Ayr
Rob Wright
12.30 Sure Touch (nb) 2.15 Killane
1.05 Lignou 2.45 Shanroe Al C
1.40 Firth Of Forth 3.15 Linelee King
Going: soft, good to soft in places Racing TV
12.30 NH Maiden Hurdle (£4,302: 2m) (10)
1 1 BALLYCOOSE 232 (D) S Crawford (Ire) 4-11-8 J Bowen
2 06-P0BRIDGE ROAD 14 J Candlish 5-11-8 Sean Quinlanwas observed gleefully from the edge
of the seat of his wheelchair by their
coach Paul Lloyd. Lloyd is a major
part of this story too; he not only got
Dean to the elite echelons, but there
are four more Dean siblings and they
all reached the British Nationals too.
This is another side of The Grind:
five kids and 5.20am alarm calls six
mornings a week to get them to
training. William, 16, is the last. In
two years’ time, when he has leftschool, Jacquie will have been doing
this regime for 13 years. Their father
left seven years ago, so she has been
doing most of it on her own while
working as a technical policy director.
When Tom said goodbye before
leaving for Tokyo, he said to her: “I
wouldn’t be getting on the plane if it
wasn’t for you.”
He would not have without Lloyd
either. In 2007, Lloyd was 39, head
coach at Slough, still competing andT
he best piece of footage
from the Tokyo Olympics
was not Adam Peaty’s gold
medal swim, nor Jason
Kenny’s crazy dash for glory
in the velodrome, nor Tom Daley
with his knitting needles. It is the film
from a 2.30am garden party in
Maidenhead.
The garden is Jacquie Hughes’s and
she is the mother of Tom Dean. She
had invited friends, family and club-
mates from the Maidenhead Marlins
swimming club to watch Tom in the
200m freestyle final. “You don’t know
how many are going to come at 2.30
in the morning,” she says. Seventy
showed up.
She also did not know that a local
BBC newsman, who had come round
earlier for an interview, had stayed
and had his camera phone ready to
record — not the race but the people
watching the race. There is little in
sport that can make you smile quiteIn the first of a new
series, Tom Dean tells
Owen Slot about
the impact of his
two golds in the
Olympic pool
Sport
‘I love strangers who
say they took up the
sport because of me’
like the footage that was shot from
that garden as Dean wins gold.
The footage spread fast. At some
point Gary Lineker and Lewis
Hamilton retweeted it; that was a
turbo charge. A couple of hours after
the race, when Dean got back to his
flat in the Olympic Village, his
flatmate, James Wilby, the
breaststroke swimmer, asked if he
had seen the video.
“I thought he meant the video of
my race,” Dean says. “I’d just thought
my mum, brother and sister might
wake up and chuck it on the TV.” He
did not know that a party had been
held, so therefore had no idea that the
footage of his mother et al going
bonkers was going viral.
So Wilby showed him the footage.
“So emotional,” Dean recalls. “Very
special. Quite teary.” Dean then rang
home. At that point Jacquie did not
know about the footage either. It all
spiralled from there.
The Dean story was instantly
uplifting. It is a story, too, about the
power of sport and Olympic
inspiration.
Dean’s hero was always Michael
Phelps. Jacquie remembers when
Tom was a young teenager and he
first saw Phelps’s three-minute
motivational video The Grind (“What
is each day but a series of conflicts
between the right way and the easy
way?”). “Tom’s reaction,” she says,
“was: ‘That’s it, isn’t it? That’s what it’s
all about.’ ”
In his later teens, Tom became a
swimming geek. He and his training
partner, George Taplin, would
exchange footage they found, mainly
of Phelps or his one-time Aussie rival,Ian Thorpe. Which race has Dean
rewatched the most? Phelps’ famous
eighth gold in Beijing, the 100m
butterfly that he won by one
hundredth of a second.
