Knight sticking to the winning routine

The minutes are ticking away towards Best Mate’s date with destiny and Henrietta Knight’s superstitions are starting to get the better of her.

Already she is painstakingly going through what she did on the corresponding day last year, so that they can be repeated at exactly the same time and in exactly the same way on March 18 as her superstar goes in search of a historic third consecutive victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The windows at her house at West Lockinge Farm, near Wantage, are kept closed to prevent the invasion of any bird which might have strayed off its flight path, while when she drives out of the yard at around 10am that day her hopes will soar if she passes a bale of straw, just as she did in 2003.

The outfit she wore to witness Best Mate’s second triumph in chasing’s blue riband is ready and waiting for the big day to arrive again, and in order to keep her mind occupied a series of tasks have been organised for her at Cheltenham.

“I’m very superstitious,” was her direct approach. “I’ll wear the same clothes and do everything at exactly the same time as the year before.

“I don’t mind ladders or magpies, but I must see a bale of straw on the way to the races. I don’t want any birds flying into the house either, because that brings bad luck.

“We shall feed the horses as usual and see first lot out, then leave at around 10 o’clock. The Tote entertain the previous year’s winning owner to lunch which proved lucky last year, so I’ll be doing that again.

“Then I’ll sign some books and open a few things but I can’t escape into the shops in the tented village because people stop me and want to talk.”

Anyone visiting West Lockinge Farm for the first time may be surprised at the set up in the sense that the boxes are ‘disguised’ in the barns and outbuilding which were converted to accommodate them.

“Things have taken on the same pattern in the training as when it was a livery yard,” she said.

“It’s very relaxed and peaceful with ducks and geese, and chickens roosting over the horses at night. It makes for a very relaxed atmosphere with the day-to-day farmyard routine.”

While he may only grace our racecourses three or four times each season, Best Mate enjoys a varied training schedule which encompasses far more than the routine of a normal horse who goes out with the string most days and gallops twice a week.

“He goes for a walk in the afternoon and grazes, but he can get quite lit up so we don’t take him out into the field,” Miss Knight said.

“He does the majority of his proper work here, although occasionally I’ll take him over to Mick Channon’s for a gallop.”

The perception of Best Mate getting beaten in the Gold Cup and thereby failing to match Arkle’s post-war record of three wins in the race is something Knight cannot equate.

“It would take a bit of digesting if things were to go wrong,” she said. “Huntingdon (his defeat by Jair Du Cochet in the Peterborough Chase) was a big let down. We tried to look for reasons and Jim put it down to the ground.”

Knight paid tribute to the role Best Mate’s groom Jackie Jenner has played in the in the chain of events these last three years which the trainer describes as “a fairytale”.

“Jackie looked after him when he became a spare in January 2000, and what a very good spare it turned out to be,” she said.

“She keeps her horses very calm and Best Mate knows her so well. She also has Impek, who is set to run in the Cathcart on the same day, so Dave Reddy will be on hand to give her some help.”

As far as Culloty is concerned, the pressure will really start when he arrives at Cheltenham on March 18.

“My job with Best Mate has been to take one race at a time. The horse has elevated me to where I am and every jockey’s story is that you need a good horse, but I’ve been very lucky to have such a loyal owner as Jim Lewis,” he said.

“I was just about suicidal when I got beaten on Best Mate in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle but Jim forgave me and stood by me, and when I missed two King Georges I knew that, whatever happened, I’d be back on the horse next time.

“It was very reassuring.”

In the 2002 and 2003 Gold Cups, Culloty enjoyed a dream trip on Best Mate and, while reluctant to give away his strategy for 2004, he is mindful that things can go wrong.

“It’s only five minutes beforehand that I’ll be running through Plan A and Plan B in my mind and at that time I’ll be a nervous wreck, just like Henrietta,” he said.

“She’s the one who has to work 24-7 to get him there.

“Then there’s the prospect of a big field and of course there’ll be fallers, but I’ll play it by ear and ride him pretty much the same as I always do.

“He’s an odds-on shot to win his third Gold Cup, but he doesn’t know that.”

Without doubt the scale of the operation at West Lockinge Farm has increased since Knight, 57, met former champion jockey Terry Biddlecombe in 1993, with the pair operating as the best known wife and husband team in National Hunt racing.

Any thoughts of reducing her string have been cast aside with the march of Best Mate towards steeplechasing immortality.

“We shall definitely keep going for the next 10 years, at least as long as we are reasonably okay health-wise,” she concluded.

“Terry has an instinctive feel if there’s anything wrong with the horses and it’s good to be able to thrash things out together. We like the same type of horse and Terry has a very good sense of humour, which helps keep everything in perspective.”

That quality will be worth its weight in Gold whatever fate befalls Best Mate next Thursday.