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Chapter Eleven MUSE ch g High Line ex Thoughtful
Eleven years on from Heighlin, DE bought another son of High Line at the Newmarket Autumn Sales, this time from the stable of Major Hern, for 22,000 gns. Unraced at two, he’d won twice from nine starts at three and earned a Timeform rating of 78 and the less than flattering comments ‘Leggy gelding …. lacks a turn of foot and is suited by forcing tactics’. He would run in the colours of White Horse Racing, a syndicate operation which I’m fairly sure was run by Tom Marshall, son of the previous occupant of Whitsbury, Bill Marshall. Colin Brown may also have been involved as the pair were partners in a pub outside Newbury.
Muse wasn’t the best hurdler DE had, but he does hold a significant place in his story, as he was the last winner of a NH Graded race that he trained, when he won his second Ascot Hurdle as a 9-y-old in November 1996. But back to the beginning, which in his first season, consisted of three placed runs in juvenile hurdles. He might have been expected to win the second of those, a modest looking maiden hurdle at Wincanton, after a second to the useful multiple winner Hopscotch on debut at Cheltenham, but as that Timeform comment rather suggested, 2m round Wincanton was an insufficient test.
He returned to the flat, winning a 12f handicap at Doncaster, making all under Steve Cauthen, then a close third in a DE favourite race, the 2m Queen’s Prize at Kempton. He was
then given a break and returned to run four more times on the flat, culminating in a sixth place in the Cesarewitch.In the 1991/92 season, his hurdling career took off in style, with a twenty length demolition of thirteen rivals in a 2m novice handicap at Sandown, which he followed up in an ordinary novice hurdle at Chepstow on the Welsh National card. The rest of that season was frustrating, but he showed a high level of form at all distances – second in the 2m Tolworth Hurdle, second in the 2m 7f Philip Cornes Saddle of Gold final at Chepstow, second in the Sun Alliance Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham and finally third in the 2m Champion Novice at Punchestown. Timeform still weren’t convinced though – ‘Muse is only small, lacking the physical scope of most of the other leading novices and his future probably lies in handicaps’. If he’d been a footballer, DE could have posted that on his stable door as motivation for the following season!
Muse again tried his luck in the Cesarewitch after a couple of prep runs on the flat, but to no effect. But back over hurdles, he immediately had Timeform eating their words, beating the former Champion Hurdler, Morley Street in the Ascot Hurdle over 2m 3f. He was getting 10lbs from the 5/2 on favourite, but Morley Street had already won over hurdles a week earlier at Cheltenham and had ended the previous season by winning the Aintree Hurdle. This was his first Graded hurdle success, but he proved it was no fluke, by going on to win the New Years Hurdle at Windsor, giving weight all round, and then the Grade 1 2m 5f Wyko Power Transmission Hurdle (now the Cleeve Hurdle) at Cheltenham by 25L from Nomadic Way. Most of the post race attention understandably concentrated on the fate of the 9/4 on favourite Mighty Mogul, who pulled up lame three out.
With that potential rival out of action, Muse was now rated a strong contender for the Champion Hurdle, but a tame effort at Wincanton in the Kingwell Hurdle was followed by the news that he’d suffered a knee injury during the race. He missed the rest of the NH season, but recovered quickly enough to run on the flat in midsummer, featuring a failed shot at the Ascot Stakes.
What followed was probably his best season over hurdles, now firmly established in the top rank and certainly no handicapper! He began with a third in the Bula Hurdle, won the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle and then the Agfa Hurdle at Sandown. To be fair, neither race was up to the standard you’d expect – only five ran at Kempton and DE had Absalom’s Lady as well as Muse in the field. At Sandown though, he beat the Pipe trained Valfinet by 12L and that one won the Kingwell Hurdle later the same month.
Muse completed his season with defeats in the Champion Hurdle and the Aintree Hurdle, showing signs of temperament at the start in both races, not ideal for a horse that needed to front run. He did win a couple of minor handicaps on the flat that summer, at Newbury and Salisbury, but after finishing third in a small field Listed Handicap over 2m at Newmarket in late October, he was off the course for 16 months with a tendon injury.
That he was not the same horse when he came back into action as a 9-y-old, can be clearly seen in the starting prices of his subsequent runs – 33/1, 100/1, 33/1, 20/1, 25/1, 25/1, 25/1. Then that last fling in the 1996 Ascot Hurdle, where his only serious rival was the Triumph Hurdle runner-up, Mistinguett. He made all to beat her by 10L, putting in much the better round of jumping to win at 13/8. Defeats in the Bula and Cleeve Hurdle brought his career to an end.
