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Name
Andrew Sheret
Role
Co-Op shop assistant - hopefully soon to be a freelance racing journalist again!
Date you joined Timeform
22nd March 1999
What did you do immediately before joining Timeform?
An accountancy and finance degree at the University of Teesside, then work experience in an accounts office at a construction company.
What was your first role at Timeform?
Comment writer. I remember my first day writing around 50. I handed my work to Simon Rowlands, who was editorial manager at the time, and thought I’d done well until returning the following day and seeing that work on my desk with ink all over it highlighting my many style errors!
There’s a hell of a lot to learn about horse racing. What has stuck with you most about what you learnt during your Timeform years?
Race reading and interpretation of form. I was fortunate to have had an excellent tutor in the art of race reporting in Paul Morrell.
There’s pluses and minuses with moving to a new town, what are your lasting memories about your time living in Halifax?
The plusses from my time in Halifax were making some lifelong friends and drinking Timothy Taylor Landlord at its best.
The negative would have to be the weather. The North East coast where I’m from is hardly the English Riviera but it’s a lot brighter than the Pennines.
Thinking back, what was the job you enjoyed doing most while you were at Timeform?
Racecourse reporter, a position I held from summer 2000 until leaving in early 2006.
Date you left Timeform?
My final day of full-time work was covering Skybet Chase day on January 28th 2006. It was actually held at Southwell as Doncaster was closed while the new stand was built.
What was the first job you had after leaving Timeform?
Agent to Jamie Spencer
Favourite racecourse/meeting and why?
When I was a Timeform racecourse reporter it was Glorious Goodwood.
Nowadays I think York’s Dante meeting takes some stopping, high-class racing and the chance to witness future stars without the huge crowds you get there on other days.
Best race seen live and why?
Frankel’s demolition job of top-class pair Farhh and St Nicholas Abbey in the International would top the list.
A less obvious one, which I had the pleasure of watching from the press area at the top of the Cheltenham grandstand, is the Stayers’ Hurdle of 2003, featuring Baracouda, Iris’s Gift and Irish legend Limestone Lad. In trademark fashion the last-named set a scorching gallop which had the majority in trouble from early on the final circuit. Limestone Lad ran his heart out in what turned out to be his final start but approaching the last he gave way to Baracouda, who had just too much for Iris’s Gift. Iris's Gift produced an outstanding performance for a novice in second and was to take his revenge on Baracouda 12 months later. Just a tremendous race.
Horse you have fondest memories of and why?
Dancing Brave who was around just as I was starting to get into racing. As an added bonus he was partnered to his two biggest wins by my childhood hero Pat Eddery. Who can forget the camera panning wide to see him deliver that surging late run to mow down Bering?
Another personal favourite is Boz, a typical Luca Cumani improver who notched up a five-timer under Jamie Spencer in autumn 2007 when I was his agent as he battled it out with Seb Sanders for the jockeys’ title.
Give us a successful horse you spotted early on their route to the top?
I was fortunate to be at Newbury in late-December 2004 to witness Kauto Star’s British debut in a novice chase also containing Irish Champion Hurdle winner Foreman and Champion Hurdle runner-up Marble Arch. Here is my report on him from that day:
Kauto Star, a useful hurdler when trained in France, made a most impressive start to his chase career and it’s not stretching it to say that he’s going to take a lot of stopping in whichever novice chase he contests; having tracked the leaders, he hit the front following a really good leap 3 out and wasn’t at all hard pressed to draw clear; he looks a sound jumper and, all in all, is a most exciting prospect.
An injury sustained at Exeter on his next outing robbed him of the opportunity to test out my novice chase theory, but it was always a joy to watch him in the following years. Certainly my favourite jumps horse ever.
Give us a horse you thought was going to reach the top but never quite made it?
I guess there’s still time for him to come good but I thought Sir Dragonet had to be top-class after his wide-margin Chester Vase win on just his second start.
I thought he was beaten only by his inexperience in the Derby and was convinced he’d turn out to be the best horse in the race but after three subsequent defeats, including two at short odds, the jury is out.
What would you change about the sport?
Whilst writing about the 2003 Stayers’ it struck me that Iris’s Gift, as a novice, almost certainly wouldn’t run in the race nowadays. He’d be targeted at the Albert Bartlett instead.
Clearly, we’re never going to return to a three-day Festival, while increased opportunities are always going to find favour with owners, trainers and jockeys.
But it’s still hard to get away from the fact that these extra options for top horses enables them to avoid each other.
One tweak which could be made is to downgrade the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham to a Grade 2 and not allow previous Grade 1 winners to contest it.
This wouldn’t have denied the likes of Quevega or Benie des Dieux the chance to run in it once but would have forced them to test their mettle in “proper” Championship races subsequently. Who wouldn’t have wanted to see a Stayers’ match-up involving Big Buck’s and Quevega?
Give us a Horse To Follow for when we are back up and running?
Kiefer, who is actually a half-brother to Boz, arguably didn’t progress as much as might have been expected on the back of his Newbury handicap win last spring but there were excuses and I’m sticking with him to come good in handicaps over 1m4f+ for new trainer Jedd O’Keeffe.
Also read Q&As with:
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