Cole turns up the heat

13 April 2012

Paul Cole can't be having with all this bleating about wet winters and backward horses. Newmarket counterpart Henry Cecil was yesterday the latest in a long line of handlers to warn punters his horses would be in need of their first outing of the new turf Flat season.

Predictably, he promptly won the last at Newmarket yesterday with promising debutant, Curtain Time.

But Newmarket's grass gallops have been barely accessible to date this year, hindering the old-guard trainers in their proven but traditional methods and exposing the disparity of routine within Britain's yards.

While Cecil's string took their first steps on the Warren Hill turf only two days ago, those such as Arundel-based John Dunlop, who trains almost exclusively on an all-weather strip, or Newmarket's younger crowd, accustomed to the international discipline of training on a dirt surface - Jeremy Noseda, Ed Dunlop and Sean Woods, to name but three - are galloping ahead.

So, too, Cole. He's already won the first big betting heat of the year, Doncaster's Lincoln last month - his third success in the handicap in five years, following the victories of Kuala Lipis in 1997 and John Ferneley last year.

His win-to-run ratio is already better than one in five and he intends to keep striking while his irons are hotter than most.

"We've been lucky in not having been held up at all," admitted Cole. "We've got our own gallops at Whatcombe and have fresh turf every day - I don't think we use the same stretch of grass more than once in any three-year period. But what Henry said is a load of rubbish - he's never run a horse in his life that wasn't 200 per cent fit!

"My horses are as fit as I want them to be at this stage of the season. It's no good having your Derby horses flying in April when the race itself is in June. I've hardly done a tap with those types so far.

"Like athletes, it's all about timing. The horses I want to be forward are and the others will be deployed as the season develops. I want more than just a good March."

This could be a good opportunity for 59-year-old Cole to win his first Guineas. After 33 years with a training licence, his list of Group One successes includes the brilliant 1991 treble of Derby, Irish Derby and King George VI and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes with Generous. But the Guineas, either for colts or fillies, has thus far eluded him. However, this year, he is notably bullish when confessing to "instinctively like" his sole 1,000 Guineas entry, Saudia.

She stakes her claim to fame in Newbury's Dubai Duty Free Fred Darling Stakes this Saturday after winning her only start as a twoyear-old - a six-furlong Pontefract novice by an impressive five lengths last June. Cole concedes the relevance of traditional Guineas trials may be difficult to judge in the modern era, exacerbated this year by the slow start made by many of the top-flight yards.

The real hotpots are staying away to make their debuts in the Classic itself, leaving supposedly lesser lights to triumph - such as the Noseda-trained Italian Guineas hope, Lil's Jessy in yesterday's Shadwell Stud Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket.

"Normally, if I had serious contenders for one of the Guineas, I would go straight to the Classic with them rather than push early in the season to get them ready for the trials. You run the risk of ruining them," agreed Cole.

"But with Saudia - the only one of my Guineas contenders, colts or fillies, who I really like - I've got to find out what I've got.

"She only ran once as a two-year-old when she was very impressive, but then she chipped a bone in her ankle. It's one of those accidents almost common place with race-horses, but it caused her to miss the season and I didn't get to find out the extent of her quality."

It pays to follow Cole's confident assertions. He picked out Nimello for the Lincoln last year and, despite the event's notorious rumble-tumble, was sure of triumph at the halfway point. That reformed character (after his gelding operation) now heads for Kempton's Jubilee Handicap next month.

Fellow miling stablemate Camber-ley - remarkably consistent last term - has pleased Cole greatly from three to four and "will win one of those big handicaps like Royal Ascot's Royal Hunt Cup, given a bit of luck".

Other than Saudia, those among the classic generation who have particularly pleased him over the winter are Wings Of Soul, one of the yard's five Derby entrants, and Archduke Ferdinand, who runs at Newbury this Saturday. It is this trio on whom hopes rest that the loss to Godolphin of last year's electric Ascot winner, Rumpold, won't leave too large a dent in the yard's fortunes.

"I am genuinely delighted Rumpold is now doing so well," said Cole. "I think perhaps he may have gone wrong for David Loder when he left me to join Godolphin last year and only now are they finding out his true worth.

"But with horses, from two to three is a whole different ball-game. It's the most crucial time. We trainers don't know everything. We're like everyone else - we have to see how the horses run. You hope for the best and expect the worst."

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