The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

22 November 28, 2021The Sunday Times

Racing

Deutsch and Cloudy

Glen fought off

Fiddlerontheroof to

win the Ladbrokes

Trophy

BROUGH

SCOTT

Swinging into the straight Cloudy

Glen was clearly going the better only

for Remastered to attack on the

outside moving more strongly than

either of them. But at the fourth from

home Remastered’s momentum

turned into a somersault and, as

Cloth Cap faded, Cloudy Glen was left

to fend off Fiddlerontheroof. The

pride of the Colin Tizzard stable

might even have taken Cloudy Glen

but for an awkward jump at the last

and finally came up half a length

short with a huge gap back to his

stable companions Brahma Bull and

Ontheropes.

Demachine plugged on to be fifth,

with Cloth Cap sixth of the 11

They don’t call it “the winter game”

for nothing. On a day of subzero

temperatures and a wind chill to peel

the skin, something special was

needed to warm the heart, and with

Cloudy Glen’s 33-1 Ladbrokes Trophy

victory from Fiddlerontheroof and

Brahma Bull, we certainly got it.

Cloudy Glen was providing a

fourth success in the race for the

colours of his late owner/breeder

Trevor Hemmings, whose memorial

service was on Thursday. For his

trainer, Venetia Williams, it was a

hark back to Teeton Mill’s win in 1998

that first put this Grand National-

winning trainer into the big time.

And for his 25-year-old jockey,

Charlie Deutsch, it was the ultimate

redemption three years after a

moment of motorcar madness

earned him a prison spell.

Since then Deutsch has won as

much respect for his attitude as for

his increasingly effective long-legged

horsemanship, crowned yesterday by

his handling of a little horse whom

his trainer says “is a weird one who is

as likely to hook off rather than start”.

Yesterday was definitely one of

Cloudy Glen’s going days and

Deutsch immediately had him up

with the leaders and for a long way

was alongside last year’s winner,

Cloth Cap, also carrying Hemmings’s

famous green and yellow silks.

Futter denies telling Holt that

Skelton was a one-third owner. He

says Holt misunderstood or miscon-

strued what he had said.

After the phone call with Holt,

Skelton sent a follow-up text message:

“Dave apologised to me for what he’s

said. I’ll collect the horse [the free

horse from Futter] tomorrow. I will

keep the horse FOC [free of charge]

until July 2019 [a 12-month period]

which will include breaking him in

and getting him going. Is that OK with

you? I want you to be happy Tony. We

have a trusting relationship and I do

my best for you.”

The syndicate no longer trusted

Skelton. They believed he had a bene-

ficial interest in George Gently that

had not been disclosed to them when

they asked his opinion about the

horse. They removed their six horses

from his yard and in late July 2018 they

made a formal complaint to the BHA

about his behaviour.

Both parties lawyered up. Holt

believed from Futter that Skelton had

received a payment from Yorton Farm

Stud in relation to George Gently. His

the stud owner continued to argue the

toss about which horse Holt should

get. According to Holt, Futter called

him some time later. “He says, ‘Why

should I be the one paying for all of

this “gesture horse”? Dan owned a

third of the horse [George Gently]’.”

“I say, ‘What do you mean Dan

owned a third of George Gently?’ He

said, ‘Well, Dan got a one-third cut

from the sale of the horse.’ I said,

‘Look, you must tell Dan what you just

told me.’ Ten or 15 minutes later Dan is

on the phone to me and saying, ‘It’s a

lie. It’s not true. It’s not true. He’s

maligning me. I did not own one third

of the horse.’”

There is an agreement that governs

owner-trainer relationships in racing.

Clause 10 states: “Upon a sale to the

owner of a horse in which the trainer

has an ownership interest, the trainer

shall make all necessary disclosures to

the owner in accordance with the

British Horseracing Authority’s Code

of Conduct.” It is a logical provision,

as often an owner will ask a trainer for

advice when buying horses, as

happened with George Gently.

Skelton, nor Dave Futter, the proprie-

tor of Yorton Farm Stud. They just put

it down to bad luck.

In the summer of 2018, 18 months

after they had bought George Gently,

Holt says the syndicate was offered an

inexpensive, “fun horse” free of

charge by Futter, who felt bad about

George. Holt asked Skelton to help

him pick the fun horse. Holt was not

excited by any that Futter was freely

offering but he did like one that was a

little more expensive. He asked if he

could offset the value of the free horse

against the cost of the one he liked.

Futter was reluctant. Skelton

weighed in on Holt’s side, encourag-

ing Futter to do a deal. The trainer and

THE FAMOUS

TRAINER,

by Holt and Macnabb, and of George

Gently for the horse’s then owners.

