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racing,like everything else,has it’s share of nice and not so nice people. i worked in stables for a while back in ’69 and i used to live in lambourn in ’66, so i met some jockeys,etc.
the three truly nice guys i met were fulke walwyn,he gave my brother and i a lift in his car while he was driving on the road next to his gallops. he was watching two of his horses doing a canter (i remember one of them was rode by the jockey terry sturrock, because i asked mr walwyn who the riders were). he was a real gent was fw. another one was brough scott. he used to ride out at tim forster’s yard and i got talking to him one day. i told him about the time a year or so earlier when he got beat in a photo by john buckingham and i told him the name of the horse (i remembered it well because it let me down for a winning yankee!). he then described the race to me and exactly what happened! i asked him for a tip and his exact words were ‘have a squeak each way on THE OTTER on saturday’. brough rode it and finished second at 8-1.i didn’t back it as i was broke! what a brilliant fella, polite and so friendly. the third was a lightweight jockey for doug marks called billy jesse. he was more my brother’s friend than mine but he was a smashing little guy. i remember he had a mini car with a record player inside! yeah, now at that time (’66) that was really something! i mentioned a horse that billy always rode called INJUN and i said i thought it was a good horse. ‘a bit one paced’ billy said. i had to ask him what ‘one paced’ meant and he told me. billy sadly died around ten years ago. graham thorner wasn’t so bad, richard pitman was ok. the first day i went to lambourn i went to the local bookies and richard himself was in there with his jodphurs and polo neck sweater on! he was looking at the sporting chronicle that was pinned to the board on the wall.he was riding for fred winter at the time,apprenticed to him i think.
george spann was training in lambourn at that time and some of his stable lads had a reputation for being little hooligans!
i also remember a young lad having his very first ride on the flat (i can’t remember his trainer but it was either f maxwell or g spann i think). the lad’s name was stuart kirby and he was a yorkshire kid, leeds i think. he rode a horse called DAYSPRING. it was a real outsider and hadn’t done very much at all in it’s previous races. i went and listened to the race in the bookies and stuart led all the way until the last furlong and he was overtook by other horses. he still finished fourth and i was so chuffed for stuart.
i was also friends with a young apprentice called martin o’halloran,he worked for doug marks if my memory serves me well. some years later he became a jump jockey and rode a horse called BATCHELORS HALL to a win in a big race that was on tv. i liked martin but my brother didn’t!
well these are a few memories and i hope one or two people find it a little interesting.
ttfn!Hi Kevvo,
A thoroughly enjoyable read, Kevvo. If you can recollect any more similar memories I’m sure we would all appreciate hearing from you again.
What I particularly thought was good are the parts where you can still be pleased about a ride even though it wasn’t a winner. Lots of people fail to give credit where credit is due, simply because the horse and jockey lost.
It would be interesting to know more about what life was like in Lambourn in those days compared to now. Did the jockeys and stable staff do much socializing in the community?
I only ask because these days the Newmarket yards seem to have such a diversity of nationalities and presumably religions working in them that I wonder if there is the same camaraderie or is it a case of everyone just doing their own thing and staying within their own commune?
Thanks
KenIts quite a few years ago now but I met Jim (Best Mate) and Valerie Lewis at Sandown and I have never met met such friendly and down-to-earth people with no airs of graces. It was so sad that she died not long after that.
well thanks for your comments ken. back in ’66 lambourn was THE place to live in. it was only a small place then, a biggish village really. the people were brilliant,the pubs were terrific, the whole area was steeped in horses,horses,horses. my brother left home when he was about 13 years old and god must have looked after hin because he ended up in lambourn after working for peter bailey in sparsholt. he sent me a letter and telling me what a great place lambourn was so i thumbed it down there and moved into some digs run by a woman called DOT, very well known and respected in the village. my brother got me a job with him at didcot power atation (which was being built at the time). hell i was making a fortune! my brother was 16 and i was 17. i must say this, lambourn was the best place i’ve ever been to in my life. we eventually moved in with the family of a friend of my bro’s called matty gudgeon. his family were great,his dad (billy,i think his name was) was a true character. a good drinker and a gambler too! he was originally a geordie. there were always apprentice jocks having a good piss up on a weekend, lambourn was full of them! but they were always sensible enough to not get into any real mischief, they would have been sacked immediately and they knew it. sure,the odd well-known jock would be spotted here and there. i remember seeing doug marks’s jockey david ‘flapper’ yates driving around in his new jaguar!
i never once saw a stable lad that wasn’t white. i’m not saying they didn’t exist, all i say is i never saw any. today there are scores and scores of stable lads and lasses of all colours and nationalities.
