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I remember the BBC covering a point-to-point meeting back in the early 60s.
It was either Larkhill or Tweseldown, I forget which.
Enjoyed reading this thread. Interesting for an unashamed nostalgist.
The discussions about Grandstand’s occasional visits to the lesser tracks have brought up two of my earliest racing viewing memories. Or at least, I think they are memories. We know that the mind plays tricks…
One would be when Jonjo broke his leg in late 1980/early 1981. I think this was being covered on Grandstand and I think it was at Bangor. Really nasty injury.
The other is just the memory of a horse that I picked, called Spiders Well. Think it may have been at Wetherby and I may have picked it as I saw Bob Champion was riding, and that was a name I recognised. So again, we’re talking probably 1981.
Perhaps someone with a better memory (or, let’s face it, who is older) than me could confirm these are not figments of my imagination!
Cartmel was always a racecourse that could never attract many runners, certainly not as many as it enjoys now. That maybe something to do with stabling capacity as I think its only in the 70s even now. I will stand corrected on that one.
Got it in one – Cartmel can stable just 75 horses. That’s five more than Fakenham, but among the very lowest around all the same.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I seem to remember the Vaux Gold Tankard and the Zetland Gold Cup were regular TV highlights from Redcar.
Pity that the course has been tipped on more than one occasion in different places to be the next to close. Unlike many people, I would hate to see any course close. I know some people believe that there should be fewer courses and less racing but I would be very sad to see any of them go.I’m still hoping Great Leighs will reopen although I know many colleagues on this forum will not be quite so keen if it happens.
A Crusty man after my own heart – very, very much agree with the above.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
One thing is for sure, I have never heard Iain Mackenzie on C4,
There has been at least one instance in the past, and a high-ish profile one at that. When the strong winds forced the postponement of the Wednesday of Cheltenham the other year, C4 converted the afternoon’s programme to half-previewing of the remainder of the Fesitval, and half-racing from Huntingdon, using the duty Racetech commentator. ‘Twas Iain – a scenario which so delighted me that I videotaped the entire show.
There may have been more – can anyone remember him ever doing the race of the day when C4 had its short-lived weekday lunchtime half-hour show about eight years ago?
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Racing from Stratford always used to be featured a couple times a year in the old ITV 7 days but was scrapped later by Channel 4, probably over the media rights issues involved with the GG Racing courses.
Yes, it went increasingly quiet where coverage of the Horse & Hound meeting was concerned over time. Its last coverage, if memory serves, was June 3rd 2000, when Lord Oaksey was packed off to Warwickshire for the day to front coverage of the Horse & Hound Cup only – Stratford was C4’s third meeting of the afternoon behind Newmarket and Lingfield.
At least that tranche of coverage ended on a high – the 2000 Horse & Hound witnessed Castle Mane being chased home by Grimley Gale (whose daughter broke her duck at Brampton Bryan last Saturday, fact fans) and Last Option in a seriously good renewal.
Go further back in time, though, and it should be possible to find coverage of Stratford being covered by Auntie Beeb. The Horse & Hound meeting featured at least once on
Grandstand
in the 1980s (at the same time as the handicap chase on the card was sponsored by the Slug & Lettuce chain), as did an autumn (October?) fixture largely bankrolled by Berry Magicoal storage heaters.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
One thing is for sure, I have never heard Iain Mackenzie on C4,
There has been at least one instance in the past, and a high-ish profile one at that. When the strong winds forced the postponement of the Wednesday of Cheltenham the other year, C4 converted the afternoon’s programme to half-previewing of the remainder of the Fesitval, and half-racing from Huntingdon, using the duty Racetech commentator. ‘Twas Iain – a scenario which so delighted me that I videotaped the entire show.
There may have been more – can anyone remember him ever doing the race of the day when C4 had its short-lived weekday lunchtime half-hour show about eight years ago?
gc
Come on then get it uploaded to youtube haha, dont break any copyrights though
I’ve a feeling the BBC switched to Ayr for one jumps meeting when Channel 4 won the rights to Cheltenham. It could have been on what is now Cheltenham Trials Day.
