Racing: Tout Seul comes home alone

Dewhurst win revives Johnson Houghton glory days while Persian Punch defies years

It is a happy fact that horses are neither numerate not literate, otherwise Tout Seul would have been ashamed to take his place in the Dewhurst Stakes field here yesterday. The juvenile colt cost 12,000 Irish guineas as a yearling and is owned by a syndicate who chipped in £5,000 a head for their year's fun, and alongside him in the parade ring was the cream from the game's major players, young princes with phone number tags on their handsome heads.

Yet it was Buttons who prevailed. Ridden by Steve Carson, a 23-year-old just out of his apprenticeship, trained by 62-year-old Fulke Johnson Houghton, Tout Seul, the despised 25-1 shot, burst clear inside the final furlong to beat the Ballydoyle No 1, Tomahawk, who had cost $2.5 million at auction last year, and the 11-4 favourite, Trade Fair, the pride of Khaled Abdullah's massive Juddmonte breeding operation.

For Johnson Houghton, his charge's length-and-a-quarter success rewound the tape 34 years, for in 1968 he had stood in the Dewhurst unsaddling enclosure as Lester Piggott dismounted from the victor, Ribofilio. "It's a long time since then, isn't it?" said the veteran Didcot-based handler as he was showered with congratulations by colleagues John Dunlop, Barry Hills and Mick Channon. "But didn't this fellow do it well? He's never been a flashy worker at home, so it's been difficult to know just how good he is, but he's always had a lovely turn of foot. Isn't he just a grand little horse?"

Not grand enough to impress the bookmakers, though, who leave him languishing among the long-shots for the 2,000 Guineas. But however he fares back here on the Rowley Mile in the spring, it is to be hoped he faces a happier future than Ribofilio, who started favourite for all three colts' Classics and was placed in none, flopping particularly badly in the Guineas. One certainty in Tout Seul's life, however, is that he will not be taking his scheduled place at the Newmarket horses-in-training sale next week.

It was Carson's first ride in a Group One race and, after Kieren Fallon had won on the colt at Ascot earlier in the year, the temptation might have been to stick with the champion. But Johnson Houghton's admirable loyalty to the young Ulsterman was amply rewarded. Carson settled his mount behind the leaders, allowed him to find his rhythm as he struggled for a stride or two when the tempo quickened, before grabbing a vital pitch on the rails. "The two times he's been beaten he's wandered about in front," said the jockey, "and I wanted to give him something to run against."

The day's other Group One contest was a triumph for something as high-tech as a couple of pieces of fluffy sheepskin. Applied to the side of Storming Home's bridle, they have persuaded the four- year-old to concentrate sufficiently to express his talent, firstly in a lesser event here 16 days ago and yesterday in the Champion Stakes.

The son of Machiavellian, who stayed on dourly up the final hill to repel the two Godolphin challengers Moon Ballad and Noverre, gave trainer Barry Hills his second success in the 10-furlong race, 19 years after Cormorant Wood's. "He is not a straightforward horse," said Hills, "not exactly ungenuine, but the cheekpieces have made him easier to ride." The winning jockey, trainer's son Michael, concurred. "They help him to travel better, so it is possible to plan a race now," he explained.

Cheer of the day surrounded Persian Punch, in terms of both the ovation he was given by the crowd as he paraded after his all-the-way success in the Jockey Club Cup and the feelgood factor he engendered. The giant chestnut gelding was racing for the 53rd time and his three-quarter length revenge on his Doncaster Cup conqueror, Boreas, was his 16th victory, his durability and never-say-die attitude embodying much that is good about this sometimes beleaguered sport.

"For a horse that has had as much racing as he has, and in the way he does it from the front, his enthusiasm is just amazing," said his jockey, Martin Dwyer. "When he feels another horse coming at him, you can feel him stiffen his resolve not to let anyone past."

It has not been all plain sailing for Persian Punch this year, the nadir falling when he finished last in the Goodwood Cup. But yesterday's display, just 13 days after a hard race in fifth place in the Prix du Cadran in Paris, banished all thoughts of retirement for the doughty warrior, who will be back to entertain his admirers in marathons again next year at the age of ten. Owner Jeff Smith, his eyes brimming, spoke for trainer David Elsworth and lad Derek Brown when he said: "He has been part of our life for so long and has taken us all over the world and through the whole range of emotions, from the despair of Goodwood to the sheer pride and delight of today. He still seems to enjoy it and as long as he does we will keep him going."

Ten out of ten for determination, too, for Miss Fara, who won the Cesarewitch by a head at 12-1. The Martin Pipe-trained seven-year-old endured a rough early passage during the two-and-a-quarter mile race before apprentice Ryan Moore sent her in successful pursuit of Irish raider Direct Bearing, on whom Pat Smullen had kicked for home fully half a mile out.