WITH Nicky Henderson unrepresented at Ludlow yesterday, there was every reason for Mick Fitzgerald to enjoy a quiet afternoon. Instead he ventured to Shropshire for just two rides, three and a half hours apart, and duly bagged a winner. The detail aptly reflects the second coming of a man who might easily have been crippled by fractured vertebrae that went undiagnosed for two weeks in summer.
As it is, Fitzgerald is enjoying the time of his life. “It has been amazing,” he reflected of the last three months. “The injury has had a test with some hard falls, and I’ve had 32 winners since I came back. There have been some good ones, too.” Another beckons on Saturday when he endeavours to repeat his Tingle Creek victory aboard Kauto Star in the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury.
Fitzgerald was due to school Kauto Star early this morning. “I’ll pop him over a few fences and look for the feel he gave me at Sandown,” he said. The memory is plainly invigorating; the jockey’s eyes lit up at the memory. And he is well placed to assess the Champion Chase favourite, having won the two-mile championship seven years ago aboard Call Equiname — trained, like Kauto Star, by Paul Nicholls.
“Actually, there’s a lot of similarities,” Fitzgerald said. “Call Equiname was another who you couldn’t hit the front on too early, as he’d pull himself up. That was the main reason I got the call to ride him. This one is very fast and very classy. It’s rides like him that bring the smile to your face.”
A smile is practically synonymous with Fitzgerald, although that wasn’t the case when he returned to action at Warwick in November. “I’d had four months off and thought about plenty,” he said, “but there was one thing that bothered me. I didn’t know how I’d feel with the gun to my head.
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“It’s all very well riding work and schooling, but your blood’s not up then. You’re aware that there’s a bigger picture. But luckily it felt brilliant, then came Trabolgan in the Hennessy five days later and I had absolutely no nerves at all. I’d proved a point to myself.”
Talk of Trabolgan serves to remind that Fitzgerald, 35, has struck up one of the sport’s most enduring relationships with Henderson. He had dauntingly large boots to fill when replacing Richard Dunwoody as the Lambourn trainer’s stable jockey when still a little raw in 1993.
It will feel strange, therefore, when Fitzgerald rides against Henderson in the totesport Trophy Hurdle on Saturday. Neither of the trainer’s two candidates carry sufficient weight, obliging Fitzgerald to team up with the Tom Foley-trained Royal Paradise.
Fitzgerald intends to make the most of what he describes as “an incredibly lucky” second chance at doing what he loves.
“At the time I thought I had come back a different person,” Fitzgerald said. “I thought I’d changed in many ways, but then I got beat on a horse at Warwick that I thought should have won. I was in a bad mood all the way home. And I realised that not much has changed. This job means as much to me now as it did in the beginning.”
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There are plenty of inducements for Fitzgerald — notably Crozan, a tantalising prospect whose tame effort at Sandown last time still baffles connections. “We certainly haven’t lost faith in him,” Fitzgerald said. “I schooled him the other day and he felt as good as ever. We were mortified with how he ran at Sandown.”
A possible Cheltenham opponent for Crozan is Monet’s Garden, whose chasing education continued apace at Carlisle yesterday. A leading staying hurdler last season, Monet’s Garden showed plenty of speed to win unchallenged over two miles. So versatile is the eight-year-old that William Hill issued quotes of 10-1 for the Royal & SunAlliance and the same price (from 20-1) for the Arkle Chase.