As jockeys, trainers, punters and media folk gathered at Newbury on Saturday to say farewell to Noel Fehily, the ultimate professional who fittingly rode Get In The Queue to victory in his final race before retirement, I couldn’t help contrasting his departure with the picture of her Cabinet allies and those lovely forgiving folk in the ERG jostling simultaneously to force Theresa May out of No. 10, with a crowbar if necessary. Racing does its farewells decently whereas political careers almost invariably end in tears. Mrs May once had a share in Dome Patrol, a winner trained by Willie Muir, and she could do worse than seek solace in the racing world when she finally emerges from her Brexit morass.
A truly sympathetic horseman whose honest and penetrative opinions on his mounts were valued by leading trainers, Noel would never have made a politician, one of those people who tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read. Self-promotion isn’t his thing. Years ago I remember meeting Noel over breakfast at Charlie Mann’s yard when he was starting to earn notice as the Lambourn trainer’s conditional jockey. I hoped to get two interviews for the price of one but the young Fehily was so modest and reticent that nothing was forthcoming: had we been dinner guests together it would have been a struggle from the starter on. He let his riding do the talking. As champion jockey Richard Johnson put it: ‘He’s not a man who shouts and screams, he just does his job and deals with everything.’
Racing is as fiercely competitive as politics but, particularly over jumps, it retains a joie de vivre and generosity of spirit that has somehow drained out of the political scene, summed up for me that day by trainer Neil King.
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