Cheyne banks on winning forecast

MENTION the 1999 Victor Chandler Chase to Nick Cheyne and he could be forgiven for developing a nervous twitch like the one afflicting Chief Inspector Dreyfuss - Inspector Clouseau's boss - in the Pink Panther films.

Talk about torment.

Twelve months ago, Ascot's clerk of the course called a precautionary inspection on the eve of the race, with the ground at the track soft and rain anticipated overnight.

In the event it came down in buckets, making racing impossible, and the Grade Two two-miler was rescheduled by BHB planners for the Berkshire course's fixture the following Friday.

That morning arrived with no rain or frost, only for a cloak of fog to fall onto the racecourse basin.

Racing was put back every 20 minutes in the hope the mist would clear but it remained, with the last fence and hurdle of the track tucked under its coat. After further intervention from the BHB, the race was run the following day at Kempton.

Luckily, Cheyne, who took over as Ascot's clerk of the course when Nicky Beaumont retired in October 1994 and has the task, along with his team of 16, of preparing the Royal racetrack for this Saturday, staves off heart failure and hair loss by worrying about only the things he can do something about.

"It was the first time I had ever had to abandon a race meeting because of fog," recalls Cheyne. "It certainly cost us well into five figures.

"Because it had been so wet, it had involved a lot of extra work.

We had dolled off a lot of bad ground, put up some temporary running rails and taken out one flight of hurdles.

"It was all in vain and a particularly bad way of starting 1999. I hope we don't start the new millennium the same way."

With a 40,000 bonus for the Victor Chandler winner should he go on to take the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, the race has brought together the fastest two-mile chasers around, Decoupage apart.

With Flagship Uberalles and Direct Route - first and second in the Tingle Creek - as well as Nordance Prince and Get Real, visitors to Ascot look set for a spectacle, weather permitting. The feature sponsor also supports the other five races on the card, as would have been the case last year, but for the elements' meddling.

"We had a very good entry, 22, and three came out at the forfeit stage," explains Cheyne.

"I hope that there will be a good, competitive field. We look as though we have got the top two-mile chasers in there. We are very keen to promote our jump racing and very keen to put more prize money in.

"Prize money for Victor Chandler day has gone up quite considerably and is now over 100,000, and the Victor Chandler is worth a total prize fund of 50,000 this year, up 5,000 from last year.

"And it is a race that I want to see increasing in value - hopefully we will see it increase yet again. It is thanks to the support of Victor Chandler that we have been able to do that."

Whether abandonments come late or early in the day, accusing fingers of racegoers and journalists often point in the direction of the clerk of the course, as if control of the heavens sits in their ambit, alongside husbandry of the terrain.

But, although articles praising the work of Cheyne and his colleagues are rare enough to fit into the 'Man Bites Dog' category, he makes no complaint about the profession's treatment at the hands of the media.

"I think, in general, the Press are very fair to clerks of the course. I think the important thing is that the clerk of the course keeps everyone informed honestly. If there is going to be a problem, let's put it out.

"It is much better to have an inspection at 7am and call it the night before if there is the likelihood of a problem with the weather than thinking, 'Oh well, we'll leave it alone and if there is a problem in the morning, then we will put out an inspection'. That catches people on the hop."

Given the events of last year, it's decent odds against snoring sounds during the weather forecast in the Cheyne household this week.

And double those odds against Ascot's clerk of the course waiting for daylight before rising on Saturday.

"On a race day I would be up very early. I would like to be up by half five, quarter to six, just to check on what the weather has done overnight and check there has been nothing freakish.

"If the forecast is bad, then I would meet the head groundsman at half past five, so that we can put news out to the radio, the trainers and the racegoers as soon as possible, to let them know what the score is.

"Because there is nothing more frustrating than to have a late decision."

Especially when it goes against you.

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