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I tried to find Slip Anchor’s Derby on Youtube and could only find a Spanish (?) commentary.
I had a video with all the good racing from the mid eighties, but the tape it broke.
Value Is EverythingHi bronco billy lovely post, my name is indeed taken from that grand horse runandskip mainly as I was lucky enough to be stood by the winning post on the inside of the course at Chepstow when he won the 1985 welsh national.i too was just 14 at the time but remember as if it was yesterday.
Run And Skip won the 1985 Welsh National at odds of 13/1. So very likely Bronco Billy – your father took a price of 14/1 . His price for the Hennessey 2nd was 7/1.
Thanks Gingertipster !!
It seems that the Welsh National is looking most likely as being "my" race. That puts me at 14yrs old at the time though, so I’m a little disapponted with myself that I don’t know more about it. (Or didn’t take more interest in it).
I’m pretty sure that it was a left-handed track, which rules out the Mildmay at Sandown.
I’d love to see your library, GT !….. My dad used to subscribe to "Fineform" in the 80’s, and used to have shelves of green/red plastic binders full of race form. I’ve been trying to find them, but so far no luck. I hope they haven’t been thrown out !
Can I ask how you found out that his SP was 13-1 ? Is that information on the web, or from your own private collection ?
Timeform "Chasers And Hurdlers" annual gives a "Big Race Results" in the back, which gives the betting. The 85/86 edition in particular has an excellent write up of Run And Skip which includes some interesting facts about his earlier years. I wonder Billy, do big public libraries have Timeform annuals?
My library only goes back to 84/85, the flat to 1984. Being hard back they’ve probably lasted a good deal better than Fineform.
It’s still possible it wasn’t the Welsh National Billy. Looked for Delbury and couldn’t find it. But there was a "Dalbury" racing at the same time as Run And Skip. Finished 4th in the L’Oreal Hurdle on Challow Hurdle Day at Newbury… Which would’ve knitted in with being a week (or day or two) after Run And Skip’s Welsh National – but for Dalbury’s 4th (1984) coming a year before Run And Skip’s triumph (1985).
With Dalbury moving to Ireland for the 85/86 season, it’s unlikely he’d have been featured on British TV…Unless your Run And Skip was in 1984. Dalbury had four starts before the Newbury run, one second place and one win immediately before the L’Oreal 4th. But unplaced in the Captain Quist Hurdle at Kempton on 20th October, a 16/1 shot finishing 8th of 10 behind Ra Nova, with fav Desert Orchid in 3rd. Run And Skip’s final victory that season came before the end of December. It was a four timer, so I doubt if he’d have been 14/1 for the second or third win. So the only other possibility is his reappearance, which might (I don’t know) have fitted in with Dalbury’s unplaced effort at Kempton. However, Run And Skip’s first success in the 84/85 season was at Southwell in an ordinary handicap. Again doubtful the race was featured on TV and suspect your dad would’ve selected big races for your first bets. So the Welsh National still seems the most likely
I’ve enjoyed looking back Billy.
Good bit of detective work, GT !!
Having explored Run and Skip’s RP profile in more detail, I found the following link, with limited information:
http://www.racingpost.com/horses/result … s=ANALYSIS
This indicates that the Welsh National of 1985 was run on 21st December (which was a Saturday), rather than the more recent traditional day that I’ve come to expect it to be run on.You are probably also correct with your spelling of "Dalbury". I’m interested to learn that he ran at the Challow Newbury meeting, which (these days) is also run around Christmas time. As you can see in my original post, I was under the impression that Run and Skip’s race was at Newbury but it’s more than likely that my recollection of the 2 races, a week apart, 27 years ago could have become blurred !
One other thing. I don’t actually recall watching Dalbury’s race, so it’s possible that it wasn’t televised.
There seem to be further avenues open to investigation via public libraries, as mentioned above by yourself and Graysonscolumn. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get round to it, but I’ll let you know my findings.
Thanks again to all contributers.
BB
I remember watching Run and Skips C’ham win. Brown Chamberlain was returning from a long absence, but turned in a really promising performance, even taking a 5-6 lengths lead at the top of the hill. But Run and Skip wasn’t just a frontrunner and wore him down to win comfortably in the end. I don’t think Brown Chamberlain lived up the promise of that reappearance; shame, as he was bit unlucky in the Gold Cup 2 years before, diving right on the straight against a top-class winner in Burrough Hill Lad
Just come across a poll carried out by ‘The Racing Post’ in 2004 to find the most popular horses to have raced in Britain and Ireland, Flat and Jumps. Run and Skip was voted 17th of the 65 horses voted for, beginning with the letter R. Not bad considering the competition. Red Rum, Rock of Gibraltar and Rooster Booster filled the first three places.
