TBIDW – Chapters 9 + 10

[apracing]

Chapter Nine FLOYD ch g Relko ex Honey Palm

The dual purpose horse that I think was closest to my own ideal of one to own, he had a long career starting on the flat in 1983 and ending over hurdles in 1992. Given the number of races he ran and the timespan, I’ll limit my comments to the high points, which were many.

Originally trained by Paul Cole, he ran three times unplaced for him as a 3-y-old, before being moved to Michael Madgwick. I can’t be sure about this as finding evidence that far back is impossible, but I suspect Cole sent the horse to the Newmarket July sales and that was when his long term owner, Mr Walsh first entered the picture.

He got the best possible start for his new connections, winning a 10F maiden at Windsor at the rewarding odds of 25/1, making most of the running. He remained in that yard when juvenile hurdling in the winter of 1983/4, winning by 15L at Fontwell the week after Xmas. His season ended with a fall in the Triumph Hurdle, and at some point that summer, the owner opted to move him to DE, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Once again, the stable change produced positive results, as Floyd won his first four starts over hurdles for DE. His reappearance was delayed until February, when he scored at Sandown by 15L, and he followed that up at Newbury a month later. With no penalty for Newbury, he started a short priced favourite for the Imperial Cup, beating fifteen rivals by 8L at 13/8. The four timer was completed at Cheltenham five days later under a 7lb penalty in the County Hurdle, this time he started 5/2 in a field of twenty seven. In all those four wins, he led or disputed the lead throughout, tactics that would become his trademark, and at Cheltenham he also showed the tenacity when challenged that endeared him to racegoers in the 80’s.

With those last three wins achieved in the space of twelve days, most trainers would have been happy to give the horse a break, but DE was never ‘most trainers’. Three weeks after Cheltenham, Floyd won the 2m Queens Prize at Kempton, a more prestigious race then than it is now. One oddity connected with that win, is the question of who rode Floyd. In the morning paper it was shown as D Kent (7), an apprentice attached to the Jim Old stable. But in the Timeform annuals of that era, Kent is shown as having a minimum riding weight of 7-11 and there’s also no record of him ever riding a winner. Floyd was set to carry 7-11 at Kempton, but a 7lb claimer would have needed to do 7-4. My best guess is that DE had expected the weights to rise considerably, but top weight Destroyer (10st) had stayed in at the overnight stage. I suspect that Richard Fox actually rode Floyd that day.

Floyd was kept busy on the flat that summer, as well as running unplaced in the Swinton Hurdle at Haydock in May. He won another 2m handicap at Newbury and was also second at Bath. That was on firm ground and he was well beaten in two subsequent starts on good to firm, the last in the Cesarewitch. He was then off the course for ten months, missing the whole of the 1985/86 NH season, the first of several periods of inaction caused by leg problems. He never ran on firm ground after that and was always fitted with bandages on his forelegs.

In the autumn of 1986, after two prep runs on the flat, he landed a punt in a handicap hurdle at Ascot in November under 11st 1lb, and then confirmed what a good thing he was that day by winning the Bula Hurdle, beating Prideaux Boy (who’d been trying to give him 16lbs at Ascot!) by 7L at level weights. Three weeks later, he fell at the last in the Christmas Hurdle when fighting to hold off the challenge of Nohalmdun and a subsequent injury sustained on the gallops brought his season to a premature close.

Over the next two seasons (1987/88 and 1988/89), he remained sound and was able to run regularly at the top level. In both those years, he won the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton. The only difference in those consecutive wins was in the saddle, with Colin Brown retiring after Cheltenham 1988, and replaced variously by Richard Dunwoody and Simon Sherwood. In 1989, as a 9-y-old under Sherwood, he also produced his best performance in the Champion Hurdle, finishing fourth, just over 3L behind the 50/1 winner Beech Road.

In 1989/90, Floyd went winless in five starts, seemingly now lacking the pace to get competitive in the best 2m races. He was tried in the Stayers Hurdle, but was well beaten in that, so a longer trip didn’t appear to be the answer. But DE wasn’t deterred, and after a nine month layoff, Floyd made his 1990/91 debut in the 3m+ Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot ten days before Xmas. In a field of eight, all at least three years his junior, he was sixth in the market at 10/1. He won tidily under Graham Bradley and opened up a whole new career as a staying hurdler. But only after two more tries at 2m in the Christmas and New Year Hurdles at Kempton and Windsor.

