Ashforth's Alternative View: Max gets another chance to repay the faith

Despite his rather splendid name, Max Do Brazil has, as is the way with some horses, provided more disappointments than elations.

To be fair, whereas most racehorses don’t win any races, Max Do Brazil, a seven-year-old, has already won two. Unfortunately, they were in France before David Pipe bought him for £160,000 on behalf of Professor Caroline Tisdall.

Ignoring his sale price, Max Do Brazil showed what he thought of being deported by pulling up on five his first six British appearances. Three subsequent completions have failed to suggest that an expression such as “full of promise” was appropriate.

On the latest of them, at Lingfield in December, by which time his handicap mark had fallen from 128 to 112, Max Do Brazil did finish second, albeit 15 lengths behind the winner, Deebaj.

On Tuesday, the enigma (if he is one) makes his Ffos Las debut, carrying top weight in a run of the mill handicap hurdle (3.10). Whether it is run of the mill enough for Max Do Brazil to finally do the decent thing and show that his triumphs at Pau over three years ago were not a false dawn but a disguised dusk, time will tell.

Tisdall has had a particularly interesting life. Having championed National Parks in Africa and spent several years in the Middle East, resulting in her book with Lebanese journalist Selim Nassib, Beirut: Front Line Story (1983), racing’s snakes and ladders are unlikely to unsettle her.

An art historian, former art critic for the Guardian, prolific author, honorary Professor at Oxford Brookes University, board member of the Countryside Alliance and many other things, including as partner to the late Paul van Vlissingen, Tisdall is out of the ordinary.

So, in a very different way, is Will Roseff, whose Financier (equine version) runs in the bumper (4.40 at Ffos Las) for trainer Kerry Lee. Roseff is a useful owner to have, at least to judge by his ability to pay the bills.

Roseff graduated from running his family’s betting shop chain, Backhouse Bookmakers, to join Bet365 as it financial director. As the company has thrived, so has Roseff’s shareholding. The result is that, two years ago, a rich list valued him at £240 million.

I don’t know what Tisdall is worth but if they bumped into each other at Ffos Las they might emerge with exotic plans for a joint-partnership.

In the meantime, Roseff has Lee’s best horse, Happy Diva, entered for a two and a half mile handicap chase with a very long name at the Cheltenham Festival on March 14. Happy Diva, a €95,000 purchase, won a listed chase at Huntingdon on her most recent appearance, last month.

What else? Well, if you bet in the afternoon and are hoping to put things right at Wolverhampton in the evening, heaven help you.

The best I can suggest is that you hope that Bay Of Naples, in the novice stakes (5.30) follows up his recent encouraging success at Lingfield. I think he might.