Friday, October 26, 2007

FOUND : ONE RACECOURSE. ANSWERS TO THE NAME OF....

Call off the dogs, look what’s been found hidden in the undergrowth! As the delays to the opening of Great Leighs continue to try the patience of even the most ardent proponents of both all-weather racing and the need to bring Rules racing to Essex, news reached the Racing Post last weekend of the current state of progress on a project that has been even longer in the making than the aforementioned venue.

The racecourse being built at Ffos Las near Llanelli at present represents the second attempt by Pembrey Racecourse PLC to establish a new Rules racecourse in Carmarthenshire, and with it become the first such venue in the locality since the - by then corruption-sullied - Tenby track closed its doors this month in 1936 (Chris Pitt’s peerless A Long Time Gone survey will tell you the whole sorry tale there).

As the name of the holding company suggests, Pembrey itself was the intended venue of the course when BHA fixtures were secured by the nascent PLC (Pembrey Racing Ltd as was) in the summer of 2000, before matters of land ownership and the risk of flooding forced it to look elsewhere, settling on the site of a former mine in Ffos Las three miles further inland. This has inevitably delayed matters, the overoptimistic claims of certain local councillors at the time that a course only finally granted planning permission in late summer 2003 would be built from scratch and functional within two years having proven wide of the mark. Judged on the aerial shot of the site in the Post, however, the revised projected date of 2009 does not look implausible.

In scrutinising the current surface in one of its essays, the new edition of Timeform’s Chasers and Hurdlers (meditations on which shall feature on this blog in due course) noted that the original racing turf at Ascot was given six years to bed in before any competitive racing took place on it. Ffos Las will only get a couple if all runs to time hereafter, but the ground has already seeded staggeringly well given that particular process only started last month. The Post’s photo indicates a covering of grass on around half of the course already, with a full growth now more than cautiously anticipated before the winter kicks in.

And for those who don’t already know or did not see the picture, that represents an awful lot of grass. No tight, sharp gaffe in the making, the turf courses at Ffos Las at least look a galloping horse’s dream – the circuit is basically flat, left-handed, 1m5f in length and with sweeping turns – and wide with it, provision evidently existing for maximum fields of 20 on both the hurdles and chase courses. Think Ayr, Doncaster, Newbury, Worcester or Wetherby for the closest points of reference.

Quite what else will be provided is a little more conjectural, as separate Pembrey Airport and Ffos Las Racecourse websites (both seemingly live) promise different versions of the finished product – the former, for example, maintains that an all-weather track will run around the outside of the turf circuit. If that is true, that would offer something to the genuine long-striding type on an artificial surface for the first time in this country, as well as realistically doubling the options of all-weather campaigners from Ireland (alongside Dundalk); but that still rates something of a major "if".

The importance of the potential Irish patronage alluded to there is not to be underestimated. More so than most other tracks in Britain, if not all of them, Ffos Las is superbly appointed to encourage raiders from across the sea given the aforementioned ferry links (plus the airport if permitted), and neither website wastes the opportunity to hammer home that point. Pre-emptively, this writer suggests that the paucity of Irish runners at Chepstow, the nearest Rules track to Ffos Las, cannot be held as an indication that the anticipated support will not materialise, given the Monmouthshire track is another 86 miles further east, another two unappealing hours away in a horsebox.

Then of course there is the matter of support from the local Rules trainers, and as South Wales continues to flourish as a hotbed of (comparatively) recently-established talent, from Peter Bowen and Evan Williams to Alison Thorpe, Keith Goldsworthy and Tim Vaughan, it will be interesting to see whether the availability of the new course on their doorsteps encourages more of the area’s many point-to-point handlers to take out a permit at least. The bountiful numbers of local runners in its pointing meetings season-long offer some grounds for optimism on that score.

