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I’d be surprised if this subject hasn’t been covered here before.
In case it hasn’t then perhaps the time has come to introduce the under-60s among us to one Peter (PJ) Poston, a Newmarket trainer of the 1960s & 1970s.
Poston had highly original ideas concerning the economics of racing as evidenced in an interview with Clement Freud which can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sludgeulper/3392191141/sizes/l/in/photostream/.
Not discussed in the article is Poston’s revolutionary theory about breeding. He calculated that since every racehorse could be traced back to The Darley Arabian, The Godolphin Arabian and The Byerley Turk, it meant that they all have the same breeding (more or less). Therefore he didn’t see the point of paying a fortune for a fashionably bred racehorse when you could get roughly the same horse for almost nothing.
Poston would pay on average about 100 guineas for his horses but he did concede that, “Once you get below 90 guineas you sacrifice quality”.
Adding fuel to the Poston legend, racing historian Chris Pitt tells of an incident whereby Poston once put up a Polish jockey on a horse of his in a race at Catterick.
Poston didn’t speak Polish and the jockey had no English. The only other Polish speaker in the vicinity was a German rider but he didn’t understand English, either. An English speaker who also spoke German was apparently located. The trainer gave his riding instructions in English to the English/German guy who then passed them on in German to the German/Polish speaker who delivered them in Polish to the Polish jockey. Any queries presumably came back via the same route, only in reverse.
History does not record the result of the race, or indeed whether or not riding instructions were followed, but considering the generally poor quality of Poston’s horses it probably didn’t matter anyway.
Poston did allow one star prospect to slip through his fingers. In his book ‘Hitting The Turf’, David Ashforth describes an interview with Poston during which the subject of the mare Athene arose. Having bought Athene for 140 guineas as a yearling, probably top dollar for him, Poston failed to win a race with her and gave her away as a prize in a £1 raffle. “It was a very generous gesture,” Ashforth records, because Athene would later give birth to Rheingold, winner of the 1973 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
According to Ashforth, Poston ended up living “in a tiny caravan in somebody’s front garden”, so while his theories were never less than interesting it can’t be unequivocally stated that they brought him a great deal of success.
I would have liked to have met this man.
He sounds like a proper character! Somebody should make a film about him.
Screenplay ~ Alan Bennett
The Man In A Caravan
Could be a real blockbuster.
I remember as a teenager all those runners he used to have around the Scottish tracks. Pidgeon Toes was a Hamilton regular.
I daresay these days the dodge he was running for travel allowances – training way down south and basing half his string in Scotland – would be quickly jumped on today.
There’s probably a book waiting to be written on Racing’s Eccentrics; the only really well known one, imo, is Dorothy Paget.
Maybe Alan P will have one or two for us in his next Memory Lane piece
I think Hen Knight is a bit of an eccentric. Who’d have thought that she’d team up with the late Terry B? Chalk and cheese. The way she couldn’t watch Best Mate run as well, not just turn away but run to the car park – did she do this with other horses in her charge? She used to back the other runners in the field as well, so if Besty got beat at least she made a few bob
And lastly, when she’s interviewed she just seems eccentric.I rest my case.
John Manners was often described as eccentric, he got fined when Cavalero won the Foxhunters as he got onto the course and ran up the run in after him. A journalist sent down to interview him stayed the night and recalled John riding Cavalero across the stable yard full tilt at midnight, jumping the gate and disappearing down the country lane shrieking as he went.
John Manners was often described as eccentric, he got fined when Cavalero won the Foxhunters as he got onto the course and ran up the run in after him. A journalist sent down to interview him stayed the night and recalled John riding Cavalero across the stable yard full tilt at midnight, jumping the gate and disappearing down the country lane shrieking as he went.
JM, yes he was a strange one. I remember Clare Balding being in fits of laughter when he was interviewed and was putting two fingers up to the BBC.
I think Hen backed them using my reasoning that if she backed them they’d lose.
Yeah
There’s two rather good Downisms about John Manners:
‘always seemed to arrive at the races with half his breakfast clinging to his tie’
and on one of his horses, the majestic Killeshin:
‘regarded the Grand National as something of a namby-pamby sprint’
The incident in which he chased his horse up the run-in happened long before Cavalero came along – I was there to see it, at one of the Cheltenham Hunter Chase evening meetings. Here’s the story taken from his obituary in the Post:
“The abiding image many will have is of the day, in 1982, when Knight Of Love galloped up the hill at Cheltenham, to give Manners his first victory at jump racing’s Mecca. Just in case Knight Of Love changed his mind, Manners vaulted the running rail and chased the winner, waving his hat.
Unlike everyone else, the stewards were not amused, and fined £50 for improper conduct”
Knight Of Love had shown himself almost as eccentric as his owner/trainer before the race, as he kept deliberately trying to stamp on the foot of the unfortunate lad leading him up as they walked round the paddock. The lad eventually lost patience and gave the leading rein to Manners, who slapped the horse on the shoulder every time he tried it on until the horse lost interest in the game.
They were a well matched pair!
Manners was banned for 3 years in 1988 following the triumph of Voices of Spring at his local point-to-point at Siddington, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire.
The sweet taste of victory quickly turned to ashes when the trainer was observed by mystified spectators to be putting the weight cloth on the horse after the race instead of before it (like everybody else).
Stories concerning Manners abound. I’m sure the aforementioned David Ashforth has written about him, and maybe it was he who revealed to an unsuspecting world that Manners was in the habit of mowing his lawn in the middle of the night wearing only long johns or, subject to favourable weather conditions, totally naked.
Another Manners story, and one that illustrates his capacity for celebrating a winner.
His wife Audrey had been at Newcastle saddling up Killeshin for a run in the 1996 Eider Chase. Upon her return she found a note, as follows:
“Darling Audrey. Gone to bed drunk with happiness (scotch). You looked super on the box. I felt very proud of you. Come and get it! If you want it! XXXXX.”
Manners must have been all of 70 at that time and his stamina should be admired. In fact, I’m wondering who had the most arduous outing – Killeshin ploughing through 33 furlongs of Newcastle’s rain-softened turf or Manners ensconced in the marital bedroom with Audrey.
I remember as a teenager all those runners he used to have around the Scottish tracks. Pidgeon Toes was a Hamilton regular.
steeplechasing – Poston’s most prolific horse was undoubtedly Homefield, another frequent visitor to Scotland. This horse had an unusual form profile. He started 1973 as a 5-y-o maiden but improved to win 5 handicaps that year. He was off the course in 1974 and ran unplaced in all his outings in 1975. Then in 1976 he rediscovered his vigour to win another 5 races. He was a front runner who loved firm ground and would invariably slip his field and come home unchallenged.
I’m willing to bet my maximum that Homefield was Poston’s only runner in a group race. On the crest of his 1973 sequence Poston put him in the Goodwood Cup, in which he again went clear only to be swallowed up by Proverb and the rest early in the straight.
Do you recall the horse?
And lastly, when she’s interviewed she just seems eccentric.
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