IF you miss the break, you’re finished. If you’re drawn badly, you can’t win. You can barely afford to lose a length.

In a five-furlong sprint, for the biggest prizes, everything has to go right. It’s a practice Cowthorpe trainer Robin Bastiman has devoted himself to perfecting.

“I’ve trained a lot of sprinters – I’ve been in the game around 40 years – and I like training them, getting them spot-on and right for the day,” he said.

In Borderlescott, Bastiman has found his outlet.

For so long, the seven-year-old was the nearly horse, a gelding who performed heroically at the very highest levels but had narrowly failed to scoop the big prize.

There had been triumphs.

The Stewards Cup at Glorious Goodwood and the Coral Sprint at York were already on the mantelpiece.

But on August 22 at Newmarket, Borderlescott achieved his massive potential while beating the country’s best speedsters to win the Group 1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes.

For Bastiman, who runs a family-based yard with around 22 horses, it was the culmination of years of hard work. It might be the depths of winter but the savvy trainer is already planning Borderlescott’s next round of summer conquests.

The King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and another tilt at the Nunthorpe are at the top of his wish-list.

It will be another busy campaign for his outstanding horse, and Bastiman only wishes he’d kept a share in his super-sprinter.

“I’ve proved I can train a Group 1 winner,” he said.

“A trainer is only as good as the horses he has. If you have got moderate horses, they are moderate and you can’t do anything about it.

“With Border, he is just a one-off. He has got an engine and he has got heart. He wants to do it, that’s the difference. I bought him as a yearling for about 13,000 guineas.

“He’s the first yearling I didn’t keep a share in. The owner came down to see him and it was around February time.

“It was blowing a gale and it was freezing. He had a habit of pushing his head forward. He head-butted the owner and then he was playing about and the wind was howling and I thought ‘there’s no way he’s going to buy this horse’ and he came in and he said ‘I like him. I’ll have him’.

“I said ‘do you want three-quarters and I’ll keep a quarter?’ and he said ‘no, I’ll have all of him’. It’s just how it goes. He’s proved himself a good animal hasn’t he?”

If a horse has got the ability, Bastiman says, the trick is in knowing what ground it wants, how it has to be ridden and whether the draw will be a help or a hindrance.

You have to know what makes a sprinter tick, and Bastiman has got Borderlescott figured out.

“The better the races he runs in, the faster the pace there is and the better the horses he is running against, the more comes out of him,” he added.

“It’s why he gets beat in Listed races. If they are not going fast enough and he gets to the front, he tends to stop. He thinks he’s done enough and they’ll catch him and he’ll go again.

“But if you run 100 yards and you stop and try to go again, you’ve lost that momentum haven’t you? He’s a better horse in better class races.

“He was absolutely bouncing (before the Nunthorpe). This horse comes to himself in July and August. You get to know when they come to a peak and July and August is the time he is absolutely on fire.

“That’s when he is really well. He got pipped at Goodwood, went too soon there and I said to Pat Cosgrave (jockey) ‘whatever you do, don’t hit the front too soon’. You have got to bring him as late as you can.”

For a horse that possesses so much speed, Bastiman says it’s a test of his skill as a trainer to get him spot-on for the big occasions. For while he’s all heart on the track, at home Borderlescott is a bit more laid back.

“He doesn’t do a lot at home,” he said. “He’s a hard horse to get fit to be honest because he’s lazy. He doesn’t get that challenge at home.

“I have a couple of my sprinters jump off six or seven lengths in front of him just to give him something to chase and once he’s gone past them, which he does, that’s it – he eases up so he’s not really doing the work he should be doing.”

But come July and August, I won’t be betting against him ruling the roost again – and neither will Bastiman.

For more information about Robin Bastiman, log on to www.rbastimanracing.com


* For more news on the North Yorkshire racing scene log on to Steve Carroll’s racing blog at thepress.co.uk/sport/horseracing/blog/

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