Fury and fatality

An epidemic of misguided revisionism seems to be unbalancing some normally straight thinking folk lately.

Many long-held sacred truths are being questioned almost every time a page is turned or a mouse clicked.

Like, “maybe Ring wasn’t all that great — Shefflin was probably better.” (He wasn’t.)

Or “maybe Nicklaus was just beating average players while Tiger’s opponents were stronger”. (They weren’t.)

But the last true benchmark of logical reasoning was violated during the emotional aftermath of Kauto Star’s death in a tragic accident.

It was as if the ‘delete’ button had been on rational memory.

“Maybe,” it was speculated, “he really was better than Him. Kauto definitely beat faster and better prepared opponents than Arkle.”

So let’s knock this one on the head too and quickly move along. He wasn’t and he didn’t.

That said Kauto Star was clearly one of the most talented and beloved steeplechasers to ever jump a fence.

He and Arkle were two great horses united by more than their dominance of contemporaries. Both were held warmly in the embrace of their public and the sadness of their passing after short retirements was very real.

Then there is the remarkable coincidence that their only really credible opponents, Flying Bolt and Denman, ate breakfast in the box next door.

But in the last week it has been brightly spotlighted that there is something that separates them too — the behaviour of their connections.

Compare the dignity and class of ‘Team Arkle’, and their pride in the shared legacy of an historic association with a legend with the unresolved soap opera plot surrounding the life and sad death of Kauto Star.

An argument which originated with owner Clive Smith’s decision to remove him from trainer Paul Nicholl’s yard to a post-racing dressage career in 2012 has been hotly reignited in the turmoil of his fatal accident.

The spat between Nicholls and Smith is almost ‘teenager’ in its construction and has continued for several years. The most recent flare up is as trivial as ‘who should have been told what by whom and when.’

Thousands of racehorses die every year. Thankfully most deaths occur in stables, studs, fields and or surgeries, far removed from the public eye and the collateral emotional turbulence.

Some of these deaths are random and accidental, but most are planned and painless. Beyond the private distress and grief of their connections, life trundles on as before. This is not Tunisia, Berkeley or Baltimore after all.

Then every so often a well-known equine superstar expires and the reaction is much more sharp and raw. We tend to pigeon-hole this as a peculiarly English curiosity, but we are not immune ourselves.

It’s nearly 30 years (seriously— it is!) since Dawn Run’s last long season, her iconic Gold Cup and the famous match race against Buck House. Despite these victories her owner Charmaine Hill insisted on two summer races in France.

In the second of these at Auteuil she overreached at a hurdle, tumbled and was dead by the time she hit the turf.

Her one-time rider, Tony Mullins, later expressed his feelings when he heard the news.

“I’ll never forget that feeling — an absolute anger that I had never felt before.”

The country shared his fury. Social media was still two decades away (the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was only a nipper of two at the time), which is just as well for Mrs Hill.

She would probably have been twittered to within an inch of her life in the subsequent controversy.

W

hen great horses die, blame, recrimination and rumour can closely follow. In the case of Kauto Star, all three travelled together.

Nicholls had made his opinion well known when Kauto was retired that sending the horse ‘tap-dancing’ (dressage) was demeaning to a great champion, publicly stating that he was “really upset” and that he had hoped Kauto would stay at his Ditcheat stable for the rest of his life.

Smith was livid that he had gone public with his frustration and how he was “very concerned about how Paul Nicholls is besmirching my reputation”.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, a nine-year partnership between owner and trainer was irredeemably ruptured.

Fast forward three years to the 2015. On June 24th Kauto presents injured in his stable after some kind of ‘freak accident’. The vet is called, a pelvic injury suspected, rest prescribed. On the 27th his condition worsens, neck damage is suspected and he’s transferred to an equine hospital.

Next day his condition worsens again, concern deepens.

On June 29th all hope is lost and Kauto Star is put to sleep.

On June 30th news of his death is made public.

Paul Nicholls is asked for his thoughts and is quoted: “Laura phoned me a minute before the press release, although I understand the accident happened nearly a week ago.”

Rarely were the words ‘minute’ and ‘week’ loaded with such meaning.

The horse had been at the heartbeat of Nicholls’ yard for eight years. His groom, Clifford Baker, had cared for him like a surrogate son. Nicholls’ words implicitly conveyed his hurt that those closest to the horse had not been given an opportunity to bid him farewell.

The Laura referred to by Nicholls is Laura Collett, landlady and dressage coach to Kauto Star in his retirement.

It wasn’t an easy gig being the meat in this belligerent sandwich and when Smith reacted to Nicholls’ inference, the focus made things trickier for her.

“We didn’t have any responsibility to Paul Nicholls at all,” said Smith. “(We) took him to Kempton for two Boxing Day meetings. Paul Nicholls was standing 50 yards away and wouldn’t go up to him, so he can’t have it both ways.”

Then the internet scrutiny started in earnest around Collett’s role. An autopsy found that massive internal injuries had caused the horses death. Collett had to go on the record to deny the horse had died when he hit a wall when being ridden rather than from an accident alone in a field.

“I feel like I’m being bullied at the moment and it’s hurtful,” she said.

It had been reported that Kauto Star had been discovered walking back into the yard when he should have been in his nearby field.

“We can only guess as to how it happened, but he must have jumped the gate and fallen on landing. There were no broken rails or anything,” she added.

This one could run and run. Clive Smith announced this week his hope that the ashes of Kauto Star might be interred under his Kempton statue on St Stephen’s Day.

If Paul Nicholls doesn’t turn up to bow his head respectfully there could be carnage. Let’s hope these teenagers get some sense for Christmas.