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p p q 16 Thursday, September 8, 2011 racingpost.com/mobile Racing Post T INTERVIEW WILLIAM BUICK AN OLD HEAD ON YOUNG SHOULDERS Buick says: “He is great both as a but I quickly twigged what a great dad and as an adviser, because he is place it is. Everything is virtually in very calm and collected and never one place and I can ride out for two gets carried away with anything. or three trainers in one Obviously he is on my side but he is morning. But it’s hectic very objective when looking at things and you have got to be on and doesn’t let his bias cloud his the ball as you are always judgement. being watched here – there was no Alastair Down finds that “He always drummed into me ‘Don’t Racing Post reporter down at Britain’s youngest premier think you are a jockey before you Kingsclere!” league Flat jockey is mature really are one’. He insists that I read At 23, Buick is the youngest man the form inside out and if I’m going with a premier league riding job in beyond his years through a dry spell he will say ‘are Britain and it is easy to see him you sure you are doing your form developing into becoming the jockey properly?’ He is not a man for playing of first resort when, through injury or T IS unlikely that John Gosden at things – either do it right with no suspension, one of the major players will do many better days’ work short cuts or don’t do it at all. is looking for a cool head in a than when he made the bold call “And all jockeys have bad days household-name race. last year to grab himself a young when things go wrong, it’s part of the He inched the brilliant I stable jockey who had never job. But I don’t let myself get but far from even ridden for his yard. miserable about giving a horse a lousy straightforward Dream But Gosden is a thinker who sets ride for long. I will watch it through a Ahead home at Haydock great stock on temperament – in man couple of times, swear a lot, and then last Saturday but the and horse – and in William Buick he make a couple of calls to talk about it. most important to Rewilding, which was went for someone who, for all his “I can ring my dad, my agent triumph of his year sad for everyone and precocious talent in the saddle, had Michael Haggas or John Gosden and came on this season’s hard on Godolphin. I impressed everybody as a youngster none of them is going to tell me springer among the know we hung left late on, with his head well and truly screwed things just to make me feel good three-year-old but not nearly as much as on the right way. about myself. And I have a lot of good colts, the Gosden- Workforce did, and I would The new pairing landed the St mates in the weighing room and trained be very happy to take him on Leger with Arctic Cosmos and, 12 among the older ones Frankie has Nathaniel. again. months on, they bid to win it again been a big help and source of good He says: “The Arc is next for with Masked Marvel, Buick having in advice since I first came to “John kept Nathaniel and I can tell you he the meantime registered big successes Newmarket. My great rule is to try to saying about looks stronger than he did back on Nathaniel and Dream Ahead. never make the same mistake twice.” Nathaniel in July and I think he has Gosden and his jockey made a Buick now lives on the outskirts of ‘he is going improved.” spectacular start to their partnership Newmarket about 100 yards from to be very good There was a moment earlier in at Dubai’s 2010 Carnival. Buick says: Dream Ahead’s box at David and one day’, but it has the season when Buick was lying “Dar Re Mi winning the Sheema Jenny Simcock’s yard. It is a young surprised me that it has come so about 15 off the pace in the jockeys’ Classic could hardly have come at a man’s flat – none of the accumulated soon. championship and he and his agent more fitting time – it almost told clutter of the years and a television “It has been a terrific training gave half a thought to a title bid, but people why I had got the job. She dug just a shade bigger than a full-sized performance to get him where he is that will come in the years ahead. really deep that day and I like it when now because mentally he is still a bit snooker table. He says: “I didn’t know E SAYS: “You need to one shows how tough it is by getting fragile and not quite the finished Newmarket well before coming here make a good start and right down there into the basement. article. He jig-jogs and sweats and get some momentum “Last season I lived in a bungalow you have to try to keep the lid on going and you need at the yard and John and Rachel him, but John knows the family well to avoid suspensions made me feel welcome from day one. and that has been very important. H ‘In Britain we have and I have picked up a few of They looked after me very well, I was “Nathaniel is one of those horses those this year. comfortable and they gave me the best racing, the who, if he sees something for the first confidence. It is a fantastic job and time, he worries. But if it proves a “Chasing a title is something what every young jockey aspires to – nicest tracks, the good experience then he is absolutely that will happen one day and I it was a privilege to be asked to do it. fine the next time. will give it everything when it That’s why winning a Classic for them highest-quality “I don’t think I have ever given a does. I don’t envy Paul on Arctic Cosmos was very special. race so much thought beforehand as I Hanagan, Kieren and Silvestre “And the way Dream Ahead won a weighing room and did the King George. When I got to the next few weeks because it couple of his races gave me a real Ascot that day I was in a bubble all is going to be a very tough scrap with a lot of long, cold buzz – for a few seconds on a horse the finest trainers. my own, right in the zone. In the William Buick like that you feel invincible.” paddock Rachel told me I looked evenings at Kempton and Wolverhampton. is taking big-race But there is never any chance of Everything about nervous but I wasn’t – it was just that success in his “The weighing room is an Buick getting carried away with I was completely focused on the job in stride himself as his dad Walter, eight times our racing is hand. John just told me not to be too amazing place – a bit like a champion jockey in Norway, has far away and to go out there with an family really. There are guided his son’s career with an top-class except open mind. plenty of arguments impressive and unerringly steady “Of course it turned out to be a and one moment hand. the prize-money’ tragic race because of what happened you might think facebook.com/racingpostofficial GET INVOLVED IN THE DEBATE ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE.

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