for a litle while my bro and i lived in a little house belonging to a guy who was a stable lad for fred winter. his name was harry foster and this guy was truly a one-off! he had been champion apprentice jockey as a young lad. he still had some newspaper cuttings of his exploits as a champion apprentice. plus he had some very old form books that had all the years racing results in, and boy oh boy harry was some bloody good jockey! he’d beaten gordon richards more than once and was held in high regard in certain quarters. harry knew all the tricks of racing, and i mean ALL of them. he once said to me ‘you’re kidding the kid who’s kidded thousands’. and i knew he meant it! harry’s only problem was that he’d hit the pubs (especially on a weekend) and wouldn’t remember his own name at the end of the night! i think harry may have been in his 60’s in ’66. he’ll be well gone now but god bless him.
i worked for tim forster for a little while in ’69. capt forster was a quite a serious guy and didn’t chill out too often. i remember one incident very well. i got a job in his yard as a stable hand. this was on a tuesday and on friday everyone got paid. i got a fiver! this was about a third of what the others got so i went to his house and knocked on his front door. the man himself answered and i explained that i thought i had been paid short. ‘but you’ve only been here a few days’ he said. ‘i know, but i’ve worked as hard as all the rest since then’ i said. he gave me a little look and vanished for half a minute. he came back with another fiver and held it out to me. i took it and said ‘thank you’ and went to the pub nearby to have a few drinks. looking back i
should have said nothing and been grateful he employed me!
i have never been back to lambourn since the end of ’66. i have always wanted to, that is until my brother and his wife went back about ten years ago. he was very disappointed in the total change. he said it had all been built on and that it’s charm had gone. i was so disappointed too by hearing this. i went on google earth a few weeks ago and done a ‘visit’ to lambourn. jeez, i hardly recognised the place. it’s massive by comparison to ’66. and parts of it look a little seedy. that’s a crying shame. i think the yob culture has got a hold on lambourn. if anyone wants to put me right on this then please do so soon!
ttfn!!!Its quite a few years ago now but I met Jim (Best Mate) and Valerie Lewis at Sandown and I have never met met such friendly and down-to-earth people with no airs of graces. It was so sad that she died not long after that.
yeah ken. i have always liked the lewis’s. no airs and graces, just honest folk who were lucky enough to have a great racehorse to own. a bloody shame valerie lewis had to go at such a relatively young age,her and jim were a good match i thought.
Best day’s reading I’ve had on here for ages. Look forward to the next instalment in due course, Kevvy.
A typical day in the yard you were working in would, I imagine, be a good insight for some of us.
Thanks
KI’d like to be the first on this thread to mention Henry Cecil as one of racing’s nice people.
Nine years ago
I don’t know about nice
some gave him a bad press
but plans certainly came together
for Scudamore and his pipe.
It was a rare pleasure
to see if anyone could peg themThe multitude of screens enable Pipe to keep one eye on a claiming race at Auteuil for three-year-old fillies, and another on the 2.30 at Lingfield, where he has a runner, Polar Star….
He is, moreover, the very embodiment of cheery, chuckly Somerset bonhomie, at least on the day I meet him…
"Bookmaking taught me all about probability," he says. "And that’s what racing is about, probability. It also gave me a knowledge of horses and courses. You’ve got to know your horses. There’s no point in a horse being 1,000 per cent fit if he’s only able to win a seller and you enter him for the Derby. Also, I was in charge of the money, in the days when there were no photo machines. So I had to devise systems to manage everything. That taught me how to handle paperwork, and it taught me the importance of keeping records. Now, I keep records of everything. I have 100 horses here, and 50 in the other yard, and their temperatures are taken twice a day. I get a written report about every horse, every day. By 7.30 in the morning I know every horse’s temperature, whether it’s eaten up, whether it has a runny nose or a wet nose…"
Nine years ago
I don’t know about nice
some gave him a bad press
but plans certainly came together
for Scudamore and his pipe.
It was a rare pleasure
to see if anyone could peg themThe multitude of screens enable Pipe to keep one eye on a claiming race at Auteuil for three-year-old fillies, and another on the 2.30 at Lingfield, where he has a runner, Polar Star….
He is, moreover, the very embodiment of cheery, chuckly Somerset bonhomie, at least on the day I meet him…
"Bookmaking taught me all about probability," he says. "And that’s what racing is about, probability. It also gave me a knowledge of horses and courses. You’ve got to know your horses. There’s no point in a horse being 1,000 per cent fit if he’s only able to win a seller and you enter him for the Derby. Also, I was in charge of the money, in the days when there were no photo machines. So I had to devise systems to manage everything. That taught me how to handle paperwork, and it taught me the importance of keeping records. Now, I keep records of everything. I have 100 horses here, and 50 in the other yard, and their temperatures are taken twice a day. I get a written report about every horse, every day. By 7.30 in the morning I know every horse’s temperature, whether it’s eaten up, whether it has a runny nose or a wet nose…"
Who wrote that, Gamble?
Young David seems to be a nice guy as well.
Mr Pilsen
I agree with you totally re Mr Cecil
He is most certainly one of racings nice guys, who has imo, been let down in the past by people who owed him loyalty.
