Parting is such sweet sorrow, or is it?
I guess it will take time before we know the true story. Did Kinane get the bullet, did he really want a change of scenery, or company, or was it a case of him simply deciding to jump ship before he was asked to do so at some stage in the future?
I mean why would Kinane want to leave the best job in the world? And if he didn’t then why did they get rid of him?
Another book from Kinane, or a first on the part of Aidan O’Brien, would be some best-seller!
How was the story kept so quiet, until the main protagonists were ready to reveal all? You wouldn’t need to be Einstein to work out that Kinane didn’t roll out of bed on Friday morning and suddenly decide he was to be first jockey to John Oxx.
Kinane leaving Ballydoyle, Johnny Murtagh parting company with Oxx and Jamie Spencer installed as Kinane’s replacement took time to be put in place.
Yet, at Thurles on Thursday there wasn’t a hint that musical chairs was about to become the popular game in town.
Anyway, the person who coined the phrase ‘no smoke without fire’ certainly knew what he/she was talking about.
All through the summer racing had been awash with rumours about Kinane’s future at Ballydoyle, although no one ever seemed to be able to explain just why that should be the case.
Kinane, single-handedly, changed the way Irish riders, who remained based in their home country, were viewed by the rest of the racing world.
He was the first truly international rider based in Ireland. It was largely unheard of for pilots in Ireland to be considered good enough when it came to riding outside of their own territory.
But Kinane was having none of that. He proved he was better than anyone else, be they English, French, Irish or whatever you’re having yourself.
What’s more, he’s still the finest jockey riding today. He was quoted recently as saying he can hold his own with the best of them. He was being decidedly modest and I’ll bet knows it too.
Tactically, there’s no one more astute and physically no one stronger. You only have to glance at the tape of High Chaparral in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita to know that here’s a guy who remains at the peak of his powers.
Jamie Spencer, a delightful young man and a very talented rider, will face an unenviable task attempting to fill Kinane’s boots.
He is going to be taking the place of a legend and only going into Ballydoyle on the heels of Lester Piggott would be more difficult.
Spencer’s first season is certain to prove a real baptism of fire. Of course he will ride loads of winners at home, but the success of the Ballydoyle operation stands or falls on what it does outside of this island.
The most important horses in any top stable are the three-year-olds. All the evidence, of this year’s Ballydoyle juveniles, tells us they may fall short of top class next season.
One Cool Cat and Yeats could be anything, needless to say but, overall, Ballydoyle may struggle in that department.
It will be fascinating to watch Spencer grow into the Ballydoyle job and equally fascinating to watch a jockey in action who will actually be younger than O’Brien!
Spencer is going to be in a real pressure-cooker situation, his every move through a race analysed and then analysed again. He does strike you, however, as being one cool cat in his own right. He’ll need to be, because this is the biggest job in the game, the real deal. What it will all add up to is a campaign which promises to be utterly captivating.
Ballydoyle and Spencer in one corner and Oxx and Kinane in another. Toss in the marriage which seems to have been made in Heaven, Weld and Smullen, in their own corner and it should be abolutely brilliant.
And who knows perhaps a film, titled the Mystery Of Ballydoyle, starring Michael Kinane, Aidan O’Brien and sundry other powerful characters, might just get made one day!
