The Bleak, Mid-Winter Duel by Frank Sonderborg

Bred from one of the greatest sires to race on the flat. Frankel’s son, ‘The Bleak,’ had run in the Epsom Derby. Ran as the hot favourite. But, for whatever reason finished last. His winning streak had come to an end. They tried everything to revive his flat career, but The Bleak was finished as a flat horse. A failure at stud meant he got clipped and sold off. And started running over hurdles. And started winning again. 

Mid-Winter was a much older horse, that had come good, late in his racing career. It happens with horses. The right jockey, the right head lad or girl. The right trainer and it all starts to click.

The Champion Hurdle is one of the biggest races on the National Hunt calendar.

And ‘The Bleak,” was an odds-on favorite to win. At six years of age, he was in his prime. But so was Mid-Winter. A horse bought for pennies, up against the Million Dollar horse.

Charlie Zantos was in big trouble with the Bookies. He owed them big time. As the jockey for the odds-on favorite, he was expected to do the right thing to eliminate his debt. Pulling, ‘The Bleak’ at the right time, could just do the job. But he needed Mid-Winter up close to pull it off. 

Murf Murphy on Mid-Winter had also issues. He’d been told by one of the new Chinese owners, if he lost the race, he would be rewarded. They said, they had a deal going, that was only concluded by Mid-Winter not winning the Champion Hurdle.

Some sort of complicated Tax dodge, he assumed, by Mid-Winters new owners. It was beyond his pay grade. And now they expected him to pull the race. If he didn’t, he was told, they would kill his children.

There was only two expected winners in this race. The rest were big priced also rans.

Murf could do it. The Bleak was a monster of speed. He could slow Mid-Winter down and just watch The Bleak sail by. Hopefully these new Chinese owners would move on. And leave him, and his family alone.

He met Zantos in secret, in a Newmarket field, a week before the race. Zantos told him about the fix he was in, and about Blatchford. Blatchford was the third favorite in the race. And it looked like the Chinese and the Bookies, had teamed up, to clean up. But Zantos, a master of pace, had a plan. Murf agreed to help, and admitted, he also had a plan.

The Race:

Mid-Winter had so far, made all the running. Then, The Bleak, came to join him at the last hurdle. Blatchford was running a close third. Murf pulled Mid-Winter, and allowed The Bleak to draw level. Both slowed to allow Blatchford to reach them. Then Murf nodded at Zantos and they both quickened, and flashed across the line together. A photo finish showed they had dead heated. Both had won a race they were down to lose. 

Zantos had placed large bets on a dead heat. So cleared his massive debt. Murf had taped all his conversations with the Chinese for the Police. They’d been arrested. And where due to stand trial. Murf was down to be the star witness.

Later:

Charlie Zantos was shot and killed in a Newmarket Pub carpark three months later. Nobody was apprehended.

Murf was riding away in the North at Doncaster. He was awakened in the middle of the night at his hotel, to be informed his whole family, wife and three small kids, had tragically died in a house fire. An electric fault was found to be the cause. After their funeral, Murf committed suicide.

All the Chinese were released. The court case had collapsed against them. 

Someone noted, sadly, that it had indeed been a bleak mid-winter, for both jockeys.