The top ten overall were{in order of merit}:
Arkle
Desert Orchid
Red Rum
Istabraq
Brigadier Gerard
One Man
Persian Punch
Dancing Brave
Sea Pigeon
NijinskyHi Everybody,
One day I decided to find out what the fuss was about, and asked my dad to pick me out a horse for me to back. The horse’s name was "Run And Skip", and I had £1 win on it (dad put the bet on for me, as I was way too young). The horse duly led from start to finish, and won at odds of 14-1 ! I can vividly remember the race, and I was very impressed (even mesmerised) with how he led all the way. (I had no knowledge at that time of how different horses had different running styles, ie front runners or hold-up horses).
I was wondering if anybody would be able to tell me anything about the horse ? Unfortunately, at that age I didn’t know the difference between one race and the next so I’m not even sure which race it was that he won. I’m also reasonably sure that he finished placed in a Gold Cup one year. He definitley ran in Dawn Run’s CGC year, but I don’t think he made the frame on that occasion.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Run and Skip has an (albeit small) entry on Wikipedia. According to this page, Run and Skip won the Welsh National in 1985. However, I’m not of the opinion that this was the race he won when I backed him for the following reasons:
1) I don’t remember that "my" race occurred during the festive time of the year.
2) I think 1985 is too late.
3) I have an inkling that the race he won "for me" might have been at Newbury.I could easily be wrong, however. If someone was to tell be that he won the Welsh National at odds of 14-1, then this could be more than just a coincidence.
P.S. The following Saturday, I asked my dad to pick me another horse out. He gave me a horse called "Delbury", which I also put £1 win on. He finished……. Unplaced
That was my last (non GN) bet for a while. There seem to be two possibilities here.
1) Mon 26th November 1984
Denton Handicap Chase 1984 (Southwell)
Run and Skip – Made all, jumped well, pushed clear approaching 2 out, mistake at last. Won at 14-1. [6 ran]
Sat 8th December 1984 (Lingfield) Dalbury (20-1) finished 2nd in the concluding handicap hurdle.
2) Sat 21st December 1985
Welsh Grand National (Chepstow)
Run and Skip – Made all, clear 3 out, stayed on strongly. Won at 13-1 (was available at 14-1) [18 ran]
Sat 4th January 1986 (Sandown) Dalbury (20-1) finished 3rd in the novices’ chase.
The first race fits the facts as given slightly better, but I don’t think pictures were beamed into betting shops until 1986, and only televised races until SIS launched on 1st May 1987, so the Welsh National looks a better bet as Southwell certainly wouldn’t have been televised.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
That’s excellent feedback. Thanks very much Espmadrid !
What with this and the rest of the feedback, I see I’m going to have to come up with something a bit more difficult next time !
I use to be a big fan of "Brown Windsor" and was just young when he won the Whitbread – Nice post and enjoyed reading it BB
nice topic i have heard of runandskip but didnt know to much about him so it was nice to read these posts and learn more i think we always remember our first winners my first winner i remember backing was a horse called rawhide trained by mouse morris and ridden by charlie swan after that i always backed the jockey trainer combo and my user name trapper john quickly became one of my favourite horses remember roaring him home when he won at cheltenham festival happy days
Bronco,having read your posts regarding
Dalbury
and
Run and skip
,I would suggest that could it be possible that you saw both horses on the same day? Coral Welsh National Day at Chepstow as ‘Dalbury’ ran in the Novices chase at Lingfield behind ‘Clara Mountain’,it was the first race of the day and ‘Run and skip’ did make all to win the Welsh National an hour or so later at the unusual odds of 13/1,strangely enough ‘Corbiere’ won the Grand National at the same odds too!!
I too have fond memories ofRun and skip
as prior to his Chepstow win he won at Cheltenham at 6/4 and I was lucky enough to have him along with
Ten Plus
at 6/4,
Troilena
at 5/2 and
Emo Forever
at 7/2 in a £1 lucky 15,my first ever all winning Lucky 15,it made me £300 and paid for my Christmas,I bought Action Man the Red Devil if my memorys right!!
