they're off.

​Put in front of me a racing autobiography published pre-1970 and in general I am a happy bunny. A similar autobiography written and published in recent times can read with the familiarity of a re-run of last year’s Derby. Yet an autobiography that features the sixties and even the early seventies is a trip down memory lane. Back then I anticipated the start of the flat season as equally as I did the jumps. But back then the landscape of racing was totally different. Although the all-weather racecourses have in some ways benefitted the sport flat racing through the winter months has destroyed the anticipation of its return from hibernation. And back then, as Jack Jarvis’s autobiography ‘They’re Off’ demonstrates, no one stable held dominance as Ballydoyle does now, with no trainer represented by three or more runners in the Derby, for example.
The best horse Jack Jarvis trained was Blue Peter, a name that has always resonated with me, perhaps because it had the same name as the most popular children’s television programme of my formative years. Stable-staff are well-rewarded by their employers these days when the big races come their way and I had always thought that this was not the case in days gone by. But Jack Jarvis, without fanfare or trumpet, proves me in wrong in his book. Not only did he pay for a party for his staff at the White Hart in Newmarket in gratitude for their part in the achievement of his lifetime’s ambition but he also stood the bill for seventy-three people, staff and family, I assume, he sent to Hunstanton for the day. Two celebrations for his staff to match the two he had for himself and friends, plus the bash at the Savoy given by Lord Roseberry, owner and breeder of Blue Peter.
Interestingly, as a further example of how the pattern of racing has changed in the intervening years, after winning the Eclipse, Jarvis trained Blue Peter for the St.Leger in hope of completing the Triple Crown. He rated Blue Peter superior to Bahram, the previous Triple Crown winner and thought his horse a good thing only for Hitler to come along and spoil the fun.
In April the Fifth’s Derby Jarvis ran two horses, ridden by the Wragg brothers, Harry and Sam, finishing third and fourth. Unfortunately, as Jarvis put it, they collided going for the same gap, hindering both their chances. Jarvis said of Harry Wragg, ‘the head waiter’, as he was dubbed, that he was a good jockey but prone to overdo the waiting tactics. I have not before read any criticism of Harry Wragg’s favourite tactic, which is refreshing even if it is only the opinion of one man.
As aspect of the book I found surprising given the time the book was written was his observation that it was becoming ‘virtually impossible’, due to the heavy traffic and drivers showing no consideration for horses, to do any conditioning work on the roads. I had assumed this only became a problem over the last twenty years or so. He also wrote about labour shortages, with not only quantity of labour a problem but also the quality and bemoaned the shorter lengths of time horses were out of their stables compared to his early days as a trainer. Not that he submitted to the new development, keeping his horses out far longer than the modern stable-hand was used to ‘and this does not render my own labour problems any easier’.
It will amuse trainers and owners alike that he had in his possession a letter written during the 1st World War by Lord Harewood stating that conditions the Government were planning to impose on the sport ‘would make owners most reluctant to pay a weekly training fee of 60-shillings and the time will not be far off when training fees will be £20 per week’!
Finally, in this canter through one of the best autobiographies I have read, certainly by a trainer, Jarvis wrote about a horse he trained called Honeyway (horses had real nice names back then, didn’t they?) Though Honeyway failed to win a classic, he made his mark as a sprinter, though as he matured, he found hidden depths of stamina when winning the Champion Stakes over 1-mile 2-furlongs and even over 2-furlongs further at Thirsk. Can you imagine the newly retired (has nothing more to prove, apparently) Blue Point, or any modern-day top sprinter, running in the Champion Stakes? Or even tried at a mile.
When sent to stud Honeyway proved sterile and he went back to Jarvis and won a further three races. They tried him a second time as a stallion but his testicles had still not descended. Somehow, though, he was treated and cured and went on to sire an English and French 1,000 Guineas winner (Honeylight and Dictaway respectively) and Great Nephew who only lost the 2,000 Guineas by a short-head to Kashmir, after an interrupted preparation. Perhaps Godolphin were a bit hasty gelding Barney Roy, a little investigation might have brought to light whatever the treatment was that cured Honeyway of being a rig.