Nolan was there, anxiously asking if Tremayne had received any thumbs-down from the Jockey Club.
‘No,’ Tremayne said. ‘Have you?’
‘Not an effing peep.’
‘You ride, then,’ Tremayne said. ‘And don’t ask questions. Don’t invite a no. They’ll tell you quickly enough if they want you off. Apply your mind to winning. Telebiddy’s owners are here with their betting money burning holes in their pockets, so deliver the goods, eh?’
‘Tell them I want a better effing present than last time.’
‘Win the race first,’ Tremayne said.
He made one of his dives into the weighing room, leaving me outside with Nolan who had come dressed to stifle criticism. All the same he complained to me bitterly that the effing media had snapped him coming through the main gate and he could do without their sodding attentions, the obscene so and sos.
The filth of Nolan’s language tended to wash over one, I found: the brain tended finally to filter it out.
Much the same could be said about Sam Yaeger who slouched up beside us and annoyed Nolan by patting him on the back. Sam, too, was transformed by tidiness and I gradually observed that several of the jockeys arrived and departed from the racecourse dressed for the boardroom. Their working clothes might be pink, purple and the stuff of fantasy but they were saying they were businessmen first.
The physical impact of each of Nolan and Sam was diluted and dissipated by the open air that incidentally was still as cold as their relationship.
‘Go easy on Bluecheesecake,’ Nolan said. ‘I don’t want him effing loused up before the Kim Muir at Cheltenham.’
Sam answered, ‘I’m not nannying any sodding amateur.’
‘The Kim Muir is his main effing target.’
‘Eff his sodding target.’
Did anyone ever grow up, I wondered. The school playground had a lot to answer for.
Away from each other, as I discovered during the afternoon, they were assured, sensible and supremely expert.
Sam made no concessions on Bluecheesecake. Through a spare pair of Tremayne’s binoculars I watched his gold cap from start to finish, seeing the smooth pattern of his progress along the rails, staying in third or fourth place while others surged forward and fell back on his outside.
The steeplechase course at Windsor proved to be a winding figure-of-eight, which meant that tactics were important. At times one saw the runners from head-on; difficult to tell who was actually in front. Coming round the last of several bends Bluecheesecake made a mess of one head-on-view fence, his nose going down to the ground, Sam’s back wholly visible from shoulders down to bottom up. Tremayne beside me let go of a Nolan-strength curse, but both horse and jockey righted themselves miraculously without falling and lost, Sam said afterwards, no more than three or four lengths.
Perhaps because of having to make up for those lengths in limited time before the winning post, Sam, having given his mount precious extra seconds for recovery of balance, rode over the last two fences with what even I could see was total disregard for his own safety and pressed Bluecheesecake unceremoniously for every ounce of effort.
Tremayne put down his glasses and watched the rocketing finish almost impassively, giving no more than a satisfied grunt when in the last few strides Bluecheesecake’s nose showed decisively in front.
Before the cheers had died Tremayne had set off at a run to the winners’ enclosure with me in pursuit, and after he’d received his due congratulations, inspected his excited, sweating, breathless charge for cuts and damage (none), and talked briefly to the press he followed Sam into the weighing room to fetch the saddle again for Just The Thing.
When he came out he was escorted by Nolan who fell into step beside him complaining ferociously that Sam had given Bluecheesecake a viciously hard race and spoiled his, Nolan’s, chances at Cheltenham.
‘Cheltenham is six weeks off,’ Tremayne said calmly. ‘Plenty of time.’
Nolan repeated his gripe.
Tremayne said with amazing patience, ‘Sam did exactly right. Go and do the same on Telebiddy.’
Nolan stalked away still looking more furious than was sensible in his position and Tremayne allowed himself a sigh but no comment. He took a lot more from Nolan, I reflected, than he would allow from Sam, even though it seemed to me that he liked Sam better. A lot of things were involved there: status, accent, connections; all the signal flags of class.
Sam rode Just The Thing in the next event, a hurdle race, with inconspicuous gallantry, providing the green mare with a clear view of the jumps and urging her on at the end to give her a good idea of what was expected. She finished a respectable third to Tremayne’s almost tangible pleasure: and it was fascinating to me to have heard the plans beforehand and see them put into exact effect.
While Tremayne was on his way from weighing room to saddling boxes for Telebiddy in the next race he handed me an envelope and asked me to put the contents for him on the Tote; Telebiddy, all to win.