It was. Ayr’s meeting on Trials Day, January 28th 1995, was definitely one that Auntie Beeb covered – how many years after that it endured I’m not sure, however, as I’d moved to Germany by the following year.
That 1995 renewal sticks particularly in the mind as it was the first time I heard JA McGrath behind the mike for the Corporation – that’s not to say it was his first non-Aintree booking for them, but it was certainly among the first.
It was humble fare. Whilst Pridwell and Master Oats were winning the big races on C4, BBC1 viewers had to sate themselves with a 0-120 handicap chase and some other lesser flotsam and jetsam. Mark you, if the opening novices’ hurdle had been covered (I can’t remember either way, alas), viewers would have seen Sparky Gayle win his first race in this country, so it wasn’t without interest by any means.
Something called Dato Star popped up in the concluding bumper, too. That, plus a number of other races, was sponsored by Norman Mason, though success generally tended to elude him whenever he threw prizemoney at this corresponding fixture – his potentially very good Classic Contact disappeared for 45 months after breaking down in the immediately discontinued Mason Organisation Pattern Novice Chase (Grade 2) during the 1994 fixture.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Not sure when you last went but the traffic flows very well in my experience – granted I generally arrive five or six hours before the first race but it is by no means anywhere near the worse course when it comes to getting away after racing.
Agree entirely – the local ‘stab have got the whole business of guiding transport to and from the course off to a fine art after years of fine-tuning.
I’m rarely longer than half an hour in getting from course to M6 on those occasions I have to leave immediately after the last. Loving the place as much as I do, I try to avoid having to do that. Any excuse for another walk of the swarde…
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
…at one time they would show racing from just about anywhere if it was on a Saturday…
..in 1967-68 during foot and mouth outbreak the BBC even went to Saint-Cloud, and/or Cagnes-sur-Mer,
Ireland, too, and not just for any of the Festivals. A Punchestown fixture in which the highlights were three Listed contests (including a National trial thieved by British raider Zeta’s Lad) was covered on Saturday, February 22nd 1992.
Rather a lot was made in the BBC coverage of Howard Johnson having bought Kildare Day Chase entry Derrinore a few days earlier but opting to keep him in Ireland for this first run for him. In the event the gelding was stuffed 29l in finishing third of four, and withstood just four more runs for Johnson over the following three months before disappearing forever.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I have the ITV6 from Hennessy day, 1981 and with the big race on the BBC the thrill packed ITV6 came from Wolverhampton and Market Rasen with about 3-6 horses per race. Dire stuff.
Dire you may think it, but I’m about 90% certain that will have been the afternoon’s ITV6 with which I bored the living a*rse out of my teacher the following Monday courtesy of a description – down to the minutest detail – of everything that happened in each race.
Was that the afternoon of Space Baby, Straight Cash and the like? They definitely featured in a Wolvo NH / Rasen ITV6 I absorbed around then – 1981 or 1980, it will have been.
Well, if I was going to be asked to write about what I did over the weekend, that was it – watching the racing. Should have thought that through, Heather Lewis (teacher (in name only)). Almost certainly my first ever recorded stab at post-analysis, and thirty-odd years on probably still among my best…
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Of course they covered lots of other tracks as well, flat racing at Ayr and Ripon Rowels day at Ripon on Bank Holiday Monday were a couple of others.
I don’t think Ripon Rowels day remained on the BBC for very long after the 1989 renewal, in which Boot Polish finished very lame in last and was soon reported, pretty baldly, by Julian Wilson live on air as having been destroyed (see also his "avoiding a dead horse" utterance at second Becher’s in that year’s Grand National).
A shame, really, as that meeting in particular frequently shows the course in its best, busiest light. I went to the Rowels fixture as an alternative to Cartmel the other year, when it genuinely looked like the Lakeland venue wouldn’t beat the rain, and wouldn’t need much persuading to return some day.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Nottingham – the good days when they had national hunt racing.
Plenty of fond memories of these meetings being televised, from Basil’s Choice making all in an early 1980s chase to the incredulity of Graham Goode (it does happen, GG…), through to a chaotic 18-runner, three-finisher maiden chase giving Simon Holt (on one of his first ever C4 calls) a good old workout before the day’s main business of Large Action taking the City Trial hurdle (February 18th, 1995).
