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Thanks.
I fell in love with the horse after joining in the gamble on his first run for Elsworth, in the Snow Hill H’cap Hurdle at Ascot. That was the start of the sequence that culminated in making all in that season’s County Hurdle (think about that – making all in the County Hurdle; one of my great regrets is never to have seen that race).
He led all the way in that first run for Elsworth, and his hurdling was electrifying. This was in the days before replays, and it was rare for a live performance to make such an impression. One older racegoer there that day compared his hurdling technique to a front runner of the late 1950s called Retour De Flamme. That was before I was born, but the only other hurdler I’ve ever seen who jumped as fast as Floyd was Make a Stand. They both appeared to jump faster than they galloped.
What made Floyd extraordinary was that he hurdled so fast despite jumping out to his right throughout his career, a trait he shared with his stable companion Desert Orchid. Yet such was the horse’s unparallelled will to win that he still was able to make all under Colin Brown in a race like the Bula Hurdle around left-handed Cheltenham.
As mentioned above in my post on page 1, his first win for Elsworth was at Sandown, in a race named the Spring Handicap Hurdle on Feb 2nd, 1985.
You can relive that Bula Hurdle win on Youtube here:
I do beg your pardon, ap. Of course you’re right about it being Sandown in spring 1985 where Floyd’s winning sequence began for Elsworth and where he made such an impression. The gamble I mentioned being landed in the Snow Hill H’cap Hurdle at Ascot was at the start of the 1986-7 season after the first of his injury absences. I got the races mixed up after 30 years.
You’re quite right – I hadn’t got as far as that in my race by race trek through his career and I’m only able to do this with the help of my collection of Timeform annuals, racing diaries and the online newspaper archives. Using just my memory, even though I know I saw many of his races live, the only ones that I could recall when this thread started were the Bula win and the Kingwell Hurdles.
Overall, his 1986/87 NH season consisted of just three races, the handicap hurdle at Ascot on Sat Nov 17th which he won at 5/2 fav, the Bula Hurdle seen in the footage above, and finally the Christmas Hurdle. In that race he was disputing the lead with Nonhalmdun going to the last, took off too soon and nosedived into the rails as he fell. The general consensus was that Nonhalmdun would have beaten him, but given his fighting qualities, I’m not so sure. The £400/200 Floyd recorded in my diary that day may influence my judgement!
That was it for the season, with Timeform reporting an injury incurred on the gallops in February.
Continuing the story with the 1987/88 NH season, Floyd reappeared in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, which he won comfortably as the 6/5 on favourite. He bypassed the Bula but ran again in the Christmas Hurdle, finishing 4th behind Osric as the 5/4 favourite. On good ground there, he could never get away from the field in front and looked one paced from the home turn.
A trip to Ireland at the end of January for their Champion Hurdle was unsuccessful as he finished 5th of 8 as the 5/2 2nd favourite. But he got back to winning form in the Kingwell Hurdle on Feb 25th, 1988, although his win owed much to the sad, career ending injury suffered by See You Then, who pulled up after the second last. He started 9/2 2nd favourite that day and was the first leg of a treble for the trainer, although Desert Orchid was surprisingly beaten by Kildimo in the Jim Ford Chase.
Well beaten in the Champion Hurdle, he was only 3rd favourite at 7/1 in a small field for the Welsh Champion Hurdle on Easter Monday, but took a close second after the 3/1 on Celtic Shot and 2nd fav High Knowl both fell. His season ended with a 7th under top weight of 12st in the Swinton Hurdle.
Continuing the story with the 1987/88 NH season, Floyd reappeared in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, which he won comfortably as the 6/5 on favourite.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Overall, his 1986/87 NH season consisted of just three races, the handicap hurdle at Ascot on Sat Nov 17th which he won at 5/2 fav, the Bula Hurdle seen in the footage above, and finally the Christmas Hurdle. In that race he was disputing the lead with Nonhalmdun going to the last, took off too soon and nosedived into the rails as he fell. The general consensus was that Nonhalmdun would have beaten him, but given his fighting qualities, I’m not so sure. The £400/200 Floyd recorded in my diary that day may influence my judgement!
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
My second in the ‘My Favourite Horses’series. This one a bit long, self indulgent and definitely not as accessible as the first but he was MY favourite horse of all time.
My Favorite Horses – Tapestry DancerRacingahoy,
Thanks for a most enjopyable read. I feel almost guilty in pointing out one small error, but his win came in a selling hurdle at Fontwell, not Fakenham.
Were you in the yard when Popsi’s Joy was there?
Hi apracing, thank you I have a complete mind block on that fact and have been corrected in conversation many times, why I always think it is Fakenham I don’t know, I always thought Fakenham would suit him so maybe that is it.
I arrived after Popsi’s Joy had retired but he was still there and was kept in a field with another Cesarewitch winner Ocean King, I learned to ride on them both and they both lived to a ripe old age very happily together.
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