Darryll Holland has it cracked in Chester Vase
Riding at Chester can be something like a game of high-speed poker. Play the cards right and a rider scoops the pot but one false move and all a jockey is left holding is a busted flush.
The tight nature of the track means that each rider is looking for a c***k of light between the front-runners and then has to choose the critical moment to make the right move. Darryll Holland got that right and Ted Spread kept his end of the deal for a battling victory in the MBNA Chester Vase.
Half a mile out Holland was left with a decision to make, and little time for deliberation. c***k Of Light and Critical Moment had been disputing the lead for the first mile but the pace was visibly slackening. Holland was in third on a horse who had run over 10 furlongs as a two-year-old and the fear was that this was going to develop from a Derby trial into a sprint.
Holland found just enough room between the leaders to push his way through to lead coming off the home turn. “We’d just levelled off, to go even slower, and I thought I’ve got to be positive, make his mind up and make it into a real race,” Holland said. “He’s a horse who gets a mile-and-a-half well so we used that and I committed some way out on him.”
Jamie Spencer appeared to have been committed to a hard-earned riding fee on Icon Dream from the moment the stalls opened. Icon Dream had been well off the pace early on but made up ground over the second half of the race and swept into the home straight travelling best of all. He led into the final furlong but Ted Spread never gave up and just worried his rival out of matters in the last 50 yards to win by a head.
Ted Spread runs for a three-man ownership who call themselves the False Nose 'N Glasses Partnership but there was no disguising the delight of the colt’s trainer, Mark Tompkins. “He’s done it well and Darryll’s gave him a perfect ride – he’s battled and stayed on well in this ground – and I couldn’t be more thrilled for everybody,” he said.
“The Leger was always in my mind for this horse – if he was good enough. You never know – they say they’re good enough and then they down the handicapping route halfway through the season. But this horse, I’ve always loved him; he’s always done everything right.”
Better than Aidan O’Brien’s runner, Rocket Man, who finished in sixth. The difference is that O’Brien has 38 entries for the Investec Derby and Tompkins has just the one. Not that he was complaining.
“I suppose if the ground’s ok we’ll go to the Derby,” he said. “You don’t know how the form’s going to work out here but today’s a good day. He’ll have learned a lot from going around the bends and had a bit of a battle which is good for him. When that horse went by him I thought ‘now just pick it up Darryll. Wind him a couple and he’ll keep going’ because he’s as genuine as genuine.
“It’s hard to find them when you’ve not got a lot of big Arab backing to send you as lot of horses. I’ve got some marvellous owners, who’ve been great supporters over the years. And we’ve always had 65-70 horses, which is great, but it’s always hard to find these real good ones.”
Most horses seem to come alike to William Buick at Chester this week. Holland rode his first winner there nearly 20 years ago while Buick only conquered this tightly-turning conundrum in 2007, in his second season riding. However he is clearly a quick learner and rode a second successive double that was highlighted by the victory of Debussy in the Group Three Betfair Huxley Stakes.
Buick rode a calculated race on Debussy as he let Les Fazzani cut out the pace but was not caught out when Paul Hanagan tried to steal the race three furlongs out. “He’s really a front-runner but it suited me to just track one - and there wasn’t a horse around me apart from the leader,” Buick said. “He’s better when he’s a little bit on his own – got a bit of daylight – and he likes it around here.
“It’s great when you get the right horse.”
Tompkins would doubtless agree.
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