The most “bloody hell” piece of
footage ever? Thorpe’s 400m freestyle
from the Commonwealth Games in
2002: “That was leaps and bounds
ahead of the sport at the time.”
Closely followed by Phelps’ 200m
freestyle from Beijing. “Swims that
elevate the sport to levels that haven’t
been seen before are incredible. We
are lucky we are able to just jump on
YouTube and watch them,” he says.
Dean adds that his admiration for
Phelps gets greater as he comes
to understand his achievements
better: “I went to the Olympics, I
swam the 200m freestyle and the
4x200m relay; that was five swims to
get two golds. Then you realise that
he walked away from Beijing with
eight gold medals off the back of 17
races. Absolutely amazing.”
Taplin recalls their training days at
Maidenhead and, in particular, a
“fantastic eight months” when he and
Dean were “neck and neck” and it felt
like they were flying, their personal
bests plummeting. “We really stepped
up,” Taplin recalls, though it irked
him that he was a year older and a
pure freestyler yet Dean, then a
medley swimmer, would somehow
always be a nose ahead.
“When he made the final in Tokyo,”
Taplin says, “I knew he wouldn’t let
anyone else win. That was my
experience of training with him:
whatever it takes, he just wants to
stay ahead.”
Taplin’s fruitful rivalry with Dean2021
my sporting
year to savourPlumpton
Rob Wright
12.20 Wells Glory 2.35 Where’s Tom
12.50 Mossy Fen 3.05 Tea Time On Mars
1.25 Sacre Coeur 3.35 Sallyann
2.00 Sami Bear
Going: chase: good, good to soft in places;
hurdle: good to soft, good in places
Sky Sports Racing
12.20 Maiden Hurdle
(£4,084: 2m 4f 114yd) (8 runners)
1 24 BAREST OF MARGINS 33 M Channon 5-11-4 J J Burke
2 6-0KEEP IT BRIEF 21 R Phillips 4-11-4 D Hiskett (3)
3 5-45PMESSAGE MAN 12 Harriet Brown 5-11-4 J Best
4 10-64MINELLA BUSTER 35 E Lavelle 5-11-4 T Bellamy
5 1 WELLS GLORY 226 Suzi Best 5-11-4 T Scudamore
6 65-60WHAT'S MY LINE 37 M Madgwick 4-11-4 H Kimber (7)
7 4-65STYLE COUNCIL 36 Miss S West 5-10-11 M Goldstein
8 31-0THE REAL JET 26 A Irvine 5-10-11 Page Fuller
11-10 Wells Glory, 2-1 Minella Buster, 6-1 Barest Of Margins, 8-1 Keep It
Brief, 20-1 The Real Jet, 33-1 What's My Line, 50-1 others.
Rob Wright’s choice: Wells Glory won a bumper here and
looks interesting Dangers: Minella Buster, What’s My Line12.50 Novices' Chase (£7,080: 2m 4f) (3)
1 F10/4BURROWS EDGE 20 N Henderson 8-11-2 N De Boinville
2 5/4P-MOSSY FEN 403 Christian Williams 6-11-2 N Scholfield
3 0-554PASVOLSKY 33 C Gordon 6-11-2 T Cannon
5-4 Burrows Edge, 11-8 Mossy Fen, 4-1 Pasvolsky.
Wright choice: Mossy Fen is talented at his best and can
make a winning start for a new yard Danger: Burrows Edge
1.25 Handicap Hurdle
(£5,773: 2m 4f 114yd) (6)
1 3F-42SACRE COEUR 56 (H) Jonjo O'Neill 5-11-12Jonjo O'Neill Jr
2 53-63GOLDEN EMBLEM 27 (T,D) N Mulholland 7-11-7
S Twiston-Davies3 224-1ON MY COMMAND 66 (T,D) H Fry 5-11-5 J J Burke
4 30-40RUBY YEATS 17 (P,CD) G L Moore 10-10-13 Jamie Moore
5 15-03SHANTUNG 17 (P) L Wadham 8-10-12 Bryony Frost
6 15-24BLARNEY BATELEUR 216 (BF,D) A Irvine 8-10-7J M Davies
2-1 On My Command, 7-2 Sacre Coeur, 4-1 Shantung, 5-1 Golden Emblem, 7-1
Blarney Bateleur, 12-1 Ruby Yeats.
