JOHN Oaksey, or the “noble lord” as John McCririck calls his old Channel
4 chum, is in for a busy week.

The horse he owns with several members of his family is heading for a showdown with Denman in Newbury’s Hennessy Gold Cup on Saturday and more than a few people believe that the apple of Oaksey’s eye is going to win.

On April Fool’s Day 2003, Oaksey’s mare Plaid Maid gave birth to a son of dual Ascot Gold Cup winner Kayf Tara and a peculiar “C” shaped marking on the foal’s forehead ensured his name would begin with that letter.

He was named Carruthers after a man who featured in one of the old Etonian writer and broadcaster’s favourite brandy and cigar stories. It centred on a conversation between retired cavalry officers discussing a former comrade:

“Whatever became of old Carruthers?”

“Don’t you know? He’s out in Malaya, living with a chimpanzee.”

“What? Not a male chimpanzee?”

“Oh Lord no – there’s nothing queer about Carruthers.”

The four-legged Carruthers, is now a six-year-old gelding and at the weekend is set to carry just 10-1 against Denman (top weight of 11-12) and at a top-priced 12/1 (a quarter the odds the first four) the horse Oaksey’s biographer Sean Magee backed with a tenner at 1000/1 to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup by 2012, looks to have an excellent chance. Having been tipped off personally about this horse by the great man himself nearly five years ago, I’m hoping for the best payday yet on Saturday.

IT’S GOOD TO TALK

THE Becher Chase at Aintree has been won by three subsequent National winners since its creation in 1997 but the danger today for the likes of Vic Venturi, Hello Bud and Irish Raptor, will be the prospect of a big run being reflected in the weight they might be allotted for the real thing in April.

That said, few people would turn down the prospect of winning a £100,000 race in November when their charge could be lame, ill or not even around come April. The other thing to take into consideration is the trip of three miles and two furlongs, a full mile-and-a-quarter shorter than the National.

On that basis, I fancy Idle Talk, a horse which has shown himself to be very smart but which has patently failed to stay the four-and-a-half miles in April for the past two seasons.

Throw in the trainer/jockey 
combination of Donald McCain and Graham Lee and I reckon we have a bet.

Jim Goldie won the Grand Sefton Chase last year with the ill-fated Endless Power and the Renfrewshire raider in today’s race is Craiglands, a young horse having his fourth run for Goldie after winning two hunters’ chases. Nicely in at the weights, Craiglands’ hunting experience could tilt the balance over these fences.

in the chase

MUSSELBURGH might lack Aintree’s terrestrial TV coverage, but the track gets its winter season under way with the first of 10 jump cards between now and February, the undoubted highlight being the chasing debut of smart staying hurdler Tazbar, which takes on just four rivals in the 1.25.

A recent run at Catterick should have blown away the cobwebs but a better value bet should be Ergo in the 2.35. The pick of three entries from James Moffatt, Ergo has run three excellent races this season and the slight give in the ground, allied to a step up in trip, should do the trick.

french farce

ANY guilt I felt about one of the teams I’ve backed to win the World Cup sneaking through to the finals with a dodgy goal disappeared on Thursday morning when an Irish caller to a radio show was asked how he would have felt had it been Robbie Keane who had performed the dastardly deed perpetrated by Thierry Henry.

“Well, I’d feel bad about it, obviously, but we’d be going to South Africa so who’d be caring?” Mmm, the French maybe?

We can but wonder whether Michel Platini’s lobbying of Fifa for a replay might have been more successful than Ireland’s, although had such a precedent been set, it might have been tricky getting Diego Maradona and Joe Jordan match fit for replays of England/Argentina from 1986 and Wales/Scotland from 1977.

Four officials were unable to spot Henry’s Meadowlark Lemon impression, but those of us who have backed the French can only hope their worst performance of the tournament is now behind them.