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I don’t know why this thread occurred to me. I remember actually watching TV from Ascot when Killiney fell and was killed. He was an absolutely brilliant chaser, had never been off the bridle.
I heard about Golden Cygnet and Dawn Run (maybe the most needless of them all) on the radio, so they didn’t have quite the same impact.I was at a point-to-point the day Killiney was killed and I never saw his fall. For me there are three –
Alverton
in the National when he somersaulted at Bechers Brook –
One Man
at Aintree – I actually had a premonition as the night before I had a horrible nightmare which featured the Racing Post’s headline – very spooky – and
Ten Plus
falling in Desert Orchid’s Gold Cup – I thought he was OK as he got up and seemed to gallop on but he had fractured a fetlock. Three VERY good horses who would have gone on to win many races.
Gloria Victis was a such an exciting horse to watch and a potential superstar.
I was at a point-to-point the day Killiney was killed and I never saw his fall. For me there are three –
Alverton
in the National when he somersaulted at Bechers Brook –
One Man
at Aintree – I actually had a premonition as the night before I had a horrible nightmare which featured the Racing Post’s headline – very spooky – and
Ten Plus
falling in Desert Orchid’s Gold Cup – I thought he was OK as he got up and seemed to gallop on but he had fractured a fetlock. Three VERY good horses who would have gone on to win many races.
Was a crying shame bout Ten Plus (as it is bout any horse thats killed for a sport we love) It would have trotted up in Desert Orchids Gold Cup i think had that not happened.
Your mention of Alverton falling makes me wary of Denman(My current fav horse in its sphere) running in the race (which it seems is certain at some stage),sure the fences arent quite as severe but still can be a minefield at times.
Pretty sombre post for my first on this forum but hello all anywayZemen
– in a Anglo-Arab’s steeplechase earlier this month will always stay with me if only for the amount of effort it seemed to take him to lift his head and look at the crowds in the stands.
Gloria Victis was a such an exciting horse to watch and a potential superstar.
Was in the Cheltenham infield and the sight of the stricken Gloria Victis made my heart sink. While I’d backed Looks Like Trouble, I felt sick. It felt that I was collecting tainted money.
I’ve been interested in racing since I was nine and the first fatality that I experienced was
Pegwell Bay
. I was ten at the time and, of course, it’s deeply upsetting when you start learning about these things.
If memory serves me well, didn’t he get up from the fall? It was seventeen years ago and time has a habit of distorting things!
I, too, remember the death of
Gloria Victis
. His Racing Post triumph is right up there with the best handicap performances I’ve ever seen – quite appropriate to mention this on the same day Denman wins his second Hennessy under top weight. I can still recollect Big Mac telling connections to go for the Gold Cup and forget the staying novice chase at The Festival. Remember McCoy’s reaction?
He reacted very differently to the untimely slip of
Valiramix
. What a talent he could have been. Would have hacked up in that Champion Hurdle. McCoy, clearly unaware of his mounts sad fate, threw his helmet to the ground in frustration.
After the euphoria of his Queen Mother triumph, the death of
One Man
was so cruel. I still remember Clare Balding approaching his owner before the race in the saddling box and he was talking to the horse. He turned to Clare and said "I always tell him just to come back safe".
The only horse to ever win a Hennessy, King George and Champion Chase. Incredible talent.
On a personal note, I was in the Chester infield when
Sir Duke
fell. At first the horse got up and everyone thought he was fine. Then a few minutes later I happened to glance over at his owners who were consoling each other. One gentleman was on the phone to someone and said "They say he’s in too much pain". They watched, holding each other, as he was taken away in the horse box.
I just hope I never have to experience something like that.
I’ve never really forgiven McCoy for what happened when Valiramix fell, and I can still picture him throwing his helmet to the ground. It was such a contrast to Norman Williamson when Nick Dundee fell and he was straight at the horses head to stop him hurting himself further. As for One Man; the saddest day on a racecourse ever, I think.
No one death is any more tragic than the next. Each highlights the uneasy pact we enter into when taking an interest in this sport. For me, it was really hammered home when The Last Fling was killed in the Grand National a few years ago. It’s those talented but unpredictable and sometimes wayward horses that really capture us and for him to lose his life ignominiously out in the country at Aintree was as ironic as it was sad after spearheading the field so boldly for so long. The two sides one the one coin were, for me, never so starkly demonstrated.
Gloris Victis is the hardest loss I can remember for my personal race-watching career. He was just brilliant in the races he won, so exuberant, jumped for fun. McCoy said in an interview a while later, for BBC I think, that his loss was one that really stuck with him because they never really found out how good he was. I seem to remember that he was just digging in and was fighting back in the gold cup when he fell. He wasn’t going to win, but I think if all had gone well he would have learned from the race and could have really gone on. Sadly not to be.
Gloria Victis was the first horse that I thought of after reading the opening post. His demise is a bitter pill that I spat out and never swallowed … I’m just gonna remember him for the potential superstar he was and what could’ve been.
I also recall, going out in a similar way like the above(over hurdles though and one being close to the height of his power), was the fatal fall of the brilliant Celtic Ryde. I was deeply gutted for months after he’d gone. He could’ve been one of the hurdling greats.
Anybody remember Nicky Henderson’s The Proclamation? Killed at Ascot in December 1990, I think.
If memory serves, didn’t Gloria Victis start hanging quite violently to the right before he took his fatal fall? I think he hung right a few times, did he not? Don’t think he’d have won a gold cup because of that but would have pretty much cleaned up elsewhere. It was a massive blow to lose him.
George Washington – brilliant, handsome horse with a special character. Needless demise in a horrible pit of mud.
I’m probably not going to get the details of this right, but I’m sure someone can put me straight. Was it at Bath I think? It was Ei Eirunning at his local course, where he was a real local favourite. He was in the lead in a hurdle race, sure to win if only he could jump the last, everyone cheering him on, and you knew from the second he hit the deck that he was stone dead. He didn’t move a muscle, and I remember how in that split second, you can go from glorious axcitement to sheer horror at what’s just happened.
I remember many more, but that was the biggest shock.A hurdle race at Bath would be more of a surprise than a tragedy,BH. It’s flat racing only.
If anyone is getting depressed
on a most miserable of evenings
my advice isdon’t jump
p.s.
Grey desire had a lot of spats with
a certain person no longer here.I feel sorry for the actual writer ten plus
having to re-live the fallI implore Andrew Tulloch
waterworks clerk at Aintree to
selectively mist up
one of his wet rheumy eyes
and call off his
men like moles
those waterworld junkies
that spray their frightful
juice late on a friday night
aka April 2002Burroughill
that towel its around your head
and I’ve only just twigged
the bath connectionDark Ivy – the grey…
a nasty twist in the air
at Bechers and his neck went
many shouted Rumred
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