STOUTE HEART
Sir Michael opens up on Fergie, Shergar — and why he does not like Frankie Dettori kissing him!
A MORNING at one of Newmarket’s historic stables and immediately it is clear this will be no ordinary visit. Sir Michael Stoute, 73, the ten-time champion Flat trainer has a reputation for being coy during interviews but this particular day sees reality at odds with perception.
From the moment he greets us, the bonhomie does not stop.
In due course, he will tell a previously untold story about Shergar, discuss his friendship with Sir Alex Ferguson and talk about the exploits and importance of racing’s shining star, Frankie Dettori. But, before we begin, Stoute has some questions of his own.
‘Come on,’ he says, midway through a firm handshake. ‘What’s going on with Pogba?’
Stoute is a sport enthusiast. Cricket is his first love and on most mornings during the summer his old sparring partner Michael Holding — the West Indian great who went by the nickname ‘Whispering Death’ — will accompany him on the gallops.
He has a passion for rugby and golf but he is also well up to speed with football. Watching Brian Clough on TV during the 1966 World Cup drew him into the game, and training horses for Ferguson led to him forming a bond with Manchester United. The pair remain firm pals.
‘Cloughie was young, he was fresh and trying to impress,’ says Stoute, who, at 20, had arrived in England from Barbados 12 months earlier. ‘When I saw him I thought: “Wow! I’ve got to follow this guy’s career”. This was 1966, remember, and he hadn’t conquered the world yet.
‘Unfortunately, I never met him. It was his character; what he did with his teams. It is the same with Alex. Common sense exudes from Alex, you know. He makes real, shrewd statements. Of course, you learn from people like him.’
That last sentence lends itself to an obvious question: What was the best advice Ferguson gave him?
‘He told me not to tell you!’
It is not so much an answer but a punchline. Stoute is now in the groove, roaring with laughter and delivers his response with an accompanying ‘thwack’ of the knee. To use a racing term, he is plainly in ‘good form’ and the next hour proves to be an education.
The purpose of our visit is to see Crystal Ocean, the highest-rated horse in the world and second favourite for tomorrow’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes. Stoute is a master of sculpting equine perfection and this five-year-old colt is the latest example of his stellar work.
Crystal Ocean, who won the Prince of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, will try to give Stoute a seventh triumph in the Group One contest. His first came in 1981, nine years after he took out a licence. Shergar, the fabled horse of triumph and tragedy, famously delivered it.
Shergar’s exploits in becoming a record-breaking winner of the Epsom Derby — and his later kidnapping by the IRA while at stud — have been well chronicled but mention of his name prompts Stoute to reveal the odds the colt overcame to triumph at Ascot.
‘In the winter, we could work the string on the road,’ says Stoute. ‘We would cross Well Bottom, go towards what we call “the boy’s grave” and trot from Moulton, up the hill to Warren Place. I would be on my hack and organise the traffic, the horses would trot. That was his winter route.
‘But this one morning, he got rid of his jockey at the bottom of the Limekilns. He turned around,
‘Frankie is an extrovert, but by God we will miss him when he stops racing’
shot up through a belt of trees, across the boy’s grave and up to Moulton.’
His eyes are wide, as if this incident happened yesterday.
‘Would you believe it, some chap just followed him in a car (to make sure he was safe),’ Stoute continues. ‘Shergar stopped outside Warren Place and just started to pick at Henry Cecil’s hedge. Meanwhile, I had jumped off my hack and into a car.
‘On my way up, there was a phone call from Henry to our office. Henry says: “He’s come up here as he wants to be trained by a proper trainer!” Anyway, I get up there and find him. He had worn his shoes away to nothing.
‘So we brought him back and checked him.
‘We watched him for 48 hours. Then bump-biddy-bump… he wins the King George.’
He didn’t just win the King George, Shergar blitzed the field. You would expect Stoute to reference that as the crowning performance of his training career but there is another surprise: that accolade is bestowed on Harbinger, his extraordinary 11-length winner of the race in 2010.
‘He was dynamite that day,’ his Bajan tones deepening for added emphasis. ‘It was just unbelievable what he did then. He came into the straight absolutely cantering, Olivier Peslier, his jockey, was looking left and right for dangers — in a King George! Look at the field he beat. Unbelievable.’
This year’s contest will be everything the King George should be. Enable, the magnificent filly trained by John Gosden, is odds-on favourite and will have the guidance of Dettori, who has been a regular ally of Stoute and won some big races around the world for him.
‘The more adoration he gets, the more his adrenaline pumps and the better he rides,’ says Stoute. ‘He rang in for the ride on Crystal Ocean in the Prince of Wales last month and I had to run away when he tried to kiss me after he had won! That’s him — he’s a kisser!
‘He is an extrovert. But do you know what? He is very appreciative. By God, we will miss him when he stops.’
There is no sign of Dettori slowing down and those sentiments apply to Stoute, too. Now in his seventies, he makes a point of saying he will ‘never be champion again’ but that will not stop him winning big races and it could be that Crystal Ocean will deliver another.
Before we leave, Stoute takes us over to see his pride and joy in his stable. He has looked after this beast for four seasons and the gleam on his coat takes your breath away. Crystal Ocean, runner-up to his stablemate Poet’s Word 12 months ago, is ready to run for his life.
‘It’s quite exciting, isn’t it?’ he says, eyes twinkling as he gives Crystal Ocean an affectionate rub on the nose. ‘You never lose that zest for success.’
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes is part of the QIPCO British Champions Series: britishchampionsseries.com