Wright choice: Sacre Coeur came back to form at Bangor
and can outclass this field Danger: On My Command
2.00 Novices' Hurdle (£4,084: 2m) (8)
1 43-21CHANCEUX 32 (D) A Ralph 5-11-5 N Scholfield
2 65-20BALLYCORR 17 Henry Oliver 6-10-12 B Godfrey (5)
3 BLAKEY BEAR N Mulholland 5-10-12 J Best
4 0 CHRONOS 43 P Webber 4-10-12 Doubtful
5 P/0KALAKAWA ENKI 26 A Irvine 7-10-12 Page Fuller
6 RUSSIAN VIRTUE F90 C Hobson 4-10-12 C Deutsch
7 5-35USAMI BEAR 8 C Gordon 5-10-12 T Cannon
8 0 SYSTEMIC 8 (T) G L Moore 4-10-12 Jamie Moore
1-2 Chanceux, 6-1 Russian Virtue, 13-2 Sami Bear, 14-1 Systemic, 16-1 others.
Wright choice: Sami Bear was badly hampered when
unseating his rider here Dangers: Chanceux, Ballycorr
2.35 Handicap Hurdle
(£3,594: 2m 4f 114yd) (11)
163310 NEVERBEEN TO PARIS F8 (CD) P G Murphy 6-11-12
Bryony Frost
2 50/P5NOVIS ADVENTUS 30 (P,T) N Mulholland 9-11-11
S Twiston-Davies
3 11-44MR JACK 35 (P,C) A Irvine 9-11-8 Sean Houlihan
4 01/3-RAMORE WILL 490 (H,CD) C Gordon 10-11-6 T Cannon
5 05-14BOURBALI 30 C Tizzard 4-11-6 B J Powell
6 P122FULL OF LIGHT 14 N Henderson 5-11-6 N De Boinville
7 20P35METHAG 36 (D) A Hales 8-10-13 H Bannister
8 4-5P5SAMEER 14 L Dace 5-10-11 J Best
9 -0625ANTONY 36 G L Moore 11-10-11 Jamie Moore
10 345-0LIGHTONTHEWING 32 (D) Mrs S Gardner 6-10-6 Lucy Gardner
11 10/65WHERE'S TOM 43 M Madgwick 6-10-2 M Goldstein
11-4 Full Of Light, 4-1 Mr Jack, 9-2 Neverbeen To Paris, 11-2 Bourbali, 10-1
Methag, 12-1 Where's Tom, Antony, 14-1 Lightonthewing.
Wright choice: Where’s Tom is capable on the Flat and
looks well handicapped Dangers: Bourbali, Full Of Light3.05 Handicap Chase (£4,139: 3m 2f) (7)
1 141PUWIGGLESWORTH 34 (B) Dr R Newland 6-11-12
S Twiston-Davies
2 2106-CHEQUE EN BLANC 254 (B,C,D) G L Moore 9-11-11
Jamie Moore
3 25-33TEA TIME ON MARS 30 (P) Mrs S Gardner 9-11-11
Lucy Gardner
4 212-6MORODER 41 Seamus Mullins 7-11-10 J Best
5 60-54ROSE OF AGHABOE 37 N Gifford 8-11-9 Tabitha Worsley (5)
6 F0-44EXOD'ELA 34 (BF) J Snowden 7-11-9 G Sheehan
7 /P52PGOOD MAN VINNIE 18 (P,D) P Henderson 10-10-13
T J O'Brien
3-1 Rose Of Aghaboe, 100-30 Exod'ela, 4-1 Tea Time On Mars, 7-1
Wigglesworth, Moroder, 8-1 Good Man Vinnie, Cheque En Blanc.
