TRAINER TALKS ABOUT THAT EXTRAORDINARY TWENTY FOUR HOUR RACE-TO-RACE BACKUP - AND WINNING

By Graham Potter | Friday, August 6, 2021

Trainer Kenneth Deacon knew he was rolling the dice when he decided to back up San Bernardino at Ipswich within twenty-four hours of his Eagle Farm run.

The gamble had little to do with the horse. Deacon knew his horse well and, as the result ultimately showed, he knew what he was doing … but he also knew that out there, in the court of public opinion, he was basically on a hiding to nothing as the San Bernardino entered the starting stalls for the second race at Ipswich on Thursday.

In fact, some people who opposed Deacon’s decision to send San Bernardino around again didn’t even hold back until the race.

“I was the worst guy in the world and I got bagged by a lot of people before the race … but it ended up the way it did. Everybody is amazed and it ended up a wonderful day for me,” said Deacon.

“I had people calling me up afterwards still asking why I backed the horse up and why it went so bad the day before. There is a whole lot going on at my home track (Beaudesert) so there is no sense in me whinging about some other track.

“The day before at Eagle Farm … I could see it every time I watched the replay … my horse was uncomfortable and going nowhere.

“The bottom line though was that he pulled up that well.

“They went over him on the morning of the Ipswich meeting and couldn’t find anything wrong with him. They couldn’t believe how good he looked. That wasn’t the horse I had the day before … but he was doing that well, and is such a good doer, that I had to back him up.

“The stewards said they had to follow protocol and give the horse an examination and I said I’m happy you are doing that. I said to them to do what they needed to do.

“Even after they’d cleared the horse to run, there was a lot of people concerned about what I was doing. Because everybody doesn’t do it every day, it doesn’t mean it is not a good decision for certain horses on certain days. It depends if you have got the right horse or not.

“I said to Brooke Ainsworth (who rode San Bernardino) before the race, ‘we going to be crucified today or we are going for glory’ … and I said, ‘the way the horse is feeling it can win the race so you have got to ride it positive. I said, ‘if it comes unstuck, we are all going to be crucified in a big way.’

“I knew that because I’d been told me what people had already been saying about me … things like I should be shot for backing up the horse.

“Still, even with me knowing how well the horse was, it is not easy to win or do well in a race at any time, so it’s always going to go one way or the other. If it goes bad you are the worst person in the world and, if you have a bit of luck, you get every man and his dog calling you.

“They must have heard me in the grandstand. I got pretty excited.

“I had people ringing me after the race. I had no idea who half of them were. They were saying, ‘I’m from here, I’m from there’ and they said they wanted to do a story because that was an impossible mission I took on. I said, ‘it’s not impossible. I’ve just done it’ … but I really didn’t talk to most of them much because I didn’t know who they were. I basically said, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know you and I haven’t got time at the moment.’

So, it was a fine line I walked on the day I suppose, but I would never put a horse through anything I didn’t think he could handle and thankfully the result justified my position.”

And there was no fluke about the result … even if San Bernardino was only winning for the first time at his thirty-sixth attempt, the Deacon trained runner fought off all challenges down the home straight in courageous fashion when it would have been easier to give up the ghost.

And the most important outcome of all?

“He was such a happy horse when he got home. He felt enormous. He cleaned his food bin and he was running around and pigrooting and farting,” said Deacon.

“He was a just a very happy horse.”