by Dick Francis
May
Lingfield
Derby Trial Stakes*
3-yr-old c & f
12
May
The Curragh
Irish One Thousand Guineas
3-yr-oldf
8
May
The Curragh
Irish Two Thousand Guineas
3-yr-oldc & f
8
May
York
Dante Stakes*
3-yr-old c & f
10
May
York
Yorkshire Cup
4-yr-olds & upwards
14
May
Longchamp
Prix Lupin
3-yr-old c & f
10
May/June
Epsom
The Derby
3-yr-old c & f
12
May/June
Epsom
Coronation Cup
4-yr-old & upwards c & f
12
May/June
Epsom
The Oaks
3-yr-old f
12
June
Chantilly
French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club)
3-yr-old c & f
12
June
Chantilly
French Oaks (Prix de Diane)
3-yr-old f
10
June
Royal Ascot
Gold Cup*
3-yr-old & upwards c&f
20
June
Royal Ascot
King Edward VII Stakes
3-yr-old c & g
12
June Late
Longchamp
Grand Prix de Paris
3-yr-old c & f
15
June/Early July
The Curragh
Irish Derby
3-yr-old c & f
12
July
Sandown
Eclipse Stakes
3-yr-old & upwards c&f
10
July
Newmarket
Princess of Wales Stakes
3-yr-olds & upwards
12
July
The Curragh
Irish Oaks
3-yr-old f
12
July
Ascot
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes
3-yr-old & upwards c & f
12
July
Goodwood
Sussex Stakes
3-yr-old & upwards c&f
8
July
Goodwood
Goodwood Cup
3-yr-olds & upwards
21
August
Newbury
Geoffrey Freer Stakes
3-yr-olds & upwards
13
August
York
Yorkshire Oaks
3-yr-old f
12
August
York
Benson & Hedges Gold Cup
3-yr-old & upwards c & f
10
August
York
Ebor Handicap
3-yr-olds & upwards
14
August
York
Great Voltigeur Stakes
3-yr-old c
12
August
York
William Hill Sprint (formerly Nunthorpe Stakes)
2-yr-olds & upwards
5
August
Goodwood
Waterford Crystal Mile
3-yr-olds & upwards
8
Sept.
Doncaster
St. Leger
3-yr-old c & f
14
Sept.
Ascot
Queen Elizabeth II Stakes
3-yr-olds & upwards
8
Sept.
Ascot
Royal Lodge Stakes
2-yr-olds
8
Oct.
Newmarket
Cheveley Park Stakes
2-yr-old f
6
Oct.
Newmarket
Middle Park Stakes
2-yr-old c & f
6
Oct.
Newmarket
Cambridgeshire Handicap
3-yr-olds & upwards
9
Oct.
Longchamp
Prix de 1'Arc de Triomphe
3-yr-old & upwards c & f
12
Oct.
Longchamp
Prix de 1'Abbaye de Longchamp
2-yr-old & upwards c & f
5
Oct.
Longchamp
Grand Criterium
2-yr-old c & f
8
Oct.
Newmarket
Dewhurst Stakes
2-yr-old c & f
7
Oct.
Newmarket
Champion Stakes
3-yr-old & upwards c & f
10
Oct.
Newmarket
Cesarewitch Handicap
3-yr-olds & upwards
18
Oct.
Doncaster
William Hill Futurity (formerly Observer Gold Cup)
2-yr-old c & f
8
Oct.
Doncaster
November Handicap
+ Benson & Hedges sponsored this race for the last time in 1985
3-yr-olds & upwards
* From 1986, 3-yr-old & upwards c & g, 4-yr-old and upwards f.
12
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6 Never Say Die
LESTER came to the 1954 Flat season in a determined frame of mind, but it was not until May that the winners began to flow freely. By then he had shed the winter pounds and survived the hiccup of a short suspension for "crossing" when finishing second on Loll (disqualified) during the Epsom Spring Meeting.
Robert Sterling Clark, an American owner of immense wealth and prestige, had arranged in an informal way for Lester to ride for the season on some of the horses he had in training in England. One of those horses was an only moderately promising three-year-old which nevertheless had been entered more or less at birth for the Derby.
Never Say Die would not have been trained in England at all had Sterling Clark not quarrelled with the American racing authorities some years before and transferred his horses to Europe in a huff. The American racing authorities had barred him from running in certain races a horse which had some Arabian blood in its make up (a faintly hypocritical decision, or at least one of questionable logic, when one remembers that all thoroughbreds now racing are descended from three original stallions imported into England from the Middle East, one of which was the Darley Arabian.) Whatever the rights or wrongs, Sterling Clark sent his horses to three English trainers, one of them being Joe Lawson, who had moved his stables from Manton in Wiltshire to Newmarket after the war.
