The finish of the Breeders Cup Classic© Photo Healy Racing
Perhaps only in sport is the word ‘veteran’ employed in a negative sense and rarely in racing is it used as a compliment. But Paul Carberry’s barnstorming performance to win the first Grade 1 of the National Hunt season on Road To Riches is just the latest example of why the vernacular needs to catch up. Because if veteran is racing’s polite code for washed-up it’s starting to look very old-fashioned.
This corner got a reminder of the sensitivity surrounding this when a trainer rang to query why he was referred to as ‘veteran’ in a particular article when other colleagues, often older than him, were not. Since the ‘v’ word was inserted by an industrious sub-editor it was possible to claim innocence for once. The trainer was perfectly pleasant about it, and keen to play things down, but ‘veteran’ still nagged enough to ring in the first place.
And if it niggles trainers then it must irritate jockeys a lot more since athleticism is essential to their job. What’s astonishing though to those of us who’ve, ahem, been around a while, is the extent to which the boundaries of what constitutes ‘veteran’ status are being redrawn. The days of jump jockeys counting the days to retirement after thirty are long gone. Even forty doesn’t seem to be a landmark figure anymore.
Tony McCoy is forty and setting a more frantic pace than ever. Richard Johnson is the same at thirty seven. Barry Geraghty, Ruby Walsh and Davy Russell are thirty five, riding brilliantly, and openly talking about going to at least forty. Carberry is closer to forty one than forty but his Road To Riches spin was a vintage, sorry, spin; a spin that had all the ballsy bravado of youth combined with the crucial element of experience.
The ballsy stuff is the absolute fundamental of steeplechase riding but how it coexists with the hoary old cliché of not being able to buy experience is a nuance that in the past has seen jockeys written off unnecessarily and before time. Carberry has never been everyone’s cup of tea but when he’s in full-flight, and in one piece, he remains one of the great sights of the game. And he broke up plenty times when he was young too.
It’s in that context that Jamie Spencer’s decision to retire at the end of this flat season was such a turn-up when it was announced, and which leads many to believe it can’t be a definitive long-term decision.
It would have been a perfect Hollywood moment if the nose verdict at the end of the Breeders Cup Classic had gone the other way and Toast Of New York had provided Spencer with a resounding big-race result to end his riding career, even short-term, to take up a management role with Qatar Racing.
Of course it’s true that thirty four is no age at all for a flat jockey. But if there is one thing that Spencer’s career has proven is that he is a fiercely determined individual who stubbornly follows the beat of his own drum, admittedly a divisive drum in terms of those who appreciate or often loathe the exaggerated waiting tactics he supposedly employs.
The reality is, as Toast Of New York proved, that the Tipperary man is perfectly capable of riding any kind of race. But a reputation once acquired is a bugger to lose, although you would think in terms of jockeys that wouldn’t be the case, such is the speed at which the popular worm can turn.
Ryan Moore has been popularly beatified in recent months, often with good reason, but it was noticeable how quickly he got it in the neck during the Breeders Cup over a couple of rides that didn’t go well but which were basically caused by a tight turf course that almost by definition guarantees a couple of hard-luck stories per race.
Spencer though has always been a especially polarising figure among race-fans, and indeed some racing professionals. He has worked for, and then not worked for, many of the big battalions. What has been so impressive throughout about the man though is the way he has reacted to setbacks.
Losing the Ballydoyle job in 2004 would have broken many. Instead a jockey sometimes suspected of insouciance bounced back to land a couple of jockeys titles and re-establish himself among the elite. Retiring on his own terms is something far from guaranteed to everyone. Spencer has earned the privilege. And if he comes back it will be our pleasure - or it will be to most of us!
American racing is something of an acquired taste but only the determinedly ignorant can deny it possesses its own subtleties despite the uniformity of track and the uniformly dubious nature of the medication culture.
Little or no expertise is required though to appreciate the seriousness of its stewarding which can be microscopic sometimes in comparison to this side of the pond.
At one stage there appeared to be a very real chance that Bayern would get thrown out of the Classic after his manoeuvre out of the gate which just happened to wipe out both the favourite Shared Belief and Moreno who had been widely expected to be Bayern’s competition for the lead.
It didn’t happen, but the possibility was there. In fact there is a widespread view that the stewards bottled it, based presumably on a strict interpretation of the rules, and past-experience when purse-size and profile didn’t make it squeaky-bum time.
In contrast incidents occur at starts here that have direct consequences for what happens at the finish but the idea of doing something that might dissuade jockeys from chancing their arm doesn’t seem to exist at all.
Maybe it’s a case of ‘when-in-Rome’ although the Flemington stewards look to be taking that to extremes in not showing a little give with Slade Power’s starting-gate requirements ahead of the upcoming Darley Classic. Eddie Lynam has shown commendable restraint in his utterances about official reluctance to allow the horse load last but it must be galling having travelled to the other side of the world. One can only imagine the whingeing if it was the other way around.
