Rab Havlin, a key player at Ascot this week, whether he's riding or not
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One way or another, it'll be a big week for Rab Havlin. He might be riding somewhere else entirely, but that doesn't mean he's not invested because he's helped to educate and mould quite a few significant runners at this Royal Ascot, including some of Frankie Dettori's best mounts.
And the good news for those who like to see hard work rewarded is that Havlin will get his own shot at Group 1 glory in Friday's Coronation Stakes. He keeps the ride on Queen For You, currently third in the betting behind only the Guineas winners, Mawj and Tahiyra.
Naturally enough, there are some other rides he would love to have kept. Among them is Courage Mon Ami, a fascinating contender for Thursday's Gold Cup, completely unexposed and with no evident ceiling to his ability.
Havlin has ridden John and Thady Gosden's four-year-old in all three of his races, winning each time. He has, as the old saying goes, done absolutely nothing wrong on the horse. But we're well used to seeing Dettori take over on the big days and he'll ride Courage Mon Ami, currently a 10-1 shot, though I can imagine him starting at half those odds.
Dettori may end up with the trophy but it's Havlin who can tell us about the horse. "I've always really liked him," he tells the Front Runner.
"If you look at his first run at Kempton, he should never have won that race. He had a mountain to climb, he fell out the gates, he was backward throughout and that's basically what he's been like, a real slow burner. He's been learning as we've gone along and I think the penny's just dropping with him now.
"The thing I liked about him the last time was, they went really slow. So literally, from the four pole, I had to put my foot flat to the floor. He kept going for four furlongs, flat out, and I really liked that about him. I think he's a good stayer. You have to be able to stay really well to be able to do that.
"He's improved from every run. The last race was his hardest task and probably the race that he'll improve most from.
"That last win was in the Tony Barrett Memorial, a 1m6f handicap at Goodwood, in which Courage Mon Ami was never stronger than at the finish. It's encouraging with a view to Thursday's 2m4f.
Does Havlin believe he has a serious winning chance? "If he stays. It's just whether he stays. I definitely think he's a quality horse. He's got a touch of class.
"Mentally, he was behind. He'd be like a pupil that kept getting kept back at school. It just took him a while to learn everything. But there was always a good horse in there somewhere. And last time he impressed me, the way he overcame the obstacles that he gave himself, really.
"Queen For You is also stepping up in class. How does the jockey assess her?
"She's a classy filly. She won really nicely first time out at Ascot and then we pitched her into the Listed race at York. She was a little bit slowly away, she had a bad draw, so we always planned to take our time but they went really slow and she had to make up ground while the horses were quickening in front of her.
"She showed a little bit of inexperience on the day but she still hit the front half a furlong out and I don't think she saw the winner [Sounds Of Heaven]. Obviously, we take on the winner again and the two Guineas fillies, so it's going to be one of the strongest races of the week but I'm really looking forward to riding her.
"Philippa Cooper of Normandie Stud [owner of Queen For You] has been really good to me, I always ride her horses and she keeps me on.
"With that in mind, it was a pity that Cooper sold Gregory, the 5-2 favourite for the Queen's Vase on Wednesday, after he won the Cocked Hat under Havlin at the end of last month. "When the offers come in for the colts, she's got to take them," Havlin explains. "So he's changed ownership and Frankie's managed to nick that one back!
"He's a little bit like Courage Mon Ami, he's literally taken for ages to learn the job, he's very laid back at home. I'd hope he'd improve, the penny would drop more from his last run to this run. He had a harder race the last day but I had to give him a lesson on the way round, he was doing a lot of things wrong and he didn't really take the bends very well but the last furlong and a half, he changed gear and really quickened away.
"He has the ability but whether he's mentally ready for that sort of challenge, we'll only know on the day. You don't really see the improvement at home as much as you see it on the track.
"I'm hoping he's learned plenty from Goodwood because it's a track where you do learn plenty but he'll have to have his wits about him in a race like that.
"On the subject of Dettori, Havlin says: "All the good horses he's rode for us over the years, I've won on and rode them in their first couple of races. That's just the way it is, you can't really think too much about it. You just get on with it and that's my job, that's what happens.
"I'd love his book of rides at Ascot, obviously, but you have to be realistic about things. I think everyone in the weighing room, bar Ryan Moore, would love his book of rides.
"Havlin will be at Ascot tomorrow and again on Friday. In between, he'll have days at Newcastle and Lingfield, laying foundations, winning where he can.
His great victory is that he has been trusted for so long with each young horse's education by a trainer as revered as John Gosden. The two can often be seen in animated discussion at the races while the jockey shares his insights.
