After 30 years in racing it is a little late in Rab Havlin’s career to suggest that he will suddenly become a star. Havlin doesn’t do ostentatious. He is not a racecourse ‘name’, one of those riders towards whom sports-mad fathers propel their sons to seek a racecard autograph. To adapt Michael Gove’s Conservative leadership pitch, whatever charisma might be, Havlin doesn’t have it and nobody would ever associate him with glamour. What Rab Havlin does have, though, is the thoughtful dependability which has made him an integral part of John Gosden’s Newmarket winner-preparation factory.
On the racetrack Rab will often partner the stable’s lesser lights at lower-grade meetings, but when the Buicks or Dettoris have not been available he has proved the perfect supersub. Gosden’s 40th Royal Ascot winner Ardad this year was Havlin’s first. At Goodwood this term he rode California to win the Group Three Lillie Langtry Stakes ahead of a Dettori-ridden stable companion, and at Newbury last Saturday (13 August) he took the Hungerford Stakes on the 11-1 Richard Pankhurst, beating the highly fancied front-runner Home of the Brave, ridden by aspiring champion Jim Crowley, with a coolly calculated ride.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in