – speedway, wall of death, only more dangerous.”

I fill in some details – the Wye grandstand was sold for £250 and the toilets for £7.

Hilarious. Never a dull moment with Richard who admits “I’ll always regard the Baldings, Toby and Caro, as my second family.”

But then the call came from Sheikh Ali Abu Khamsin, or rather from his man. “When he rang to offer me the job as his boss’s retained jockey I thought it was John Francome having a laugh. Johnny wasn’t laughing when I got to ride all the Sheikh’s horses at Fred’s (Winter), like Half Free and Fifty Dollars More.

“Sheikh Ali had horses everywhere. Mercy Rimell was brilliant with Gaye Brief. She was strong-minded but good as gold – no nonsense taking over from her husband Fred winner of four Grand Nationals. They invented the word bluff for Fred. He won the Grand National four times. He pondered on whether the Sheikh was a camel driver.

In her autobiography (1990) Mercy Rimell states: “Richard Linley would have made an excellent steward. He’s level headed and knows what he’s talking about…he was a good horseman and gave a horse a beautiful ride.”

How high praise was that? Richard was occupying the boots worn by such legends as Terry Biddlecombe and Peter Scudamore.

But the years with Toby were the richest. “We arrived at Leopardstown for the Sweeps early on the Sunday morning. Outside the gates Toby slipped, on a discarded prophylactic.

“Quick as a flash the Irish PR man looking after us came up with, ‘Shor dat’s lucky’. And he wasn’t wrong. The Irish Sweeps Hurdle used to be right up there with the great races. Toby went home and named a yearling Quick as A Flash; who wasn’t.

“There was another adventure (he chooses his words carefully) with the Norwegian gambler, another spectacular coup. He sent over four horses for a monster Yankee and this time we made sure we sorted them out!

“Three would go to Warwick with Terry Dahl, his Norwegian trainer riding and I’d be on the ‘cert’ in a novice at Haydock: Trainers Seat was Norway’s Triple Crown winner; he’d run creditably in the King George & Queen Elizabeth behind The Minstrel.

“Terry landed the treble at Warwick. Me and Trainers Seat somehow turned over by something called Mayhem – trained by Julie Camacho’s father Maurice. Gunnar took it on the chin – left it that I was ‘unlucky’ for him.”

Reluctantly we put reminiscing behind us and got down to the business of his thirty-six year-career overseeing our racecourses, over twice his time in the saddle. Richard, 69, is not one for regrets. It’s hard to think of a more equable character whether striding round his local Wincanton course picking up golf balls hacked onto the track – “Perk of the job. I’ll be using them now I’m retired” or endless days of travel criss-crossing fifty nine far flung tracks, trying to reconcile racing’s tantrums, memories of which he has no wish to reprise.

There is no resentment in Richard’s voice, even playing back the threats to his racecourses from the anti-racing brigade. But you don’t have to guess where his sympathies lie. He’s been committed to horse safety from day one, their first line of defence, their protection paramount.

Then again the intensity he has brought to the job means he can be as outspoken as the next man – and that’s not just a change of emphasis brought on by retirement and the freedom to speak.

“Some people get into a position and they’re comfortable, even complacent with what they’ve got. And then there’s the other sort interfering and meddling. There’s constant toing and froing – good people going abroad; ‘imports’ with different practices, ways of doing things. It’s a grass roots (simultaneous laughter) problem. Too many giving orders haven’t had the involvement with horses and understanding of the countryside.

“The basic problem is that racecourses are on land that was too poor to farm. That’s why there are all those golf courses in the middle. There are over four hundred types of soil and perhaps only Ascot, York and Newmarket are where drainage and control of irrigation can be maintained at the level you would want it.

“Water is a precious commodity, it’s expensive and it isn’t there to be poured indiscriminately. We have reliable advanced weather forecasts – climate change? Rolfie, what will be will be. But there’s been a revolution in training. All those years ago Toby used to say ‘you can get a lame horse fit on an artificial surface’. Everybody has them now and then when the horse has the challenge of undulations and round bends, changing going, you’re rolling the dice.

“Same with the kids. A horse isn’t an equicizer but they’re taught on ‘standardized’ gallops. That’s not the way racetracks work.”

Strong stuff. But then if you’ve been reading about the current American racehorse attrition rate on dirt, you’ll appreciate the threat to racing as a whole. Richard is too wily to succumb to political probing but no-one can gainsay that the biggest test of his stewardship, the Grand National, has maintained its pre-eminence in face of constant attack.

His own big race record?

“I got round once, on Carroll Street in ’77. But nobody noticed – it was Red Rum’s third National.”

We know that those opposed to racing aren’t open to debate and wouldn’t understand or appreciate Richard’s contribution. He just got on with the job: no Wyes or wherefores.

A note to end on? In over fifty years Richard achieved universal respect such that they aren’t even replacing him with one successor but as many as five! Is that a compliment, or what?

“I did lose it one day at Devon & Exeter. I was on this yak but somehow at the last, a street clear, the ignorant beggar decked me. I hauled him up off the floor, arms and legs everywhere, no irons, lost my whip and we bolted after the one that had got past us. We caught him and the crowd gave me the biggest cheer they’d ever done.

“And then when he gets to go out for his summer holiday, the stupid beast broke a leg trying to jump a hedge.

“No, before you ask, it wasn’t one of my hedges.”

Clodagh’s Recipe

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS:

8x20cm summer roll rice paper wrappers

75g fresh rice vermicelli noodles

1 tsp sesame oil

1tsp light soy sauce

1 large carrot, cut into fine batons (with a julienne peeler)

100g red cabbage, finely shredded

5 spring onions, sliced into fine batons

½ cucumber, halved, deseeded and sliced into fine batons

Small handful of mint leaves

Small handful of coriander leaves

60g roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped

1 lime, cut into wedges

METHOD:

1. Put the rice noodles in a heatproof bowl and pour over boiling water to just cover. Leave to sit for 2 minutes before draining and tossing with the sesame oil and soy sauce.

2. Fill a large bowl with warm water. Immerse a rice paper wrapper in the water for 10-15 seconds, drain quickly on a tea towel and transfer to a lightly oiled chopping board.

3. Place a mix of shredded vegetables, peanuts, noodles and a squeeze of lime juice on the side closest to you. Then place a few mint and coriander leaves on the side furthest from you.

4. Lift the rice paper edge nearest to you and start to roll it up tightly. When you reach halfway, fold the two ends in and keep rolling so the filling is fully enclosed. Place on a plate and cover with a damp tea towel while you make the remaining rolls.

Get your signed copy…

**Clodagh’s latest recipe book -** **In Minutes**

Where are they now?

CASHEW

Now a 4yo filly, Cashew was sold at the Tattersalls October HIT Sale last year for 22,000gns where she was purchased by one of her shareowners to race on. She won twice as a two-year-old for George Boughey and now in the hands of Jamie Osborne she was most recently seen in the Magnolia Cup (Charity Race) at Glorious Goodwood. She was renamed Terracotta Warrior for the event and was the mount of the Sunday Times Royal Editor, Roya Nikkhah, who wrote about her experience in the latest edition. Roya raised over £15,000 for Educate A Child - International. Donations can be made via Just Giving.