In the first part of that career, he only missed the first three once in seventeen runs over hurdles, when outstayed behind Vagog in the Long Walk Hurdle. He gained a following amongst racegoers of that era, because he was another of those determined front runners that defined the stable in the 80’s and the first half of the 90’s. It helped that he was a flashy chestnut with plenty of white about him that made him stand out in the paddock as well on the track.
It was not long after he’d been retired that DE, in conversation at Wincanton, quietly mentioned that he was thinking of giving up training jumpers. I was surprised, and didn’t take him too seriously at the time, but he talked about the agony of having to make the phone call to owners to tell them their horse would be out of action for a year, two years, or forever. Muse was his last major NH winner, and although there would still be the odd jumper in the stable for another few years, his involvement was significantly cut back. He went from champion NH trainer in 1987/88, to having just two NH winners in 1997/98.
Once he moved to Newmarket in 2006, the break from jumping was completed. He has had a few runners in bumpers, but the horses concerned have always been sold or moved before running over hurdles.
Chapter 12 OH SO RISKY b c Kris ex Expediency
From the same generation as Muse, Oh So Risky was with DE from the start, having been bought at an early forerunner of the modern breeze-up sales for 30,000gns. He was, like Muse, owned by a syndicate managed by Tom Marshall. His breeding would have suggested a purely flat race career, but the dam had already produced one useful NH performer in Decided, a winner for Henrietta Knight.
Oh So Risky had just about the most unusual career you could imagine, even for a dual purpose horse. His flat racing ranged from a 7F maiden auction at Goodwood, to the Ascot Gold Cup and the Prix Du Cadran. Over obstacles, he was a top class juvenile hurdler who ended up running in the Hennessy Gold Cup. At times, it would have been almost impossible to guess where he’d show up next. He also achieved the unusual feat of earning more prize money from his placed efforts than from his wins.
He made his debut at Windsor in a fourteen runner 6F Graduation Stakes, and must have been showing up well at home, as he started 3/1 second favourite and finished third. By the time he reappeared at Goodwood in October, the two that beat him had run well under big weights in nurseries, and dropped into a 7f maiden auction, he was sent off the 11/10 fav in a field of twenty. You don’t get rich backing short priced horses in big fields at Goodwood, but he basically outclassed some moderate rivals under the excellent John Williams.
Off the back of that he was given an official handicap mark of 84, which he made look very silly at Sandown in May, winning a 1m 3f handicap by seven lengths. That earned him a rise to 97 and lumbered him with top weight for the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot, and it proved too much for him. After one more defeat, he was put away and got ready for a juvenile hurdle campaign.
That began in Div 1 of the Freshmans Novices Hurdle at Newbury, the first day of the Hennessy meeting on quick ground after a long, dry autumn. Oh So Risky won easily as the 11/8 on favourite under Paul Holley, but he wasn’t the only impressive juvenile on display that afternoon. Div 2 of the race was won just as comfortably by Crystal Spirit (Balding/Jimmy Frost), meaning that both divisions were won by horses that would feature at Cheltenham four months later – Crystal Spirit beat the older horses in the Sun Alliance Novice Hurdle. As an astute watching punter that afternoon, I failed to make a note about either of them in my diary!
Oh So Risky was stepped up in class, winning again at odds on in the Grade 2 Summit Junior Hurdle at Lingfield. That contest looked better as the season went on, as the runner-up Silken Fan, already a winner at Windsor, went on to win his next three starts as well. Then a major setback, as he finished well beaten in the Grade 1 Finale Hurdle at Chepstow, a race won by the prolific Hopscotch from Crystal Spirit. DE later blamed himself for this defeat, convinced that he’d run the horse too soon after Lingfield, and as a result, he took the decision to go straight for the Triumph Hurdle without a prep race.
It proved to be a masterstroke, as Oh So Risky, with Paul Holley retained in the saddle, stormed clear from the home turn to win by twelve lengths – think Goshen without the fall! Two Irish challengers filled the places and a look at the names of his twenty six rivals doesn’t produce many that even an anorak would remember. Taking the lesson that his horse was best when fresh to heart, DE bypassed Aintree and Punchestown. He had one run on the flat in May, then almost six months off before a bold attempt at the Group 3 St Simon Stakes at the end of October, where he ran exactly as his 33/1 price predicted.
Before he ran again over hurdles, Oh So Risky changed hands, bought by Michael Tabor, in whose colours he would run for the rest of his time with DE. As is often the case, taking on the older horses at the top level proved difficult for a Triumph Hurdle winner, an issue probably much better understood now than it was then. In a frustrating run-up to Cheltenham, Oh So Risky finished second in the Gerry Feilden, last in a bizarre Bula Hurdle, second in the Agfa Hurdle and third in the Kingwell. The Bula Hurdle had five runners, and in one of the oddest races I ever watched at Cheltenham, the first four were all in a photo with the official distances a neck, a neck and a head. Oh So Risky finished fifth and last, one and half lengths behind. Mr Tabor probably wasn’t too bothered as he also owned the winner, Royal Derbi.
