Sir Percy pointing way for Massaat
SHORTLY after Massaat finished second to Galileo Gold in the 2,000 Guineas, Owen Burrows was emailed by fellow trainer Marcus Tregoning. He offered congratulations.
Burrows, in his first season with a trainer’s licence, had produced the runner-up in the first Classic of the season with only his 10th runner.
But the message also contained a reminder that, in 2006, Tregoning’s Guineas runner-up, Sir Percy, snatched a last-gasp victory in the Investec Derby at Epsom.
Like Massaat, Sir Percy was prepared at Lambourn’s Kingwood Stables owned, like Massaat, by Sheik Hamdan Al Maktoum. It is where Tregoning also trained multiple Group One winner Nayef and predecessor Major Dick Hern produced sprinter Dayjur. But none of their achievements will better that of Burrows if he can land Britain’s biggest Flat race.
By the time 14-1 chance Massaat and jockey Paul Hanagan face the testing descent into Tattenham Corner on Saturday, Burrows, 41, will have had fewer than 25 runners and be largely an unknown to all but the keenest followers of the sport.
His roots are steeped in National Hunt, riding 35 winners as a jump jockey in seven seasons. He also spent a decade as assistant trainer to five-time winning Derby trainer Sir Michael Stoute at Newmarket. But now Burrows believes he has been handed a horse and opportunity to thrust him into the spotlight.
‘My father was head lad to David Nicholson before he left to join Martin Pipe, so I was brought up in jump racing,’ he said. ‘When I left school I went to Mr Pipe’s when Richard Dunwoody and then David Bridgwater were stable jockeys.
‘I also had a season with Paul Nicholls before joining Josh Gifford. The original plan was to be a top jump jockey. I rode my first winner in 1994, lost my 7lb and 5lb claims and got down to 3lb. But then things were starting to dry up a bit. When I first gave up jump racing, if someone had said 15 years later I’d be training Flat horses I’d have told them they were crazy. It’s also crazy I’m only just into double figures of runners and in the Derby.’ The transition from jumps to the Flat came via a friendship between Burrows and Roger Varian, responsible for one of the biggest strings in Newmarket. Varian persuaded him to relocate to Flat racing’s HQ in 2001. It ended with him joining Stoute. While Burrows was there, Stoute trained three Derby winners and he draws on that experience. He said: ‘You’d have to have gone round with your eyes closed not to learn anything. He has such an eye for a horse.’
Burrows, who was approached to train at Kingwood in 2014 and was handed the reins this season, realises stamina may prove Massaat’s weakness in a Derby where Wings of Desire, ridden by Frankie Dettori, is favourite. But he added: ‘If Galileo Gold was running he’d be favourite. Massaat seems a bit forgotten.’
He will also be up against his old boss Stoute, who runs Across The Stars and Ulysses. Burrows said: ‘He sounds quite bullish. We should all take note but I hope it is going to be a similar story to Sir Percy.’