Tom Dascombe scores for Michael Owen at Chester
Trainers often spend their time on a racecourse being force-fed the views of others but David Pipe certainly has no regrets heeding the advice given to him at Aintree last month.
Richard Hughes – who was at the meeting assisting his father, Dessie, with his runners at the Grand National meeting – suggested that the horse who had finished down the field in a handicap hurdle was the right one for one of the most idiosyncratic races of the Flat season.
The jockey’s view both in theory and from the saddle was a winning one when Mamlook (pictured left) won the totesport.com Chester Cup. A handy position can be key for this marathon and it was borne out by the fact that seven of the first eight past the post broke from a single-draw.
The exception was Tastahil, who was given an enterprising ride by Richard Hills. He was quickly away from stall 16 and tacked over to claim a prime pitch, just behind the leader, Liszt and well away from the scrimmaging for racing room that was taking place behind. Hughes had taken a ground-saving rail’s slot in third and bided his time, knowing that the easy fractions would make it hard for any of the runners behind to pass - provided that he was not caught off-guard.
The crucial manoeuvre came on the run through the home turn. The pace had been increasing for the previous three furlongs and Liszt was begging to flag but Hughes was already on the move. He switched right of both Liszt and Tastahil.
Mamlook was upsides Tastahil with a furlong to run and the12lbs weight concession in Mamlook’s favour was just too much as Tastahil gave way in the final stride to be beaten a head, with Halla San and Majestic Concorde completing the places. “Luckily I went to Aintree and I bumped into David,” Hughes explained. “I said ‘make sure you put that horse in the Chester Cup’. I’ve been watching him over jumps and kept tipping him to everyone but the ground kept getting to soft for him.
“He’s a right horse on his day. He’s so long and big, he usually doesn’t jump out that well but luckily today he did. I was able to sit in the box seat, and we hacked around, so it was ideal.”
Pipe was not on hand for the biggest Flat win of his career but it was a special day for Peter Deal, a long-standing owner with the yard. “I always wanted a proper dual-purpose horse and this is the fella,” he said. “He wins high-class hurdle races and this is a dream – it really is. The Chester Cup, one of the oldest races and I was born in Cheshire. So it means a great deal.”
A first two-year-old winner of the season meant a great deal to Tom Dascombe, who became a local trainer when he switched from Lambourn to join owner Andrew Black and Michael Owen at the Manchester United footballer's Manor House Stables at Malpas, which is just over 20 miles from Chester.
Four winners from nearly 10-times that many runners may have been causing a little unease, especially given that none of the yard’s two-year-olds had won and they were sponsoring the opening race of the meeting, the Lily Agnes Stakes. Julius Geezer had been well beaten in his first two starts but ran out an easy winner for stable jockey Richard Kingscote, whom Dascombe had considered switching to stable companion Coconut Ice, who finished fifth.
“It’s just a bit of pressure when your horses aren’t running well,” Dascombe admitted. “This has always been a nice horse and I just couldn’t work out why he hasn’t been running very well. He’s done it today, and it’s a massive relief, but it’s not about pressure – it’s about having winners.
“It’s still confusing because that filly has been going better than this horse. I really thought she’d beat him today but she didn’t get the best run round – and that’s life.”
The winner was a welcome boost for Owen, after a hamstring injury ruled him out of the latter stages of Manchester United’s season and any hope of making England’s World Cup squad. “We bought the horse specifically for the race, at Newmarket sales, so this has been the plan for him,” Owen explained.
The plans for the yard that Dascombe moved to full-time this season are ambitious and this meeting was integral in terms of promoting the venture to local owners. “The pressure on was on because this was the first Chester meeting for Tom, being the new trainer at Mannor House,” Owen said. “Everyone that comes to us will want to buy a horse to run at Chester. Up here it’s like Royal Ascot everywhere else.
“Our older horses have been running pretty well. Our babies have been a little bit in and out – and that was our first two year-old winner. It’s been a reasonably solid start and we’re looking forward to what the rest of the season brings. We’ve got 87 boxes on site and they’re all full but we’re building more space in the coming months. I wouldn’t have thought we’ll be going too many more than 140-odd.”
The figures are adding up well for John Gosden and his new stable jockey, William Buick. The partnership got off to the best of starts when Dar Re Mi won the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan in March and a filly with Classic pretentions emerged when Gertrude Bell won the Weatherbys Bank Cheshire Oaks and she could now run at Epsom next month.
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