Early morning, and the rising sun greets first Memories of a Classic hero lot at Kingsley Park (Picture by Mikaelle Lebreton) It is 25 years since Mister Baileys won the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1994. Here JOHN SCANLON looks back on that record-breaking success which was a major landmark in Mark Johnston’s burgeoning training career. HE son of Hinari Televideo, ridden by Robellino’s win was Debbie Kettlewell, jumped into significant in so the mix in the straight. It was T many ways: it was after that gallop that Mark the first precious taste of Classic realised he had a serious success for Mark Johnston; the contender for the Guineas. first Classic win for horses Mister Baileys won three of trained north of the Trent since his five juvenile races. He turned Mrs McArdy won the 1,000 a six-furlong maiden at Guineas in 1977; and the first Newcastle into a procession on Classic winner trained in his debut, slamming 12 Middleham since Dante won the opponents by seven lengths. 1945 Derby at Newmarket. Stepping up to seven furlongs at And, just for good measure, Newbury next time out, he 25 years on, Mister Baileys’ inexplicably found trouble in winning time of 1m 35.08s, running in a field of five, remains the fastest winning time finishing strongly but only in ever recorded in the race – faster Mister Baileys and Jason Weaver, third. than the marks recorded by such yellow and green silks, win the Guineas in 1994 Next time out he posted an greats of the sport as Sir Ivor, excellent performance to land Brigadier Gerard, Nijinsky, Frankel and Sea early in 1994 on the Low Moor on pretty the Vintage Stakes (Group 3) at Goodwood, The Stars. soft ground. Double Trigger went the best before disappointing when favourite for the The public gallops in Middleham were an of the two which, if you know how Trigger Gimcrack Stakes at York. It subsequently exciting place to be in the summer of 1993. worked at home, was just ridiculous. transpired that ringworm might have Not only was Mister Baileys being put However, that told us Mister Baileys accounted for his below-par display on the through his paces, but the Johnston string wouldn’t go a yard on soft ground and Knavesmire. included another exciting juvenile in Double convinced us we would need to take him to a A cracking win in the Royal Lodge Stakes Trigger. Their (Group 2) at trainer Ascot over a remembers them Mister Baileys wouldn’t go a yard mile at the end as being very of September, different. on soft ground and convinced us when partnered “Mister by Frankie Baileys was a we would need to take him to a Dettori, very easy horse confirmed to train,” Mark Mister Baileys recalls. racecourse before the Guineas as the Best “Paul Venner, Juvenile trained the owner, told in the North in me before he sent him to me that he was the racecourse before the Guineas.” 1993 and verified his credentials as a serious nicest he’d had. But they were very different The horse enjoyed two racecourse gallops Guineas candidate. creatures – both weighed almost exactly the before Newmarket. The first was at Thirsk, For the season’s first Classic, Frankie same but Double Trigger was taller and but the second at Ripon was the most could have ridden Mister Baileys having won much narrower, as one would expect of a significant. Jason Weaver rode Mister on him at Ascot, but he chose Grand Lodge, staying type. Baileys there, while Bobby Elliott partnered “They worked together at least once, Beware of Agents and the older sprinter Continued on p.24 16 23 Continued from p.23 and so Jason Weaver took the ride. Mark was concerned about the draw, recalling: The life of my hors e – and the horse of my life “King’s Theatre was the favourite and was drawn on the stands’ side. Everyone thought that’s where the pace would be.” The big day started for Mark and Deirdre with a Harrods’ picnic in the car F YOU could stop the clock then and there, bidding past Paul’s client’s limit. So, when Paul that he was linked to me, the vendor – and both park with business partners Brian and Val I during those two furlongs… I’ve won it. Paul Venner, the owner was out, I tapped him on the shoulder and said backed off. Needless to say, I have of course told Palmer. “Loads of our owners were there, I’ve done it. He’s done it. I’ve got the next ‘keep going’. Giles many, many times since what a berk he and it made for a great