INTERVIEW KIM BAILEY Older, Wiser and Confident the Good Times Will Roll Again
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
8 Thursday, December 13, 2012 racingpost.com INTERVIEW KIM BAILEY Older, wiser and confident the good times will roll again “Oliver Sherwood and I are going virus finally prompted a move from the wife Clare and then-infant son Archie, through the same thing,” says Bailey, Lambourn goldfish bowl to a brave recalibrating their life at his stunning who is now 58. “We’ve been mates for new world at Preston Capes in new Cotswolds base Thorndale Farm, a long time – I had a winner at Northamptonshire, 20 minutes from a rented stable in Andoversford, within Newbury the other day and mentioned where his father used to train. shouting distance of Cheltenham. That the name Master Oats, he had a However, that new dawn faded put him perilously close to great mate winner two days later and mentioned almost as soon as it had come up. “We Nigel Twiston-Davies, with whom he Large Action. We’re lucky to have been had a very good season the first year used to live when they were both through those times and it’s great after I moved but in the end it was a bright young things (perish the when you find yourself having horses disaster,” he explains. “I had an thought) starting out under the good enough to talk about those all-weather gallop that got washed tutelage of Fred Rimell at Kinnersley in Nicholas Godfrey speaks to horses again.” away so I couldn’t train. The gallop the glory days of Comedy Of Errors, the one-time leading jumps Bailey is level-headed in his disappeared and got turned into a Rag Trade and Royal Frolic. trainer who is aiming for ambitions these days. “I shall never get ploughed field. I had nowhere to “We sold where we were in big-race success after several back to the scale I did before because I train.” Northamptonshire and it took a year to honestly don’t want to train that many sort out and get the operation going years in the doldrums horses again, and in any event I don’t AILEY’S horsepower fell again,” says Bailey, who speaks highly think I’ve got the time to do it,” he from about 90 to less than of his new staff headed by Mat says. “It’s too late in life and it’s all half that figure. He was Nicholls. “It all quietly gelled together PEAK to Kim Bailey and it changed; there are new kids on the forced to use other people’s and started to make a bit of sense. We soon becomes clear he doesn’t block. I was one of those once and the training facilities as a got rid of all the dross horses we had at care for the word ‘resurgent’. old boys looked at me in horror but Bstopgap, only for the foot-and-mouth the time and went and bought some on Having reached his lowest time moves on. crisis to render that unworkable. spec. It is hard to keep smiling when ebb a few years ago when his “But we’re aiming for the same “Frankly, at the end it was like opening things are going wrong but terribly Straining career was virtually end product: don’t get me wrong, I’d a can of worms, putting a hole in the important that you do, to give the submerged beneath a flooded like nothing more than to be standing back of a bucket,” he says. impression that you are doing things all-weather gallop in in the Gold Cup winner’s enclosure “Owners disappeared; horses went the same as when you were doing Kim Bailey: “I’ve always tried to Northamptonshire, Bailey has been again.” too. It was terribly hard to get back well.” be a great communicator” labelled ‘resurgent’ for a couple of The last time he did that was in from, and I had to admit that what I The winners duly started to flow seasons as he steadily rebuilds after a 1995 when Master Oats completed an had sunk an awful lot of money into again, with a seasonal tally of 38 in period during which he hit rock unforgettable Cheltenham double for – what I believed was going be an 2010-11 his best for 12 years, and bottom. Bailey and stable jockey Norman all-conquering place to train there’s a potential star in the yard in a patient approach with the “Resurgent is rather an unfortunate Williamson after Alderbrook’s victory racehorses from – actually wasn’t the shape of novice chaser Harry five-year-old, who carries the colours word but I feel things are on the way in the Champion Hurdle two days going to work. Probably that was my Topper, who caught the attention with of long-term patron Tony Solomons in up,” suggests the in-form trainer. “I previously. In that context, his lowest point.” his recent success in a Grade 2 at partnership with David Keyte. hadn’t disappeared completely.” No? subsequent fall from high estate was Forced to admit defeat, a victim of Newbury. “He is the most exciting “I’ve been to Cheltenham and I’m Well, almost. At his professional nadir both sudden and not far off circumstance as much as anything horse I’ve had for a while,” says the not tempted to go rushing back there in 2007-08, Bailey saddled a total of unthinkable. A prolonged bout of the else, Bailey upped sticks again with his trainer, who is determined to adopt and luckily my owners are backing me three winners, having produced just 21 in the three previous seasons combined. “Okay, I disappeared off the Three Bailey stars of the past – and one for the future winners’ scale but we moved to Gloucestershire five or six years ago Mr Frisk tried and tried. He used to stand was unique – he was a colt and at very similar. Master Oats didn’t and since we’ve been there it has 1990 Grand National winner there at the end of a race with his evening stables he would almost have a huge amount of ability but he suddenly got better again. But I’d I bought him at the sales, brought head on the ground, absolutely savage the person going in to feed had guts like you’ve never come rather say rejuvenated than resurgent.” him home and he was completely knackered because he’d given him but my seven- and eight-year- across and this horse is exactly the Still, while there is significant tonto – and he wasn’t very fast or everything. A lot of work went on old children could go in there and same. He’s very much a challenge improvement, a fiercely competitive very good. Jimmy FitzGerald was behind the scenes with him, such as he’d leave them alone. I was for us as he’s quite difficult – he’s a nature means Bailey is painfully aware staying with me and watched him Yogi Breisner teaching him to jump. disappointed not to win a second box-walker, a crib-biter – and I hope that his status is far removed from his work with two or three other horses We even schooled him over poles Champion Hurdle with him. he’ll be a far better horse next year 1990s heyday. That, though, was the and he finished about 100 yards the morning of the Gold Cup and he Harry Topper (right) when he’s filled his frame. past, a foreign country where they did behind them. I told Jimmy he was still made a horrendous mistake in He’s only a five-year-old, is 17 things differently and Bailey – running at Exeter soon and he said the race. He was an extraordinary hands and very, very weak, but eminently clubbable, blessed with don’t embarrass yourself by running horse. top-drawer PR skills – was a leading he’s the most exciting horse I’ve him. He won by 20 lengths! History Alderbrook had for a while. I mentioned member of the ‘Lambourn mafia’ and a relates he turned out to be what he fixture on the major stages. Lest it be 1995 Champion Hurdle winner Master Oats after was but he was never a good horse I can’t believe I’ll get another one he won at forgotten, until Neptune Collonges at home – never a good horse at all won at Aintree last season for Paul like that – he was a freak one for Newbury and unless there was fast ground. Nicholls, Bailey was the only active me. The first time we schooled him it’s obvious trainer to have saddled winners in the Master Oats I’ve never seen a horse go over the two Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup 1995 Cheltenham Gold Cup hurdles so fast. It was a competition horses are and Champion Hurdle, via that winner between me and Brian Delaney, who wonderful trio Mr Frisk, Master Oats I remember when he won at was watching, about who could get and Alderbrook. Southwell and Marcus [Armytage] to the bookies the quickest. Now, after two changes of yard, he is said: “That was your greatest Obviously he was electric but he was a middle-ranking trainer grateful training performance, winning with also an unbelievably tough horse. simply for a horse good enough just to that horse, he’s no good.” He was Of all the horses I trained he is a be thinking about running in those brain dead but he just tried and special memory for me because he types of races.