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The Mike Cattermole column | Remembering Khalid Abdullah and Bryony Frost comment
Mike Cattermole pays tribute to the lasting legacy of Juddmonte founder Prince Khalid Abdullah after his passing last week, while commenting on the Bryony Frost situation.
Abdullah death a huge loss to racing
It is impossible to quantify the contribution of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah to the sport of horse racing and equally inconceivable to measure how much pleasure his horses have given us over the length of four decades.
The Saudi prince, who has died at he age of 83 after a long illness, was essentially a very private man and the fact that his horses were registered under the name of simply “K Abdullah” told you a lot about him.
His Juddmonte operation was large but one that still seemed so good at micro-managing, one that seemed to make so many good decisions, year in year out, both on the breeding and buying fronts.
I don’t doubt he was diligent about who he appointed to manage his bloodstock affairs but ultimately it was his hobby and his pleasure, his passion driven by what many described as his very sharp mind.
Abdulla enjoyed so many successes at the highest level on both sides of the Atlantic over four decades, a record that was unmatched in many ways. His final total at the time of his passing of 118 Group or Grade 1 winners is quite extraordinary.
Many first became aware of him when the Jeremy Tree-trained Known Fact was awarded a controversial 2,000 Guineas in 1980 on the disqualification of Nureyev. The chief sufferer in the race had been John Dunlop’s Posse but it was Known Fact who went on to beat the mighty Kris in an epic QEII later that year.
The stream of champions had begun. Rainbow Quest came next and then soon Dancing Brave was on the scene. I will never forget visiting Newmarket with my late father to watch his devastating turn of foot as he won the Guineas.
After his spectacular Derby defeat, Dad and I returned to Ascot to watch him get revenge on Shahrastani in the King George. He was the best racehorse I have witnessed live until the same owner’s Frankel came along a quarter of a century later.
Dancing Brave was bought at the sales for $200,000 at the Fasig Tipton July Sale in Kentucky and, much later on, Arrogate was picked up for $560,000 as a yearling at Keeneland in 2014. It seems the Juddmonte team rarely made mistakes.
Their breeding plans and matings were hugely successful as they built up a team of influential stallions and many top mares which, in particular, always seemed to produce top horses. They included the remarkable Slightly Dangerous (dam of Warning, Commander In Chief etc) and Hasili (Banks Hill, Champs Elysee etc), responsible for multiple Group 1 performers between them.
Abdullah also won the Derby three times but it is doubtful if any of that trio would even make his all-time top 10.
His legacy will live on for a long time and let’s hope that Juddmonte stays with us too.
Finally, what sort of a man he really was will remain with his nearest and dearest. But we got a big hint as we all know what a precious friend and ally he was to Henry Cecil when the great trainer was going through his lean years. He was unswerving and stood by him.
I only met the prince on one occasion, in the winner’s enclosure at York after he had, after many years of trying, finally won his own race, the Juddmonte International.
There, even his choice of sponsorship was exceptional.
On this occasion, Twice Over had beaten the prince’s more fancied filly Midday into second for a Cecil 1-2 and I found myself facing him, live on C4 Racing.
The interview did not go as I intended because, by that stage and unbeknown to me, the prince was hard of hearing. But I recall he wasn’t irritated at all and actually tried to help me, doing his best to put me at ease.
Bryony under fire?
I wasn’t sure what to make about the alleged bullying of Bryony Frost, which was revealed this week, and there’s obviously more to the story than the one incident reported at Southwell.
I don’t know Bryony well but I enjoy taking to her. I do know and am also fond of her father Jimmy and, in the belief that the apple never falls far from the tree, am pretty sure that beyond her natural bubbly personality there lies one tough cookie who can more than take care of herself. She has to be or she wouldn’t have prospered.
The Southwell incident was way back in September and the BHA has been brought in. It should have been sorted before now and the delay in investigating and moving on has clearly caused things to get a lot worse.
The incident itself takes a bit of believing with Robbie Dunne blaming Bryony for letting her mount, Wisecracker, drift left across a fence and causing his mount Cillian’s Well to fall and suffer a fatal injury.
Rest assured, there will be more to their falling out than this and who knows what went before or since? Wisecracker did not jump left at every fence and the tendency at the crucial fourth last was only slight. Indeed, it was a more pronounced move at the fence before.
Unfortunately, Cillian’s Well made a bad error and while coming down, he brought down Dragon Khan who unfortunately looked to trample on both Cillian’s Well and Dunne. Wisecracker went on to be second.
Jealousy is inevitable in life. It would not be unnatural if some riders had a touch of the green eye with regards to Bryony.
The fact that she gets rides that perhaps other male riders can only dream of and feel, for whatever reason, she hasn’t deserved, especially from one of the game’s outstanding trainers in Paul Nicholls. That may rankle.
Plus Bryony’s financial burdens are eased by her having a sponsor – Jockey Club Racecourses – which includes a Land Rover. All that, and she has become a bit of a darling in the media and very popular with racegoers.
I remember being surprised to read a quote from the high-flying Harry Codben when he was interviewed by The Times last month.
Referring to Bryony, he said: “She’s obviously done well out of the cameras. They like her and it’s got her career going. Paul’s put her on nice horses. If the cameras weren’t involved, would she gone as far as she has? I don’t know.
“But she has managed it really well, especially last year because Bryony Frost was the face of jump racing.”
Now I don’t know whether Harry was misquoted or not or whether he was saying exactly what he thought, but coming from a colleague who regularly rides out with Bryony down at Ditcheat, the first part of the quote was quite telling. There’s no reference there to Bryony’s talent or, if there was, it wasn’t reported.
There are many instances when jockeys accuse a fellow rider of riding without due respect to the safety of other colleagues. That’s the nature of the tough business they are in. It is a dangerous, fast moving sport, involving sometimes unpredictable horses and mistakes and accidents can happen, most of the time without any intent.
Words are often had in the heat of the moment, the air will be cleared and then it’s time to move on. The old adage is what happens in the weighing room stays in the weighing room.
Any jockey will tell you that it makes little sense to have enemies in there. Ultimately they are all in it together, a band of brothers and, very much these days, sisters. And yet of course, they are out for eachother, out to win.
It makes for an extraordinary environment and, as an outsider, it is one that I look on at in both admiration, respect and awe.
And that was another surprise to me. There is almost even more of a sense of togetherness and camaraderie in the jumps weighing room where the participants have to go out and jump numerous fences and hurdles.
Throughout the whole of last year as Hollie Doyle was breaking records on the flat, there was not even a whisper of resentment (as far as I know) from her weighing room colleagues under that code.
Let’s hope that Bryony and her rivals can find a working solution and quickly move on.