Steve Smith-Eccles - 'The Eck' puts you straight!

By Steve Smith-Eccles

Despite my love of all things racing at all standards and from all courses you cannot beat racing at the best level and last weekend we had not one but two Classics from Newmarket all be them on totally different ground. Thanks to Mother Nature having her say yet again.

On Sunday the mile classic for colts was won by outsider MAKFI who scored with relative ease despite his 34.0 starting price for trainer Mikel Delzangles and jockey Christophe Lemaire who gave him a near perfect ride.

Guineas winner sold at two by Hamdan Al Maktoum Makfi

The amazing (or perhaps embarrassing) story behind this success involves the sale of the horse as an unraced two year old by Angus Gold, racing manager to then owner Hamdan Al Maktoum. Trained at the time by Marcus Tregoning, who I have a lot of time for, he had failed to make it to the track thanks to niggling injuries, and it was agreed to let him go to the Tattersalls Sales where he went under the hammer for the miserly sum (well, it is now), of 26,000 Guineas. He then won first time out in November at Fontainebleau but showed he had more ability than most when winning the recognized French Guineas trial, the Prix Djebel, at Masons-Lafitte, so he was already a bargain buy before he even went to Newmarket. Can you imagine what was going through Angus’ head on Saturday night after he won the Guineas, and I bet it took more than a cup of warm milk to help him get to sleep, though its always easy to be wise after the event as we all know to our cost!

Favourite St Nicholas Abbey finished a frankly disappointing sixth but when you think about it after the race, he won over a mile as a two year old so is bound to be better over a bigger test of stamina now he is a year older. I would not be writing him off for the Derby just yet and the Guineas is often the best Derby trial, though it will be interesting to see if he goes straight to Epsom (in which case we are second guessing his abilities this season), or heads off for a trial first which could yet be a race too many?

If Saturday was exciting Sunday saw even more drama in the 1000 Guineas when the Henry Cecil trained Jacqueline Quest won the race at odds of 67.0, only to be demoted to second in the Stewards room to give the race to runner up Special Duty, to complete a French guineas double. Although she passed the post in front, all be it by the narrowest possible margin of a nose, she did hang right and cost the favourite more ground than she was beaten by, and strictly by the rules there was no option but to demote her. It was very sad for connections of the original winner including quadriplegic owner Noel Martin, but it was heart warming to see new winning owner Prince Khalid Abdullah spend a lot of time commiserating with the losing trainer and owner, a proper gentleman and a fillip to the sport.

At Chester this week we had Oaks and Derby trials as well, and the theory goes that the tight turns of the track will help to show us punters whether a horse will or will not handle the cambers at Epsom, though personally I feel Lingfield has more similar characteristics? As for a Derby winner, I rather doubt it; with Ted Spread taking the Chester Vase for Mark Tompkins with yet another bitterly disappointing Aiden O’Brien trained favourite trailing in at the back of the pack. The winner does hold a Derby entry and would certainly be a fairytale success but it would shock me if this form was anywhere near good enough for Epsom and his new odds of 50.0 with William Hill probably sum up his chances. As things stand (and it is sad to say), then St Nicholas Abbey is probably still the best bet for the Derby AT THIS MOMENT though with trials in the next week or two, all can change very rapidly in this game.

As for the Oaks trial, Gertrude Bell put up a brave performance to land the prize for favourite backers on Wednesday and put a smile on trainer John Gosden’s face as she is owned by his better half, Rachel Hood. There are certainly worse bets for the fillies classic as she showed the battling qualities I like to have on my side, and at 26.0 I would not put anyone off as we seem to be lacking any superstar three year olds in the fillies ranks this season.

Looking ahead to the racing this weekend and we have some pretty decent cards as you might expect, starting with Ascot. The big betting event has to be the seven furlongs Victoria Cup at 15:25 and I do like the progressive profile MABAIT for the Luca Cumani Kieren Fallon team. He won his last three races last season and on his reappearance at Sandown recently, all under the same pilot, and he has a favoured high draw which has given out the winner of fourteen of the last fifteen winners, and should cope with the ten pound rise the dreaded handicapper has given him today.

Before then at 14:50 we have a mile fillies handicap and here I quite like the chances of ALSACE LORRAINE for the James Fanshawe team who are also in good form. And she is a progressive type improving all the time, who runs well when fresh. She won a valuable event at Goodwood last season and was runner up in a Listed event at the same track so her form is rock solid and she has been working well of late indicating she has improved again for this season.

At Lingfield, the opener at 14:10 is a Listed event over seven furlongs for fillies and we saw what happened last week when the French come raiding when they took the first two classics at Newmarket. Today I would look no further than the Alain De Royer-Dupre trained REGGANE who has top class form from last season including a two length second to Ghanaati in the Group One Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot which is way better than anything offered by her opponents today and she should win this easily.

