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It is Ian, but I’m tempted to say it used to be thanks to the BHA.
I was there for Attractions Needler. It was electric, there was an incredulous buzz she was odds against as she was the talk of the track all day, and it felt as though the entire course had backed her as she sauntered / ‘helicoptered’ home with any amount in hand. She would surely have hacked up in the Cheveley Park too if not for injury.
Its shocking the race was stripped of Listed status. I’m still furious about it to be honest. Beverelys a lovely course to visit, and the Needler and Bullet were their crown jewels.
BUY THE SUN
Wetherby’s fences were notorious at one time and the issue led to some work being done on them after the Charlie Hall meeting in 1987. In the novice chase on the Saturday, run on ‘good to soft’ going, only four of the thirteen runners finished. Jimmy Fitzgerald withdrew Forgive N’Forget from Charlie Hall describing the fences as ” built straight up like brick walls”, and Peter Easterby described them as the worst he had ever seen after his Cybrandian won the Charlie Hall, left clear after the favourite Golden Friend refused at the last.
Interesting to see the ‘Racing Specialist’ mentioned by an ex employee.Bought it every Friday for many years and have never got to know whether ‘Off the Bit’ was a pretend inside source column or the real thing. The column was all over Tromos before he ever saw a racecourse, Shergar too. But, playing the Devils advocate, being out of Stilvi, if you looked at the Bruce Hobbs string of two year olds Tromos would have been the one you were drawn too first. As with Shergar, well it was the time a couple of years after Fair Salinia that Stoute was establishing himself as a force in the big races, it was his first intake of Aga Khan horses, and the Racing Calendar would have shown he had fancy entries. On the other hand, the columnn did single both out with confidence…. There were of course disappointments too, a Fred Winter inmate called I Haven’t A Light, was hyped up by the column to be a future star. Appeared in a novice hurdle on a Saturday at Sandown and disappointed in a race where the field was run ragged by this grey thing that went by the name of Desert Orchid.
It was the real thing, alright.
“Off The Bit” was Editor Ron Cox’s pride and joy.
A particularly dour Scotsman, the only time I ever saw him smile was when he got an exclusive for it off one of his numerous contacts nationwide.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Thanks for that Cancello. I knew there had been issues with Wetherby, I was just out by a few years.
Why did Wetherby move the fences to the inside after the A1 was widened? Already making room for flat racing perhaps?
As for Haydock,it’s now just a gaff track that stages graded races,if the BHA had any power,it should have taken The Betfair Chase off them.
Cheltenham’s fences are very soft now,especially the last fence where horses can walk through.
Toughest jumping test these days is Newbury,the third last is as big as any park fence.Haydock should just be honest and say it is no longer interested in the jumps and become a Flat only venue.
I know you would get the usual suspects crying about the loss of another jumps venue but the track is a shadow of its former self. Who would really miss it?
I would prefer to see its fixtures transferred to Aintree if possible. A track that is still underused and it would keep the meetings in the North West for the same audience.
Haydock is only interested in evening meetings and Saturday afternoons in the summer, with the bars packed out.
It was unforgivable what Haydock done to that fine steeplechase course it once had, one which Rummy would run on in his preps for the National. When they neutered it there was no shame at all expressed by those whatevers who run the show there. In fact, there was a quote from the management saying that they had to move with the times, needed another flat course to be withable to endure more flat fixtures, and that the evening summer fixtures were crucial in bringing in the needed revenue from the casual, partyracegoers. Another quote suggested that if anyone set up a new jumping track and installed drop fences, it would be labelled ‘barbaric’ and would cause an outrage – the words, not surprisingly, of Kirkland Tellwright.
The Mildmay course at Aintree use to have a sharp kink in the straight which was ironed out a few decades back though there is still a turn in it and as it’s partly hemmed in by the GN course. This would be sacrilege to many but as the GN course is a pale imitation of what it once was you could rip up both the GN and Mildmay courses and build a left hand galloping track like that at Newbury – the crowds would still flock there in April and there would be plenty of space for more concert venues so would be a financial winner for the course too.
…back to the ‘Racing Specialist’ – I do have bits cut out from ‘off the bit’ spread around in old scrapbooks. Will have to find them then work out how to upload them on to here.
I remember going to an evening meeting at Haydock in the early 1990s and the concert afterwards was Acker Bilk and his band! Chasing the young demographic was clearly not quite as important back then!
He was quite entertaining, as it happens.
Timeform did a piece on this subject late last year…
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