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Following the very successful Q&A with Simon Rowlands I’m delighted that RICHARD PITMAN has agreed to be the next to go under the TRF spotlight glare.
I’m sure everyone who follows racing is aware of Richard’s career as a jockey, broadcaster and author. 470 winners, many riding for the great Fred Winter, and that legendary ride on Crisp in the 1973 Grand National, preceded a long career in the media, including a long association with the BBC.
More recently Richard was in the news for donating a kidney to a stranger in a selfless act that won him a place in the hearts of many of us.
Please put your questions to Richard on this thread.
I’ll close it off next Sunday afternoon (1st December) so get your questions in by then.
Hi Richard
Do you ever get tired of talking about Crisp losing the Grand National?
What is your opinion of the BBC totally pulling out of showing horse racing?
The BBC had been cutting back for years but did have the Crown Jewels but due to the legislation that allowed bookmakers to advertise, they got the funds to double the beebs price, it was all down to money, once we lost the G National, I did not want to continue with ATR, if not have the best, why do the rest, so I retired quietly after 53 yrs working in racing .Hi Richard,
very good of you to come under the glare. I was at Brighton racecourse a good while ago – I know it was long ago, as Miriam Francome gave me a rather nice wink or look (she was post Francome then)and I replied with a rather sheepish look. That never happens now, as I amble through city parks, mostly trying to avoid the throngs of people.That particular day was possibly late autumn and it was sunny and crisp
and there you were talking with sound techies at their lorry,on the grass near parade, and seemingly having a bit of a laugh. You have always exhibited a sunny cheerful positive disposition on TV, and there in private and behind the scenes, it was the same happy go lucky person, or so it seemed.My first questions are – how do you keep so cheerful ? Have you enjoyed your career in the racing industry and as an ongoing writer ? and what else might you have done if those careers hadn’t presented themselves ?
Is it, difficult for jockeys to make that transition to the camera ? As well as you, John Francome, John Oaksey, Brough Scott, Richard Scudamore, Richard Dunwoody, and Walter Swinburn have all been under the lights. Yourself out of the three Richards, and both Johns seemed to have had that easier, whimsical, more natural and fun approach to the job.
Do you see jockeys in the limelight in the future, and do you see any current jockeys with this potential ability continuing this trend in broadcasting ? or is it more competitive now ? and do you think a jockey’s views are particularly significant or important to the viewing public, and any more or less so now than then ?
Now McCoy is outstanding, his post race ints after winning puts things in perspective, never over hypes them , i.e after My Tent or Yours ‘How could the bookies shorten his Ch H odds after beating horses rated 30 pounds less, he did what the form book told you, he had not improved but may do so’. Most riders in the heat of the moment overreact. Ruby Walsh, Barry G are excellent but all earn so much now I doubt they would be interested in tv work. Noel Fehily will probably train and with Mick Fitz so good now there will be little room, the sky channels don’t pay enough to tempt the names.Riders have continued to raise the bar with five or six as good as the best of past eras when one jock outshone the rest.
In my day Fred Winter told me I was prob the fith best at the time but horses jumped better for me than most and I was honest, when Paul Kelleway shared the job with me but was sacked after a year, he told me there was no justice in the world as he could ride and got the boot, I could talk and retained it.McCoy is better now than ever, he lifts horses from his body strength not the whip and his pain threshold is higher than anyone I have known and unlike Lester P he has time for race fans despite demands on his time, wasting daily and extensive travel are killers but he swallows it all, we will not see such dedication again, he should be BBC personality again but Andy Murray’s year will secure it .
Yes I do see jocks as important but only as a part of the mix and aren’t we lucky now that trainers realise the value of an interview plus letting the cameras into their stables, we are in an unprecedented age of information to the public.
Hi Richard.
Thanks for taking the time to do the forum Q@A.
Firstly may I congratulate you again on winning TRF Hero of the year for 2012, the world needs more selfless individual’s such as yourself. You are an inspiration and I’m hoping to be able to donate bone marrow at some stage in the future, I will have to discuss this with the renal team as I received a kidney(going really well and on minimal medication) last year but I’m hoping everything is ok and that I am able to donate and that I can give something back.*edit
I was told today that I am not able to donate because of the medication I am on but you are more than welcome to donate instead Richard.
What is your opinions on the organ donor system, people go along myself previously included with head in clouds and until something happens to oneself or family member/friends we become a bit oblivious to it all.
