Dick Francis spent more than ten years gathering material for his biography of Lester Piggott, a man not famed for his spendthrift ways with cash or words. ‘I know you think Sir Ivor was the best of your nine Derby winners,’ Francis said to him one day. ‘Tell me about him.’ Piggott thought for some five minutes and replied, ‘Nice horse.’ So helpful.
The story came to mind when I picked up a racecourse whisper for the Martin Pipe-trained Nice Horse in the last at Sandown on Saturday, but when he drifted from 13–2 to 10–1 it seemed best to leave well alone. Fortunately, I sided with another French-bred import, Nicky Henderson’s Temoin. He, too, drifted in the market in the face of a gamble on Ian Williams’s Oscatello, ridden by Paul Carberry. But we will hear plenty more of Temoin. I haven’t seen such a cheeky winner in ages.
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