THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE, FLEXIBILITY & THE JOSEPH FOURTEEN.

No doubt I.T.V. will give prominence to the Cheveley Park and Middle Park Stakes today over the Cambridgeshire, even though the 3-day fixture is titled the Cambridgeshire meeting. To me, even though the former has still got the three most exciting 2-year-old fillies taking part, the two-year-old races are just support races to the main feature, the Cambridgeshire Handicap. Sun Goddess, Libertango and Senorita Bonita may be stars of the present but their real story will not be written until next season when we fill out whether they are merely sprinters or if one of them proves to be classic material. The Cambridgeshire is a now race, the winner no doubt reaching the height of his or her career. Of course, the favourite, Gavriel is being touted as 'a Group horse runing in a handicap' but that is yet to be proved. Many a potential 'group horse running in a handicap' has turned out to be a handicapper running in a handicap.

The Cambridgeshire has a history of gambles won and gambles lost. No one can be certain how much the Druids Lodge Confederacy won in 1903 when Hackler's Pride was laid out all year for one mighty gamble. Some say a million, others close to a million, others claim £700,000. In 1923, the French-trained Epinard won the Steward's Cup at Goodwood, taking £100,000 from the bookies. The horse was owned by Eugene Leigh who envious g of the Hackler's Pride gamble decided to organised one of his own. Epinard was a 3-year-old and was set to carry 9-st 2Ibs. It was an unprecedented weight for such a young horse. Yet Leigh and his friends backed the horse at all prices, so certain were they he would win. How much they lost is again not known but it must have been more than the horse won them at Goodwood. He failed by the narrowest margin to give 18Ibs to Verdict, a filly that went on to prove herself 'a Group horse running in a handicap', not that they had Group races back in 1923.

I doubt if the gamble on Gavriel can be compared to the gambles in the past. He might succeed, though his reputation is not the cause of the gamble but the reputation of his trainer. John Gosden has won four Cambridgeshires, all with horses who proved to be more than handicappers. Personally, I like Wild Thoughts and Zennor Storm, with preference given to the former. But what I really like about the Cambridgeshire is that as easily as a well-backed favourite can win is that a 100/1 shot might also prevail. The great unknown; that is what I like about the historic flat handicaps.

With Simon Cox to take up his post at the B.H.A. next week or a few days later, his soon-to-be underlings, knowing Cox to be a big jumping fan, are in want of impressing their new boss by working like busy beavers moving fixtures around  in order to find decent ground for the start of the jumping season proper. The 3-day Welsh Festival is to be an all hurdle meeting, with a few bumpers thrown in to plug the gaps. All the chases set to feature at Chepstow have been transferred to Worcester and Ffos Las, with their hurdle races to be run at Chepstow and Hereford. Due to being unable to have their courses in a fit state for racing, Ludlow and Warwick have abandoned their next scheduled meetings. The B.H.A. should be praised for getting ahead of the curve on this matter, though they must put in place regulations that National Hunt courses that traditionally stage fixtures in September, October and early November should irrigate well in advance of their due dates. Though the sort of summer we have endured this year is unlikely to be repeated for another 50-years. Forarmed, though, is to be forwarned.

The amazing Joseph, now verging on being as worshipful as the Joseph with the amazingly coloured raincoat or robe or whatever garment he was famous for wearing, has trimmed his team for the Irish Cesarewitch from 17 possible runners to 14. It is one thing to decide to run so many horses in one race but the organisation to get all the right tack on each horsein order to have them in the parade ring on time will be as much a test of Joseph's man-management skills as getting ten horses from Owning Hill down to Australia for the Melbourne Cup. I quite like his Dad's horse Port of Spain, in you should ask, lingering near the bottom of the weights with Ryan Moore on board. I wonder if dad and brother will give him a hand tacking up?