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Don’t know if anyone can help, but do you know whose colours these are?
Black (or very dark blue) jacket with twin-striped braces of red on inside, yellow on outside. Cap of three hoops – black (or dark blue) at the bottom, red in the middle, yellow on top.
I believe they may have come from a 60s or 70s Grand National winner, but not absolutely certain.
Mike
It’s none other than Foinavon. Don’t ask me the owner’s name or whether he had any other decent horses.
It’s none other than Foinavon. Don’t ask me the owner’s name or whether he had any other decent horses.
Well, well, well! Thanks Patriot. I should’ve known that!
It was an image I found from years ago on an old computer of mine. He was being led in with a police outrider so I thought it may be a Grand National winner.
Doing a Google tells me Foinavon was once owned by Anne, Duchess of Westminster of Arkle fame but his owner at the time of the National was one Cyril Watkins. Can’t find any information about him or his horses apart from this regarding the jockey John Buckingham:
“Foinavon’s owner Cyril Watkins told him three other jockeys had wanted £200 to ride him but John did it for the standard £5 10/-“
Mike
I wonder what his percentage was?
Still one of my all time favourite pieces of commentary as Michael O Hehir hasn’t a clue what’s going on.
As an aside, the Duchess of Westminster named Arkle and Foinavon after mountains on the family’s Scottish estates in the far north west of Sutherland. Another good horse of hers, Ben Stack, is also a mountain in the area
Foinavon should actually be spelt Foinaven; whether that was an error by Her Grace or Weatherby’s, I don’t know
patriot1, on the contrary I recalled O’Hehir’s commentary as one of the best I’ve ever heard, given the pressure he was under (his pitch was Becher’s and he’d only taken up the microphone a minute before). Here’s how he called them:
Rutherfords has been hampered, and so has Castle Falls; Rondetto has fallen, Princeful has fallen, Norther has fallen, Kirtle Lad has fallen, The Fossa has fallen, there’s a right pile-up… Leedsy has climbed over the fence and left his jockey there. And now, with all this mayhem, Foinavon has gone off on his own! He’s about 50, 100 yards in front of everything else!
As to the colours, this from Wikipedia
…one of O’Hehir’s finest moments in racing commentaries and won him great respect for the speed and smoothness with which he picked out the unconsidered outsider. O’Hehir later confessed in an interview that he it had been his inability to identify the colours on his card when inspecting the riders silks in the weighing room prior to the race that had led him to question rider John Buckingham who his mount was.[citation needed] Buckingham advised O’Hehir that Foinavon’s silks had been changed at the last minute as his regular green colours were considered unlucky. It was because of this chance meeting that he was able to identify the 100/1 outsider and carry the commentary.
Reports suggest Buckingham received 10% of the winning pot, namely £1,700 or £28,560 in today’s money.
In David Owen’s 2014 book Foinavon: The Story of the Grand National’s Biggest Upset (which I don’t have) the author states that Cyril Watkins gave half his prize money to a mysterious character named McIntyre Benellick. The latter was a former part owner of Foinavon but was bought out of the partnership by Watkins in 1966.
The book relates that Benellick was strongly implicated in the infamous 1974 football pools swindle, in which a significant degree of after-timing was employed during the coupon filling process.
The book about Foinavon and his win in the Grand National is one of the best racing books I have read. It is well researched and contextualised. A really good read, and for people in their fifties a great nostalgia wallow!
Just be thankful it wasn’t Des Scahill in those days!
“As they make the run down towards the fence that will lead them into the bend that approaches the straight that leads up to the run-in for the final time and it’s now, erm…Popham Down, erm, no Red Alligator, erm it’s now Foinavon who’s in the lead…erm, we may have lost one or two at that previous fence…”
Mike
patriot1, on the contrary I recalled O’Hehir’s commentary as one of the best I’ve ever heard, given the pressure he was under (his pitch was Becher’s and he’d only taken up the microphone a minute before). Here’s how he called them:
Rutherfords has been hampered, and so has Castle Falls; Rondetto has fallen, Princeful has fallen, Norther has fallen, Kirtle Lad has fallen, The Fossa has fallen, there’s a right pile-up… Leedsy has climbed over the fence and left his jockey there. And now, with all this mayhem, Foinavon has gone off on his own! He’s about 50, 100 yards in front of everything else!
As to the colours, this from Wikipedia
…one of O’Hehir’s finest moments in racing commentaries and won him great respect for the speed and smoothness with which he picked out the unconsidered outsider. O’Hehir later confessed in an interview that he it had been his inability to identify the colours on his card when inspecting the riders silks in the weighing room prior to the race that had led him to question rider John Buckingham who his mount was.[citation needed] Buckingham advised O’Hehir that Foinavon’s silks had been changed at the last minute as his regular green colours were considered unlucky. It was because of this chance meeting that he was able to identify the 100/1 outsider and carry the commentary.
What a wonderful image this has given me. Super commentary.
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