Other than those already mentioned, there are numerous other “what if”s and as-yet unresolved or contentious issues associated with the project. The intended developing of the course as Wales’ centre of excellence for harness racing, polo and equestrianism looks a smart move towards ensuring usage of the site above and beyond Rules racedays, but the organisers of the well-established local point-to-point courses at Cilwendeg (since 2002), Erw Lon (1979), Llanvapley (1953), Trecoed (2002) and in particular the visually stunning peninsula course at Lydstep (1948), could all feasibly stand in the way of the course’s efforts to become the definitive local venue for the amateur sport by staying put.

Remember that, with the exception of Fakenham and few if any others, point-to-point meetings at Rules tracks doubling up as pointing venues tend to be characterless affairs not wholly appreciated by the cognoscenti, and the Ffos Las executive could lose a deal of goodwill if trying to bring too much pressure to bear on the local hunts to move to hosting such meets.

Another interesting imponderable will be how the respective Ffos Las and Chepstow executives respond to the challenge of incorporating all the meetings allocated to both (plus any successfully bid for) in a way that benefits them the most. Chepstow has 29 fixtures a year to program in, and as both courses are dual-purpose owing to it being an absolute prerequisite of the Ffos Las bid to be so, there was never really going to be the option there to put forward the new racecourse as, say, a summer jumping venue when the former is well into its Flat season.

Further, as galloping left-handers the two courses are not at all dissimilar (Chepstow’s undulations being the major distinguishing feature). There would be a degree of danger, therefore, in running a meeting at each track on consecutive days, and assuming that the pool of horses who can get to either one and are suited by their composition won’t be split between them to the possible detriment of both.

This is not to give an early bath to Ffos Las’s aspirations of being successful and as far as possible commercially viable from the start. Far from it – none of the points of contention raised above would rate as even halfway insurmountable in this writer’s opinion, and indeed things could get better still if the upgrading of the main link road to the site from the east is finished in time, as is the hope. With the right care and attention taken, the racing world will hopefully have cause to regard Ffos Las racecourse as an important addition to the broad church of racing provision in Britain (and Ireland), rather than some new oddment in one of its furthest-flung corners. It deserves to succeed.

Monday, October 22, 2007

GOODBYE AND SLOW LONG - A TRIBUTE

A long-overdue holiday with Mrs Column to Hamburg a few weeks ago, and the resultant backlog of work awaiting me on my return, conspired to delay any further updating of this blog until now, for which apologies.

One date of great personal significance came and went during my break. October 5th 2007 was spent messing around on a boat on the River Elbe, darting in and out of the impressive Hanseatic structures of Hamburg's harbour and generally making best use of the (at least then) unseasonably mild German autumn. October 5th 2006, however, was an altogether less jolly affair, witnessing as it did the death of two things in which I had significant interests - one professional, both personal.

I am yet to comment on the Sportsman's demise this time last year in anything other than the most passing of terms, and I fear I shall let down those of you wishing me to redress the balance here once again. I do intend to commit a few more words to screen in due course, though, in particular now that there are parallels to be drawn between the respective launches of that paper 18 months ago and the weekend edition of Racing Ahead last weekend.

This blog update, however, concerns a horse. In fact it concerns the only horse I have ever sat on in my life, the one on whom I co-edited a website for several years, and the one whom I have frequently suggested on several occasions, and only half-jokingly, that I would be minded to nominate as my specialist subject were I ever to carry out a long-standing threat to try to appear on Mastermind. That horse is the "losingmost legend" Quixall Crossett, the announcement of whose putting to sleep on October 5th of last year capped a day that was overwhelming in every way imaginable.

Following my pieces on the late Geos and Mighty Fine in recent months, I am mindful of not letting That Racing Blog start to read too much like an obituary site. However, I have taken the anniversary of Quixall's passing as the opportunity to honour a request I have had from a good number of people to reproduce an article I submitted to the monthly edition of Racing Ahead about a week after my own personal Black Thursday.

Along with a trend analysis piece on the Paddy Power Gold Cup, it represented the first work that I had accepted for inclusion in the magazine (and with it my first freelance engagement ever), so it is a piece I hold dear for reasons other than just the subject matter. I believe the edition in which it was first published (November 2006) has long since been out of print, so is reproduced here in good faith - it goes without saying, however, that I shall take it down again if so instructed, but for the time being at least, I hope it proves an interesting read.


