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A wander down memory lane prompted by the recent threads ‘I Was There’ and ‘Trainer of Genius’ . I hope it will remind older readers of how things used to be, whilst opening the eyes of younger readers to the massive changes we’ve seen in jump racing.
The date is Friday, December 13th, 1985, the venue is Warwick and the entry in my racing diary states ‘Cold and grey for mainly moderate racing, with the highlight a novice hurdle double for Pipe and a vociferous Chester Barnes’. Martin Pipe had already had enough big winners to be a recognisable name by 1985, but he was still very much viewed as a trainer of cheap horses that raced in low grade hurdle races in an era when the men that produced the chasers (Winter, Walwyn, Nicholson etc) were the establishment. I had an NH annual members badge for Warwick, which cost me the princely sum of £29 for 12 meetings.
The Warwick card that day would be unthinkable now – it included two divisions of a 2M juvenile hurdle, both of which had 25 runners. There were another five juveniles in the conditional jockeys selling hurdle, taking on six four year olds. And also a 2M 4F juvenile hurdle at Doncaster on the same afternoon which had 19 runners. A total of 74 three year olds running over hurdles on the same day, a figure that would surely take a fortnight to match in 2014. That alone gives an idea of the impact the arrival of AW racing through the winter had on the jumping game just a few years later.
But it wasn’t the only surprising field from that card as the 2M Budbrooke Novices Chase had 19 runners, a number that seems positively dangerous in an age so much more sensitive to safety. I doubt if there’s been a 2M chase at Warwick with more than ten runners this century and I suspect that most senior jockeys would refuse to participate in such a cavalry charge. But I made no comment about it at the time and I’m sure it was just the norm – in those days trainers simply accepted that a horse switching from hurdles to fences would need at least three runs in novice races before taking on more experienced chasers in handicaps.
There were just two handicaps on the card, with another 26 runners turning out in the 2M handicap hurdle and a more modern looking 9 in the 3M handicap chase.
The Pipe stable won the opener, Div 1 of the juvenile hurdle, with a horse called Bob and Peter, that they had bought from trainer Jamie Douglas Home after it won a seller in the West country. I’m relying on memory for the results and SPs as the newspaper archive I’m using doesn’t include the Saturday edition, but if I have it right, Bob and Peter was returned at 20/1, ridden by a baby faced seven pound claimer called Jonathon Lower. Div 2 was run 90 minutes later and this time Lower was riding My Dominion, bought off the flat by Pipe for 300gns and already the winner of three juvenile selling hurdles.
It was just before this race that I found myself stood next to Chester Barnes in the Members stand and we fell into conversation, which I started by recalling a horse Pipe had claimed off me a few years earlier. Chester showed me a betting slip which had Bob and Peter in a double with My Dominion and I think the sum involved was £100 ew. As I had binoculars and Chester didn’t, and of course this was long before the arrival of big screens (or indeed any sort of pictures of the racing), I ended up giving him a running commentary that focussed entirely on the progress of My Dominion. I was able to give a positive report throughout and the horse ran out an easy winner, hardly surprising as he went on to win much better races later in the season.
Chester, to put it mildly, went nuts, charging down the steps waving his betting slip, yelling and shouting at the top of his voice. I’m pretty sure Warwick had seen nothing like it since I had reacted in much the same way after watching my first flat winner as an owner there, one evening in June 1981 – and my bet had only been £1000/60. I’ve really no clear memory of the SP for My Dominion, but Chester reckoned he’d won around twenty grand, which would suggest a price of approx 8/1. If anybody has a 1985 form book and can confirm the results, I’d be grateful.
My diary also shows it wasn’t a good day for me, as my sole bet in the 2M handicap hurdle fell at the second. But it was the day that opened my eyes to the approach used by Pipe, starting horses in the lowest grade and moving them up as they gained experience, a recognition that produced plenty of nice priced winers over the next few years.
So, I was there, and a genius was at work.
AP
Nice story, AP, which, coincidentally, was the first thing I read on returning from my afternoon dog walk which crosses the old gallops of a long-dead trainer from my village – James Barrett. When I was 13 I used to watch Len Lungo (then 17) come swinging up those gallops. He went on, as you’ll recall, to ride M Pipe’s first winner – Hit Parade.