Do you think an opt out organ donor system would be a better than an opt in one?
Nathan, well done for getting through the kidney situation and double well done for offering your bone marrow, my son in law has done it and yes if they would have me, I’d do it.
I think it should be opt out not in as it is in Wales. It will come. I was number 71 in the five years it has been legal to give one altruistically, now, less than two years later we have topped the two hundred mark so it is gathering pace. It is the single most satisfying thing I have ever done and the body check up over six months prior was a free MOT.
My aim is together a real name to donate as it is not too tough, I was out of hospital in two days,driving in two weeks, riding a week later and fannied about in the Legends race at Aintree in ten weeks (they ran out of Legends so dropped down to me aged 69.)
What in your opinion is the difference in skill levels/fitness/professionalism between the jockeys of your era and of those today if any?
Style and fitness has gone through the roof since my days
, we pushed and kicked for a bit, had a rest on the horses neck then pushed a bit more. Now they can ride a horse from start to finish. Each of our champions were good amongst their peers. Fred Winter, Terry Biddlecome, Josh Gifford, Francome, Scu, Dunwoody and now The real McCoy . My only gripe is this toe in the stirrup fad, some riders come off too easily but the best have great stick ability .Finally do you miss your TV job, what was it like, who did you best get on with and were you under any kind of pressure to retire?
Without doubt working with Clare B was the best of my days, she was brought in to break the old Julian Wilson mould which had been strong for so long but never moved with the times , he was only comfortable in a studio on course, look where they get to now .
The bomb scare race ,the void contest and numerous stunts around Aintree are memorable. I prototyped the helmet cam when it and the necessary satellite works weighed twelve pounds on my head plus a load of batteries around my waist , health and safety would never allow it now. Great days but I never had an ego to feed or the ambition to do any more than my job, the same as when riding. A decent enough team player but never captain .
Thanks again Richard and all the best for the future.
Blackbeard to conquer the World
Hi Richard,
What price would I be in a match with you in that race we’re going to have along the Ridgeway next spring?
Joe
Joe, no chance of beating me as I will be supplying the horses and know the terrain, stick to what you know and get on with finishing your next but first solo novel, good luck.
Hi Richard
I am asssuming of the horses you rode Killiney was the one with the most unfulfilled potential? Did you believe that he was a potential Gold Cup horse? Everyone of a certain age will remember him but were there any other horses that you rode that for one reason or another didn’t quite reach the heights expected?
Aside from Crisp was Pendil’s defeat of Helmsman in the Massey-Ferguson (?) the best weight carrying performance you were associated with?
I would love to see that race again. We are lucky to have many old races on You Tube but relatively few from the 70s which for me was something of a vintage period. Through your association with the BBC do you know if the BBC holds an archive of the old Cheltenham Festival broadcasts from the 70s? If so I am sure I am not the only one who would love to see the races (in full) again – perhaps the BBC could liaise with Cheltenham?
What did you think of Andy Turnell as a rider? Has there ever been anyone else who has come close to emulating his riding style?
Thanks
Pendil won eleven in a row, often very easily and on the bridle but under me and in my hands I could feel him pulling easing up . He was a horse that curled up under the whip, he just loved fighting which became our undoing in the ’73 Gold Cup. We had made plans, me wanting to come half way up the hill yet Fred Winter reasoned he’d rather get beaten from my coming too soon than making a mistake at the last and not getting there, how prophetic those words were. His defeat by The Dickler hurt me personally as Pendil was far superior every other time we met. Those who say we did not get the trip are wrong, he was in front a stride after the line and had we raced to the stables would have bee lengths in front.
Then, horses like Arkle regularly gave stones away in major hcaps inc. Crisp and that was the reason he came here as the Oz’s were trying to put so much weight on him, his owner thought it unfair to the horse.
Andy Turnell rode so short he could have been Lester Pigott so his balance must have been superb but in turn he pulled far more horses up in races than any other rider, surprising owners by saying they would win next time. His reasoning was not to bottom them just to finish a tired fourth or fifth, now that would be construed as schooling in public and loads of suspensions. In the ’75 G Nat he rode just as short as in a hurdle race until slipping the reins on landing over Bechers but missed the buckle end to do a backwards roll over the horses tail, in doing so he pulled Paul Kelleway out of Barona’s saddle, the two riders ending up in the grass holding hands!
