SIR PETER O’SULLEVAN AWARDS AND A LOOK AT THE ALL WEATHER TRACKS: I attended the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Awards lunch yesterday at the Dorchester and it was a great afternoon. The place was packed and the foot was brilliant. There was also a charity auction that made a lot of money so it was a very enjoyable day.
AP McCoy won the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Award. Sir Peter had requested for him to receive it just before he died so that was a very poignant moment for AP, I’m sure. He commented though that he’s about half the age of all the other recipients but he seemed delighted.
He was at a table with Frankie Dettori who is also an Arsenal fan along with Sir Alex Ferguson so there was plenty of banter between them!
It’s great to see that AP is once again nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year but along with that it is an even bigger achievement that Tom Marquand, Champion Apprentice, has been nominated for the BBC Young Sportstar of the Year. For someone so young, with so little experience to be where he is is just incredible. Not only is he a great rider, he’s also a very nice guy and he’s extremely mannerly. It would be amazing to see him collect the award.
I’ve been invited to the Awards night again, in Belfast this year. I’ve been a few times and it’s always a really good event so I’m looking forward to it again this year.
RUNDOWN OF THE ALL WEATHER TRACKS
I wanted to give a description and some information on the All Weather tracks. Hopefully I’ll a few pieces of info that you may not have known before but as a Jockey, these would be essential if you’re going to ride winners at them. The big thing is that they are all very different and you really need to know each one of them very well, as does the trainer.
WOLVERHAMPTON
This is a very fair track. There’s not any one way to ride it but there are a few things to keep note of when you’re looking at a race there.
The main thing is that they generally go very hard in front so it’s all about the pace in the race. There are no easy leads there and the Draw is not as big of a deal around Wolverhampton in most races. The only ones with any draw bias are the 7 furlong races because the bend comes up quite quick. On the other side though, if you are drawn out wide, the bend after the 7 furlong start is the only with limited visibility for the stewards so you can move across a little earlier there.
Being drawn 1 can sometimes be worse though. From stall 1, you really need a horse to get a good start otherwise, no matter what way you want to ride the race, it can be difficult unless you’re quick away.
Another thing that tends to happen around there is that the worse the race, the faster you go and that’s why there can be accidents on the final bend. Horses are starting to get tired and can slow down and stop. In a lot of cases, it happens with Apprentice jockeys and it’s purely just from inexperience. It’s like driving a car in that the more experienced you are, the more you can spot something about to happen before it does. You’re just more aware of what’s going on. With limited experience, everything tends to happen very quick in races.
All in all, Wolverhampton is a very fair track but it’s all about the pace in the race. There’s no easy leads and that’s an important thing to note.
KEMPTON
There are two tracks at Kempton and the thing that not many will realise is that the two tracks are very different. On the mile and a quarter and five furlong starts, the draw matters much more than on the bigger track.
It’s a very fair track as well but they tend to start racing from a long way out so it’s not an easy place to win from the front on the bigger track. It’s very different on the smaller course because you really need to be handy. If you’re not in a good position, you’re just forced to sit and suffer. It’s not always advisable to back one on the short track if they’re not making the running.
On the bigger track, you can ride a race properly around, no matter what way your horse runs or how you’re drawn. I’ve been drawn 14 of 14 there plenty of times in the likes of a mile race and still won.
The surface is very good at Kempton, it always has been but there are trainers who just seem to excel there and following trainers with a good strike rate is very important. James Fanshawe and Saeed Bin Suroor are two that always have a strong set of runners there. From my own experience, having ridden for James so many times, you see that many of his horses are nearly 10lbs better around Kempton than anywhere else.
The only drawback to the surface is when there is very little rain or if it’s very hot, it can just be a little worse then but only really in terms of kickback more than anything else.
CHELMSFORD
There’s not much to say about Chelmsford really as they are just getting going again. It’s quite a fair track with no set way of riding it so it’s good for any type of horse.
The kickback is quite bad there though and it can actually be quite sore! When you’re on an inexperienced horse or one that’s a bit nervy, they dislike it and back off.
When you’re riding there, the draw isn’t such a big deal. Generally, if you’re drawn on the inside, when you get to the straight, they generally fan out into the centre of the track so that makes the jockey’s job a little easier.
They are quickening the surface there all the time until they get it right which is good on the tracks part. When they re-opened, it was a little slow but the problem now is that the track record is being broken all the time so some owners are getting a little too excited!
LINGFIELD
Take a horse like Desert Strike, an out and out 5 furlong sprinter and put him in Lingfield and he’ll win over six with an easy lead. The downhill run into the straight is great for getting horses, with balance, to quicken but take a breather at the same time and they will generally stay further around Lingfield than any other All Weather tracks.
They can go quick early on around Lingfield but even at that, horses can quicken quite easily entering the straight there. An easy lead is important though but you can’t be on a plodder. It just takes them too long to get into gear and when they do, the quicker horses have gone away from them.
I always loved riding around Lingfield. You can drop them in when they go quick or you can go from the front. It’s a really nice place to ride.
SOUTHWELL
I found at Southwell that I won on several horses that would only stay a mile but would win over a mile and a quarter. It’s a great track for one like that because the surface is a little softer so it just took horses a little longer to kick off.
It’s the type of track though, that if you’re on something that’s keen, you can just let them bowl along in front as it can be hard to make up the extra ground from the back.
The big thing about Southwell is that the horses have to really act on the surface and they need to be good travellers. The surface doesn’t necessarily suit soft ground horses, that’s a fact that not a lot of people get, including trainers and jockeys. You really need to know the track.
The likes of Mark Johnston and Joe Fanning have always done well there. Conor Dore was always brilliant with his horses there because they understand the track.
What would be my favourite? I had a lot of success around Southwell and with Conor, we won around there a lot just by knowing the place so well. That was a huge advantage for us. Apart from there, I loved riding at Lingfield most.
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