Gentle giant is my light after darkness
TRAINER KAYLEY WOOLLACOTT ON CHELTENHAM FAVOURITE LALOR AFTER THE TRAGEDY OF HER HUSBAND’S SUICIDE
LALOr, joint favourite for Tuesday’s Arkle Trophy Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, is a bit of a diva. He hates going out in the rain and getting wet but comes alive when the sun is shining.
The characteristics are appropriate for a gelding who brought sunshine into the life of trainer Kayley Woollacott when only dark, forbidding clouds hung over her.
This time last year, Devon-based Kayley was thinking that her training career had only a few more weeks to run. Her husband richard, who suffered from depression, had taken his life in January.
It was taking all of Kayley’s inner strength to hold things together and keep their small stable on the edge of exmoor going until the end of the season.
Thoughts of winning a race at the most prestigious meeting of the jumps season seemed as unlikely as they were inconsequential. Kayley’s priorities were their daughter Bella, three, and piecing together lives torn apart by tragedy. It has been made easier by Lalor, a horse which champion point-to-point rider richard had dreamed might put their stable on map.
The strapping gelding had been turned down by several big trainers because of concerns over his breathing. Bloodstock agent Tom Malone paid almost £14,000 for Lalor at a sale in Ireland but it was a year before richard bought him for David Staddon.
Lalor’s two-and-half-length win under champion jockey richard Johnson in the Grade One Betway Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree last April persuaded Kayley to carry on.
Kayley had been determined to see out immediate commitments, which included running Lalor in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury the day after richard’s funeral.
She said: ‘In all honesty, I had probably decided by the time I’d got to Aintree that I would not continue with my licence after it was due to run out at the end of April.
‘I would have still had horses around, done some pre-training and point- to- pointers, but Aintree was instrumental in convincing me to carry on. Had Lalor flopped, it would have been very easy for me to turn around and say, “That’s it”. I am not sure I would have got a lot of stick for that.
‘But when he won it was very difficult to turn around and say, “you’ve got a Grade One horse and are going to say you don’t fancy it”. I went round to our two main owners, David Staddon and David Stevens. I said, “What do you want to do because there is no point me assuming that you’ll carry on with me for another season?” They both said, “As long as you want to go, we are with you all the way”.’
Lalor has run only twice this season, winning at Cheltenham in November before finishing second to Dynamite Dollars in the Henry vIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown in December. Since then, unseasonably fast ground has kept him confined to stables but, with some of his biggest rivals dropping out, his position in the betting has hardened.
The gelding’s effect on those around have been about much more than a Festival challenge.
Kayley said: ‘In my life, both personally and professionally, he has changed the last year. The past 12 months could have been massively different without him around and I think everybody here appreciates that.
‘He kept everyone going, he has given everybody a purpose. He’s just a light. He stopped the whole operation folding. We will always be grateful for that no matter what he does in the Arkle.’
The seven-year- old Germanbred gelding is a gentle giant. He will be accompanied to Cheltenham on Tuesday by his pal Twinkle, a Shetland pony, while the relationship between Bella and Lalor is an indication of his kindly demeanour.
Kayley said: ‘He’s quiet and he’s used to her. To be fair all the horses are used to a loud small person shooting around on her scooter yelling. But Lalor spends a lot of time with Bella and is very kind and gentle. She’s a big part of everything. She knows all the horses’ names but Lalor is her favourite.’
He will be the favourite with plenty of punters too on Tuesday. If Lalor wins it will spark the most emotional scenes of the Festival.
Kayley is not letting herself imagine the situation, though. She said: ‘richard always thought he was going to be a good one, whether he thought he’d be this good I don’t know.
‘ Winning would be unreal, unimaginably amazing. I am really lucky. That’s how I am looking at it. I am going into the Festival in a completely different frame of mind and in a completely different place to 12 months ago. Whatever happens, that’s a big thing.’