"I've been there for 23 years now, so I know the way the system works and I know how they need to be ridden, first time. Because I know them at home in the morning, I know if one needs to be ridden aggressively on his first start or if one needs kid gloves.
"I know their characters and what's going to be best for them and I suppose that's what's worked over all the years that I've been there, the system seems to work fine for everybody.
"Of Gosden Sr, he says: "We speak every day, we're with each other every morning. I think we have a mutual respect.
"Thady is younger and like a lot of the other young trainers, he's brought new owners in, he's brought new ideas in, we've all got to move forward with the times. He's been a breath of fresh air that way. He's changed different things and it's seemed to work.
"The Gosdens have an excellent chance of success on Royal Ascot's opening card tomorrow, when they have two of the top three in betting on the Wolferton Stakes. Will it be Saga (Dettori's mount, the 7-2 favourite) or Francesco Clemente (Havlin, 7-1)?
I vividly remember Havlin's mount hacking up in a handicap at the July meeting last summer. He missed the rest of the year but ran well at Goodwood last month.
"He was a bit errant on the bend but he had a nice blow after the race," Havlin says. "He's a nice ride to pick up."
Monday's picks
Gary Moore is having one of his best Flat seasons, with 34 winners already, more than in either of the last two years. He and Tom Queally have emerged as a strong team, sharing 14 winners at a 27 per cent rate, including two from four over the past fortnight, both 9-2.
They're at Lingfield today, where their Fierce (4.30) makes plenty of appeal at 4-1. He's a brother to The Bell Conductor, winner of four sprint handicaps up to a mark of 88.
He started his year at Newmarket in May in a race that has worked out okay, the winner being Quinault, who followed up at York on Saturday. Fierce got no run until it was far too late, then ran on to be third. The fourth won her next two races.
Fierce saw a lot more daylight in a novice race next time, ran free, then failed to get home. It's no surprise he was gelded the next day.
I expect we'll see a return to restrained tactics for today's handicap, with Queally returning to the saddle. Fierce has been dropped a couple of pounds and gets to run in a 0-70.
In the previous middle-distance race, Moore and Queally have Henley Park (4.00), a winner over course and distance last year. He ran another fair race here when last seen in March.
With the stable going more strongly now, he's worth a look at 16-1 in a weak field from a good draw. At similar odds, Flying Spirit (3.40) is interesting at Wolverhampton, with Heather Main's string appearing to hit form. He was too fresh on his reappearance on rain-softened ground and was immediately beaten after stumbling on a path. He was gelded soon after.
The step up to an extended mile is a risk, with cheekpieces going on for the first time. But he has more to offer and there is some slack in the odds.
Three things to look out for on Monday
1. How odd to see Takeover Target making his debut in a 7f novice race at Wolves on the eve of Royal Ascot. Any racing fan older than, say, 25 will remember the Aussie speedster of that name who turned up at Royal Ascot in three consecutive years, ran twice each time and never finished worse than fourth. Tomorrow brings the 17th anniversary of his success in the King's Stand Stakes, when he beat Benbaun a short-head with The Tatling and Les Arcs down the field. While he is a horse well worth remembering, it seems the new naming is a coincidence rather than a deliberate tribute. Today's version of Takeover Target is a Tom Dascombe-trained juvenile with a couple of fancy entries later in the year. He's the first foal out of Lightening Quick, a Group 3 winner as a three-year-old whose dam was a Cheveley Park winner.
2. It's a big day for the recycling of names, as Rewilding lines up in a sprint handicap at Windsor tonight. He shares a name with the Prince of Wales's Stakes winner from 2011, who met such a sad end when breaking a leg in the King George the following month. The new Rewilding is significant because he's one of four runners today for the suddenly-in-form Robert Cowell, who's on a 31 per cent strike-rate over the last fortnight and has had more winners this month (four) than in any single month since last June. Rewilding, who needed his reappearance run last month and is having just his second start in a handicap, is a half-brother to stable stalwart Grandfather Tom, a winner for Cowell at Leicester on Saturday.
3. No one in the game is hotter right now than Connor Planas, the apprentice jockey who scored a narrow success in York's feature handicap on Saturday aboard Quinault. That took him to four wins from his past five rides, ending what had been a slowish spell in spectacular style. He'll have an extremely hard job sustaining the run on Roxy's Charm, a 66-1 shot for a Wolverhampton maiden, but his next two rides are more plausible winners, so perhaps Storymaker and Distinction will benefit from some confidence flowing down the reins.
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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.
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