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Some questions for any racing history experts…
A discussion in the Memorials section has made me wonder, has a horse ever run in two races in the same day in recent times? I have a vague recollection of reading a newspaper article about a sprinter who was declared for two races in perhaps the 1990s with an intention of running in both, but don’t recall if it actually happened.
I believe it also used to be common going back much further in time for races to be rerun immediately if there was a tie, and would also be interested to know when that ceased.
Harry Bell ,the Scottish trainer ,ran Traffic Leader twice at one meeting in the Seventies or Eighties .
He was sentenced to jail for six months in 1989 for cruelty to a horse and banned from training for ten years by the Jockey Club in 1990 .Reminds of a quiz question going around a few years back. Which horse won twice on the same day?
I’ve just had to google this as I’d forgot the answer. Not surprised as this happened in 2003.
Thanks very much Jaywalker. I’ve just looked up Traffic Leader and he is too early (1974), but searching on his name has helpfully led to some other possibilities. The two I can find from the 1990s were both trained by David Evans:
– Panther (declared to run twice on the same day, but only ended up running once on 21/11/1997)
– Amington Girl (ran twice on 22/5/1999)It might be Panther I was thinking of, though I’m not certain.
Homersimpson, I had heard that one before, but like you I had to look up the answer 🙂
I remember when David Chapman was chasing the record for number of wins in a season with Chaplins Club in the mid 1980’s he declared the horse for two races at I think Ayr on the same day with the stated intention to run if record was achievable. There was a bit of discussion at the time as to whether this was unfair on the horse, but from memory the horse was declared a non runner in both as the horse ran the night before.
An example from 1913, and even then based on the annual I have from that year, it was not at all common for horses to run twice in one day.
But at the West Norfolk Hunt (aka Fakenham) meeting on Easter Monday, Simple Boy won the first race at 1:00, carrying 12st 3lbs on the 2m 4f Military Chase. Then Half Time won the Prince of Wales Cup, also over 2m 4f, carrying 13st 2lbs.
Then at 4:00, both of them ran again in the Farmers Chase, with Half Time under 12st 12lbs winning at 5/2 on. Simple Boy at 3/1 fell and was remounted to take second in field of three.
At Torquay on Easter Monday/Tuesday, just 19 horses turned out in five races on the first day. And 11 of those 19 ran again the next day, winning four of the six races on the Tuesday. Realism ruled at Torquay, as three of those horses that doubled up, ran on Tuesday in the aptly named ‘Plodders Selling Handicap Chase’.
Ah old Chaplin’s club , saw him run a few times at Ayr ( there,s a bar there named after him ) he got beat there in a claimer then 2 runs later finished 2nd in the Ayr Gold cup …even for Chapman that was a bit cheeky
I remember a horse in the early 90’s called James the First trained by Paul Nicholls. It ran and won 3 times in one week.
https://www.racingpost.com/news/remarkable-too-many-diamonds-to-be-given-well-earned-break/286537
At the time I was a bit 😮 about this and think I mouthed off on this forum about it but have changed my mind since. Doing this with a really fit horse is probably less hard on the horse than running an unfit one once. Although if the horse was unlucky enough to sustain a severe injury it gifts the antis a “RACED TO DEATH” headline (he didn’t, and won over fences 3 times in a row the following year).
Mind you, I was more impressed when Regal Flow won over 3.5 miles on heavy ground at Taunton then turned out 5 days later in the Midlands National, also on heavy, and won by 10 lengths.
Thanks very much for the further replies. Running twice in the same day definitely isn’t allowed now, except where the first race is a walkover.
Possibly Amington Girl who I mentioned further up was the last to do so in 1999, though I’m not certain of this or when the rules changed.
1854 One Thousand Guineas winner Virago began her classic winning season with victories in the City & Suburban and the Great Metropolitan handicaps at Epsom’s April meeting. These races were run on the same afternoon.
(Arguably, 167 years ago stretches the definition of recent.)
More recent than that example from Nicholls, was the case of Commercial Flyer, who ran three times in the space of 45 hours.
This was the end of the 2004/5 season, when Nicholls and Pipe were neck and neck in the title race. I spent the Wed/Thur/Fri of the final week at Perth. Commercial Flyer won the 5:00 hurdle race over 2m 4f on Thursday, turned out again the next day and won a 3m 2f hurdle at 3:05.
Then he was sent on the 475 mile trip to Sandown, where he ran in the 2:05 on Saturday, back over 2m 4f, finishing fifth.
Having made the drive from Perth to Swindon on that Friday evening myself, I know I was in no fit state for any form of physical activity on Saturday afternoon – and I hadn’t run almost six miles over hurdles on the previous two days!
Nicholls seems to be coming up a lot in this thread (!), but I seem to remember that one of his smart chasers fell in a point, and then won (I think) a race later in the card. Damned if I can remember who it was though. I remember thinking that it couldn’t happen here, because we were not even allowed to enter more than one race at a meeting, due to numbers pressure. Obviously it was a loophole in GB points, not sure if they closed it since. It’s not all that long ago.
What happens if a horse is entered twice across the card? Let’s say it runs in the 12.30 Maiden on the Lingfield AW and the goes for the 4.15 Bumper at Sandown? Is this realistic at all?
It’s explicitly disallowed by the Rules of Racing nowadays RubyLight. I’m not sure how things would pan out if someone attempted to run the same horse twice in a day, but presumably the horse should not be allowed to start the second race.
Apracing, I remember Commercial Flyer’s three runs over consecutive days for Martin Pipe. Neither Pipe nor Nicholls covered themselves in glory at the end of that season, and I believe Nicholls has spoken of regretting some of his actions from then since. Pipe turning Sindapour out in another hurdle race less than 24 hours after a heavy final flight fall left a particularly bad taste.
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