Bronco,having read your posts regarding
Dalbury
and
Run and skip
,I would suggest that could it be possible that you saw both horses on the same day? Coral Welsh National Day at Chepstow as ‘Dalbury’ ran in the Novices chase at Lingfield behind ‘Clara Mountain’,it was the first race of the day and ‘Run and skip’ did make all to win the Welsh National an hour or so later at the unusual odds of 13/1,strangely enough ‘Corbiere’ won the Grand National at the same odds too!!
I too have fond memories ofRun and skip
as prior to his Chepstow win he won at Cheltenham at 6/4 and I was lucky enough to have him along with
Ten Plus
at 6/4,
Troilena
at 5/2 and
Emo Forever
at 7/2 in a £1 lucky 15,my first ever all winning Lucky 15,it made me £300 and paid for my Christmas,I bought Action Man the Red Devil if my memorys right!!
Brings it all back TAPK, I remember Ten Plus winning the novice hurdle that day; really impressive, looked a certain Gold Cup winner.
Brings it all back TAPK, I remember Ten Plus winning the novice hurdle that day; really impressive, looked a certain Gold Cup winner.
Yes
Ten Plus
laid down the gauntlet that same day for the ‘Sun alliance’ hurdle befair, I remember taking the 4/1 with Corals straight after,it wasn’t the most generous of prices but I felt in the 21/2m division he was in a league of his own. Nicky Henderson had his ‘Master Bob’ firmly put in his place and he tried again with the useful ‘Pikes Peak’ in the Big one itself,again ‘Ten Plus’ destroyed him too.’Deep Idol’ was the Irish invaders big hope but he went the ‘Supreme’ route and their ‘Barrow Line’ just couldn’t go the pace.
Ten Plus
looked like everything he did over hurdles was just a bonus for what he’d achieve over jumps,he reminded me a lot of ‘Denman’,we all know what he did over fences and yet got beat in the ‘sun Alliance’ hurdle.Hindsight is a wonderful thing but we never did get to see the full potential of that fine looking son of ‘Raise you Ten’.
Was fond of the horse too BB.
I think Peter Scudamore used to get the best out of him. For the Gold Cup run against Dawn Run I think Steve Smith- Eccles was on board and the partnership did not seem to work ,the jumping lacking fluency. On seeing footage of that race and how close up he was at the finish despite the jumping errors, I start to think `if only Scu had been available…` but who knows. There was a horse called Skipping Tim who may have been a full brother. He took a long time to show anything but became very useful as a veteran.Was fond of the horse too BB.
I think Peter Scudamore used to get the best out of him. For the Gold Cup run against Dawn Run I think Steve Smith- Eccles was on board and the partnership did not seem to work ,the jumping lacking fluency. On seeing footage of that race and how close up he was at the finish despite the jumping errors, I start to think `if only Scu had been available…` but who knows. There was a horse called Skipping Tim who may have been a full brother. He took a long time to show anything but became very useful as a veteran.And while we’re down memory lane, I remember The Pilgarlic as well, winning his bumper, and probably the best novice hurdler of his year in Ireland, though he didn’t go to C’ham. I know he became a regular feature in the National, but he initially promised much more.
Thanks Befair. I didn`t know The Pilgarlic before his chasing days with Fred Rimell. Certainly seemed a disappointing horse Aintree apart.
Been visiting my parents and found an old
Sporting Life National Hunt Results In Full 1983-84
.
It seems another possibility is:
Dec 30th 1983 Leicester – Gallowtree Novices Chase:
Run And Skip 14/1 but only a 2 length second to Fearless Seal and did not lead. "Mistake 7th, improved 12th, stayed on readily from 2 out".Then a week later…
5th Jan 1984 Lingfield – Southern Counties Handicap Hurdle:
Dalbury 9/1 finishes 2nd to Jade And Diamond. "Always well there, every chance 2 out, pecked last, 1 pace".Then 5 days later…
10th Jan 1984 Leicester – Wymeswold Novices Chase:
Run And Skip 9/2 fav 1st but still didn’t lead. "Hit 5th and 7th, led 3 out to next, led near finish".Still thing the Welsh National is favourite though Billy, as you remember R&S leading all the way.
Value Is EverythingThat’s excellent feedback. Thanks very much Espmadrid !
What with this and the rest of the feedback, I see I’m going to have to come up with something a bit more difficult next time !
I have uploaded the 1985 Welsh Grand National to Youtube for you. The picture quality is NOT great, the weather conditions didn’t help, but hope you enjoy it! Just click the link http://youtu.be/uBcSKIQkMc8
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
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