K C Bailey is spared unkindest cut of all
Gold Cup-winning trainer’s fears allayed after his namesake is revealed to be a filly
It is not everyone who gets to have a horse named after them, so when the email to Cheltenham Gold Cupwinning trainer Kim Bailey came through, asking if someone could register their horse as K C Bailey – he is a Charles – he was surprised and then saw that it was, quite obviously, a spoof.
The email was from John Elliott. Bailey’s best mate is Mikey Elliott, whom he presumed to be at the heart of the prank, as he has a brother called John.
So, after a long day, which included a visit to hospital where his wife, Cookie, was immobilised with a neck fractured in a riding accident – she is home now but in a brace – and with a glass of wine in front of him, he sat down to write his reply. Though in not in quite so many words, it was not favourable.
The next day at 5.30am, he reread the original email, realised it was not from the John Elliott he knew, wrote back apologising for his abruptness and explained that, of course, it would be fine to name the horse K C Bailey.
The trainer and the owner struck up a conversation and, flattered though he was, it emerged that the horse was not actually being named after him. As an owner-breeder, John Elliott had named his horses after his parents, wife, grandchildren and, even, his dogs but not his daughters, who were slightly miffed at missing out.
So, ever since that conversation, the now three-year-old has been known as KC, their initials, and was, before going into training in the Borders with Alistair Whillans, stabled at an outdoor holiday centre run by his friends called Bailey Mill.
“I have only one request,” explained Bailey in his email, clearly not wanting to go through all the friendly ribbing which would obviously follow, “can you get K C Bailey gelded before he runs?”
It turns out, however, that K C Bailey, who should be ready to run in a bumper in a couple of months, is a filly. So, though there is no risk whatsoever of K C Bailey being booked in for a neutering operation any time soon, he has, to a certain extent it appears, been transgendered.
The Injured Jockeys Fund opened its third and final rehabilitation and fitness centre on Friday. Peter O’sullevan House, in the grounds of the British Racing School at Newmarket, was opened by Sir Anthony Mccoy in the presence of, among others, Lester Piggott, Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore.
The charity has Oaksey House in Lambourn and Jack Berry House in Malton and this third, which also houses its headquarters, has been built off the back of what it learned in the first two.
If they have specialities Lambourn’s is in dealing with head injuries. Almost the first patient at Jack Berry House was Derek Fox, who would unquestionably not have been fit to ride One For Arthur to victory in the Grand National but for its expertise.
Peter O’sullevan House, with a larger gym, is geared to helping jockeys understand how not to get injured. As Brough Scott succinctly summed it up: “We now live in an ever more fearful risk-averse society. But in racing we cannot be risk averse – what we need to be is risk ready.”