On that score remember Piggot rode twenty six winners over jumps, can you see Dettori trying the same thing?Hello Richard
As a recipient myself of a life-changing kidney from a loved one, I would like to take this opportunity to heartily congratulate you for your fantastic altruistic donation!
Can I ask what was the ‘tipping point’ that led you to this action? And now that time has passed, how do you feel about your decision today?
Regarding racing, comparing today to when you were riding, what do you regard as the main changes for the better and for the worse in the National Hunt game?
Regards,
Mike
Re kidney donation, a pal of mine’s first kidney was failing after 27 yrs and he was dying in front of me but would not let me donate, nor his kids. He was 8003rd on the list so no chance but from a fatality a perfect match popped up and I saw him go from dying to flying so I thought if that’s what it did, I would donate one, most satisfying thing I have ever done . My recipient writes anonymously to the hospital and his letters make me very emotional.
Two days in hospital, driving in two weeks, riding in three and rode in the old farts race at Aintree just ten weeks after donation. I don’t feel good, just useful. No side effects either.
Biggest changes are removal of concrete posts on racecourses, head and body protectors, jocks style, softening of fences, Aintree, access to trainers/jocks thoughts pre and post race, seven day week racing plus nights in the summer, all weather surfaces, racing run on professional level instead of by ex-military officers on a decent pension, the Injured Jockeys Fund , I could go on but am just off out for supper with my wife Mandy of 35 years!
Hi Richard,
Since you started in racing, in order, who do you consider the top 5 jumps jockeys, the top 5 jumps trainers and who do think is the best jumps jockey never to be champion(Jeff King must be in with a shout)?
Thanks
After him Ruby , Barry G and Brian Hughes would hold their own against Dunwoody , Scu and Francome but there are so many who have differing qualities. Noël Fehily and Carl Llewellyn are outstanding without the flamboyancy but their rapport with horses and jumps is a model for younger ones to follow. Before that Fred Winter, Martin Maloney and Brian Marshall were outstanding but things have changed so much it is wrong to attempt a top five.Trainers are less obvious depending on your punting, or horsemanship views. The biggest are not necessarily the best but have to be good at everything to get where they are. Some of the smaller yards do not want to be bigger, it takes their life over totally. Martin Pipe revolutionised training by not being bound to old handed-down views, he got his fitter than most, they made the running and kept going. Before him horses from most yards were used on the course to get them ready.
Pipes were always ready. His use of conditions to get one handicapped was just common sense, if a horse was a bad traveller, send it to Scotland, it would sweat for eight hours, not drink and run badly. No. Rules broken there and how could a handicapper ever know that. Running horses over the wrong distance, wrong way round, L or R, on the wrong going or shape of track were ways to get them back to a winning mark.
In the 60’s Peter Cazalet invented interval training because his park gallops were only two and a half furlongs and uphill. He also bought over numerous French horses, that died out for several decades and now look at those in Nicholls, Henderson, Alan King, Nick Williams stables.
The Easterbys, WA Stephenson and Gordon Richards all very cleaver men, Tony and Michael Dickinson well ahead of the game , you can’t have a fav five!
Of the young ones look to Harry Fry, Antony Honnyball, Charlie Longsdon, Dan Skelton, Tom Symonds and Donald. McCain. The list goes on, John Quinn is as good as they come.
Of the best jock never to be champion, yes of course Jeff King is there, he was the pro’s pro but his social skills and language off a horse were lacking. At that time Johnny Haines was outstanding but purely on winners how can you overlook Dickie Johnson but somehow he slips by under the radar.
Hello Richard thanks for taking part in the Q&A.
Do the BBC still have the complete programmes of the cheltenham festival and the aintree national meetings from the early 1990s to mid 1990s. Not just the races the actual whole days broadcast?
What do you think of the changes to the national fences? Are you happy with them or do you think the race has been made far too easier for horses just to brush through them?
Any plans to write a 2nd autobiography?
Thanks
Solihull
The probable answer is no to the whole days at Cheltenham /Aintree festival as storage used to be problem and they edited out much of the main races too, maybe different now as digital but that would not help you.