So to Cheltenham, where he was on offer at 20/1, which looked a fair reflection of his form over the winter. But he once again showed that this was his course, reversing the form of the Bula with three of those that had finished ahead of him, hitting the front at the last, only to be run out of it by the wandering Royal Gait, beaten half a length. There was a lengthy stewards enquiry, but the winner kept the race, an outcome which surprised many in an era when disqualifications were much more prevalent than they are now. That campaign ended with another unplaced effort at Newbury on the flat in the John Porter Stakes.
The winter of 1992/3 was all disappointment, wide margin beatings in the Bula and Christmas Hurdles, a break and again his best show of the season in the Champion Hurdle, finishing fifth behind Granville Again. After that he was gelded, presumably an admission that he was never going to justify a career at stud, and he was given a full season on the flat. That produced success when he was finally given the chance to run over further than 1m 4f. He won a three runner funeral over 1m 7f at Newmarket (time was 20 secs over standard!), then finished second in the Ebor running off a mark of 97, giving 21lbs to the winner.
That prompted a bold decision by either the trainer or owner, as Oh So Risky was sent to Longchamp on Arc trials day to contest the Group 3 1m 7f Prix Gladiateur. He duly beat seven French trained rivals under John Williams, and was sent back a month later to try his luck in the Group 1 Prix Du Cadran over 2m 4f. That didn’t work out, as he finished ninth, with heavy ground probably more to blame than the trip.
After a five month break, his hurdle campaign consisted of just two runs. He finished a heartbreaking short head second in the Tote Gold Trophy under 12st, trying to give 20lbs to the winner Large Action. Four lengths back in third came the mare Flakey Dove, getting 13lbs from Oh So Risky. At Cheltenham, on the revised weight terms, he started favourite at 9/4, but couldn’t confirm the Newbury form with Flakey Dove, Large Action this time in third. My feeling at the time was that he now needed a stiffer test than was provided by the fairly sharp Old Course at Cheltenham.
That was his last really big day and although I’ve absolutely no firm evidence, I can see signs in his subsequent program that he was appearing on days to suit his owner, rather than in races chosen by DE. The summer of 1994 was spent chasing shadows in staying races, including the Ascot Gold Cup and the Goodwood Cup. He did win the 1994 Ascot Hurdle over 2m 4f, where he easily beat Flakey Dove who had a 10lb penalty for her Cheltenham win. But after a failure under top weight at Sandown, he was off the course for almost a year before a fall in the 1995 Ascot Hurdle.
Four dismal performances over hurdles in the first half of 1996 provoked a try over fences, and as a novice that was broadly successful. He won the Hurst Park Novice Chase at Ascot in November and finished second in the Maghull at Aintree in April, but bypassed Cheltenham. But it didn’t last once he was tried in top company, the autumn of 1997 producing a fall in the Haldon Gold Cup, a refusal in the Hennessy and he was pulled up in the Tingle Creek. In four runs in 1998, he beat a total of two horses and was finally retired, probably about three years too late.
It was a sad end for a horse that had promised so much, but became a ‘nearly’ horse over hurdles. He might have been awarded his first Champion Hurdle by the stewards, he might have won in 1994 if he hadn’t had such a hard race under 12st at Newbury. He might have won the Ebor if Reg Akehurst wasn’t quite so good at getting his runners handicapped. But might, maybe, perhaps and if only, don’t carry much weight in racing. It’s the winners that are remembered and if Oh So Risky is remembered, it’s for his Triumph Hurdle demolition job, not his near things.
He’s of interest as much as anything for the fact of Michael Tabor becoming an owner with DE, just about the only major name that ever had such a connection. Mr Tabor also had one or two flat horses with DE, but none of them were top class. It was never likely that DE would train for any of the big Arab concerns, or for the likes of Highclere Racing – his disdain for the gentlemen who carry the title ‘racing manager’ was all too apparent. The one exception he was happy to tolerate was Ron Sheather, who looked after the horses owned by Jeff Smith, but Ron was a man in the same mould as DE, a jobbing jockey who’d trained for Mr Smith before he retired.
Those of you that have stayed with this project through all twelve chapters, may be wondering why Desert Orchid, Rhyme N Reason and Persian Punch haven’t made an appearance. Simply, I didn’t think there was anything new to say about any of them that isn’t already in the public domain.
Thanks again ap I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying these posts.
It takes a lot to get a relative old stager (in life if not in mind) fired up , but every time I see that you have posted an update I really look forward to reading on. Thumbs up from me !
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