- This topic has 45 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 11 months ago by
.
- Posts
100% agree with Drone.
I was there that day, no big screen, Downs packed and when Cauthen emerged round Tattenham Corner and there was a pregnant, three-second pause, before another runner came into view, there was a momentary stunned silence and then the most almighty roar you ever heard as the crowd, most of who were on Slip Anchor, realised Cauthen had got the race won fully 3f out.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Was that a dubbed commentary?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysPiggott is probably the only jockey ever to be suspended for excessive use of somebody else’s whip.
Some here might recall the 1979 Grand Prix de Deauville in which Lester stole Alain Lequeux’s persuader, receiving a 20-day compulsory holiday for his trouble. His justification was, “Well, he wasn’t going to need it.”
Get well soon, Lester.
Cauthen on Reference Point (Dante, Derby, King George & St Leger), Shavian (St James Place) and Old Vic in the French Derby (when it was run at the right distance) were other masterclasses of front running.
You watch riders today go from the front and it is very much stop start, stack them up and then sprint and hope you hold on – the skill with Cauthen was he went a proper gallop but somehow knew how to conserve his mounts energy enough to that they would see out the trip and very rarely fall in a hole a furlong out.
Cauthen on the front was lethal and before or since there hasn’t been a jockey that could touch him in that sphere.
Steve Cauthen: English Odyssey is well worth a read.
“Piggott is probably the only jockey ever to be suspended for excessive use of somebody else’s whip.”
I seem to recall an amateur jockey riding in that race for amateur riders at the Cheltenham Open meeting got banned for taking another jockey’s whip after he had dropped his own.
Not sure if he also got another ban for excessive use of it.
When Cauthen was in front you knew they weren’t going too fast.
When Cauthen was at the back you knew they were.
He was just smarter than everyone else tbh.
I saw him nick race after race with his brilliant judgement of pace during that golden era.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“Cauthen on Reference Point (Dante, Derby, King George & St Leger), Shavian (St James Place) and Old Vic in the French Derby (when it was run at the right distance) were other masterclasses of front running.”
To be fair, Reference Point and Old Vic were vastly superior to their opponents anyway. As long as they weren’t held up and ridden for speed, they would’ve won those races ninety nine times out of a hundred.
“I seem to recall an amateur jockey riding in that race for amateur riders at the Cheltenham Open meeting got banned for taking another jockey’s whip after he had dropped his own.
Not sure if he also got another ban for excessive use of it.”
I’m not sure whether Piggott got another ban for it either.
I was using excessive in the sense that any use of Lequeux’s whip was excessive, given that the practice of stealing whips mid-race is strictly illegal.
I could have been clearer.
Reference Point’s King George was a field stacked with multiple G1 winners including Triptych who had already won 6 G1s and that year went on to win a further 3 more, Unite (English/Irish Oaks), Sir Harry Lewis (Irish Derby), Moon Madness (St Leger & Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud), Tony Bin (3 G1s including the Arc), Acatenango (7 G1s).
So I wouldn’t say he was vast superior to that field but I take your point for the Dante/Derby/St Leger but each of those races had their own difficulties as the Dante was his first run back as a 3yr old which was delayed due to sinus surgery which ruled him out of the 2000g, the Derby both jockey and trainer said he was all at sea on the course yet still came close to a new course record and the St Leger was 2F further than he had ever run before.
Old Vic going into the French Derby was a bit of an unknown quantity having won a Newbury stakes race, Sandown’s Classic Trial & the Chester Vase and actually only started 4th favourite – yes he went on to win the Irish Derby and was officially the joint top rated horse with Zilzal on 134 but it was still a sublime front running performance at Chantilly.
While Cauthen was equally adept at waiting tactics, especially when he considered the pace up front too strong, he did particularly excel on front runners.
Before The Derby in 1985, one thing stopping Slip Anchor from being even shorter than the 9/4 he eventually started at was a very British doubt about whether a colt could make all in a then-modern Derby.
No other colt had done it in 59 years, not since Coronach in 1926, in fact.
But Cauthen was an intelligent young man with complete confidence in himself and it was the only Derby in my lifetime where, due to consummate jockeyship, the commentator was able to call the winner literally at Tattenham Corner.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“It was the only Derby in my lifetime where, due to consummate jockeyship, the commentator was able to call the winner literally at Tattenham Corner.”
How about Serpentine in the Lockdown Derby?
I recall reading an interview with Mr Cauthen a few days after the race. He said when he was watching the race he turned to his wife after the horses had gone about half a mile and said “The one in front has won it.”
If Serpentine had been favourite, everyone would have called him the winner at Tattenham Corner. But he was a 20/1 chance ridden by a work rider, so our minds told us he had to come back to the others. Even though it was obvious he was going well and much too far clear to be caught.
I think you answered your own question CAS.
Terrible aftertiming, I know, but I actually had a few quid on the horse myself.
And although I could see he was travelling well in front, and I was full of hope, I didn’t actually believe he was going to win the race until well inside the final furlong for the reasons you state.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"More a case of the other riders ignoring him and giving him too much rope which does happen every now and then – interesting to note that Cauthen is due to be part of ITV’s Derby coverage so hopefully we will get a true jockey’s perspective of the vagaries of riding Epsom rather than the Weaver waffle.
Kind of got sidetracked from the actual topic, just a shame the great man will not be at the race this year – hopefully it won’t be the last time but at his age hospital visits are now more worrisome than they would normally be….fingers crossed for a swift recovery
I think, when all is said and done, when I have my last moments and they say “one more racing replay David, what’s it to be” …it’ll be the 1977 Derby.
Good luck to Lester
“… it’ll be the 1977 Derby.”
For me, it’ll always be the 1982 Ascot Gold Cup.
Greatest jockey and greatest stayer (Henry was a great trainer but behind both Vincent O’Brien and Martin Pipe in my opinion) treating their supposed opposition with the utmost contempt.
Lester in a bottle.
1968, a different world, and Lester Piggott in all his brilliant arrogant glory on Sir Ivor….
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.