At 15:10 we have the Lingfield Derby trial where I hear the Henry Cecil trained BULLET TRAIN I fancied by the yard. He won his sole start as a two year old in a Yarmouth maiden and showed his class when just getting caught at Newbury on his reappearance but he needed the run mote than expected and will strip a lot fitter here. Add the extra quarter mile which will bring about further improvement and he must have every chance of taking this prestigious event.


Summary of Steve’s bets this week:

1pt Win ALSACE LORRAINE 14:50 Ascot Saturday at SP

1pt Win MABAIT 15:25 Ascot Saturday at SP

3pts Win REGGANE 14:10 Lingfield Saturday at SP

1pt Win BULLET TRAIN 15:10 Lingfield Saturday at SP

About Steve....

I was born and bred in a mining village in Derbyshire and prior to coming into racing the only thing I had ever sat on was a donkey on Skegness beach and the odd pit pony. My Dad used to watch racing on a regular basis and I would say to him that I was going to be a jockey when I grew up.

I was small as a child and I was influenced in the respect that you either went down the pit after school or you got out of the village so I looked for other directions to go in - racing was one of them.

Coming to the end of my schooling, father wrote off to three trainers - Frenchie Nicholson, Arthur Stephenson and Harry Thompson Jones in Newmarket. The latter was predominately a jumps trainer in those days but did have some Flat horses and he took me on a month's trial. I went down there on July 28 1970 and within weeks I was riding gallops and took to it like a duck to water. You started off by cleaning head collars and mucking out and then you were given your own horse to look after and then you moved on to two.

After three months I was riding work on a regular basis. Greville Starkey was his first jockey in those days and Lester Piggott used to come down on occasion as well so there were a lot of good riders around to learn from.
I have always been a great believer in jockeys being born with the ability to ride and it can be brought out so from an early stage Tom Jones must have seen that in. I was always going to be too heavy for the Flat so I started to do some schooling with Stan Mellor and also took to that quickly - within three and a half years I had my first ride in public over jumps.

After about four years I was riding regularly for the stable and then in five and a half years I took over as first jockey. At that time Tingle Creek was around, although he was getting towards the end of his career. The first time I rode him he won what is now the Tingle Creek Chase, it was the Sandown Pattern Chase back then, and won the race three times in all. The last time, when it was his retirement race, he actually broke his own track record. This was the horse that put Smith Eccles on the map.

My first Cheltenham Festival winner was in 1978 on a horse called Sweet Joe, who won the Sun Alliance. Zongelero was with Tom Jones as a four-year-old but he was sent down to Nicky Henderson with the proviso that I would ride him - that got my foot in the door with Nicky. Zongelero was one of the greatest bridesmaids in the game - I finished second on him in the Mackeson, the Massey Ferguson and the Hennessy.

I rode triple Champion Hurdler See You Then for Nicky in the mid-1980s also and it is phenomenal how it worked out with him. In the first one he was due to run in, John Francome was due to ride him but was badly shaken after a fall in the Arkle, the race prior to the Champion Hurdle. So within 10 minutes of the race, I picked up the ride and the rest is history.

I rode in a great time for National Hunt jockeys. Francome was probably the best but I also rode against Jonjo O'Neill, Ron Barry and later the likes of Peter Scudamore and Richard Dunwoody - some of the best there have ever been.

Tingle Creek probably provided me with my best memories. I was young and brave at the time and that style of riding really suited the horse - all he needed was to be pointed in the right direction. He either met a fence long or even longer - he would never get in close and fiddle. He never fell and I can't even remember him ever making a mistake.

In England I rode 868 winners and around the rest of the world another 30 or 40. My best season numerically was 68 and that actually put me second in the championship to John Francome. We did not have as many rides as there are these days so the numbers are bound to be smaller and there was not as much racing and more importantly there were no agents - you just rode for the stable you were attached to basically.

Since retiring from the saddle I have kept myself nice and busy at home in Newmarket riding work and schooling the young jumpers over hurdles and fences, while I take a lot of pleasure from helping out the next generation of stars in my position with the BHA helping the Conditional jockeys in the Hands and Heels series. Despite an army of unscrupulous tipsters with false names hiding behind PO Boxes you all know who I am (or the youngsters can look me up on Google) – a successful jockey who is lucky enough to offer the best of both worlds – all my contacts in the National Hunt world built up over too many years to mention with most of the very top names in the business, plus being based at the headquarters of flat racing here in Newmarket, and privy to all the latest gallop reports and stable gossip, which I use very effectively to help us all make our hobby pay rich dividends.

So, why not join me now at the reduced price, and help me to write the next chapter of a life spent in the sport we all love...

Steve Smith-Eccles runs the "The Eck " Horse Racing information service.