{"id":297420,"date":"2023-11-25T00:25:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T00:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=297420"},"modified":"2023-11-25T00:25:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T00:25:05","slug":"dominic-king-how-racing-became-fergies-great-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/horse-racing\/dominic-king-how-racing-became-fergies-great-escape\/","title":{"rendered":"DOMINIC KING: How racing became Fergie&apos;s great escape"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>DOMINIC KING: How racing became Fergie&#8217;s great escape &#8211; it was only meant as a release for Sir Alex Ferguson, but a fateful trip to the Cheltenham Festival turned him into a racehorse owner<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Sir Alex Ferguson picked up the horse racing bug from his father Alexander<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>But a fateful trip to the Cheltenham Festival turned the manager into an owner\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It is 25 years since Ferguson\u2019s first runner, Queensland Star, won at Newmarket<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A release, that is all it was supposed to be \u2014 something to provide a diversion from the relentless intensity of the day job. Sir Alex Ferguson had always loved racing, something he picked up from his father, Alexander, but it had never gone any further than a weekend flutter.<\/p>\n<p>He would pick four horses and put them in a Yankee, the bet that combines the selections in six doubles, four trebles and one accumulator.<\/p>\n<p>But then there was a trip to the Cheltenham Festival, where he got talking to two long-time Irish associates, Dessie Scahill and John Mulhern. The idea was floated that he should take the plunge into racehorse ownership and, from that small acorn, a huge oak has grown.<\/p>\n<p>It is 25 years since Ferguson\u2019s first runner, a pocket rocket called Queensland Star, scuttled down Newmarket\u2019s Rowley Mile to justify 5-4 favouritism in a five-furlong maiden. The two-year-old, trained by Jack Berry, provided a hook to which Ferguson has never let go.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday afternoon, he will be at Haydock to watch a considerably different kind of horse carry his colours in the Betfair Chase \u2014 Protektorat is a dour chaser, whose biggest attribute is stamina \u2014 but the enthusiasm will be exactly the same for him as it was on that April afternoon in 1998.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/22\/78214643-12788887-image-m-2_1700863983969.jpg\" height=\"533\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A trip to Cheltenham led to the idea that Sir Alex Ferguson should be a racehorse owner<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/22\/78214641-12788887-image-a-3_1700864046160.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He will be at Haydock on Saturday to watch Protektorat carry his colours in the Betfair Chase<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It relaxes me,\u2019 Ferguson once said. \u2018I love racing. It\u2019s just a tremendous day out, really wherever you choose to go. Instead of screaming for penalty kicks, I can scream at the jockeys instead! It\u2019s a great release from the pressure of the job.<\/p>\n<h3>KNIGHT AT THE RACES\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span>First winner: <\/span>Queensland Star, Newmarket, April 16, 1998<\/p>\n<p><span>Major jump wins<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Clan Des Obeaux (King George VI Chase 2018, 2019; Betway Bowl 2021, 2022; Punchestown Gold Cup 2021);<\/p>\n<p>Protektorat (Manifesto Novices\u2019 Chase 2021, Betfair Chase 2022)<\/p>\n<p><span>Current string:<\/span> 32<\/p>\n<p>\u2018When you are in charge of a football club, it can leave you mentally exhausted, so to have that escape is a massive help.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Those quotes featured in an interview which appeared in the Manchester Evening News in September 2002. A week earlier, Rock of Gibraltar had just won his seventh consecutive Group One race on the flat, the Prix Du Moulin at Longchamp, and this correspondent was granted what was initially supposed to be a very short meeting with Ferguson \u2014 8am, prompt \u2014 at United\u2019s Carrington training base.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You\u2019ve got 20 minutes, OK?\u2019 he said, looking at his watch as he walked out of his office \u2014 red sweatshirt, black tracksuit pants and trainers. It was 7.40am and, seemingly, there was to be no small talk.<\/p>\n<p>Rock of Gibraltar would ultimately make headlines for different reasons, as Ferguson became involved in a legal battle with the owners of Coolmore over breeding rights. On this particular morning, however, there was no controversy, just one man telling remarkable stories.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson explained how he found out about a seismic change in Rock of Gibraltar\u2019s career \u2014 he would be running in the English 2,000 Guineas, rather than the less prestigious French equivalent \u2014 when he had just arrived at Portman Road, Ipswich for a Premier League game. United won that 1-0, thanks to a Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty. Seven days later, \u2018The Rock\u2019 won at Newmarket.