Examining the Leger

13 April 2012

Alexius will win the St Leger at Doncaster on Saturday and that's from someone who should know. The northern course was the scene of triumph for former top jockey Paul Cook when he won the final Classic of the season in 1982 on Touching Wood.

Doncaster was later to be the setting for an horrific accident which led to the end of his career.

Cook is adamant in his selection of Alexius, owned by Sheikh Mohammed and trained by Sir Michael Stoute, to take the 225th running of the Rothman's-sponsored £350,000 event on Town Moor.

The son of Arc winner Rainbow Quest put his credentials firmly into perspective at Goodwood in July when he was left 10 lengths at the start in the Peugeot Gordon Stakes, but still battled back to beat Demophilos by a neck.

The fact that the colt is relatively inexperienced does not worry Cook who said: "You can bet that his trainer, who is a master of his art, will have him at his peak on the day. Yet, I must say that it does not look a great Leger. It will be a good race, but not a class one."

Not like Touching Wood's epic, where Maktoum Al Maktoum's horse, trained by Harry Thomson Jones, beat Zilos by a length and a half. Cook recalled: "Touching Wood had been second to Golden Fleece in the Derby that year, which he wasn't even ready for, so the class was there. We had been well beaten in the Voltigeur by Electric, so blinkers were fitted for the Leger and we romped it, later taking the Irish Leger as well.

"Of this year's others, Mediterranean won the Ebor and seems to be improving, but you wouldn't think he was a Group One horse, and another Aidan O'Brien horse, Milan, might be a better prospect." Cook, whose other British Classic success was with Glad Rags in the 1,000 Guineas for Vincent O'Brien in 1966, had his career cut short at Doncaster, the course which gave him both his best and worst days in racing.

The worst one was on Portland Handicap day in 1989 when Cook was on Madraco in the big sprint. His mount galloped into a hole in the straight and he took an horrendous fall.

Cook said: "I broke my ribs, collarbone, a hand and a foot. Ian Johnson, who was riding alongside me, came down and was so badly injured that it finished his career as well, while Ray Cochrane tried to jump over us but fell and broke a leg.

"Doncaster had put in a new drainage system just before and being a council-owned track had used their own workmen. After some rain the underground cavities had started to collapse. I was 44 at the time and had always intended to ride until I was 50, like Joe Mercer had, but the accident put an end to that."

Cook eventually won his case and received a pay-out from the racecourseafter a protracted legal battle. He and his wife, Carol, now run a stud farm in Wiltshire.

Cook, who rode more than 1,500 winners and was champion apprentice in 1964 and 1965, has been a past president of the Jockeys' Association. He is now a reporter for the Press Association at racecourses.

Cook's daughter Aimee, 26, followed her father into the saddle as a promising jockey. Her first success was on Persian Elite for Paul Cole at Windsor but she also rode many winners for the now retired Lord Huntingdon and just as her dad before her, they included horses in the Queen's colours. Aimee is now with Godolphin and works from their Newmarket and Dubai bases.

The Cooks' bloodstock interests have proved successful. Breeding a few of their own and buying foals to be sold on.

However brilliant a rider Cook was in his days, he would have found it impossible to have completed his English-Irish Leger double of Touching Wood's glory year this term. This season both races take place next Saturday. "Even at my best I could not have managed that," he said.

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