There was no action on the track here at Chepstow yesterday but the roar from one of the grandstand boxes would have graced any race day. On a television in the newly christened Dream Alliance Suite the horse after whom the room is named had just taken the lead with three to jump in a re-run of the Welsh National and his 22 owners were enjoying the moment again.
It was a neat piece of timing by the racecourse to honour the horse, a local hero, in this way, four days before he is due to line up for the Grand National Festival. Some members of the Alliance Partnership came here from their homes in Cefn Fforest, 17 miles north of Cardiff, and will go straight on to Liverpool, where they plan to make a big week of it.
Vokes got the idea while running a social club, where she overheard one of her customers bemoaning the large sums of money he had lost from a venture into ownership many years before. Howard Davies, a tax advisor relaxing after a game of squash, was stunned to find himself being pumped for information that would help Vokes achieve her latest ambition.
"So I said, 'You need two things: a field and a mare.' She said, 'I've got a field, I need to get the mare.' So I said, 'Get a copy of the Turf Directory and then we go from there,' thinking she'd go away. The following Thursday the Turf Directory landed on the bar. 'Now what do we do?'"
Vokes seems quiet and reserved as she deals with the media attention that Dream Alliance has brought her but Davies immediately realised she was "fairly resolute". With regret he was persuaded to abandon the promise he had made his wife that he would never again get involved with racehorses.
The syndicate members a disparate band, including a painter and decorator, a car washer, a former Provident collector and several tax workers – thoroughly deserved their moment of glory when the chestnut won the Welsh National here in December, even though they came close to saddling him with the name Lost Youth. Some two years ago, when he sustained a tendon injury at Aintree, there had been unanimous agreement that every effort must be made to help him recover, regardless of cost.
They may be the best-behaved owners in racing, having abided by an agreement not to pester their trainer, Philip Hobbs, for the past two weeks with inquiries about Dream Alliance's wellbeing. Until the final entries are made on Thursday, Hobbs will call Davies only if he has to pass on bad news.
"Every time my mobile goes I'm worried but as long as 'Philip Hobbs' doesn't come up on the screen, I'm delighted," Davies says. "If the Dream Alliance that turned up here for the Welsh National turns up at Aintree, in the same frame of mind, he's probably got a top-five chance. I think he'll relish the fences.
"He seems to rise to the crowds. He loves attention but in a sort of laid-back way. Everybody's affected by him, when they see him, especially kids. They can walk underneath him, you can touch his head, you can do anything with him and he doesn't move, he's a gentleman.
"When you go to see him after a race, if he's run well, he knows. Here at the Welsh, the runners were coming out for the next race and he was still having his photo taken."
Davies has struck a deal with a firm of Hollywood producers, who may now make a film of the Dream Alliance story.All that is required from the National is a happy ending.
Glorious Goodwood Horseracing Hospitality
Corporate Hospitality Group
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