What are the odds on that? Breeders have a winner... after 25 years of trying
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS of failure came to an end for breeders Geoffrey and Lesley-Anne Golbey when one of their racehorses, Della Mare, came from behind to win at Kempton in a nail-biting race.
The win earlier this month was the first achieved by the couple, who have bred racehorses for almost as long as they’ve been together.
Mr Golbey said: “We couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe it. Didn’t believe it. We really didn’t believe it.
“We had to more than pinch ourselves when we saw the race live.”
There was, however, one catch: Covid-19 meant the pair had to watch their quarter century-long dream unfold from their home near Cheltenham, 95 miles away from the race in Surrey.
“It’s only 2021 that we haven’t been going,” said Mr Golbey. “Previously we’ve been going to every race. So it was a real disappointment not to actually be there, that sort of took a lot out if it, but the thing is, we achieved what we wanted to.”
The Golbeys first started breeding horses in 1996, and currently own five— some of which are taking part in the eventing circuit.
Mrs Golbey has “been a horse lady all her life”, according to her husband, but he himself hasn’t always been “a horse person”.
“I was a chartered accountant. But I’ve got to learn some of it, and she got me to ride, she got me to play polo,” he said, adding: “She’s now, she’s just on a high and doesn’t care what else happens in her life.
“She’s achieved her ambition. If the horse wins again it wins again, if it doesn’t it doesn’t, but we’ve done it.”
The five-year-old bay mare was chasing the leaders in the six-furlong classified stakes race when jockey Hollie Doyle expertly guided Della Mare, priced at 15/8, into second place before taking the lead in the final furlong.
The March 3 race was extremely close, with second-placed Miracle Garden posing a challenge in the final 110 yards, but the Golbeys’ determined mare ultimately clinched the honours for the ecstatic couple.
Mr Golbey faced a steep learning curve when it came to the racing industry. It was, he said, “horrific”.
“It seemed every turn you take is stacked against you,” he said.
“We were total outsiders. It’s stacked against the small person, just like many things in life.
“You’re dealing with, ‘if you ever don’t win a race’, ‘if you ever don’t work with a winner’, ‘you don’t know the jockey’, ‘you don’t know the trainer’.
“You’re just dealing with people who you don’t know from anyone, and you hope they’re going to do the right thing for you. “And then there is the betting side of it as well. What are the odds, can we get the odds up? Can we get them down?”
He added: “And then a few years ago, it was possible to bet for a horse to lose… so actually to win a race it’s some form of miracle.”
Part of that, Mr Golbey said, was due to the effort put in by Ms Doyle, the 24-year-old jockey who finished third for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year in 2020.
He explained: “She’s sort of an extension of the horse, really. She gets the best, and all the big owners want her.”
The couple don’t regularly get to shul these days, but did sometimes attend services at an Orthodox shul. Even at shul, an animal played a key part in the Golbeys’ decision-making.
Mr Golbey said: “The reason that we went there was because they allowed us to take the dog in, so the dog [Melba] went to shul for about five years.
“She went upstairs to the ladies’ gallery with my wife, and because she’s got a bit of hound in her we were just hoping when the shofar blew she wouldn’t start howling.”