From Kadouchski to Kauto Star

I’d been meaning to write an end-of-year review but with quite a few runners and the team on holiday over Christmas I never really got round to it. So belatedly, here are a few thoughts on last year and on the year ahead.

I’m pleased to report that the stable finished 2011 with its best ever tally of winners: 16. Enormous thanks must go to all the owners who have continued to support John throughout some difficult economic times for everybody and to the new owners who have joined us in the last few years. Thanks also to Hugh, Terri and Hannah for their hard work every day and the riders who come in at different times to help us out: Iva, Sara, Gemma, Aisling, Denis, Sarah, Jamie, Will for all his brilliant schooling, and Steve for his sterling efforts on the ground. Most of all though, we have the horses to thank. They are why we all do it and just having them around makes each day worth living.

The highlights of 2011 include Rhythm Stick getting his four-timer at Folkestone. Having looked beaten round the home turn he kept grinding away up the straight and eventually won fairly easily. It was very sad to to lose him at the horses-in-training sale but we wish him the very best of luck at his new stable in Saudi Arabia.

Silken Thoughts becoming a dual winner was also special. She’s a beautiful filly who has always done everything right since she arrived here as a yearling. I hope and expect to see more from her this year as a four-year-old.

Douchkirk (Frankie) winning his bumper first time out at Stratford made for a really exciting evening in May. As dusk fell, funny little Frankie with his big strong blaze and spooky wall eye, stepped out onto the track, none of us really knowing what to expect from him but just hoping he’d show some of the resolution of his big brother Kadouchski, and boy did he ever. Watchers of the race video can see Ken Gibbs and me jumping up and down (and probably even hear us screaming) next to the rail as he came storming in for home, going farther and farther clear of his pursuers. It was so rewarding to see Frankie, who had come here as a very green two-year-old, finally come of age and become a racehorse. Here’s to some hurdling success for him and the Beverley Hillbillies syndicate this year.

In October we took charge of a game Haafhd two-year-old by the name of Karma Chameleon for EERC, a successful racing club in Dubai. His four runs for the stable to date have garnered three wins and a second, with his hat-trick coming in the last two weeks of the year to see the stable finish 2011 with a flourish. He’s barely 15hh and has the nicest manners so he’s very quickly become a favourite with everybody.

I shouldn’t really give my nominal prize for Horse of the Year to one of our own but I’m afraid I have to because for me the horse who gave us the most amount of fun in 2011 was Kadouchski.

But when one considers that he won a nice hurdle race at Sandown in February (with Claude and Anthony in attendance, making it even more special) then won on the flat all-weather with Rab Havlin, then gave Hannah her first ever win on the turf at Folkestone, then gave the trainer his proudest day in the saddle when the pair of them won the 342nd running of the Newmarket Town Plate (by 25 lengths), then ran creditably to be placed three times over fences which really are perhaps just too big for him, I think you’ll agree that it has to be Kadouchski, his 2011 figures standing at 16 runs for 4 wins and 9 places.

Life in a racing stable is mostly about nurturing young talent so there are always horses that we’re getting slowly excited about that the rest of the world hasn't heard about yet. And that doesn’t mean that they are going to come out all guns blazing and win a maiden on their first start but it means that over the months you are seeing something slowly change in the horse, something that tells you they are going to be alright one day.

For that reason I am really looking forward to last season’s two-year-olds starting to make names for themselves this season at three. Zarosa is not yet back from her break but she has really strengthened up while she’s been away and I believe she’s a horse to look forward to. The same can be said for Grand Liaison, Wasabi and Batgirl’s half-sister Sail Past.

From a very personal point of view I hope that this might be the year that my first homebred Oscar Bernadotte might make his bumper debut. Hugh, his daily rider, is starting to make cautiously encouraging noises, so let’s hope he continues to move in the right direction. The same can be said for Ruby In The Dust, a year older, still small but still trying. She really should have been called Lily Berry after a character in one of my favourite novels The Hotel New Hampshire. Lily was always trying to grow.

We’ve broken in three yearlings through the winter: a nice Tiger Hill filly called Purrfect, a very good-looking son of Nayef, whom I believe is to be called Many Levels, and John’s own Layman gelding Roy Rocket. The only one waiting in the wings is Jack Irish, who will be put through his early paces in the coming months.

Yesterday saw the arrival of another very good-looking horse, a five-year-old mare named Nurai. She has been sent to us by Kenny Snell and we’re very pleased to have her. She has already won a race for Paul d’Arcy and let’s hope there’s more to come.

I can’t close without mentioning two of what will certainly become all-time great horses: Frankel and Kauto Star.

Throughout last spring and summer my return to riding was made even sweeter by the treat of passing Frankel most mornings on the Heath. Always at the front of Sir Henry’s string alongside his brother Bullet Train, Frankel is a pleasure to see at such close quarters and the fact that he remains in training is already one of the best things about 2012. I know that when he is talked about in 20 or 30 years it will be in the same reverential manner that is reserved for such as Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard.

And as if a superstar on the Flat wasn’t enough, the racing gods have also given us Kauto Star. I was among those who believed his best days were probably over but I couldn’t have been more delighted to have been wrong when I saw him look better than ever on his seasonal return at Haydock.

On Boxing Day, Hugh and I went to Kempton with Alcalde. Arriving early, the first horse we saw as we entered the stable block was Kauto Star, whose picture below is kindly supplied by George Selwyn. What struck me most about him, apart from the fact that he really is a beautiful horse, is how calm he was through all the preliminaries. The Kempton stables are close to the track and the sound of the crowd roaring others home in earlier races may have been enough to unsettle some.

Kauto Star, the consummate professional, stood and waited, his ears flicking back and forth but otherwise hardly moving, as if he was mentally preparing himself for battle and conserving every bit of energy needed to win a fifth King George from a horse who stole his crown last year and wasn’t even born when he won his first race in England.

As history relates, he did just that. As we led Alcalde out to the parade ring for his race, the last on the card, Kauto Star was led back in past us, tired but triumphant.

Later, after darkness had wrapped up the day and cars queued to leave the car parks, the five-time King George winner grazed quietly at the side of the stable block, waiting for his moment to get back on the lorry to Ditcheat, every now and then lifting his head to watch his many fans heading home from the course he has made his own.

I stood for a while, hardly wanting to take my eyes off him. The image of that perfect racehorse so calm and content after giving thousands people their most memorable day at the races is imprinted on my mind forever.