Back to 3m at the Kempton February meeting in the Rendlesham Hurdle, he delivered again under Bradley, taking a clear early lead, given a breather at halfway, and fighting back after being narrowly headed at the last by Ryde Again. Leg problems prevented another go at the Stayers Hurdle and he was off until the following Xmas. He ran an encouraging fifth in a 2m 4f handicap at Kempton, and then produced one last hurrah in the 3m Daily Telegraph Hurdle at Ascot in February, beating the very useful, seven years younger Crystal Spirit by a neck. Another try at the Rendlesham saw him pulled up soon after halfway with a recurrence of his leg injury, and that finally brought an end to his nine year career as a racehorse.

Much of what DE achieved with Floyd epitomises what made him such a good trainer. Initially the rapid improvement and the placing that took advantage of the system, with races close together in a period when it took three weeks for a revised handicap mark to come into effect. Then the switch to the flat where a fully fit horse could beat those making their annual debut back in the days before the arrival of AW tracks.

Patience with injury, bringing the horse back ready to fire immediately, the sustained excellence at a high level over multiple seasons, and the willingness to try something different shown by the late career move to staying races. Obviously it helps to have a tough horse with a willing attitude, but how much of that is nature and how much is down to the trainer? The number of different horses that DE trained who were similar to Floyd (even if at a lower level of ability) suggests to me that he was either a genius at getting the right horses into his yard, or his skills were a major factor.

Chapter Ten BARNBROOK AGAIN b g Nebbiolo ex Single Line

Another like Floyd that began his career on the flat and over hurdles in other stables before moving to DE. He raced as a 2-y-old for Derek Haydn Jones, then as a 3-y-old for Stan Mellor, winning a 12f handicap at Windsor and three early season juvenile hurdles for him. Those hurdle wins came in quick succession at Kempton, Ascot and Cheltenham between Oct 20th and Nov 10th. He was then beaten at Haydock on Nov 21st and wasn’t seen again that season or the next.

Still in the same ownership, he first appeared for DE on the flat in August 1986, and then won on his return to hurdling in a 2m handicap at the Newbury mixed meeting at the end of October. It probably didn’t improve feelings in the Mellor camp that they provided the runner-up, No-U-Turn beaten twelve lengths by Barnbrook Again. A quick return under a penalty didn’t pay off as he could only manage second at Sandown a week later, but back at Newbury after a three week break, he absolutely ran away with the Gerry Feilden Hurdle (then a conditions race, not a handicap), going clear from the home turn to win by thirty lengths. Those trailing him home included River Ceiriog (winner of the Supreme Novice earlier that year) and the future Champion Hurdler, Beech Road.

Next stop was the HSS Hire Shop Hurdle at Ascot, where he couldn’t match the finishing kick of Nohalmdun, who would go on to beat Floyd at Kempton two weeks later. DE now aimed Barnbrook Again at The Ladbroke at Leopardstown, then the most valuable handicap hurdle of the season home or abroad. He’d tried the same route two years previously with Desert Orchid, with no reward, as he could only finish midfield. But this time, it worked perfectly, as the heavily backed favourite (5/2 from 5/1 in the morning), came home by five lengths. He was ridden at Leopardstown by Colin Brown, taking over from Ross Arnott, who’d been in the saddle for his previous four runs – Ross remained at home to ride Cavvies Clown at Sandown.

Barnbrook Again returned to Ireland to finish second in the Irish Champion Hurdle, then ran a shocker in the Kingwell Hurdle, third at 4/6 behind his stable companion Hypnosis, who was only there as a pacemaker! Undeterred, DE stuck to his plan and ran him in the Champion Hurdle, where he finished a close third under Simon Sherwood, behind See You Then and the US challenger Flatterer, with the Irish Champion winner Deep Idol six lengths back in fourth. That was his last run over hurdles and at that point, it seemed to me he was much better going left handed – all three wins and placed in two Champion Hurdles – than right handed – beaten at Sandown, Ascot and Wincanton.

So I was surprised, and not richer, when he started over fences in the autumn with three fast and fluent rounds of jumping at Exeter, Ascot, and after a three month break caused by an infected hock, Ascot again. He didn’t live up to the promise shown in his two subsequent starts, beaten into second at Chepstow by the older, more experienced Foyle Fisherman on his first try at 2m 4f, then a disappointing show in the Arkle where he started the 7/2 second favourite. I was there that afternoon and it was clear from early on that he wasn’t going to win, jumping away to his right and making a bad mistake at the downhill fence going away from the stands. That he eventually finished third, ten lengths behind Danish Flight, was an indication of his ability, as ‘pulled up’ looked a more likely outcome at halfway. DE felt afterwards that he was feeling the injury that had caused him to miss the middle of the season – he didn’t run again that season.

