RACING POST TUESDAY JANUARY 22nd 2013
WEEK MONDAY JANUARY 21st to SUNDAY JANUARY 27th 2013
REVIEW YESTERDAY'S RESULTS
PREVIEW TODAY'S CARDS
http://www.racingpost.com/news/live.sd
THE MONBEG DUDE CONNECTION
THE MONBEG DUDE CONNECTION
RP
Rodney Masters (Press Zone) (21.01.13)
visits the Welsh National winning trainer, who hopes to build on MONBEG DUDE’S
success in the coming months. From
rugby field to winner’s enclosure and ready to kick on ....
“SO
HOW come Michael Scudamore (Equus Zone) was eligible to play international
rugby for Wales
“Modestly,
Scudamore, 28, reckoned at the time they had been so desperate to find players
that any tenuous link to Wales
“His
ancestry can be traced to Owen Glendower, the last native Welshman to hold the
title Prince of Wales.
“Glendower
(1349-1416) married Alice Scudamore, who gave birth to six sons in rapid
succession. There is no record as to how many of them rode winners.
“Ultimately,
Glendower was to be outlawed by the English, but he had generated such loyalty
from within Wales Eccleswall Court
“Back
to the future, and there has been a positive reaction to MONBEG DUDE’s
achievement with phone calls from prospective owners seeking to add to the
trainer’s 20-horse team. At one time that had numbered close to 30. “A few were
taken elsewhere for one reason or another. While that tends to knock your
confidence, that’s life I suppose. But it made me even more determined. The
next few months will be important as we must attempt to build on the Welsh National.
“MONBEG
DUDE has been given a speculative entry in the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup
(15.03.2013) and if that option is to come under more serious consideration he
must first win Haydock’s Grand National Trial over 3m4f on February 16.
“For
Scudamore the journey from rugby field to weighing room involved considerable
sacrifice and no little determination, although he now questions the wisdom of
it.
“Rugby players tend not to ride too many winners but,
resolved to do so, he tortuously shrunk his body from 14st to 10st inside a
year.
“I
was silly and should have been more sensible the way I went about getting my
weight off,” he says “It left me pathetically weak and of no help to any horse
I rode. I had a few winners but they were steering jobs. Then one summer at
Newton Abbot, I rode at
9st
13lb but didn’t have the energy to push the horse or give it any assistance
whatsoever. Dad (Peter) gave me a rollicking when I dismounted.
“On
the way home up the M5 he stopped off at McDonald’s and bought me a giant Big
Mac meal. Half an hour later we stopped again, this time at KFC. He got me a
bucket of chicken pieces. I think he was trying to tell me my riding days were
done.
“Scudamore
had been more successful on the rugby field, playing professionally for Ebbow
Vale for two seasons – “I wasn’t sure at first how they’d accept this ex-public
schoolboy down in the Valleys, but they made me so welcome. I had a smashing
time, which I’ll remember fondly forever.”
“However, Scudamore was too small and “not
fast enough” to progress in that career; too little for rugby, too large for
riding. He is adamant that neither can he be regarded
as
a serious setback because he always intended to train. During his childhood
games in the garden brother Tom, 18 months his senior, would play the role of
jockey, and Michael the trainer. “I suppose, in the perfect world I’d have
played rugby for 15 years, winning lots of caps for Wales
“The
two brothers are close and converse every day. One of the abiding memories of
Welsh National day was of Tom, having pulled up his mount, skipping from the
weighing room and down the flights of steps to the winners enclosure repeating
the words “I’m so proud of him. I’m so proud of him.” There was a hug.
“The
rugby connection, of course, led to the formation of the MONBEG DUDE syndicate
– Mike Tindall, James Simpson-Daniel and Nicky Robinson – following his
£12,000
purchase at a Cheltenham racecourse auction
three years ago. On the night of the Chepstow triumph they celebrated in a Cheltenham restaurant while watching a loop replay of the
race.
“They’re
all so enthusiastic, yet very different in their approach to racing,”says
Scudamore. “Mike Tindall is laid back and relaxed about it. James studies the
form and has followed racing for years – but that’s how we struck up a
friendship – while Nicky came into it blind and wears his heart on his sleeve
about everything; when we first got MONBEG his dream was to win the National,
go to Australia and hen come
back via Dubai
“Daily
calls are exchanged between Scudamore and his father. His earliest racing
memory? Peter arriving back from the
races one evening. “I asked him how he’d
done, and he replied badly because he’d ridden two seconds. From that moment I
thought finishing second in anything must be rubbish.
“Dad
has always been there to help and give advice. He’s always wanting to learn and
improve. I suspect he picked that up from Martin Pipe. He rang the other day to
ask if I’d read the newspaper article about cyclists who try to increase red
blood cells and reduce fat. He always tell me to make sure that I’m giving the
horses sufficient work. If I’m a bit down after a horse has been taken away or
broken down, he’ll tell me that he and Lucinda (Russell, partner) had two break do9wn and three taken away and that
you just have to get on with it.
“Dad
hadn’t been keen on us aiming for the Welsh National. Afterwards he rang and
told me to gey his jumping sorted because we’ve got a nice horse don’t make
mistakes like that and win big races. He didn’t sound overly excited, but I
noticed that he soon put something on Twitter that illustrated how pleased he
was.”
“In
the immediate period before the license was transferred to Scudamore, the yard
had horses from Fergus Wilson, the former buy-to-let businessman who insisted
they were regularly campaigned in the top races in which they were often 200-1
or more.
“Looking
back, that sent the wrong message about what we wanted to achieve, but we’d
only just moved here and this was a man who wanted to send us five horses and
who paid his bills on time. By the time his business hit trouble we’d had our
falling out.”
“Scudamore’s
partner, point-to-point rider Tessa Champion, a physiotherapist by trade and on
whom he clearly dotes, is on crutches having fractured her pelvis, although
unaware of the extent of the injury she had, McCoy-like, ridden in the next
race. Despite her immobility, she has baked us a plateful of iced walnut
cupcakes, although one is a little cautious in accepting as the tray is thrust
forward, having noted a sign hanging
over the Aga reading “I kiss better than I cook”.
“But
to avoid any confusion, the trainer’s mother Maz, who has a team of half a
dozen point-to-pointers in an adjacent yard, interrupts to admit the warning
applies to her, not Tessa. “I’m such a bad cook, that’s why I married a
jockey.” She says.
“Just
before our visit the trainer’s much-adored grandfather, Michael snr, had called
in. He won the 1957 Welsh National on CREEOLA. Still bursting with pride, he
told his grandson: “We’ve something else in common now kid, not just our name.”
THE MONBEG DUDE CONNECTION
Equus zone:
But can MONBEG DUDE
get his erratic jumping sorted out in time for his bold entry
schedule in practice? And in doing so, boost his own confidence not only in himself but in
all those behind him as well, if he is to be asked to line up for these races as planned ......
We will have to wait and see, an intersting one to observe..
A fascinating true story if ever there was one,
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