I'm not a father, not knowingly as the saying goes, but even I was bursting with parental pride at the parental pride that poured out of Bert le Clos in that famous interview after his "beautiful boy" Chad won a swimming gold at the Olympics. His radiance warmed us all, even a cynical degenerate like me. Yet Judy Murray, performing exactly the same role, leaves me feeling cold. Icy cold. Why is that? It may of course be my issue_an insecure man's inherent fear of a confident woman_but there seems to me to be a menace behind her intensity and an element of snide to the pride. I wouldn't cross her, but David Cody did.
She doesn't say it outright, but the way Judy Murray positions herself and (over)reacts suggests she wants her share, and possibly more than her fair share, of the credit for making Andy what he is. David Cody is saying it outright, but he doesn't just want credit, he wants some hard cash. An American tennis coach, Cody was appointed to 'Team Murray' in 2003, when Andy was aged just 16. Cody held the position for only two years, but that isn't stopping him now taking the Murrays to the High Court, seeking some of the Wimbledon wonga.
Embittered former trainers are rarely seen or heard within horseracing, at least not publically, despite the frequent transfer of horses, sometimes high-profile ones. Typing the words 'Peter Casey' and 'Sunday World' into Google offers up a part-vindictive, part-imaginative example of the resentful feelings that removing a horse can generate, but generally speaking trainers employ lip service, a tight-lip service. But that doesn't mean we can't empathize.
Top of the list for a sympathy card must be Jens Hirschberger, who crafts Group horses in Germany only to have them hijacked and held to ransom in Britain for the sum of 40 lb. Two such handicaptives, Eye of The Tiger and Low Key, were released on the same day in January, the 22nd, Catch-22 Day, and formed part of the famous four that grabbed bookmakers by the short and Curleys.
Spare a thought too, this Saturday, for Liz Doyle, who must be looking wistfully at two specific contenders in the major races at Newbury. If Cheltenian or Al Ferof appeared on the equine version of Who Do You Think You Are?, which is a distinct possibility given the BBC motto of 'we're onto something so let's hammer it', a la MasterChef, then they'd find their way to a yard in Wexford, where it all began for both horses. As proof of their good grounding, within months of being bought from Liz Doyle Al Ferof finished second in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham (2010) and Cheltenian won it (2011). That itself was something of a key change in National Hunt racing, the pair the first French-breds to impact in a championship bumper, challenging the existing stereotype.
We mustn't, however, get too emotional or dewy-eyed on behalf of Liz Doyle, who would have been busy enough counting the money to shed too many tears, but it must still pinch a bit to watch Al Ferof scaling the heights over the years. Cheltenian has been quiet in comparison, very quiet indeed, but that may well work in his favour when it comes to the Betfair Hurdle, given the recent record of novices in the race.
Last year, My Tent Or Yours was one of just four novices in a field of 21, while the 2012 edition featured only three novices (out of 20 runners), but they included Darlan who would have won, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. The 2011 renewal included just two novices, namely Recession Proof, the 12/1 winner, and Rebel Dancer, who looked booked for a place when falling at the third-last flight, and in 2011 Get Me Out of Here (1st), Manyriverstocross (3rd) and Any Given Day (7th) were the only three novice representatives in a 23-strong field. So the combined fields for the last four Betfair Hurdles have comprised only 15% novices (12 out of 79), yet they would have had a clean sweep had Darlan got over the second last, as well as two places if Rebel Dancer had got over the third last.
It helps to prove the power of an unexposed profile in a big handicap, and there is no more unexposed hurdler in the latest renewal than Cheltenian, though we know from the Cheltenham Bumper, albeit several years ago, that he has the necessary engine. His reappearance win in a maiden at Uttoxeter was routine to say the least, as his odds of 2/7 implied, but he jumped much better than in his two previous hurdling attempts, and the way he tanked through the race suggested two significant things: a) he's at home on heavy ground and b) the aforementioned big engine has been retuned.
There may be 23 runners, but only three of them are potentially streets ahead of their mark: the penalised Irish Saint, the resurgent Alaivan and the low-mileage Cheltenian, the only novice in the race. His career clearly hasn't gone to plan, but, by the same token, if somebody had said straight after the Champion Bumper that Cheltenian would have a mark of just 134 for his debut in a handicap hurdle then you'd have been staggered at best and suspected the hand of Curley at worst.
As for Al Ferof in the Denman Chase, he should win to put it simply. He's clear top-rated by Timeform, and, compared to the King George at Kempton on his last start, this company will be far more to his liking, as will the track, successful on two of his three starts at Newbury.
This is D-Day for Al Ferof. It's also D-Day for Cheltenian in many respects. But both Al Ferof and Cheltenian can draw strength from their D-Days gone. The Doyle days.