You may get some whingeing from the Piggott brigade re his tax issues on this forum, but you are still correct in my viewI’d like to be the first on this thread to mention Henry Cecil as one of racing’s nice people.
i should have explained that i personally was only telking about nice racing people that i’d MET! as you say, henry cecil is indeed a very nice guy who always comes across well on tv,there are racing people i’ve never met that i know are good guys. like terry biddlecombe,john lawrence, peter o’sullivan, hayley turner (who is a sweet girl with a ready smile). there are many more.
but there’s a reverse. there are people i wouldn’t trust in any way shape or form. like emma ramsden and her mother and father. and one in particular that makes me cringe when i see him on tv. who? well it’s the guy that is in the commentary box with john francombe on channel 4 racing…..JIM MCGRATH. heres my advice to all and everyone…..NEVER TRUST A MAN THAT TALKS TO YOU WITH HIS EYES CLOSED, NOT EVER. mcgrath does it all the time. i squirm when i see him doing it because it shows the utter false sincerity of him, he’s an oily t wat that i wouldn’t trust to give me directions across the road. he’s a racehorse owner but i wouldn’t let him tip me his hat. another smug arrogant b is richard hannon and his jockey and son-in-law richard hughes.
ttfn!I’d like to be the first on this thread to mention Henry Cecil as one of racing’s nice people.
i should have explained that i personally was only telking about nice racing people that i’d MET! as you say, henry cecil is indeed a very nice guy who always comes across well on tv,there are racing people i’ve never met that i know are good guys. like terry biddlecombe,john lawrence, peter o’sullivan, hayley turner (who is a sweet girl with a ready smile). there are many more.
but there’s a reverse. there are people i wouldn’t trust in any way shape or form. like emma ramsden and her mother and father. and one in particular that makes me cringe when i see him on tv. who? well it’s the guy that is in the commentary box with john francombe on channel 4 racing…..JIM MCGRATH. heres my advice to all and everyone…..NEVER TRUST A MAN THAT TALKS TO YOU WITH HIS EYES CLOSED, NOT EVER. mcgrath does it all the time. i squirm when i see him doing it because it shows the utter false sincerity of him, he’s an oily t wat that i wouldn’t trust to give me directions across the road. he’s a racehorse owner but i wouldn’t let him tip me his hat. another smug arrogant b is richard hannon and his jockey and son-in-law richard hughes.
ttfn!Personally I never trust people who use the word telking, they cannot be nice people.
seepigeon, is that the best you can do? are you so pedantic and stupid as to mention me hitting the ‘e’ key instead of the ‘a’ key? are you serious? you really must be petty in all aspects of your life to be so ridiculous as to bring up such trivia as a typing error! oh well, if that’s what floats your boat pal…..
Nine years ago
I don’t know about nice
some gave him a bad press
but plans certainly came together
for Scudamore and his pipe.
It was a rare pleasure
to see if anyone could peg themThe multitude of screens enable Pipe to keep one eye on a claiming race at Auteuil for three-year-old fillies, and another on the 2.30 at Lingfield, where he has a runner, Polar Star….
He is, moreover, the very embodiment of cheery, chuckly Somerset bonhomie, at least on the day I meet him…
"Bookmaking taught me all about probability," he says. "And that’s what racing is about, probability. It also gave me a knowledge of horses and courses. You’ve got to know your horses. There’s no point in a horse being 1,000 per cent fit if he’s only able to win a seller and you enter him for the Derby. Also, I was in charge of the money, in the days when there were no photo machines. So I had to devise systems to manage everything. That taught me how to handle paperwork, and it taught me the importance of keeping records. Now, I keep records of everything. I have 100 horses here, and 50 in the other yard, and their temperatures are taken twice a day. I get a written report about every horse, every day. By 7.30 in the morning I know every horse’s temperature, whether it’s eaten up, whether it has a runny nose or a wet nose…"
oh boy! i wish i had the same kind of faith in pipe and scud as you have gamble! they never once done me a good turn as trainer and jockey. i three times had hefty bets on so-called ‘certs’.one was 11/4 ON and it fell at the fourth fence. the other two were odds on also and both were second. i never backed them again after that. i put the son,david,in the same class as his dad, (NOT GOOD!) but maybe they were kinder to you than me!
Move on quickly, Kevvo, before the moderators get their red pencils and little black books out.
What was that you were saying about a working day in the stables……?
Move on quickly, Kevvo, before the moderators get their red pencils and little black books out.
What was that you were saying about a working day in the stables……?
oh…..(EXPLETIVE ). THESE (EXPLETIVE) MODERATORS SPOIL EVERYTHING!
I’m disappointed to hear that you consider Richard Hannon arrogant Kevvo. I met him by chance on Challow Hurdle day when he was struggling to convince the group he was with that he’d once trained the winner of the race. He started to talk to me on the assumption that I knew Geoff Howard-Spink, who owned said horse, but when I explained that I’d simply left my anorak at home, he was happy to continue the discussion and after the race, offered to shake my hand with a courteous "I’m Richard Hannon by the way, it was a pleasure talking to you." I thought that was a particularly nice, if old-fashioned touch.
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