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I see a TRF bowling-at-a-stump competition here – your deadly dobbers versus Happy Jack’s doosra versus my right-arm-optimistic
Count me in. Last weekend I bowled my three year old with an unplayable off break. Middle stump right out the ground. She never stood a chance.
Nice. Competitive Dad out of The Fast Show lives!
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.
I had long suspected Betlarge was really Ashley Giles – now we have all the proof we need
Thanks for your contributions.
The response was that NH horses can compete longer, due to the flat horses having to exert their energy in a sustained burst, compared to the ambling style of steeplechasing. The effects on horses legs hitting the ground after jumping each fence/hurdle wasn’t considered (or understood).
The writer regarded it improbable that a horse aged 12 on the flat could be competitive at that age, in anything other than the very, very lowest quality of races.
Different breeding, training and racing surfaces didn’t really come into the equation.
The oldest winner this point-to-point season was the seventeen year old Bold Navigator who won the Jedforest Members race at Friars Haugh in February.
Aye. Lovely pic of him in action under Gillon Crow in the Racing Post Weekender at the time, with the caption underneath, “Age shall not weary him”. And it hasn’t!
I resurrect this thread (one of my all-time faves on TRF, for obvious reasons!) to report to those that missed it that Bold Navigator turned out in his Members race at Friars Haugh again last weekend at the even riper, older age of 18. These races are never the most competitive, but he was certainly not disgraced in finishing 5l third to two horses half his age, having made all until two out.
Meanwhile, the 17yo Jemaro finished second to the useful Christy Beamish in the Combined Members at Weston Park the week before, and this weekend’s Members at Cottenham should see Demasta (17) and Moving Earth (15) give good accounts of themselves once again.
All huge assets to the game, still sound enough in wind and limb to make excellent tutors / safe conveyances in the sport. Bless them all.
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.
Oh, and it’s not just the veteran horses you need to look out for. I’ll be at Godstone point-to-point on Sunday, where David Robinson, forever associated with Struggles Glory and now all of 66 years of age (making him the oldest licensed rider in the country), returns to the saddle after an absence of a couple of years.
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.
As already mentioned, Sonny Sommers. He is joint oldest (and latest – Lingfield, 28th Feb 1980) to win a race – at the grand old age of 18.
The oldest horse to take part in a race in Britain was was actually Creggmore Boy, who ended his career by running fourth in a handicap chase at Cartmel on June 9th, 1962. He was 22 years of age at the time.
* The last race he won was six years earlier.
Geezuz "H" 22 years old? I once asked a vet how horse years related to human years……..he reckoned a horse to have had a good life if he lived until he was 26 years old and a man to be 85 year old that would make that horse 72 years old in human terms………..there’s hope for us yet mate
Meanwhile, the 17yo Jemaro finished second to the useful Christy Beamish in the Combined Members at Weston Park the week before,
This was originally posted in February – that second to Christy Beamish looks even better now than it did then, and Jemaro himself shrugged off his advancing years once more to win the Wheatland Members race at Chaddesley Corbett last weekend, gaily pinging off the fast ground with the enthusiasm of a horse half his age.
Truly, anyone unmoved by an old veteran like that still giving the sport so much well into his dotage probably has a heart of Formica.
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.
Does anyone know if the 15yo Indian Gunner (Dr. JRJ Naylor) survived his fall at Wincanton last week?
Unfortunately it looked a neck-breaker, but he has not been reported as ‘dead’ in either the RP or Timeform
According to racehorsememories website you were right, he did unfortunately break his neck, poor old boy.
Thanks for the confirmation. A handy chaser in his prime with a good strike rate, who’s only previous errors were two unseats. Having returned to the track recently after eighteen months off makes his death all the more sad.
Seconded, Drone, a sad loss.
They like their old warriors down at Wincanton, whether that be demonstrated through the provision of veterans’ chases or the warm receptions always accorded the likes of Golden Jack and Walter’s Destiny, so I expect there will have been some very sad faces at the track on learning of Indian Gunner’s demise.
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.
Speaking of old timers, I was amused to see Snoopy Loopy running in the final of the young chasers series at Sedgefield the other week. It was his first outing since running in a veterans chase.
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.
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