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Can I say how good it was to see him on the telly today, and winning too. The man is a true gentleman in every sense of the word.
Agree entirely. It was great to see someone who has put so much into the sport get a little back. For me it would be the result of the meeting if Carruthers could win at the Festival.
I presume she’s still around (I’ve not heard anything to the contrary), but does Lord Oaksey still own Plaid Maid as well? I imagine her racing days are well over, but it’d be nice if she proved able to produce a decent staying chaser or two in any broodmare capacity.
Two things of Lord Oaksey will go with me to the grave – one, his terrifically evocative description of Mandarin’s win against huge odds and equipment failure in the Grand Steeplechase de Paris; and two, his unfettered, kid-at-Christmas joy at being thrown off a crane to do a bungee jump on Midlands National Day live on Channel 4 some, oooh, 15 years or so ago now. Terrific old character.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I presume she’s still around (I’ve not heard anything to the contrary), but does Lord Oaksey still own Plaid Maid as well? I imagine her racing days are well over, but it’d be nice if she proved able to produce a decent staying chaser or two in any broodmare capacity.
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Well she has produced a pretty damn fine staying hurdler already! I was very impressed with Carruthers yesterday. He didn’t nick it from the front but simply jumped far better than anything else in the field and could be a very smart stayer in the making.
He did nick a few lengths at the start but that didn’t make the difference. Jumped really well and displayed a very willing attitude. The mistakes at the last two were a little strange – maybe the jockey not wanting to ask too big a question with the race won. Probably the most impressive aspect long-term was the fact he was still going away at the finish and with another three furlongs the winning margin would have been a distance. On better ground the three miler would have to be a Festival option.
His writing about Mill House as well had me in tears; I can’t remember the name of the book – got it out of the library and always meant to buy it – he may be a sentimental sort of journalist but I’m a sentimental sort of racegoer! There was another horse that he was associated with when he worked for Ch. 4 whose name I can’t remember.
His writing was sentimental but none the worse for it. The Mandarin piece is an exemplary example of racing journalism.
I was delighted to see Carruthers do the business for Lord Oaksey, and it would be marvellous if he won something at the Festival. I remember when Lord O was Audax for H&H (I started reading it young…) and it was the first column I turned to every week. It was always a proper article; flowing, grammatically correct, opinionated but never in an arrogant way. His ‘Story of Mill Reef’ is one of my favourite ever horse racing reads, even though I’m just too young to remember the great horse myself.
His writing was sentimental but none the worse for it. The Mandarin piece is an exemplary example of racing journalism.
I’d prefer ‘passionate’ to ‘sentimental’ though either will do. His fluid prose evokes a deep love of the sport – and in his case a life – that manages to avoid the mawkish, melencholic romanticism the likes of Alistair Down are prone to.
His piece on Mandarin was indeed a benchmark piece of journalism
A charming gent and in many ways an admirable one. I wish him well with Carruthers at the Festival.
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