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GOODBYE AND SLOW LONG

Quixall Crossett, for so long the star of Ted Caine’s North Yorkshire permit-holding operation and the loser of all his 103 National Hunt starts and a point-to-point, was put down earlier this month at the age of 21. Jeremy Grayson looks back over the life of the ultimate loveable loser.


NEVER in the field of steeplechasing has one slow, low-rated gelding given so much to so many people. Quixall Crossett never won a race, and only very rarely came close to doing so, but his 11-year career earned him the adoration of thousands and gave the three people closest to him, trainers Ted and Joy Caine and their then assistant Geoff Sanderson, purpose to their lives once more in the face of the most unbearable grief.

Prior to Quixall’s ascent to public prominence, the Caines’ training career, which had commenced in 1976, had passed as quietly as that of numerous other Northern permit-holders, with their array of cheap, angular homebreds making only modest gains on the racetrack (the granite-tough Cavalier Crossett, who was foaled for just £50 but won eight 2m races, being a notable exception). The evidence of his first 13 starts suggested that Quixall Crossett, named after the former Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United star Albert Quixall, was shaping up to be pretty much more of the same, and almost certainly not the “Good ‘un” Ted had hoped he’d saved the name for.

Life changed forever for the Caines in November 1994, however, when Malcolm, their 26 year-old son, was killed in an accident at High Crossett Farm. Clearly devastated by their loss, they still had the welfare of the farm’s horses to consider, and it was Quixall and his stablemates that gave them the impetus to pull through their darkest weeks and months. Quixall in particular was a revelation, proving sound enough to withstand extensive campaigning (31 runs during the 1996-7 season alone) having previously been a wind-sucker and crib-biter, as well as a poor eater after exercise.

It was around this time that Quixall was allocated a new helper in the form of Sanderson, briefly engaged at Ginger McCain’s yard in the 1970s but by this point a pensioned-off sufferer of clinical depression following the death of his severely handicapped two year-old son Adam. The gelding proved a most patient, giving tutor, tolerant of the ailing Sanderson’s early mistakes before eventually becoming more of a wind-up merchant as his rehabilitation developed.

Simply put, Quixall got all three of his carers back on a more even keel, out to the racecourse and mingling with people again, and their collective pilgrimage took in 21 National Hunt courses from Ascot to Perth over the years. Novices’ and maiden chases and selling hurdles comprised the bulk of his itinerary, but occasional forays into top-class races whose fields had cut up were embarked upon as well. A 57l fourth place behind Dublin Flyer in the 1996 Peterborough Chase earned him his single biggest prizemoney cheque of £1,500, but a similar attempt at such enterprise in the Tommy Whittle Chase two years later saw his last of five finish, two fences adrift of Suny Bay (at the time rated all of 118lb superior), Earth Summit, The Grey Monk and Lord Gyllene, go unrewarded beyond Haydock’s covering of travelling expenses.

***

There were a number of misconceptions that Quixall was increasingly saddled with as his profile rose. First and foremost, he couldn’t be considered “Britain’s worst racehorse” (as one tabloid had dubbed him in a full-page article in 1999) on the evidence of official ratings. Despite his BHB mark sliding to an eventual low of 46, this is by no means the lowest recorded over fences since the National Hunt ratings scale was revised in late 1989 – indeed, Dual Star (39), Iron Buck (41) and Spilaw (44) are three chasers to have recorded lower in the last 18 months alone.

Similarly, he was nowhere near as unsafe a conveyance as was made out in some quarters. Jockey Gary Lyons once insisted, “he’s a great old ride and just goes his own pace…. there are much more risky propositions to ride in novice chases than Quixall Crossett”, and the fact the gelding only hit the deck unaided five times in his long career bears that out to a large extent.

