Race Horses: Hunting Riding and Owning
Why Kim Bailey
Kim mentions in his post of 30 October 2009 that I brought the Lucky Bin partnership to Kim’s yard as I was “great friend of Sam Morshead”. Although I knew Sam I was in reality a friend of his father Christopher. Sam’s mother, Hope, and I hunted regularly with the Louth. On those occasions I would hear a great deal about Sam from both his parents. At that time was he working ‘away’, in England, but I recall meeting him a few times on trips he made back to Ireland when, during the season he would go out with the Louth.
Christopher Morshead
On one visit to Ireland, on a summer break from the Fred Rimmel’s yard, Sam and I were riding road work together. He told me about a horse they currently had in the yard that would win the Champion Hurdle next year. The horse was Gaye Brief. I remember Gaye Brief fondly as after the ‘tip’ I backed him in every run up to his 1983 success. Putting half the proceeds from each wager, anti-post, on the Champion Hurdle. This provided me with a big payout from that years Cheltenham festival.
I also remember Christopher Morshead fondly. He was a wonderful chap, but more than that he represents one of the things that racing is all about, he was a character. Amusing, eccentric, on occasion wildly optimistic, with a unique style of dressing and a love of racing. I wish we had more of that type involved in the industry today.
I once met him in the owners and trainers at Fairyhouse. He asked, in passing, what I was up to during that summer. I told him that, on a daily basis, I was riding a bit of work in Annagassan, then driving down to Swords to do another bit of work, then driving back up to Naven for a quick gallop. A round trip of 3 hours for three 10 minute rides, but as all my own animals were out to grass I was doing it to keep fit with a view in riding at Laytown that summer. He said “well you pass right by my Yard.” He went on to ask if I wanted to buy the runner he had in the next race. She was Lovers Call, a chestnut filly by Whistler out of Much Love, and on that day came a poor 6th of 10.
I declined his offer of buying her. Christopher then asked if I would ride work on her as since his 70th birthday he was finding fast work a bit beyond him. The bit about passing by Christopher’s house, while on my round trip work riding excursion, made sense now. Instead of accepting his offer to buy the mare I agreed to riding work for him a couple of times a week.
On the first day Christopher said we would gallop on the Bellewstown race course. Like a number of race courses there was a road running through the middle of the track. Christopher explained that he would stop the traffic, which he did on one side but not the other so my near collision with a red Toyota got the adrenalin up a bit. Not as much as when we rounded the far bend and galloped headlong into a herd of cattle however. Bellewstown race track also provided grazing. Somehow, at full speed, we found a path through the beasts. When I told Christopher of their unexpected presence he commented that it was quite useful that the cattle were there as it would teach the mare to be handy on her feet. Not so handy that she did lose her feet when we galloped around the last bend and slid all the way across the track. This was not an uncommon event at Bellewstown as the bends were very tight and with a bit of rain they resembled a skid pan. They banked them up at some later point but every time I rode them I expected to start slewing sideways.
Next was to do a bit of schooling. The very solid timber provided by a fallen tree in the Christophers schooling ground made his practice ditch look nice and soft despite the abundance of birch stuffed in it. The most memorable obstacle, however, was a 5 foot wide, 5 foot high barbed wire fence that was devoid of wings. “If we intend pointing her you will have to qualify her and it’s as well she knows how to jump wire” Christopher explained. He also noted that most of the wire you jump out hunting is mainly between 3 and 4 ft high, is much wider and much more inviting and having jumped a much harder obstacle safely gives you the confidence that both you and the horse can do it, you then impart that confidence to the horse and this is the bit that matters. If you feel you can’t do it there is no way of hiding it and that doubt leads to a bad jump over a dangerous fence — a lesson that can be taken to many other situations in life.
Many days we would box the mare down to Laytown beach and to do a couple of gallops after which we would go back to Christopher’s house where Hope would serve up sandwiches, cakes and tea. Refreshed I would drive of to do my next bit of work. One morning however Hope was visiting Cornwall so we repaired to the feed room that also doubled as a home brewery.
Christopher made beer from barley and the spent grain was subsequently fed to the horses, I had a couple of plastic cups of this brew, which surprised me with its pleasant flavour. Christopher mentioned that he sometimes used honey in his recipe, he kept bees, but all in all his quality control left a bit to be desired as he never stuck to measured amounts of any ingredient and as a result the alcoholic content varied. I had one more cup full and listened to yet another of his tales. The alcohol content of this brew would give overproof rum a run for its money. I don’t remember big lumps of the drive back. It was commented that I looked as though I was going to fall off on my next ride.
It transpired that I had, on this occasion, after all bought a leg or a half or some part of the mare. In other words aside from getting me drunk before most people had breakfast Christopher had sole me a quarter share of Lovers Call. This sealed the arrangement somewhat and over the following period I really did get to learn a great deal from this very interesting horseman.
One of the main things Christopher taught me was that racing is for enjoyment; this sounds fairly obvious but far too many people appear to forget it. I know too many owners who think owning a horse is a route to getting a better bet. I know too many in training who forget what owners are in it for and who think that owners are mugs, too many who forget that most people working in the industry do it simply because they enjoy it and too many who forget that racing is really all about ups and downs and the bits in between.
There are too many punters who think it just a punt, too many race goers who think it is just an opportunity to drink or dress up inappropriately and while it can include these things racing really is more than anything a collection of original and eccentric characters who come together to enjoy each other, and a good number of the characters have four legs.
When, after the tip on Gaye Brief, Sam mentioned Kim Bailey in response to my question of who amongst the young trainers he thought well of, it would have been foolish to overlook this tip. Kim may not be that young any more but his way of training has a lot to recommend it, the horses are happy and they run fit.
Kim had won The Gold Cup and the Champion Hurdle in 1995 with Master Oats and Alderbrook. In 1990 he had won the Grand National with Mr Frisk so he had some good credentials even if since the 1990’s he had some difficult times. When Lucky Bin Racing was founded in 2019 we put a horse in training with him.
The Coup
Every one dreams of a betting coup. Below is a the first coup that Kim hatched for us. He really believed in Doctor Disny and thought he was so much better than his handicap mark. He was so convinced he convinced the Lucky Bin quartet to put £20,000 on him to win at Exeter on a cold and miserable afternoon. Kim placed an undisclosed amount on the rails also. The horse drifted in the market despite Mike and I hammering him in the ring. The market knew something we did not as he pulled up on the back straight. Quite a bit of cash down but the deal we had with Kim was that we did not have to pay any training fees until he won, two years worth of fees later we disposed of him to a nice young lad who wanted to be a jocky. as the horse had not won we had not had to pay any fees at all. I hope he made a nice companion for the lad we have him to.
Lucky Bin Racing
The highlights
There were many highlights in the history of Lucky Bin Racing and many of them came in unexpected ways. The sales ring was one of them and getting €44,000 for a Supreme Present’s bay colt foal was one of them, as was the €23,000 that a Schiaparelli colt out of Malindi Bay fetched. Supreme Present getting a massive handicap rating of 145 (making her the 6th best rated hurdling mare in 2014 was another highlight.