(By the way, folks, R Pitman’s biography of Pipe is one of the best racing books you’ll read)
I doubt if there’s been a 2M chase at Warwick with more than ten runners this century
Time doesn’t permit a deeper delve into the archives this afternoon, but I can confirm that of 28 minimum-trip chases run at Warwick since the start of 2010 (14 handicaps, 11 novices and three beginners), only one has managed to attract more than ten runners on the day:
http://www.racingpost.com/horses/result_home.sd?race_id=567722&r_date=2012-12-09&popup=yes#results_top_tabs=re_&results_bottom_tabs=ANALYSIS
Disappointing overall, especially as regards to novice races; if you want to establish how good your young chaser is at jumping fences at high speed in quick succession, are there too many better tests of precisely that skill than the five down the back at Warwick?
Anecdotal evidence suggests the fields for handicap chases over longer trips tend towards 11 or more with a little greater frequency, and not just in flagship events such as the Warwick National.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
The Warwick card that day would be unthinkable now – it included two divisions of a 2M juvenile hurdle, both of which had 25 runners. There were another five juveniles in the conditional jockeys selling hurdle, taking on six four year olds. And also a 2M 4F juvenile hurdle at Doncaster on the same afternoon which had 19 runners. A total of 74 three year olds running over hurdles on the same day, a figure that would surely take a fortnight to match in 2014. That alone gives an idea of the impact the arrival of AW racing through the winter had on the jumping game just a few years later.
I still struggle to be convinced that this is necessarily a bad thing. Realistically, how many of these former Flat recruits would ever have had a cat in hell’s of holding their own in a 20-something runner field of juvenile hurdlers, much less win one? Can’t imagine everything being asked to evolve into a dual-purpose performer had either the scope or aptitude to do so.
That Doncaster race does evoke rather more wistful memories, however. I can’t be alone in watching a lot of juvenile hurdles in the earlier throes of the season and thinking, "That horse is totally wasted running at this trip; why on Earth aren’t there 2m4f-plus opportunities for three-year-olds anymore?" Even the stretch 2m2f at Fontwell just isn’t adequate for something that’s been used to contesting 2m Flat handicaps mere weeks before.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Smashing post Alan, I was probably there too!
Extraordinary changes in the way races are framed and subscribed nowadays and although I would agree to some extent with GC that 25-runner juvenile hurdles are a bit OTT, it shows at least that there was a clear pattern of flat-to-jumps for many horses, now diminished as you say by the All-Weather.
I am concerned about the falling number of runners over the jumps nowadays (It is falling, yes? Certainly seems to be.). Again today only 4 out of 14 races would permit three places each-way and this pattern seems to be on the up.
Prize money is crap for sure, but it always was. Maybe we can mark this decline down to a combination of economic stagnation and a plethora of All-Weather alternatives. I haven’t had a bet of any sort for well over a year and not on jump racing for probably 18 months. Nothing I see today is really enticing me back into the game.
Mike
Although this period in the jump season has always been prone to small fields (too many meetings, none of which get abandoned), I’d agree that the problem seems more serious this year.
Of course it’s not just the AW that has changed things since 1985 – we didn’t have NH Flat races then, nor did we have novice handicaps. And the handicaps we did have weren’t constrained by low top weights and tight rating bands. The winner of the 3M handicap chase that day carried 12st 2lbs, with three of the nine runners on 10st.
Fewer meetings as well – just the two per day that week, with three on Saturday and of course, none on Sunday.
And lastly, the whole NH game was more – well I’m not sure what the right word is – but less fixated on the Saturday programs. To give two examples, the winner of that 3M chase was Roadster, who had run at Cheltenham seven days earlier (I know this as there’s a losing bet on him in my account from Cheltenham!). And at a previous Warwick meeting on Nov 16th, I’ve a record of a winning bet on Run and Skip and seven days later he ran second in the Hennessy, where I gave back most of my Warwick profits.