Lyons rode Quixall nine times under Rules, as did Scott Taylor. Michael Naughton managed 11, the most of anyone. His thirty or so other partners included Richard Hale and Brian Clifford, nowadays a prominent jockey’s agent and clerk of the course at Kempton respectively. A young Jim Crowley, enjoying such a bountiful time riding on the Flat at present, was on board for Quixall’s nearest miss, a staying-on 2l second to Toskano at Wetherby in May 1998. But it was Nick Kent, now a successful Lincolnshire hunter chaser trainer and rider, who was on board for the highest profile run of all, his 100th Rules defeat at Southwell on July 22nd 2001.

There had been appreciable build-up to this appearance. The Quixall Crossett website – still extant to this day, although updated rather infrequently [actually down at present (10/07) - JG] was greatly expanded. At least one script for the film version of Quixall’s life and times was known to have been drafted, albeit one bearing such fictitious embellishments as a love interest for the (permanent) jockey and a Colonel Blimp-type figure of fun and ridicule. An astrologer, Jane Headon (now married to Sanderson), was enlisted to predict what behaviour and ability Quixall might show on the 22nd. Come race-day itself, a “Meet Quixall Crossett” competition was run on the course, Sky Sports devoted special interest to his race, to the extent of employing a “Quixall Cam” to follow him around the track, and a well above-average crowd for the Nottinghamshire venue was on hand to see… well, not much of a performance in the end.

Quixall was already tailed off after five of the 19 fences and was not asked to go out on the final circuit by Kent. He came back safe and sound, however, and got a rapturous reception as he jogged past the stands. Headon suggested his star charts revealed a possible struggle to channel his energies in the right areas on the day, whilst other possible causes of the below-par run may have been the watered surface or an early bump, but ultimately there was nothing connections regarded as a copper-bottomed excuse, and they reaffirmed there would be other days for their charge.

***

The Southwell run marked the high-point of Quixall’s popularity, with the website taking thousands of hits over that weekend in July and the race filling column inches of pretty much every national newspaper. Within four months, however, he had made his final appearance under Rules, pressure having been brought to bear on the Caines regarding the effect running the gelding any longer may have had on the image of the sport. A very long last in a maiden chase framed for and named after him at Wetherby (and sponsored by Reliant Cars), followed by two consecutive unseatings (the second from 30 pounds out of the handicap and with rider John Barlow carrying 10 extra himself) did little to silence doubters, and even the Racing Post’s Paul Haigh, hitherto one of the gelding’s most ardent supporters, suggested that, “the joke has worn first thin and now out”.

Behind the scenes there was discord in the Crossett camp as well. Geoff Sanderson departed High Crossett Farm in mid-August, having expressed unease about Quixall’s continued campaigning following the Southwell disappointment, although it was November before this split was made public. Sanderson has since pursued a burgeoning career in equine rehabilitation, still insisting that little of what he has achieved in that field would have been possible without having previously worked with the “absolute Christian” Quixall.

Ted and Joy Caine more or less disappeared off the radar following Castle Stephen and Clavering’s runs at Doncaster on December 15th, Ted claiming shortly after to have had a “belly full” of unwelcome attention from racing’s authorities. Occasional hints were made in the following years that Quixall was still fit and well enough to take his place in local point-to-points were the Caines so minded, but he never did; only lower-profile colleagues Cloigeann Rua, Cregg Rose and Pharnoon (plus Nopublicityplease if his withdrawal from a Wetherby hurdle 18 months ago on debut is counted) have appeared between the flags or under Rules in the last five years, racking up just penny numbers of appearances between them.

Greater activity should be forthcoming now that Ted has taken out his permit once more, although only time will tell whether any of his current charges, including relatives of Quixall Crossett, will ever occupy the same place in the hearts of so many racegoers as their singularly generous and character-laden, if rather slow, former stablemate.


Quixall Crossett, a bay gelding by Beverley Boy out of Grange Classic (Stype Grange) was born on April 5th 1985 and was reported dead on October 5th 2006.

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