<\/p>\n<p>But there was so much more than just one horse. Once Ferguson got into his rhythm, there was no stopping him. He listed the others that had run in his colours at that point \u2014 Candleriggs, Caledonian Colours, Zentsov Street, Juniper, Yankie Lord and there was special mention for Ninety Degrees. That two-year-old, trained by Berry\u2019s son, Alan, only won once \u2014 on July 20, 1999, at Yarmouth. The date was ingrained because Ferguson was due at Buckingham Palace that day to receive his knighthood.<\/p>\n<p>The wry smile that appeared as he told how he and his family watched it oblige on a TV in his London hotel room before the ceremony explained why it returned at odds of 6-4.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson ended up staying for 45 minutes but could easily have stayed longer. His passion raged and this is the thing about horseracing: it doesn\u2019t matter how much time you have spent around it, its capacity for inviting those who love it to speculate about rich possibilities remains infinite.<\/p>\n<p>How else can you explain why, at 81, Ferguson is now involved in the breeding industry? Why else would he have signed cheques totalling \u00a3650,000 at the sales \u2014 something he knew would have earned him the admonishment of his late wife, Lady Cathy \u2014 if he wasn\u2019t a dreamer at heart?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/22\/78215083-12788887-image-a-28_1700865119715.jpg\" height=\"413\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sir Alex Ferguson found out about a change in the Rock of Gibraltar&#8217;s career at a league match<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/24\/22\/78215139-12788887-image-a-29_1700865299816.jpg\" height=\"427\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The legendary former Manchester United manager now owns or co-owns 32 horses<\/p>\n<p>Last week in Bahrain, Ferguson did one of those jigs you would associate with a last-minute United goal when Spirit Dancer \u2014 a product of his Upperwood Farm Stud in Hemel Hempstead \u2014 landed a \u00a3500,000 pot, defeating a high-class field. It meant so much, he called it the best moment of his life in racing. It was a remarkable statement.<\/p>\n<p>In total, Ferguson owns or co-owns 32 horses now. Protektorat has the opportunity to carve another little niche on Saturday afternoon, when he attempts to become a multiple winner of the Betfair Chase like Kauto Star, Bristol De Mai, Cue Card and Silviniaco Conti \u2014 but there is more to it than winning.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Skelton, Protektorat\u2019s trainer, tells Mail Sport: \u2018First and foremost, he\u2019s a sportsman. He knows the difference between winning and losing. It is comforting when you are around people like that but, with him, he knows how to get better from it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I ask him a multitude of questions and he\u2019s only ever willing to answer them. He\u2019s only ever willing to give me and Harry (Dan\u2019s jockey brother) some time. He\u2019s a phenomenally intelligent man who sees things the way that, perhaps, normal people wouldn\u2019t see them.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He is a great man to have on your side because he just gets racing. I can\u2019t stress that enough. Nobody was ever under more pressure than him in his job. Nobody could feel worse after a result than him, nobody could feel better after a result than him.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been there, he\u2019s done it all. It\u2019s a great quality to have when you can dust yourself down and work out how to do it again or best get results. To my experience here \u2014 and when I worked for Paul (Nicholls) \u2014 he never questioned how or why it went that way. He just wants to get better.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He knows how hard it is to get a horse this good. Really, we are lucky to have him.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>And Ferguson, you can be sure, would tell you he is lucky to have racing.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/racing\/article-12788887\/DOMINIC-KING-racing-Fergies-great-escape-meant-release-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-fateful-trip-Cheltenham-Festival-turned-racehorse-owner.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DOMINIC KING: How racing became Fergie&#8217;s great escape &#8211; it was only meant as a release for Sir Alex Ferguson, but a fateful trip to the Cheltenham Festival turned him into a racehorse owner Sir Alex Ferguson picked up the horse racing bug from his father Alexander But a fateful trip to the Cheltenham Festival [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DOMINIC KING: How racing became Fergie&amp;apos;s great escape - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/horse-racing\/dominic-king-how-racing-became-fergies-great-escape\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DOMINIC KING: How racing became Fergie&amp;apos;s great escape - Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DOMINIC KING: How racing became Fergie&#8217;s great escape &#8211; 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