Joe Lawson, seventy-three by the time he trained his one and only Derby winner, had been a jockey himself and then head-lad to Alec Taylor, whose yard he took over in 1928. A year later Lawson won his first classic with Pennycomequick for the late Lord Astor, and by 1954 his tally was the Oaks three times, the Two Thousand Guineas four times and the One Thousand Guineas three times. One of the Oaks and one of the One Thousand Guineas had been for Sterling Clark in 1939, with the great filly, Galatea II. In addition, Joe Lawson had had five or six runners placed in the Derby, and was known as a trainer of proven skill and staying power.
Robert Sterling Clark in 1954 was himself seventy-eight, and it is interesting that the veteran owner and trainer put up the then youngest ever jockey to win the big race.
Never Say Die was foaled in America, after his dam, Singing Grass, had been sent to England to be cove
red by Nasrullah, third in the 1943 Derby. Sterling Clark, stud owner himself, was intensely interested in breeding his own winners. Singing Grass was out of his brood-mare Boreale, who was out of another of his mares, Galaday II; and Galaday II was the dam of Galatea II. Never Say Die was, accordingly, the result of much thought and planning, but by June 1954 had never come truly up to expectations.
He had won once without tremendous distinction as a two-year-old, not ridden by Lester. Lester rode him for the first time at the 1954 Liverpool Spring Meeting (this meeting, which culminates in the Grand National, consisted of both Flat and jumping races at that time). It was surprisingly early in the season for the appearance of a Derby prospect, but Joe Lawson wanted to get going. Joe Lawson was the only person who steadfastly believed in the colt.
Lester rode with enthusiasm but was disappointed to finish in second place six lengths behind the winner. The horse that beat him, however, was a good one of Jack Jarvis's, and the race, the Union Jack Stakes, was, at one mile, perhaps too short.
Excuses were easy to find.
Next time out, less easy. Lester rode Never Say Die in the Free Handicap at Newmarket, and the horse ran badly. This time it was only seven furlongs, but the distance couldn't altogether account for the depressing performance.
Towards the end of May, Joe Lawson, still with undiminished faith, ran Never Say Die again at Newmarket. Lester, with better prospects in races on the same day at Bath (which won) asked to be excused, and Manny Mercer was engaged in his place.
The colt ran a stop-go-stop sort of race to finish third, and again no one but Joe Lawson saw any breathtaking promise.
At that point a grand mix-up nearly caused the horse to be scratched from the Derby.
Joe Lawson told Sterling Clark's racing manager, Gerald McElligot, who oversaw all the Clark horses in England, that the horse hadn't run well because it was hanging badly. McElligot interpreted this as "hanging to the right", and wrote to Sterling Clark to tell him it was no use trying for the Derby because it was on a left-hand track. Sterling Clark had already, in resignation, agreed to scratch when Joe Lawson found out. In horror, he said he had been misunderstood; the horse hung to the left.
Very well, said Sterling Clark, let the horse take whatever chance he had: which privately he thought small enough.
He himself made no plans to come to England to see the race. He had booked himself into a health farm for the Epsom week and Joe Lawson couldn't persuade him to postpone that visit.
The trainer's next worry was to find a jockey. He knew Lester had been disappointed in the two early races, and he felt he might not be mentally committed to the utmost.
Lawson wanted a jockey filled with his own faith. He asked Manny Mercer who had ridden Never Say Die at Newmarket: he asked Charlie Smirke and at least one other, but all were engaged for other horses, and none, it would be fair to say, would have chosen to change.
Joe Lawson asked Lester, Lester said yes. Still, on his side, without expectation, still without excitement.
Lester, however, then did some thinking of his own, and he thought chiefly of the problems inbuilt in the good-looking chestnut colt. Never Say Die was to some extent an intelligent horse, quiet to ride, but he did hang very definitely to the left. He was a heavy horse in front, with a heavy head. He used to get hold of his bridle on the left side and he on it, and over a period of time he had got one-sided. Joe Lawson's solution to the problem had been to use an American noseband (a band of fluffy sheepskin designed to keep the horse's attention in front of his eyes) and to add various pieces to the bit, so that the horse's mouth was full of metal devices to correct the left-handed bias.
Lester came to the conclusion that at Epsom the left-handedness would be a positive asset, and he asked Joe Lawson to leave all the corrective additions at home. Lester said he would like to ride the horse in a plain ordinary bridle. Never Say Die had never raced before in a plain bridle. It says a good deal for Joe Lawson's instinctive trust in Lester's abilities that he agreed to let the young jockey have his way.