“If Dan convinces you, I’m in,”

Macnabb replied.

Ultimately, they were convinced.

Four days after Southwell, Holt

messaged the agent with a £130,000

offer to buy George Gently.

George Gently retired last year. Then

trained by Justin Landy in Yorkshire,

his last race was at Newcastle, when

he came 12th of 12. He is now a lady’s

hack in Lincolnshire. As a racehorse,

it did not work out. The Holt syndicate

paid £130,000 for a horse that was

beaten out of sight on his two runs in

their colours. A year after buying him,

they sold him for £1,800.

It seemed doomed from the start.

The pre-purchase veterinary exami-

nation (PPE) was arranged for two

days after Holt made the offer to buy.

The PPE then had to be postponed

after the horse “hit himself in the sta-

ble” and though the trainer felt it was

nothing, he thought it best to give the

horse some rest. It was, he told the

owners, “the first lame step he’s ever

taken in his life”. Three weeks later

George Gently passed his veterinary

exam and on November 9, Holt trans-

ferred £130,000 to the account of the

owners, Yorton Farm Stud.

Three weeks further on, a member

of Skelton’s staff noticed that George

Gently had heat in a front leg. A scan

showed up a tendon injury. Though

the trainer did not consider the injury

to be serious, he advised that the

horse be rested for up to 12 months.

Fifteen months would pass before

George Gently was fit enough to race.

Soon he would be sold for 1.38 per

cent of what the owners paid for him.

Holt is a retired Lloyds under-

writer; his partners in the syndicate

had also been insurance underwrit-

ers. They started buying racehorses in

2011 and understood the risks. What

disappointment they felt at George

Gently’s injury-ridden career was set

against the syndicate’s good luck.

They had bought Superb Story for

£65,000 in 2014, sent him to Skelton

and in 2016 he became the syndi-

cate’s, and the trainer’s, first winner

at the Cheltenham Festival. The

following month the syndicate had its

first grade one winner when Arzal

won at Aintree.

George Gently was a reminder that

they were not always going to choose

the right one. They did not blame

T

he story begins on a Septem-

ber afternoon at Southwell

racecourse in Nottingham-

shire five years ago. Sula-

mani The Late is having his

third race. Tony Holt and Ian

Macnabb, two of the

gelding’s five owners, watch

from the enclosure. Even in a sport in

which dreams are one race away from

disappointment, Sulamani The Late’s

performance is lamentable.

There are four runners in the

novice hurdle. Three of them are keen

to race. Sulamani The Late is the odd

one out. As the starter springs the

tape upwards, Sulamani cocks his

head and fixes his front feet. Though

his jockey, David England, tries, the

horse’s mind is made up. Not today,

sunshine. They never get to jump the

first hurdle.

For the horse’s up-and-coming

trainer, Dan Skelton, it is frustrating.

Skelton is the son of the showjumping

star Nick, who at age 58 had won a

gold medal at the Rio Olympics six

weeks before. Dan Skelton had recom-

mended Sulamani The Late to the

Holt syndicate and now there is a

sense that the £36,000 spent on the

horse is halfway down the drain.

Holt and Macnabb have had

enough good days to cope with a dis-

mal one. That afternoon Holt received

a message from a bloodstock agent

who helped the syndicate to find

potential horses. “Hi Tony, George

Gently was second for Dan [Skelton]

in Enghien [France] today. The winner

is thought to be very good and it was a

great debut run. I bought George for

current owners as a yearling and they

would be sellers. He is a lovely horse

and I feel he could take high rank as a

juvenile... I feel sure that he is a horse

that you [should] be considering.”

After returning from Southwell,

Holt emailed Macnabb and another

member of the syndicate, John Rob-

ertson. Holt was unsure about George

Gently. The horse was going to cost

£130,000, a lot for a three-year-old

with only one run. Against that, there

was Skelton’s enthusiasm. “Dan’s

conviction,” he wrote, “that the horse

is potentially high class may be our

most concrete guide.”

Holt expressed one other reserva-

tion. “Both Dan and [the bloodstock

agent] represent the seller as well as

us so are not totally independent,” he

wrote. By that he meant Skelton’s dual

position as a trainer of horses owned

Racing again in the spotlight as sorry

ownership saga sparks claims and

denials about conflicts of interest

DAVID

WA LS H

Chief Sports Writer

The syndicate took

their horses from

Skelton’s yard and

made a formal

complaint to the

racing authorities

Cloudy Glen

delivers fitting

tribute to his

late owner

THE WEALTHY