Come on Paul, make a stand, writes Tony Stafford. Convince owner Colm Donlon to pay the additional £18,000 fee and place Tutti Quanti in the Champion Hurdle next month! In some ways the parallels are clear. On February 8e 1997 Make A Stand, ridden by AP McCoy, went all out to win the Tote Gold Trophy in a one-two for the Martin Pipe stable, beating stablemate Hamilton Silk by nine lengths and dominating his 17 opponents with ease.
He carried 11st7lb from a score of 140, which included a 4lb penalty for his previous success at Kempton in the Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle, and then a two-mile race instead of the five-furlong longer identity these days. The following month he won the Champion Hurdle in similar fashion.
Tutti Quanti was immediately brought forward on Saturday, just like Make A Stand 29 years earlier, by Harry Cobden, accompanied by a few over-optimistic opponents. The trio was quickly separated from the rest of the 15-runner field. At the turn to the straight, the dice had already been cast. Tutti Quanti moved smoothly and, despite his 12th top weight for his mark of 138, was the only horse not yet struggling on the proving ground.
His lead began to expand inexorably over Wellington Arch, who at the time was in second place. Then on the long home straight, apparently after little effort from the horse and certainly minimal energy from his rider, he had that brave pursuer fifteen lengths behind the line. I think it could have been closer to 25 lengths if Harry had wanted it.
Amazingly, second was another 18 lengths away from a trio battling it out in slow motion for the honor of third place (and a not inconsiderable prize of £18,000). It went to 7lb to claim amateur Miss Heidi Palin at 33/1 shot Faivoir, trained by Dan Skelton. Skelton also provided the race favorite, Let It Rain with heavy support, but she retired.
At the time of Make A Stand’s success we were still reluctant to call the race anything other than the ‘Schweppes’, even though the Tote had taken over the sponsorship ten years earlier in 1986. Some, including myself, think back to the past far too often. Sir Rupert Mackeson, the veteran bookseller, even referred to the “Schweppes weekend” in his email on Saturday morning, 40 years after the soft drinks company abandoned ship!
The race was founded in 1963 as one of the earlier lucrative commercial race sponsorships in British racing and was held once at Aintree before moving to its subsequent home base of Newbury. It was quickly made famous and just as infamous by the exploits of Findon, Sussex-based master trainer and former wartime commando Captain Ryan Price.
Ho won the first two with Rosyth, whose second success resulted in a six-week suspension for his trainer after a dodgy preparation run for his horse. The triumph of Le Vermontois brought no such scandal.
On that Saturday in February 1967, I walked up (or was it down?) a hill in Northumberland with a transistor radio taped to my ear. I was there to cover the FA Amateur Cup quarter-final between Whitley Bay and Walthamstow Avenue – the event and the Avenue have both sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history for a long time. By the way, we won, but were eliminated in the semi-finals.
A few local press people – I was working at the Walthamstow Guardian that year, my first newspaper job – traveled in the team coach to their away games. After home games at Gander Green Lane we were regularly allowed to dine with the players in Jim Gill’s restaurant at the foot of Walthamstow High Street.
I listened as Hill House easily took four wins in the first five races of the race for Price. Even with the questionable acoustics, the boos raining down from the stands could be heard clearly, even over Peter Bromley’s spirited commentary.
Hill House had declined to race at Kempton two weeks before the big day and finished only fourth at Sandown the weekend before, with most professionals thinking he had a typically “easy”. In the Schweppes, Hill House ran cleanly away to win by twelve lengths before returning to a crescendo of cheers. Price’s wife Dorothy vowed never to race again – and she never did.
A subsequent investigation revealed that Hill House had tested positive for cortisone, a banned substance, but further tests revealed that he had manufactured his own cortisone. That ended the case, but not the stigma for Captain Price.
Normal service resumed the following year when Persian War, a five-year-old trained in Wales by Colin Davies, ridden by Jimmy Uttley and owned by bookmaker Henry Alper, set a weight-bearing record of 11st13lb. The historians had not immediately realized that the record of almost 60 years had finally been wiped from the books when Tutti Quanti won under 12th on Saturday.
Persian War won the Champion Hurdle in March and twice more before being relegated to second place behind Bula, another excellent champion of that vintage. Bula was trained by Fred Winter.
Persian War had been a slow coach on the flat, but was transformed into jumping when his endurance made a significant contribution to his success. Make A Stand, like the Persian War, started on the flat. He was a son of Master Willie and was trained by Henry Candy.
Make A Stand won a 23-rider nursery at Newmarket on 74, but by the time he turned up for a claims race at Leicester in August the following summer his mark had dropped to 52 – the handicappers were a little more understanding at the time. You would now have to run 30 times instead of the six of Make A Stand to get that far! He won that 1m4f race with ease, and the next time he ran was for Pipe, two unsuccessful flat races completing his three years of activity. I wanted to check the Racing Post’s analysis for the Leicester claimant, but 32 years later we’re still waiting!
Make A Stand was quickly gone the following year when he was initially faced with hurdles and won three in a row, before Martin also exploited his still modest flat score. By the time he reached the Tote Gold Trophy he was the veteran of 27 races and came to Newbury fresh from three successive victories over the handicap hurdles at Sandown, Ascot and Kempton. There was never much doubt that number four would be in the bag. It wasn’t!
In the Champion Hurdle he beat a field that included last year’s winner Collier Bay, and in a taste of what was to come, a youthful Aidan O’Brien dispatched Theaterworld’s runner-up at 33/1. Aidan would win the next three championships with the peerless Istabraq.
Tutti Quanti barely came out of left field on Saturday. He had comfortably won the Gerry Feilden Hurdle over the same course and distance in November and on the morning of the race Nicholls told Cobden that he was feeling extremely confident. He was the 100/30 second favorite.
Then, after such overwhelming success in one of the most competitive (usually) handicap hurdles of the season, why not go the Persian War and Make A Stand route?
For an investment of £18,000, the potential profit price of £252,315 represents about 14/1 for the money – even though the owner’s share is more than 70 percent. Still, you would make a lot of people, including trainer, jockey and stable staff, happy if it happened; and Donlon raised a healthy £87,000 on Saturday, so he starts from a strong position.
They have until March 4, six days before the race, to decide and the weather will be a major factor in the decision in the meantime. I remember back in 1986 desperately wanting rain for a horse of mine keen to race the Triumph Hurdle, and the whole of the previous six weeks had been cold and dry. It could be the same for the next three weeks, although that’s unlikely if the recent weather holds, but like I said, Colm doesn’t have to make a decision yet.
The main performance of the week, apart from Tutti Quanti, was Lulamba’s victory in the Game Spirit Chase. Having actually only cleared fences one and a half times (lowing sun ruled out six fences on debut), Nicky Henderson’s novice was far too good for more experienced chasers at Newbury. I think he can emulate Sprinter Sacre and Altior and win the Arkle at Cheltenham next month.
– TS
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