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It was Ei Eirunning at his local course, where he was a real local favourite.
Market Rasen BH, and it was a sickener.
Bath’s flat only. Ei Ei died at Market Rasen – distance ahead when fell at the final hurdle 9/6/04.
Ei Ei was one of my all-time favourites and I remember his death as if it were yesterday. I still take no pleasure whatsoever from landing a sizeable Placepot that day.
Dark Ivy’s sickening fatal fall in the 1987 National was nearly enough to put my nine-year-old self off racing forever.
Bath’s flat only. Ei Ei died at Market Rasen – distance ahead when fell at the final hurdle 9/6/04.
Thanks one and all for putting me right6. I thought Bath sounded wrong but couldn’t think of the right course.
Was it really that long go? Crikey."aji" wrote: George Washington – brilliant, handsome horse with a special character. Needless demise in a horrible pit of mud.
agree with you totally aji george washington should not have been within a mile of that track that day , one of aob’s worst decisions.
the alverton fall was terrible, he was going so well at the time, and will never forget watching dawn run on the tele , you knew it was going to be the worst outcome when she hit the ground .Just remembered the shock of seeing the beautiful Strong Promise die at Aintree. I adored that horse, he was so handsome, and the fall was so fast and so hard- if I recall correctly the horse began convulsing whilst the camera was still clearly on him. It was obvious it was all over.
Am I right in thinking that that was the only time in his life that Monsieur le Cure ever fell? Which made it even more unfair. It was so strange that Strong Promise should lose his life on the same course as One Man, after having raced against him so many times; I always felt that he was like One Man’s shadow and that somehow they were together again. Also, like One Man, he had just come back and ran a big race at Cheltenham. A stunningly beautiful horse.
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The death of Elvis of Lawrence Wells’s will live long in the memory, if only for the nature of the fall. A friend and I decided to free ourselves of the burden of a 9am lecture and take the train from Bristol to Chepstow. We positioned ourselves on the rail by the winning post for the race in question and, having both invested in the then 11-year-old, were obviously eager to see how he fared. His fall at the first was appalling, irrespective of our financial loss, and the noise which rung around the course won’t leave my consciousness for quite some time.
The greatest loss in general though, for me, has to be Jair Du Cochet, closely followed by his Feltham victim Le Sauvignon.
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
Alverton was my first. I didn’t actually see him run, as I was only 9 and for my sins my parents forced me to go to a schoolfriend’s birthday party (and I mean forced, I had several tantrums). When my mum came to pick me up all I wanted to know was the result. Being a small child I blamed my parents for quite some time…
Someone else has mentioned Strong Promise. I took the afternoon off work to watch the race; I’d been in love with the horse since I’d seen him in at Cheltenham in the Sun Alliance. I knew immediately his fall was fatal, and switched off the TV. Didn’t watch the remainder of the meeting and I don’t think I watched any jump racing until I went to Cheltenham at the start of the following season. I didn’t know until I was talking to a friend a few days later that poor Lake Kariba had collapsed and died after the race as well.
With One Man as well, I’ve come to deeply dislike the Aintree meeting. I went completely to pieces when Denman fell there so I really hope they never send him for the National. Or any other race at Aintree.
I was down by the bend at Cheltenham the day that Martin Pipe lost Draborgie and Mack the Knife, and they both pulled up in front of me. I never was a fan of Pipe but I’ll not forget the look on his face (or David Bridgewater’s) as he walked back down the track.
That was a terrible meeting for Martin Pipe; I remember thinking of Draborgie [who horrifyingly kept on galloping; I can still picture it]you poor dear, we’ve lost you and we still haven’t quite worked out how to pronounce your name. And the Aintree meeting still frightens me.
There’s been quite a few over the years, hasn’t there, so I’ll just mention the earliest I recall – Grey Sombrero somersaulting at the Chair.
The first I can remember that I’d really become attached to was EKBALCO. I’m pretty sure I was watching the Fighting Fifth on a small tv screen in a bar on the cabbage patch at Cheltenham when he went down. It looked to me that the outcome was inevitable, yet all around me carried on as if nothing had happened. Can’t remember anything else of the day just a sense of loss. Lovely quirky enigmatic animal, ideally suited to his rider David Goulding. Anyone else remember them?
Anybody remember Nicky Henderson’s The Proclamation? Killed at Ascot in December 1990, I think.
Correct horse and venue, certainly, though the date was actually January 12th 1990 (that season’s renewal of the Lightning Chase).
What stuck in my mind about that loss at the time was to what extent the BBC dwelled on it afterwards, to the extent of replaying the fall in stop-motion a couple of times.
I can’t recall whether the luckless gelding had already been declared dead by then, and maybe that day’s producers thought they had no option but to put out the replays as he was the joint-favourite in a three-runner field with another 20 minutes’ air-time in between to fill. Either way, I’m not sure terrestrial TV would necessarily have behaved in the same way nowadays.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
There’s a wondeful section in one of Lord Oakseys’ books about Ekbalco, written only as he can, saying how his lass had to lead another horse round for a later race; said something to the effect that ‘she couldn’t stop the tears from falling..’ Must admit to being in my wilderness years when it happened.
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