Lester's limp enthusiasm all the same persisted until he actually saw Never Say Die in the parade ring before the race, when it was quite clear to him that the colt had improved enormously during the past two or three weeks. Joe Lawson said the horse had done a very good gallop a few days earlier, and that he himself was strongly confident. Lester went down to the post with rekindled hope and every intention of winning.
The public were less impressed. During the near-scratching scare, the ante-post price had drifted right out to 200-1. By the start, Never Say Die stood at 33-1, in no way popularly fancied. Sterling Clark, on his distant health farm, gave the Derby no more than a fleeting thought.
Lester knew from the 1-mile Liverpool race that his mount had a bit of early speed and would be able to take a good place in the race from the beginning, so he aimed when the tapes went up to take up fifth or sixth position, which he easily achieved.
The horse was going really comfortably all the way from then on, lying fourth, fifth or sixth for the first mile.
Coming round Tattenham Corner the order was: Rowston Manor, joint favourite; Landau, the Queen's runner; Darius, the Two Thousand Guineas winner, which finished third; Blue Sail, ridden by the American star jockey, Johnny Longden; and Never Say Die, prominent because of the long white blaze down his chestnut nose.
These were followed by Elopement, who had beaten Never Say Die at Newmarket, then Narrator and Arabian Night, which eventually ran on into second place.
There was little bunching, plenty of room for everybody. Lester brought Never Say Die to a wide outside position and made a long smooth accelerating run to the winning post, easily passing everything on the way. The official distances were two lengths between first and second, and a neck between second and third. Behind, strung out in an amazingly long procession, the other runners came in at six- and seven-length intervals, with almost a furlong between first and last.
Lester says of Never Say Die: "He won easily. He came away well in the straight, and one of the things he did do was stay. He finished really well. He won quite comfortably really."
The crowd cheered him, even those who hadn't backed him. The lad who did the horse, Alfred Vase, led his charge proudly into the winner's enclosure, the owner being far away in a state of shocked astonishment in his clinic.
Joe Lawson was ecstatic.
Lester, in his contained way, was driven quietly home by his father, and at his usual time went to bed.
The flavour of Lester's tremendous triumph lasted a scant two weeks. Never Say Die was to run in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and Lester of course was to ride. He thought Never Say Die might be good enough to win, but there were two contra-indications. First, Arabian Night, second in the Derby at level weights, would at Ascot carry 8 lb less than Never Say Die; and second, more importantly, Ascot is a right-hand track.
Lester's own words on the subject of Never Say Die's left-handedness: "He was perfectly all right on a left-handed course, but if you were going the other way he was inclined to come out. There are certain horses that don't go one way at all. You run them one way and they're useless, and the other way they're champions. You try to tell people it makes all that difference and they don't believe you, but it's a fact."
Whatever his misgivings, Lester gave his mount the best chance he could, and in doing so became involved in a triple bumping incident which led to one of the most controversial suspensions in racing. Never Say Die did not and could not win the right-handed King Edward VII Stakes. He finished fourth: and because of the bumping, Lester was called in front of the Stewards, who withdrew his licence and banished him from racing. (See pp. 79-84.)
Without Lester, Never Say Die ran next time out in the St. Leger, and won easily.
The St. Leger, run at Doncaster, is a left-handed race.
Lester generously told Charlie Smirke, who was taking his place, how the awkward horse could best be ridden. Charlie Smirke gratef
ully took the advice and made a trouble-free and triumphant passage.
Never Say Die never ran again after the St. Leger, and for the most chivalrous of reasons. Sterling Clark decided that he himself would win no more prize money that season so that the Queen might head the winning owners' list for the first time. There were only a few hundred pounds between them; he would bow out and leave her precarious lead safe.
He left Never Say Die at stud in England where the best of his progeny was Larkspur who won the 1962 Derby, and a filly, Never Too Late II. She was trained in France but came to England in 1960 to win both the One Thousand Guineas and the Oaks, sire and daughter between them thus taking four of the five English classics.
In the long history of the Derby, Never Say Die might not be considered one of the greatest of winners; but on his day, and going his own sweet left-handed way, he was as good as ever Joe Lawson thought him.
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7 Suspensions: Part I
"WHEN you're young, if you really want to win races, you'll do anything to get there first. You see it happen all the time with kids. They get in a bad position and they've just got to get out."
That is the voice of the mature Lester. Young Lester at fourteen had skill, determination and courage above all. What he lacked was experience.
Time is the gift of experience. Time to think in advance, time to see what's going on around, time to be cool. Every jockey finds that his first races pass in a flash, but by the time he's ridden several hundred, there's all the time in the world.