It’s all Evens And Odds in Stewards’ Cup
He might look like a bouncer for Mothercare, but David Nicholls has long stood tall as the best trainer of sprint handicappers around.
In his career as a jockey highlights were few and far between, and one of the best of his 421 appearances in the winner’s enclosure came when Soba won the Stewards’ Cup in 1982.
As a trainer, especially at Glorious Goodwood, Nicholls has become a mastermind of his chosen specialised subject of sprinters and he won the bluesq.com Stewards’ Cup for the third time with Evens And Odds. Nicholls went into the race a bit short-handed by his standards with only three of his runners among the full house of 28 who were loaded into the stalls for this six-furlong cavalry charge.
The field broke into three groups when the stalls crashed open with jockeys frantically deciding which strip of turf might be the fastest. Billy Cray, a 5lb claimer, had kicked Evens And Odds out of the traps the split-second that the starter had pressed the release button on the gates. Now he was working out the odds on which side of the track he should race. Drawn in stall 18 he had an evens choice of which side to go but he kept with the pack who raced mid-track. But it was the runners on the far side who appeared to have the advantage at halfway.
Johnny Mudball had been leading that side of the race from early on and now he was being chased by stable companion Noverre To Go. A furlong out and the pair were first and second, but the Noverre To Go began going nowhere very fast, unlike Evens And Odds. He was picking up for Cray as he flashed home to win by neck, with Johnny Mudball second and Prohibit and Rileyskeepingfaith taking the other places.
Nicholls, who won the race with Tayseer (2000) and Gift Horse (2005), had plenty of faith in Cray, a 22-year-old from London who came north in search of rides. Speaking in that low growl which makes him sound like Yorkshire’s answer to Bill Shankly he said: “I’m very pleased for Billy - every day he works hard.”
The winner’s enclosure is often the place where grand tales of grand plans hatched are told but Nicholls is not a man for that. “I’m not so sure that there are many plans with a horse rated what he is. He has to go for the Ayr Gold Cup now and I’m sure that he will acquit himself well.” He may not go for the grand talk but that should not be taken for a lack of humour and Nicholls chuckled when he said: “I’ve never had any doubts about Billy - but he’s not as good as I was.”
Cray, came in racing straight from school at 16, has been with Nicholls since the start of the season. The apprentice decided to try his luck as a jockey after watching the sport on television and joined the British Racing School in Newmarket despite having never sat on a horse. Savouring his 41st career winner and the biggest moment that made all the early starts and cold mornings on the gallops worthwhile he said: “I didn’t ever think about us winning, I just kept riding. I knew mine would stay further so I just kept going and hoped I’d get him [Jonny Mudball)].
“The plan was to follow Prime Exhibit, who is in the same colours, and take it up there earlier. This lad gets a bit further so I just tried to miss a couple of lengths early on. It’s brilliant to win this race. It’s the biggest win of my career by a long way and it’s good to ride for Dandy because he gets all of the sprinters up there and they always run well at the big meetings.”
A few yards away Tom Dascombe was pleased with the run of Johnny Mudball, but accepting that the 9lb rise in his horse’s handicap mark, to 99 for his win at Newcastle five weeks ago, cost him victory. “It killed him,” he said. “Off 97 he would have been alright, and the irritating thing is he’ll go up again for finishing second. But he’s run a great race and the owner is happy. Our other horse, Noverre To Go, has run a blinder too [finishing fifth], although the ground has probably gone against him because he needs it very fast.”
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