Is an Epsom renaissance on the way?
Through 30 years of living within walking distance of the Derby course I was ever hopeful of seeing Epsom's status revived to the 600 horsepower training centre it once was with the likes of Walter Nightingall turning out winners for Winston Churchill. There have been brief dawns as when Laura Mongan won the St Leger with Harbour Law in 2016, or Adam West won the Nunthorpe with Live in the Dream. Hard-working and capable trainers such as Simon Dow and Jim Boyle have kept the Epsom flag flying, but too many yards were lost to housing developers as numbers dropped to only 150. Last Wednesday though I stood at the top of the seven furlong sand gallop on Epsom Downs with a man whose arrival with 46 horses to take over a historic Epsom yard could be part of a significant Epsom renaissance. Either way, there will be no shortage of joie de vivre.
I have rarely seen more joyous scenes on a racecourse than when George Baker's Get It won Goodwood's celebrated Stewards' Cup last August. The winners' enclosure literally overflowed with exultant high-fiving racegoers from the My Racehorse syndicate, some of them cheering, others in tears. But that was not the end of it. When the gregarious Bakers woke up two days later, they found so many celebrants distributed around their home that wife Candida had to dispatch George to buy five chickens for lunch. This is a trainer who accepts that racing is part of the entertainment industry and who works at making it fun for his owners, not just on the winning days but even when their pride and joy has finished seventh of nine on a wet day at Catterick.
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