Handicapper red-faced after Fahim's easy win

Greg Wood on a race in which the punters weighed into the favourite

Even for those familiar with racing's capacity for navel-gazing, the chatter in the winner's enclosure at Newmarket yesterday took some believing. The racetrack has never been the ideal place to debate weighty affairs of state, but after Fahim had strolled away with the Hare Park Handicap, the only topic of conversation was a pounds 3,500, Class D maiden race, which had taken place at Beverley all of five weeks ago.

To be fair, though the Etton Maiden Stakes, won by Fahim at the Humberside track on 6 June, appears in hindsight to have been one of the strongest races the course has ever seen. Its relevance to proceedings this week has been that the handicapper did not see it that way, and the first four home have now won seven subsequent races between them thanks to the hopelessly inadequate burdens placed upon them.

The most notable was Crown Court, third at Beverley, who turned a handicap on the first day of the July meeting into a procession and prompted a few dark comments from cynics that his effort in the previous race might have been less than unstinting. Now, though, it seems that the handicapper, and not Luca Cumani, Crown Court's trainer, has some explaining to do.

"It's terribly hard for him," Alec Stewart, Fahim's trainer, said yesterday. "He had unexposed horses going up there, and no-one wanted to give their horse a hard race. The runner-up then went into a claiming race, so even his trainer didn't think it was a good race."

Not that the punters will have many complaints. Fahim, a handicap blot who managed to win as he was supposed to, was a 4-1 chance yesterday morning but after a series of big bets he was sent off at 2-1.