Funny old game this gambling lark isn’t it? As if trying to pick the winner of a race is not sufficient challenge some souls try to spice it up a bit by making their selection six weeks in advance.
Ante-post punters tend to be a hardy breed out of necessity. Like a cross between a tightrope walker and an angler they edge their way along a narrow wire to riches, trying not to think of the perils of penury that lie below and all have the tale of the “one that got away”. That life-changing punt that would have dotted up if only the horse had trotted up to the start on the appointed day.
The ante-post punter is all-too-well acquainted with the catalogue of injuries that can befall the Thoroughbred along with the myriad of ailments which seem only to exclude galloping gout and Saturday Night Fever. Just about everything else gets filed under “act of God” – well just about.
Stravinsky Dance has been prominent in the markets for the totesport Trophy, which is run at Newbury on Saturday, for some time. As in life generally timing is everything and, unfortunately, it has worked against Sam Waley-Cohen.
He is one of a dying breed of genuine amateur jockeys, who rides for pleasure rather than as a career move towards the paid ranks. He rides mainly for his father, Robert, and the pair also have their star novice chaser, Long Run, entered for the Grade Two totesport.com Kingmaker Novices' Chase at Warwick on the same afternoon.
Waley-Cohen had planned to take a helicopter between both tracks but a change to the timings of the Newbury race, which will now start 35 minutes earlier at 3.10, to accommodate TV schedules means there will not be enough time for Waley-Cohen to get from Warwick, where Long Run is due to run at 2.20.
Now it starts to get complicated. Both Stravinsky Dance and Long Run are trained by Nicky Henderson and he wants to try Long Run over two miles to give him a choice between running the horse in either Arkle Trophy or the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. That would rule out the entry that Henderson made for Long Run in the three-mile novice chase on the Newbury card – although the current weather forecast means that everything could be thrown up in the air despite Newbury deploying frost covers.
Waley-Cohen has already said that he will be riding Long Run come what may but news that this would then probably lead to the withdrawal of Stravinsky Dance was given a rather frosty reception from various internet chatrooms.
Clearly punters have rights but so too do owners so something has to give and, given how much owners plough into the sport, the ante-post punters really just have to take it on the chin if the Waley-Cohens decide that the right to have their horses ridden by the jockey of their choosing supersedes anything else.
Another jockey who is likely to have no shortage of horses to ride is Jimmy Fortune, who has decided to go freelance after losing his job with John Gosden. This story did appear primed for an ironic twist with Fortune being offered the job of first jockey to Andrew Balding, the trainer whom William Buick had left to take up the offer to ride for Gosden. However, Fortune told the Daily Express: “I think, and hope, I’ve made the right decision. Andrew Balding, who had offered me the job as his stable jockey, is one of the many trainers I will be riding out for. It’s going to be tough but I’m looking forward to the new challenge. I’m fit and at the age of 37, I don’t see why I don’t have another 15 years of race-riding in me, that’s of course, if I can stay injury free."
Fortune had suffered with a long-running back injury, which was eventually cured by surgery, but it had never impaired his strength in the saddle as evidenced by the view of Kieren Fallon, who regards Fortune as one of the strongest riders in a finish. Not that everyone endorses that belief because the connections of the Gosden-trained High Twelve replaced Fortune with Fallon for last year’s Dewhurst Stakes citing that they wanted a “very strong jockey”.
For the record High Twelve finished a well-beaten 12th and Fortune believes that “the problems I had with my back are now something of the distant past.
“There is certainly a lot to look forward too. And with a bit of luck, I hope I will be getting back on the right horses. Monitor Closely is one I’ll really be looking forward to riding again. He showed he’s up there with the best when I finished third on him in last year’s St Leger.
"I’ve recently had a holiday with the kids and cannot wait to get going. I intend to be back riding on the all-weather next month and won’t be looking behind me.”
So having turned down a full-time job Fortune will be living up to his name by gambling all to make it in the sometimes choppy waters of life as a freelance.
Funny old game this jockeys lark isn’t it?
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