THE CLASSIC UNDERDOG!
IAN MONGAN knows what it is like to be an underdog. He also knows what it is like to be an underdog who succeeds.
Eighteen seasons of hard slog as a jockey, a riding career of consistent but largely low-key success, had its zenith in 2011 when Mongan landed the Group One Juddmonte International Stakes at York on Sir Henry Cecil-trained Twice Over.
No-one on the Knavesmire was happier with the result than the late Cecil, delighted that a rider who had become an integral part of his team on and off the track had landed a big one.
Tomorrow Mongan and his trainer wife Laura will be hoping for another such day when they run Harbour Law in the Ladbrokes St Leger at Doncaster. The sponsors make Harbour Law a 25-1 shot in the nine-horse line-up dominated by Aidan O’Brien’s trio of 4-6 favourite Idaho plus Sword Fighter and Houses of parliament. But Mongan believes Harbour Law is overpriced, especially if the rain scheduled to fall overnight can make the colt’s stamina come more into play. The former jockey, 37, who will drive the horsebox containing Harbour Law from his wife’s Epsom stables,
said: ‘Sir Henry gave me the opportunity. He liked the underdog and gave me a chance. It was good to repay him. Without doubt it was my best day in racing. The last four years with him, I was dealing with and preparing topclass horses. I learned a lot.’
The Mongans have 25 horses — a mix of Flat and jumps — in their Epsom stable. Laura, ‘the boss’ to ‘assistant’ Ian, is trying to become the first female trainer to land the St Leger.
Harbour Law, owned by Jackie Cornwell and ridden by George Baker, was beaten three-quarters-of-a-length by Sword Fighter in the two-mile Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot and two lengths by Houses of parliament over a mile and five furlongs in the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket in July.
Mongan said: ‘We are in the mix. We were really pleased with his run at Newmarket. It was as short as we want to go with him and he was beaten by some good mile-and-a-half horses.’ SIMPLE VERSE and Doncaster are a combination which equals drama. After passing the post first in the 2015 St Leger, losing in a stewards’ enquiry and then being reinstated on appeal, the Ralph Beckett-trained filly, ridden by Oisin Murphy (left), snatched a last-gasp neck win from Pretty Perfect in the Group Two Park Hill Stakes.