In simple terms, the good horses ran more often, something they could do because far more races were open to them than is the case nowadays. Hard to imagine any candidate for the big one at Newbury being rated low enough to run at Warwick these days.
My Dominion had won three hurdles before he ran at Warwick, but only had a single 7lb penalty. Now he’d have a 21lb penalty, regardless of the fact that his wins had been at a lower level. The rules were changed simply because Pipe kept finding horses that could win six, seven, eight or nine times in novice company and most novice races now have restrictive conditions that automatically limit the field size. My Dominion ran twelve times in the 1985-6 season, winning seven. I don’t think it would be possible to emulate that now as only Graded races would be an option after three wins.
APRacing,
Please find a link to the racing results for Friday 13th 1985 where you will find you are spot on with the results and prices.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1dhbdjeyrutnvlk/warwick1985.tiff?dl=0
Thanks for that – nice to know that my memory still holds info from 30 years ago, even though I’ve already forgotten what won most of the races last weekend.
APRacing,
Please find a link to the racing results for Friday 13th 1985 where you will find you are spot on with the results and prices.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1dhbdjeyrutnvlk/warwick1985.tiff?dl=0
A blast from the past third in the last race at Warwick there…Star Of A Gunner!
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
Star Of A Gunner, probably saddled by Pat Murphy, then assistant to Richard Holder, and who later trained several horses for me.
Pat Murphy rode one for the stable in Div 2 of the juvenile hurdle and his younger brothers, Declan and Eamon, also rode on that Warwick card. Declan rode the runner-up in the Star Of A Gunner race, The Tariahs, trained by Barney Curley.
Can anybody think of another example of three brothers riding together – I could only come up with the possibility of the Hills twins and current trainer Charlie, who did ride as an amateur in the late 90’s.
You’ve got the Smith brothers, Doug and Eph (flat), Charles (PTP).
If you count siblings, step forward Paul, Philip and Nina Carberry.
Four Alexander brothers competed in the Fife Hunt Members point-to-point a few years back, David, Jamie, Michael and Nick. Not sure that more than two of them ever appeared under Rules at the same time. Presumably Mr G Column may be able to clarify, assuming he looks in occasionally.
From the same family there may a chance that three Alexander siblings could ride at the same time, though I’d have to confirm if Nick’s youngest daughter has any pretensions to be a jockey and compete with Lucy and Kit. She’s certainly a regular at the races.
Rob
I don’t want to belittle the thread but Aidan O’Brian has all his brilliant offspring in the saddle these days.
Every day there seems another O’ Brian riding.I’ve enjoyed your post. NH has changed forever, I believe with the mass imports of French horses. National Hunt stores used to be slow maturing horses brought through the ranks from NHF to chasers, usually taking about 3 seasons. The rise of very commercial trainers who want fast profitable results for their owners do not want these slow maturing horses. It is very difficult as an owner to put money into the type of horse that raced in AP’s post. NH racing used to be about the skill in finding and developing National Hunt horses, now its all about finding something from the Aga Khan’s disposal sale and paying a fortune for the ready made article. The real NH people are dwindling fast, with P2P being more reflective of that era. I have posted this before but a friend bought 9 Irish stores, not one made it to being a chaser, they won NHF and hurdles, but with todays quest to make horses quickly all had career finishing injuries by 7. If you buy a 3 yr old store in June, it may run in the following spring at 4, the maths then tell you how long to make a chaser, it will then be beaten by a French 4yr old in a novice chase. Why bother.
NH has changed forever, I believe with the mass imports of French horses.
This was being said 50 years ago.
In the first 15 to 20 years after the war, vast numbers of French-bred horses were running here over the jumps.
3 CGC winners, Fortina, Mont Tremblant and Mandarin.
2 CH winners, Sir Ken and Clair Soleil.Plenty of other Festival winners, especially in the Gloucester Hurdle, eg Vulgan.
Also, 8 out of 13 Triumph Hurdle winners from 1950 to 1962, starting with Abrupto and ending with Beaver II.
So nothing particularly new is happening.
I love National Hunt racing ; more so than flat racing .
However, just one negative though – summer jumps racing.
I cannot be doing with it .
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