Per that 1995 racedate, I notice Nottingham clashed with both the Eider meeting at Newcastle and the Fairlawne Chase at Windsor that time around – not ideal, and I wonder if Windsor grudglingly missed out on a visit from C4 on this occasion.
I also recall in the 1980’s ITV used to show Salisbury for 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas trials.
Yep – wasn’t this even briefly an ITV7 double-header with Beverley? There’s the weekend for all your stiff, right-handed, uphill finish, purgatory-in-very-soft-going needs…
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
ITV’s coverage from Salisbury made headlines on 7th April, 1979 when Marquee Universal gave American jockey Steve Cauthen his first winner in England.
I believe this was the first time ITV covered Salisbury. It was Raleigh Gilbert who was calling them home that day.
I went to Salisbury a few times in the 1980s and didn’t like the way the loudspeakers seemed to be on the far side of the course and the sometimes barely-audible commentary echoed back in a very disconcerting and annoying way (rather in the way that it did at Ascot when I went there a couple of years ago).
Steve Cauthen was an absolutely superb ambassador for racing and I loved his exploits with Henry Cecil on all those good horses.
Wikipedia gives this information about Cauthen:In 1978 he became the youngest jockey to ever win the U. S. Triple Crown, riding Affirmed.
As he left his teens and matured, he had increasing problems making weight. In 1979 he moved to England, where jockeys normally compete at higher weights, and became a highly successful rider there.
His move and first ride were very high profile in the UK. His very first ride in the UK resulted in a winner, when Marquee Universal, trained by Barry Hills won the Grand Foods Handicap at Salisbury Racecourse on April 7, 1979.
Cauthen was British Champion Jockey three times, and won English classic races ten times, including the 2,000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby twice, and the St Leger Stakes three times. He also won the Irish Oaks twice and in 1989 rode European Horse of the Year, Old Vic to victory in the French Derby and the Irish Derby. In 1991 he won the Derby Italiano on Hailsham.
After he finished his riding career, he returned to Kentucky, where he is an executive at Turfway Park, the nearest major track to his hometown.
———————————————————–When Nottingham was featured at a May flat meeting on Channel 4 in years gone by, Graham Goode cannily got himself installed as its commentator. One year, it was a two-day meeting and GG managed to secure himself the job of being the course commentator on the first day, an appearance at Nottingham on the second on the Morning Line and as Channel 4’s commentator on that second day.
The reason for his interest, of course, is that he was a director of the course so would be keen to be there.
In later years, he was the course commentator for that Saturday at Nottingham and Channel 4 used those commentaries."graysonscolumn wrote:
It was. Ayr’s meeting on Trials Day, January 28th 1995, was definitely one that Auntie Beeb covered – how many years after that it endured I’m not sure, however, as I’d moved to Germany by the following year.That 1995 renewal sticks particularly in the mind as it was the first time I heard JA McGrath behind the mike for the Corporation – that’s not to say it was his first non-Aintree booking for them, but it was certainly among the first.
I seem to recall Croc McGrath making his BBC debut on what was then First National Bank Gold Cup (now 1965 Chase) at Ascot’s November meeting of 1992 when it became a double header with Aintree’s revived Becher Chase. He then quickly established himself as heir to Sir Peter’s throne (much to the chagrin of Julian "dead ‘orse" Wilson.
Loving the trip down memory lane. Just for the record the only courses I can think of which I’ve never seen a televised race on BBC/Ch4 (going back to roughly the early 80’s) are Cartmel, Fakenham, Great Leighs (!), Ludlow, Pontefract, Sedgefield, Taunton, Yarmouth.
Sorry should have included Perth (don’t live in Scotland) but that will drop off the list Friday weather permitting.
A few hazy memories
The Lanark Silver Bell being covered by BBC
Peter Moor not only reading betting shows and results midweek but telling us who won the first set in the Navratilova / Evert final at Wimbledon ( no channel hopping necessary with Peter)
BBC covering one of the springtime bank holiday fixtures at Chepstow that had at least one hunter chase.
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