He returned in October with a win in the Haldon Gold Cup, beating Panto Prince by four lengths at level weights. From there, DE opted to keep him in quiet waters, running just twice more before Cheltenham in March, both over 2m 4f in races that were part of the Arlington Premier Series, the program for second season chasers previously run under the Embassy sponsorship. He won the qualifier at Newbury in November and the final at Cheltenham in late January.

Then to Cheltenham for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, and with the benefit of hindsight, he didn’t have the greatest bunch to beat. Barnbrook Again started 7/4 fav, and his nearest challengers in the market were the 11-y-old Beau Ranger and Midnight Count, both of whom were better over further. Panto Prince was also in opposition again, disregarded at 14/1.
He won comfortably despite a couple of slight mistakes, with Royal Stag (28/1) doing best of the rest. That was it for another season, one in which he was unbeaten and took the biggest prize for a two mile chaser – but it all got rather lost in the blaze of publicity that surrounded Desert Orchid, winner of the Gold Cup the next day.

He began the 1989/90 season with three runs in handicaps under big weights, based on an official handicap rating of 168. He ran dismally in the first at Kempton, already beaten when he fell for the first time in his career. Then he broke the course record for the extended 2m at Newbury on firm ground at the Hennessy meeting, giving 27lbs to the runner-up Springholm – that proved quite a day for the yard, as Ghofar won the Hennessy an hour later. The third one was the December 2m 4f handicap at Cheltenham (the A F Budge Gold Cup that year), where 12st proved too much.

Then in a surprise move, he took on Desert Orchid (two years his senior) in the King George, running out a decent second, well held but beating the likes of Yahoo, Pegwell Bay and Norton’s Coin. There followed talk about the possibility that Barnbrook Again might go for the Gold Cup rather than the Champion Chase, and that increased when DE ran him in the Gold Cup trial over 3m at Newbury in February. There he faced Toby Tobias, winner of his last four starts, the most recent being the Gold Cup trial at Cheltenham. Toby Tobias started 8/11 at Newbury, but he departed around halfway when more or less upsides the front running Barnbrook Again (11/4), who went on to win by a distance from Yahoo and Golden Friend. Barnbrook Again was left in the Gold Cup and even declared to run in it in case he had an early fall in the Champion Chase, his eventual target as common sense prevailed.

He completed the double, but only after a prolonged battle with the younger contender, Waterloo Boy, the pair seven lengths clear of the rest. It was an epic race to watch, the best 2m chase I’d seen at Cheltenham since Bobsline beat Noddy’s Ryde in the 1984 Arkle and Barnbrook Again won by half a length, as both horses gave their all. The stewards weren’t as impressed as most racegoers, and both jockeys were banned for excessive use of the whip. If their action was supposed to calm public disquiet, it was rendered next to useless, as the punishments were only announced two hours later after race six, by which time the BBC had gone off air and the newspaper journalists had already filed their copy.

This time, Barnbrook Again was turned out for one more race, the Silver Trophy over 2m 4f at the Cheltenham April meeting, a race sponsored by his owners’ business. He produced a round of jumping that provoked memories of his early novice successes, winning by ten lengths. Timeform rated it the best chasing performance of the season by a horse other than Desert Orchid. Oh how Barnbrook must have hated his stable companion, who got all the glory, all the applause, the fan club, the TV coverage and even the girl (Janice Coyle)!

After those two Cheltenham wins, he was off the course for almost a year and in three runs during 1991, he never showed any sparkle at all and was eventually retired after being pulled up in the Tingle Creek.

I believe he’s probably the most forgotten horse of the good ones trained by DE, and I suspect some of you reading this have been surprised to be reminded just how successful he was. Double winners of the Champion Chase are not commonplace, and double winners who also placed in the Champion Hurdle and the King George are rarer still.

[Gladiateur]

Quality again, ap.

One of the things which stood out with Barnbrook Again was his jumping; he was quick, athletic and nimble. The epithet “cat-like” could have been invented for him.

[gamble]

Interesting to view the full life story of such an impressive animal the likes of Floyd to see how Elsworth cajoled the very best out of him. Horses back in those halcyon days amounted more to betting opportunities to me rather than wonders of speed or endurance or ability. Al Bahathri, Oh So Sharp, Zilzal, Dancing Brave, and Desert Orchid broke that mould in me and I was left in a sense of wonderment. Very nice to see Floyd from that different perspective and earmarked through Alan’s very personal views and words.

flatcapgamble. Nortons Coin did a back flip for every carthorse anywhere who was searching to escape its yoke and the confines of a lowly country lane, and that guy munching the straw, to find an exit to the main road to town.

[Author]

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