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Date: Saturday 31st December 1983
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
I remember watching this live with my older brother who was a big fan of Catch Phrase. Loved the way how the horse went into berserker mode and destroyed them.
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Very interesting to watch and thanks for posting.
Somehow I felt that the winner and also a few others weren’t as slick over their hurdles as you might have expected in those days. Probably there was some more degree of respect for the obstacles as they looked rather stiff and maybe a bit higher than nowadays.The cross hurdle was moved when the system of bypassing a fence or hurdle where there was an injured horse or jockey was introduced. There wasn’t enough room there to have a bypass eoute for both a hurdle and a fence.
That change I think happened in 2000. I had an experience with it on Boxing Day at Wincanton when a horse I managed was leading and the field had to bypass the second last. After the race (we finished 2nd) there was a lengthy equiry about the jockeys going the wrong side of the hurdle – they said that had been forced on them by the flag man standing in the gap they were supposed to go through!
Mass confusion ensued but in the end it was deemed easier to let the result stand than explain to a crowd of ten thousand that all bets were void.
I was going to question year but I see above it was 83 , as in early Dec 1983 I went racing for the first time and Catch Phrase beat Desert Orchid in the Dec Novices Hurdle that day at Sandown, I was back at Sandown in Jan 84 and Desert Orchid returned to 2 miles and hosed up in the Tolworth Hurdle .
That was some card at Sandowm in Dec 83 , West Tip , Broadheath , Door Latch , Earthstopper Duke of Milan also ran that day .
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