Wright choice: Tea Time On Mars shaped well after a break
when third at Exeter last time Danger: Wigglesworth3.35 NH Flat Race (£2,178: 2m 2f) (6)
1 42 DELTA RUN 38 R Bandey 4-11-0 H Bannister
2 FOREST ECHO C Gordon 4-11-0 N Scholfield
3 MAC BE LUCKY E Williams 4-11-0 A Wedge
4 2 RED WINDSOR 53 C Gordon 4-11-0 T Cannon
5 THE BIG RED ONE Seamus Mullins 4-11-0 D Sansom (3)
6 SALLYANN N Gifford 4-10-7 J M Davies
5-2 Delta Run, 11-4 Red Windsor, 9-2 Sallyann, 11-2 Forest Echo, 13-2 Mac Be
Lucky, 8-1 The Big Red One.
Wright choice: Sallyann, whose dam won a bumper here,
can make a successful debut Danger: Red Windsor3 F-105DOUGLAS TALKING 24 (T) L Russell 5-11-8 D R Fox
4 00 EUCHAN FALLS 35 R M Smith 4-11-8 R Mania
5 52-22PARISENCORE 24 N Richards 5-11-8 B Hughes
6 10-2SURE TOUCH 28 (BF) O Murphy 5-11-8 F Gregory
7 10-4TRAVAIL D'ORFEVRE 35 (D) N Alexander 5-11-8C O'Farrell
8 50-45ANNIES REGATTA 24 W Coltherd 5-11-1 H Brooke
9 0-DESERT SAPPHIRE 266 N Richards 5-11-1 Doubtful
10 60 GUSTAV'S DREAM 29 N Alexander 4-11-1 B Lynn (5)
2-1 Parisencore, 11-4 Sure Touch, 3-1 Ballycoose, 15-2 Travail D'Orfevre, 8-1
Douglas Talking, 25-1 Annies Regatta, 33-1 Bridge Road, 50-1 Gustav's Dream.1.05 Handicap Hurdle
(£5,228: 2m 4f 100yd) (11)
1 1026-LORD OF KERAK 244 (W,T,D) O Murphy 6-11-13F Gregory
2 1-025GRAND MORNING 22 (P,T,CD) L Russell 9-11-12 D R Fox
3 -0000LIGNOU 17 (D) J Candlish 6-11-9 Sean Quinlan
4 /F121BIGBADMATTIE 62 (D) J Ewart 7-11-9 C Bewley
5 2-035GLENTRUAN 61 (T,D) Mrs A Duffield 6-11-7 K Brogan (3)
6 43-63QUEST FOR LIFE 38 (P,D) M Walford 9-11-5 J Hamilton
7 3-011FOSTER'SISLAND 29 (C) M Hammond 6-11-5
Emma Smith-Chaston (7)
8 1U0-2SERIOUS EGO 34 N Richards 8-11-3 B Hughes
9 06-00CALIVIGNY 22 (P,CD) N Alexander 12-10-13Mr K Alexander (5)
10 -2026BLOW BY BLOW 9 (P,D) I Jardine 10-10-11 C O'Farrell
11 0-536KISS MY FACE 22 B Ellison 4-10-4 Doubtful
4-1 Serious Ego, 9-2 Foster'sisland, Bigbadmattie, 5-1 Lord Of Kerak, 7-1
Quest For Life, 10-1 Glentruan, Grand Morning, Blow By Blow.
