The Judge and the Sex Machine

by Terry Clark
Photographs © Trevor Jones

David Goodwin

THEY call him The Judge. He rode Shergar and two other Derby winners. You won't see his name in the racing records, yet David Goodwin could be adding another Classic winner to his tally at Epsom this June. This time his sights are set on the Oaks.

The stable 'lad' who never had a riding lesson - he learned on ponies at the seaside - has become one of the most celebrated in the history of the turf. First he broke in the famous Shergar while working for trainer Michael (now Sir Michael) Stoute. Then, on moving to Henry Cecil's yard, he 'did' two Derby winners, Slip Anchor and Commander in Chief, and very nearly a third, Dushyantor. Dushyantor was second in the Derby and second in the St Leger…. Had The Judge lost his Classic touch?

Kalypso Katie (left)

The greeting he received this spring from his friends on the heath at Newmarket serves to answer that: "Not another one!" They just couldn't believe it: he'd done it again. This time a filly had turned their heads, and David's: Kalypso Katie. Though sharing the head lad's role at his new stable, David prefers to be riding out, and has moved with Kalypso Katie from the two-year-olds' yard to see her through her Classic season. Oops! That word 'season' is probably not the word to mention around stable boss, Jeremy Noseda, who moved from John Dunlop to John Gosden to Godolphin before setting up his own yard.

With all to play for, and his reputation to build, Noseda came to saddle 'Katie' for her big test, the Musidora at York on May 16, knowing that she was in season. David explained: "Fillies can come in and out of season at any time, but Katie? She's a sex machine!" Thank Goodwin, she's also a racing machine. Though, as David put it, she stood in her box before the Musidora quivering "like a blancmange", she quickly forgot her basic instincts in the race itself. The Fairy King grey flew up the York straight, collared Barry Hills' courageous Lady Upstage and, literally, upstaged her to the line. Neither filly appreciated the lightning-fast ground and both Hills and Noseda will be hoping for better going at Epsom. One of them will also be hoping there'll be a cold shower to dampen the ardour as well as the track! The fillies had already upstaged the colts in the Guineas when John Dunlop's Lahan was given the Coronation Stakes as her target after winning the 1,000 in faster time than King's Best had won the 2,000 Guineas the day before. Yet that performance sent Sir Michael Stoute's Kingmambo colt to the head of the Derby betting.

Kings Best with winning connections

King's Best's performance turned his head, too, but not in the manner of Kalypso Katie. No, Stoute turned away as the field came into the Dip at new-style Newmarket (it was closed all last year for renovations) because he thought the colt was beaten. "I was already revising my plans, thinking what I was going to do with a Guineas loser," said Stoute. So it says volumes for King's Best's Epsom prospects that he suddenly found his stride and burst through to score by, incredibly, three and a half lengths.

Giant's Causeway was second for Aidan O'Brien, who had almost as many winning two-year-olds last year as there were Derby entries. Now he must hope that his Racing Post Trophy winner, Aristotle, can redeem Ballydoyle's reputation as one by one those precocious two-year-olds let him down in their second season.

Photographs © Trevor Jones