build-up to the Nijinsky. Michael Swinburn, Walter’s brother, of Mister Baileys, “I rang George, who is sensible and calm and was! I usually get a great buzz out of turning race itself,” says Mark. is jumping about behind me, with his hands on reflects on the story the very opposite of me, to tell him that our something over for a profit, but in this case I was In little over a minute and a half, on my shoulders, buffering me about while riding a company had just bought a foal. There was then so insulted, that nobody wanted him for more April 30, 1994, Mister Baileys entered finish, with an endless stream of expletives. My of his Classic hero in a silence. ‘Why?’ George finally asked. ‘Because than that, that it made it an easy decision to horse racing history by winning the 2,000 wife is about to pass out from hyperventilation. he just had to be bought,’ I replied. ‘How are we keep him.” Guineas, having edged out Grand Lodge And the noise… these extracts from an going to pay for it?’ was his next question, after Named, perhaps portentously, Mister Baileys, and Frankie Dettori by a short head. “It was just the most extraordinary feeling, another pause. ‘With the company overdraft, of the colt was sent to Johnston, by then training After the race, Mark was exasperated the best day’s racing, full stop, that I’ve ever had article in Bloodstock course!’ I said…” in Middleham. “When I dropped him off, I told to find he couldn’t locate his winner. “I – and am ever likely to have,” says Paul Venner Ten months later, the flashy but gangly colt, Mark that there was no rush with him, that started to think something had gone of the 1994 Derby, in which his 2,000 Guineas Digest. We are bought for 10,000gns, went to Tattersalls as a nobody thought he’d be early as a two-year-old wrong,” he explains, “but then I winner Mister Baileys put up one of the most yearling and was there to be sold. “When he but that I had a really good feeling about him,” Paul Venner discovered that, for the first time, the remarkable front-running performances in the grateful to Milo came into the ring, I told Mark Johnston to bid Venner remembers. “And I didn’t then hear officials were keeping the horse out on the race’s history. him up to 15,000gns, but to let him go after from Mark for about six weeks. But one day he track until all the other horses were in. Then again, nothing about this horse was ever Corbett of Bloodstock that,” says Venner. rang up and said: ‘You know that horse you sent end of June, far earlier than his owners expected. Once we reached the winner’s enclosure, it ordinary. His is a story that begins with “Michael Bell and Giles Bravery were bidding me? You might just be right about him.’” He then somehow got boxed-in a five-runner was pandemonium, with all my owners inauspicious origins: waste bread, a rather large Digest and to Paul for for him. They both saw Mark raise his hand at Might just be right? He made a successful congratulating Paul.” debt and a broken-down former racehorse in a 10,500gns and worked out, not unreasonably, racecourse debut in a Newcastle maiden at the Continued on p.26 paddock by a kitchen window. Venner and his allowing us to repeat Significance business partner, George Knowles, persuaded their bank manager to back them as they sought them in the Klarion. Celebrations were held in Baileys Horse to take over a business which was on its knees Owner Paul Venner hugs groom Gary Feeds’ box in the old stand, then at and owed them quite a lot of money – not to Ritchie as Mister Baileys and Jason Weaver Walter Cowe’s house at Hascombe Stud mention the £600,000 it owed the bank, too. enter the winner’s enclosure and latterly at the Coronation Hotel in The business processed waste bread, and the and carrying the ‘Baileys’ name not only for Newmarket. Mark remembers clearly that two of them would build it up to 500 tonnes’ promotion but also to keep the Inland Revenue a rather delicate Paul Venner settled the worth a week. When one of its main suppliers sweet on the idea. And the company bought a bill with hotelier Eric Kettenaker by pulled the plug, though, necessity would prove foal, too – on the Saturday of the December handing over a large wad of notes. “Next the mother of invention. Sales in 1991. morning, he found the receipt and exact “It was forced on us, from the blue, so we “You couldn’t make it up!” Venner laughs.