Henrietta Knight with Ballywalter, who will wear her late sister's silks in Wincanton on Friday. Photo: Debbie Burt/Telegraph
On Friday racing returns to the future at Wincanton when Henrietta Knight, trainer of three-time Gold Cup winner Best Mate, saddles her first runner since she «came out of retirement» to look after her late husband Terry Biddlecombe in 2012.
< p>Over the intervening 11 years, Knight has also lost her sister Chichi and Chichi's husband, Lord Westie, famous owners when she was first training, and Ballywalter, which is owned by Knight's niece Mary , will carry Chichi Westie silks.
“It will be a family affair,” she notes. “It will be very touching to see my sister's colors on my first running tracks.”
However, she does not dwell on this, but rather feels some trepidation about returning to the training ranks. «I'm being very cold about my first runner this time,» she says. “When I started in 1989, my first runner was a winner. So much has been written since I announced my return, everyone is watching and waiting. Then we were just messing around in Bangor with a pointer, which fell most often, and no one expected anything.
“I hope he runs well, he’s a good horse but not a star of the future.” although we will have fun with him. He's not very fast, he won the Irish points tournament about nine weeks ago, but he'll love the dirt.»
Knight, 77, returns, she believes, knowing more about training than when she retired , writing «The Jumping Game,» which gave her unprecedented access to 30 coaches so she could write about their methods.
She also has «help» from Brendan Powell, a former successful coach who has spent the last five years assisted Joseph O'Brien.
“Brendan is a huge asset,” she says. “He was telling someone that he wished he knew what he learned with Joseph when he trained. It's like skinning a cat; There are many ways to train a horse, and horses respond differently to different methods.
“I don't think Best Mate would respond well to being in a big yard. We pampered him, wrapped him in cotton wool, and I don’t know how he would cope with being one of many in a big chain.”
Knight is keen to keep expectations realistic in his return to racing. Photo: Debbie Burt/Telegraph
Even a septuagenarian can dream, and while the chances of another best friend making it to West Locking are slim, her goals are clear. — Tell me, can lightning strike twice? she asks rhetorically. “I want a small group of horses that can win races. If a good one comes out of the pack, that will be a bonus.
“If she's good enough to go to the Cheltenham Festival, it's a double bonus, and if she's good enough for first place, it's a triple bonus. I would really like to walk around this paddock again with a winner — it's not a feeling that can be explained or described.
“Of course we have to win races and make money from it. We have some good four-year-old horses that will win bumpers in the spring, but we are a little short of older horses and the time to get them is not now, it is the end of the season.»
At a time of great uncertainty in the sport, you can either think she's crazy or take my hat off to her for coming back.
“I could have continued doing what I was doing, essentially running a livery yard and teaching other people’s horses to jump,” she continues. “I like a busy, noisy yard, but I've sent horses back and they've won for other people. You don't see it, someone else does it. There's some satisfaction in it, but I'd like to keep it up.»
Knight with one of his Connemara ponies at West Locking Photo: Debbie Burt/Telegraph
There are a lot of superstitions in racing — many trainers won't wear green at the races — but for the first time Knight has taken idiosyncrasy to a new level, and that doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon.< /p>
“If you entered the house through one door, you have to leave through that door,” she begins. “You should never take the stairs: if you said goodbye, forgot something and return to the house, you will have to sit down before leaving again. I don’t like one magpie, I hate black cats crossing the road, a robin in the house is a harbinger of death. But I don't mind going under the stairs, 13 or green.
“It was written that when Best Mate was in the Gold Cup I was hiding in the toilet, but that was a myth. Sometimes I would watch or leave, but since I watched all of his first Gold Cups in 2002, I had to watch them all and do them all the same way.
“I used to back every other horse in except Best Mate because I wanted to enjoy it if he lost. It cost me £800-900 a year!
“But the biggest thing was hay and straw. Seeing a bale of straw on the way to the races is a sign of good luck, and seeing hay is a sign of horror. You pull with straw, you pay with hay. Before the 2004 Gold Cup in the morning, I asked the straw merchant to deliver it to the yard!”
Knight after Best Mate 39th third Cheltenham Gold Cup victory in 2004. Photo: Phil Cole/Getty Images
In her 76 years, Knight hasn't done much; from making her debut, completing a teaching degree at Oxford (she has a BA in Education), teaching history and biology at a local convent school, to finishing 12th in a three-day badminton competition, to breeding prize-winning Connemaras and training the only horse with Arkle era, which won three Gold Cups.
As a friend of the royal family, during her 11-year ride she was invited to the Royal Box by the late Queen Mother for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Weekend rates in July. “I’m not really a fan of pomp, so in about three weeks I’ll start to worry about it,” she recalls.
“They’ll give you a bath and you’ll have breakfast in bed.” and when you arrived, your suitcase was taken from you to be unpacked by the maid. I was so worried about someone else unpacking for me that every year before I left I would go to M&S to buy new underwear to make sure they were spotless! But she was a wonderful hostess, and I loved talking to her about racing and life.”
The second part of Henrietta Knight's racing life may produce as many anecdotes as it does winners. Terry Biddlecombe, she's adamant, would approve. “He hated it when I gave him the license to look after him,” she says.
Свежие комментарии