1.40 Novices' Hurdle (£4,302: 2m 5f) (9)
1 14-21BILL BAXTER 35 (C) W Greatrex 5-11-5 C Quinn (7)
2 /11-1NELLS SON 59 N Richards 6-11-5 B Hughes
3 3-5BENACK 226 (W) J Ewart 5-10-12 C Bewley
4 03-54FAME VALLEY 22 I Duncan 6-10-12 C O'Farrell
5 2-04FIRTH OF FORTH 43 R Dobbin 5-10-12 Craig Nichol
6 61-20GREEN VAULT 51 (W,T) L Russell 5-10-12 D R Fox
7 5-43HALF TRACK 35 N Alexander 5-10-12 Sean Quinlan
8 /0-00LARGY FIX 35 (T) T Reed 6-10-12 H Reed
9 32-52SALVINO 35 (T) A M Thomson 5-10-12 R Mania
5-2 Bill Baxter, 3-1 Nells Son, 11-2 Salvino, 6-1 Half Track, 8-1 Green Vault,
Fame Valley, 12-1 Firth Of Forth, 25-1 Benack, 50-1 Largy Fix.2.15 Handicap Hurdle
(£2,614: 2m) (9)
1 3-231CANCAN 29 (H,CD) N Alexander 5-11-13 B Lynn (3)
2 0-241SPARK OF MADNESS 29 (CD) L Russell 5-11-12
Conner McCann (10)
3 324/0SARYSHAGANN 12 A M Thomson 8-11-11 E Austin (3)
4 603-PTINTERN THEATRE 13 (T,D) R Ross 10-11-7 T Gillard
5 3-0P6FRAUGHAN HILL 21 (T) W Greatrex 5-10-11 C Quinn (8)
6 33534 ARDERA CROSS 22 (D) W Young Jnr 10-10-11 T Willmott
7 0PP-0BEAT BOX 34 (W,P,D) J Ewart 5-10-9 A Doyle (5)
8 601U1KILLANE 12 (P,C,D) D McCain 6-10-4 P J Kavanagh (6)
9 0F-4FWHEELBAHRI 12 W Coltherd 7-10-0 P W Wadge (7)
5-2 Spark Of Madness, 7-2 Killane, 4-1 Cancan, 7-1 Ardera Cross, 15-2 Wheelbahri,
10-1 Saryshagann, 14-1 Fraughan Hill, 16-1 Beat Box, 33-1 Tintern Theatre.2.45 Handicap Chase
(£6,154: 3m) (9)
1 -3113JUGE ET PARTI 51 (P,D) J Ewart 8-11-12 B Hughes
2 21031 SHANROE AL C 35 (CD) K Thornton (Ire) 8-11-10
Mr J C Barry (3)
3 40-0PBOB MAHLER 31 (P) W Greatrex 9-11-8 H Brooke
4 16-4PSTRONG ECONOMY 16 (P,CD) I Duncan 9-11-6 C O'Farrell
5 /356-MOYROSS 401 R Ross 10-11-6 T Dowson
6 P3/43BEHINDTHELINES 16 (T) L Russell 9-11-3 D R Fox
7 03561 SCOOP THE POT 12 (P,D) B Haslam 11-10-11 A Cawley
8 02-34MANETTI 29 (P,C) N Alexander 9-10-10 B Lynn (5)
9 PF-2PASKING FOR ANSWERS 16 (P,CD) M Todhunter 8-10-0
Sean Quinlan
3-1 Shanroe Al C, 4-1 Scoop The Pot, 5-1 Juge Et Parti, Behindthelines, 8-1
Strong Economy, 10-1 Manetti, 12-1 Asking For Answers, 14-1 others.3.15 Handicap Chase
(£5,882: 2m 4f 110yd) (4)
1 025-1LINELEE KING 45 (D) O Murphy 6-11-8 F Gregory
2 213-5ROYAL ARCADE 29 N Richards 6-10-13 Sean Quinlan
3 42-33HEARTBREAK KID 21 D McCain 6-10-13 B Hughes
4 61-43DUBAI DAYS 29 (H) N Alexander 7-10-13 C O'Farrell
10-11 Linelee King, 10-3 Heartbreak Kid, 9-2 Dubai Days, 11-2 Royal
Arcade.565 Tuesday December 21 2021 | the times