“Don’t worry about him – it’s money to money for Dave.”
Laurence Tuffin could afford a chuckle at the expense of his old friend Dave Firmager after landing the forecast in Wednesday night’s BGBF British Bred St.Leger at Doncaster.
On a track suffering from a week of continuous rain, Romeo Riot led home Romeo Trooper with favourite Moments Of Magic back in third.
In fact, although both runners had been bred by Dave Firmager, and he still owns Trooper, Riot had just been bought by a consortium including the trainer, Don Henley, Paul Johnson and Simon Laws. Sympathy was in limited supply for the former owner.
Laurence said: “He gets the £600 breeder’s prize anyway. He’ll be fine.”
In fact, but for the heavy going, Laurence had a strong fancy for the runner-up prior to the final. The black, who is blind in one eye, was reckoned more open to improvement.
Laurence said: “They made Moments Of Magic favourite, but on Towcester form, there wouldn’t be much between her and Trooper if he got a good run. But Riot is a proper marathon dog. He has twice finished in front of Savana Volcano over the marathon at Towcester and finsihed runner-up in the Dorando Marathon.
“In fact, he has done pretty well in the last three or four months. Apart from the £1,000 for the Dorando, and the £3,000 last night, there was also another £1,000 for the Alarming Alan Memorial.”
Like most trainers, Laurence is feeling the pinch due to the rising cost of living including diesel, but no one could accuse him of living the high life; he drives a 19 year old, 1,200 cc Suzuki wagon.
He said: “I accept that some owners lose sight of the fact that it is a hobby and any hobby is going to cost them money. But it cost £60 in diesel last night and we’ve done the journey three times so tracks have to make it worth trainers travelling. It is tough at the moment, a bag of feed has gone up £4 since the start of the year.”
As for the future prospects of the winner. . .
Laurence said: “It is very difficult to get a race for him. He is a 29.70 dog at Towcester who won’t ever win in that company because he never gets the chance to get competitive. There are very few graded races for dogs like him. He is never going to beat Warzone Tom or Space Jet in a two dog race. He is a dog who could be running graded marathons but there aren’t any.”