I am very aware of the strength of public opinion and see why the changes, Bechers is no longer the trap it posed but if it means we carry on racing, well and good. Francome is of the opinion that the bigger the fences the safer as it slows jockey’s minds down.I am strong on really educating the riders of the importance of pulling a horse up as soon as it even starts to occur to them, there are no medals for finishing knackered just to be 14th. Any further G Nat deaths will be increasingly hard to defend, they have to realise the consequences of their actions. We used to be carefree cavaliers but times change and now with so much tv coverage they have a responsibility beyond themselves.
I started a second Autobiog four years ago, did five hilarious chapters after a night out and had planned to finish it here in Florida this month but the wife decided to come so I have to do the tourist things. Going into the Everglades on one of those fan driven punts so if I never come out, thanks for the contact.
Mr Pitman,
Do you think that
AP
should get out now while he’s still in one piece? Or carry on risking life and limb even though he’s got nothing more to prove?
I worry for AP’s general health, he is rather like Cassius Clay who paid a huge price for his amazing feats but would he have changed it, probably not!
A body can only take so much before it cries enough, the danger of breakages in the long run is, of course, arthritis but worse is the ever present price of the few for the many as in JT McNamara’s case and he was due to retire less than a month after his life-changing injuries.
AP is nobody’s fool and will round it off with his twentieth championship in a row which will be in April 2015.Also, on a scale of one to ten- how cuddly is the cuddly one?
CheersNever noticed that last one Mr P, I’ll wing it away.
Richard is in Florida and is sending me his replies as he can (what a star), I’ll put the first batch up tonight.
All Richard’s responses now up.
Many, many thanks to him for taking time out of his family holiday to respond to our questions. Very much appreciated, I’m sure you’ll agree.
A big thank you to Richard for his answers some very interesting and insightful ones and to Cormack for setting it up.
Blackbeard to conquer the World
Many thanks to Mr.Pitman for his time and trouble. Good stuff, and hope he didn’t mind my flippant question about his ex wife too much.
I hadn’t realized that JT McNamara was that close to retiring before his awful accident. Makes me even more sure that AP should get out sooner rather than later.
Hi Richard
I am asssuming of the horses you rode Killiney was the one with the most unfulfilled potential? Did you believe that he was a potential Gold Cup horse? Everyone of a certain age will remember him but were there any other horses that you rode that for one reason or another didn’t quite reach the heights expected?
Aside from Crisp was Pendil’s defeat of Helmsman in the Massey-Ferguson (?) the best weight carrying performance you were associated with?
I would love to see that race again. We are lucky to have many old races on You Tube but relatively few from the 70s which for me was something of a vintage period. Through your association with the BBC do you know if the BBC holds an archive of the old Cheltenham Festival broadcasts from the 70s? If so I am sure I am not the only one who would love to see the races (in full) again – perhaps the BBC could liaise with Cheltenham?
What did you think of Andy Turnell as a rider? Has there ever been anyone else who has come close to emulating his riding style?
Thanks
Pendil won eleven in a row, often very easily and on the bridle but under me and in my hands I could feel him pulling easing up . He was a horse that curled up under the whip, he just loved fighting which became our undoing in the ’73 Gold Cup. We had made plans, me wanting to come half way up the hill yet Fred Winter reasoned he’d rather get beaten from my coming too soon than making a mistake at the last and not getting there, how prophetic those words were. His defeat by The Dickler hurt me personally as Pendil was far superior every other time we met. Those who say we did not get the trip are wrong, he was in front a stride after the line and had we raced to the stables would have bee lengths in front.
Then, horses like Arkle regularly gave stones away in major hcaps inc. Crisp and that was the reason he came here as the Oz’s were trying to put so much weight on him, his owner thought it unfair to the horse.
Andy Turnell rode so short he could have been Lester Pigott so his balance must have been superb but in turn he pulled far more horses up in races than any other rider, surprising owners by saying they would win next time. His reasoning was not to bottom them just to finish a tired fourth or fifth, now that would be construed as schooling in public and loads of suspensions. In the ’75 G Nat he rode just as short as in a hurdle race until slipping the reins on landing over Bechers but missed the buckle end to do a backwards roll over the horses tail, in doing so he pulled Paul Kelleway out of Barona’s saddle, the two riders ending up in the grass holding hands!
On that score remember Piggot rode twenty six winners over jumps, can you see Dettori trying the same thing?Can’t believe it had anything to do with this but today Channel 4 showed a very short clip of the Pendil/Helmsman race. Needless to say the highlight of the programme for one viewer.
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