Racing Ahead Article

BIG INTERVIEW kim can smile again after years of hell Jonathan Powell talks to trainer Kim Bailey about his remarkable turnaround omebacks from impossible odds are an essential part of jump racing’s folklore. Few have been Cmore inspiring than the tortuous journey which took Kim Bailey back to the winner’s enclosure at the Cheltenham Fes- tival last March after a drought stretching way back to 1999. In the last decade of the twentieth cen- tury Bailey seemed to have the sport by the throat. The success of the flamboyant Mr Frisk in the 1990 Grand National in a blisteringly fast record record time was followed five years later by a double triumph at the Cheltenham Festival that Kim was the stuff of dreams. Bailey First up was Alderbrook, a raw novice, who landed an almighty punt for his Lam- bourn stable in the Champion Hurdle in soft ground on his third start over hurdles. Two days later Bailey’s mud-loving chaser the races with the measured tread of a con- ‘sorry, sorry, he can’t run’. Master Oats jumped and galloped his demned man on his way to the gallows. “Finally you hear mutterings that the rivals into submission in the Gold Cup. “It was a horrendous period in my life,” horse might be on its way to another yard. At the time Bailey threatened to turn he recalls. “After two dreadful seasons in So you think ‘I might as well run it after all’. jump racing on its head. Perhaps, we won- Lambourn with the horses suffering from a “I lost two years in that way and knew I dered, he was the young man to challenge persistent lung infection I knew I was in had to move in a hurry if I was to survive. If Martin Pipe and David Nicholson, the duo desperate trouble because trying to train I stayed in Lambourn for another year I who dominated the trainer’s champi- them when they are ill is impossible. would have been out of business, no ques- onship at the time. “The toughest part is trying to persuade tion. It was a decision that had to be made Yet within a couple of years Bailey’s for- your owners you are doing the right thing. because my owners would have lost all tunes had changed so dramatically that it Then you end up being persuaded to run confidence in me. seemed the sky had fallen in. horses that should not be anywhere near a “In this business you can be forgotten Winners were in desperately short racecourse. very quickly because people have such supply, his horses were sick, their owners “When someone is paying upwards of short memories. There is a saying in racing were frustrated and he would appear at £10,000 a year it is so hard to keep saying that you are only as good as your last 4 RACING AHEAD ISSUE 136 Darna and David Bass win at Cheltenham for Bailey winner....and it is horribly true.” ed when I broke the ice and rang him for felt like a bit of a trial period for me, almost Nobody, though, should have doubted Master Oats. Forgetting everything in our like starting again from scratch.” Bailey’s resolution as he found himself private lives we had always been good As we spoke it was clear Bailey believed staring down the barrel of a gun. friends. beyond doubt that the move would revive He had already survived the break up “What happened was unfortunate but I his career but time would show that fate of his marriage to his wife Tracey that was found after a period of time after our part- had dealt him another shockingly poor rarely out of the headlines, two seasons ing that things were quite difficult without hand. from hell and the worst dustbin-digging him because we had enjoyed such a good In the spring of 2000 he began to excesses of the tabloids and had emerged rapport up to then. I missed the continuity believe he might win a second Grand a warmer human being. of having someone on the horses who National with Betty’s Boy until the horse, a He reflects: “I am a great believer in fate. knew exactly what was going on.” winner at the 1999 Festival, broke his hind You think you are in control, then some- Bailey’s strategic withdrawal from Lam- leg in his final serious piece of work thing happens that is beyond your bourn came at enormous cost. He viewed before Aintree. influence. his new base at Preston Capes near If Bailey was hoping for a bright new “We all have bad luck from time to time Banbury early in 1999, finally gained plan- dawn at Preston Capes in the new millen- but the sad part is that my downs were so ning permission in July, began building in nium he would be hugely disheartened. badly publicised because of who else was August and, to his intense relief, moved A freak storm washed away his expen- involved. That made it all so much worse.” with his horses and most of his old staff in sively purchased all-weather gallop. It says much for Bailey’s generosity of November. The foot and mouth disease that rav- spirit that he recruited Norman Williamson I can still remember the excitement in his aged the countryside that spring added to ride many of his horses, following the voice as he showed me round a few to his woes as he was unable to transport jockey’s affair with his wife Tracey that fas- months later. his horses to exercise on friends’ gallops. cinated the nation’s diary columns. Initially “I suppose I could have walked away In a period of a few weeks the bottom fell the rift between the two men seemed from racing. Although that would have out of his business and he was left con- irreparable but eventually the trainer con- been the easy thing to do it was never templating the wreckage of his dreams. tacted his former stable jockey once more going to happen because I have always Numbers of horses were badly down, to ride their Gold Cup winner Master Oats loved jump racing with a passion. I could owners melted away and winners were in Ireland. not stop, simple as that. Even on the worst increasingly elusive. Soon they were working closely togeth- days in Lambourn I never suffered from Bailey soldiered on at Preston Capes, er again. Bailey recalls,“I could tell by the Monday morning blues. chiefly because he had sunk so much time, tone of Norman’s voice that he was delight- “Those early months at Preston Capes effort and hard cash into the place. Even- ISSUE 136 RACING AHEAD 5 BIG INTERVIEW Boardwalk and Tom Bellamy win at Towcester for Bailey tually, though when he managed only as happy now as I have been for years. Festival. I didn’t expect to win the Cham- three winners in 2007-8, he accepted that Moving here after so many setbacks put a pion Hurdle because I was asked to do he must re-locate again if he was to con- huge spring in my step. People have said something with Alderbrook which was tinue as a racehorse trainer. they saw a huge difference in me since I left impossible. Yet I achieved it. He was a At that stage he had trained 24 winners in Preston Capes. You don’t forget how to decent horse on the Flat but had finished four years. His results offered a short cut to train and I’ve had so much support since down the field on his only run over hur- alternative employment yet once again, to we’ve been here.” dles in a race for novices a couple of years his eternal credit, there was no question This spring Bailey has high hopes of The earlier. of quitting. Last Samurai in the Grand National. More “Then I got a call from Ernie Pick in Jan- He insists: “There is no point in giving immediately he will fine tune his team for uary saying he would send me a horse to up on life. That has never been my way so Cheltenham over the next few weeks win the Champion Hurdle. A horse needs a it never entered my head to give up. You are though nothing he achieves in the future is superb engine to become champion eight only here once and you have to enjoy it. I likely to match the magic of that famous weeks after setting out, and he had it. love what I do and there is so much I still double in 1995 at the meeting which mat- “Alderbrook’s schooling at home had want to achieve.” ters most in the jumping calendar. been out of this world before he won first With the full backing of his wife Clare He tells a moving story of the response time out over hurdles at Wincanton and the search began once more for suitable from his father Ken the day Alderbrook Norman knew he was riding a Ferrari premises to train jumpers. won the Champion Hurdle. against the others at Cheltenham. They finally settled on Thorndale Farm, “My dad was not very well and needed “You know I waited 16 years for a winner set in a stunning location near Andovers- a stick as he walked up to me after the at the Festival and then won jumping’s two ford, high on the roof of the Cotswolds just race.

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