Racing: Rider's death causes Given to pause for thought on rapid rise

Tragedy has cast a shadow over the growing success of a young trainer who has fine prospects this week at Newmarket and Longchamp

James Given should still be talking about 72 hours at Doncaster's St Leger meeting, the three days which were the greatest in his training career. Instead, at St Michael's Church in Atherton near Manchester this afternoon, he will reflect on the very worst.

It was a morning 10 days after Wunders Dream completed a Group double initiated by Summitville on Town Moor that ensured life would never quite be the same again at Staffords Yard in the Lincolnshire village of Willoughton.

That was the day the nascent Given stable lost one of their own, Rebecca Davies, who was killed as she rode work on the gallops. That it was a 19-year-old taken from us as she contributed to one of Britain's flowering young stables seemed to add to the obscenity.

Given will, today, attend Rebecca's funeral, the official tribute which follows the informal ceremony at Willoughton, back on the all-weather gallop for the first time after the accident. The morning sun was low in the sky as Rebecca's colleagues filed past on foot. "It took courage for people to go up there," Given said yesterday, "and I think it was a healing moment for us all.

"This is what we do for a living so we have to carry on. It is probably not appreciated by the vast majority of people out there quite how skilled and dangerous a job it is, what it is like for people who ride these horses every day for their living.

"It does put the little things that you let wind you up into a clearer light and perspective. We went from a fantastic three days at Doncaster to such tragedy a couple of weeks later. It certainly brought us all down to earth with the hugest bump."

It had occurred to Given that it was becoming all too lucky to believe. This season he has further burnished his reputation as one of the shiniest new training talents in the land with a succession of high-profile victories.

The Doncaster fillies apart, there has been Group success for Jessica's Dream as well as Hug's Dancer's Ebor, the moment when James Gordon Given, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine, finally convinced himself he was in the right job.

"I think I've proved something now, not least to myself," he says. "When we won the Cambridgeshire [last year with I Cried For You] I thought 'did we fluke that?'. Flukes can happen. But when we won the Ebor I thought maybe even the doubting Thomases would have to concede we are doing something right. And it proved something to my biggest critic. Me."

What appears to be persuasive about Given is that he does not have a stable star. He has half a dozen of them, which makes you think it might be the trainer as much as the horses. And he is only 36 and four years into a career which started in a barn at Wolverhampton. If he carries on like this the big time beckons.

Given has a face which does not look as though it has been inside many pubs, and a pleasing manner (though this might just be in comparison to some of the dreadful egos he has as colleagues). He returns phone calls and turns up at press rooms when he thinks there is a bit of information you might like to include in your article. As a package, it is the sort of behaviour likely to get him drummed out of the trainers' union. "He's a really nice guy and he will always attract people because of his personality," Dean McKeown, Hug's Dancer's rider, says. "You're happy to spend time with him."

In racing, however, there are no certainties. There are obstacles to be overcome even as our tyro forges upwards, not least the very premises from which he operates. Willoughton is in the flatlands of Lincolnshire, 10 miles east of Gainsborough, a bucolic area, where, if you're not careful, you can run over a weasel on the way in. It makes Eastbourne look like a carnival town.

It is this calm which the trainer believes contributes to the often placid temperaments of his horses, but Willoughton is no crossroads and, as Given's string expands (there are 35 further boxes planned), it will not be easy to recruit suitable staff.

"When people think of this part of the world they seem to think of Sweden," the trainer says. "And you either go to Lincolnshire or you don't. You don't pass through it.

"But we're part of something here. Going to Newmarket would mean offering something similar to a lot of other people. And there are all the associated problems of Newmarket such as the staff, their higher wages and the subsequent higher training fees. Most of my owners are with me precisely because I'm not in Newmarket."

Even before the blackness of the last two weeks, Given was wondering about his devotion to the business of training racehorses. "I'm on a treadmill," he says. "It would be nice to stop and appreciate life. To have something to do with your life rather than just work. I realised recently that I hadn't had a holiday for seven or eight years. I thoroughly enjoy my work but some sort of balance in my life seems to be missing. A whole year can go by and I haven't done anything but work."

But then Given is a man prone to agonising, thoughtful enough to wonder where his life is going. "I do worry," he says, "not about things I can't control, like getting on an aeroplane when you're in the hands of the pilot. I worry about the elements I can influence. Whether I should have turned a certain horse out, have I worked him enough or got the right jockey. I suppose I'm a bit of a worrier."

Today, though, is not a time for James Given to think about himself, rather a time to remember a single figure who did her little bit to help him on his way. Soon there will be more big races to occupy the minds of those at Willoughton, this week's Newmarket meeting and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe weekend in Paris.

On Sunday, Jessica's Dream and Wunders Dream form a two-pronged challenge for the Prix de l'Abbaye, while the previous day there will be a nominal poignancy as I Cried For You attempts a second successive Cambridgeshire.

Marienbard will carry Godolphin Arc hopes

Godolphin have an unlikely standard bearer for Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, in the five-year-old Marienbard, who has won his last two races, both Group One prizes and both in Germany.

"He's improved with age and we are very hopeful that he can hit the board on Sunday, but we don't know if he can hit the bullseye," Simon Crisford, Godolphin's spokesman, said. "He's peaking at the right time."

Frankie Dettori will partner Marienbard, who will be Godolphin's sole contender as last year's winner, Sakhee, did not make yesterday's acceptance stage. "Sakhee is doing well, but we are waiting for the ground to soften," Crisford said.

A decision on whether Nayef represents Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum will be made in the next couple of days. His trainer, Marcus Tregoning, said: "Nayef is in great form and is ready to go but we shall unravel it all tomorrow evening. It is up to Sheikh Hamdan, but I admit that if he ran in the Arc he must have an outstanding chance."

There were three other British-trained horses among the 24 left in at yesterday: Indian Creek (David Elsworth), Asian Heights (Geoff Wragg), and Islington (Sir Michael Stoute).

Prix De l'Arc De Triomphe (Longchamp, Sunday): Coral: 7-4 (from 2-1) Sulamani, 5-2 (from 9-4) High Chaparral, 6-1 Nayef, 8-1 Aquarelliste, 9-1 Golan, Islington, Marienbard, 10-1 Manhattan Cafe, 14-1 Asian Heights, 20-1 others. Tote: 7-4 Sulamani, 5-2 High Chaparral, 8-1 Aquarelliste, Islington, Nayef, 10-1 Manhattan Cafe, Marienbard, 14-1 Asian Heights, 16-1 Falbrav, 20-1 Bright Sky, Wellbeing, 25-1 others.