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Has the makings of an interesting little tale for a racing scribe to drill down on.
As if.
Mr Grayson: Your very informative post serves only to deepen the mystery.
Now, not only do we have a muddy old hurdler winning a flat sprint handicap, but we also have a hunter doing so.
I am so intrigued by this story that I showed this thread to the one trainer with whom I am on friendly terms, because in 45 years around horses I have never known a hunter or hurdler to return to the track after three years and win a flat sprint handicap.
The trainer is as mystified as I and many others are.
The sticking point for us all is how the Clutterbucks KNEW it could and would win a sprint handicap after they had had it out hunting.
Apparently they have no comparable horses to test it against, so how did they know it was ready?
Did they do it on a stopwatch?
Mr Grayson, I assume you are a journalist. Can you put your fellow pros to shame and write this fascinating story?Occasionally I get accused of journalism.
I’m not sure what there is actually to be wrought from the hunting detail to Stoneacre Gareth’s recent background, to be honest, other than the fact the Clutterbucks have given him a few spins out with the local pack (I think the Thurlow is the nearest hunt to their training base in Exning) either to get him fit or to amuse him. "Sweeten him up" is the official line from trainer’s son James.
That wouldn’t be the first time that’s ever been done, and as mentioned, there doesn’t ever seem to have been any intention, either on the part of Neil Mulholland or Ken Clutterbuck, ever to campaign him as a hunter chaser or Pointer.
I don’t quite know where the idea comes from that they had nothing comparable at home to have work Stoneacre Gareth against. They have eight horses in at present, Gareth having been one of them for only five to six weeks. That wouldn’t be much longer than the likes of the aforementioned (and far more race-fit) 6f sprinter Equinity.
gc
PS Drone – further delving suggests Mike Clutterbuck is unrelated. His horses were qualified with hunts such as the Curre (in Gwent); and although the likes of Sweet Patrick sometimes ventured as far east as Kingston Blount, Pointing venues in the West Midlands, Welsh Borders and South Wales & Monmouthshire Areas were more familiar ports of call. HTH, sir!
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Was smashed into before being withdrawn from Southwell.
Clutterbuck did an amazing job!
further delving suggests Mike Clutterbuck is unrelated. His horses were qualified with hunts such as the Curre (in Gwent); and although the likes of Sweet Patrick sometimes ventured as far east as Kingston Blount, Pointing venues in the West Midlands, Welsh Borders and South Wales & Monmouthshire Areas were more familiar ports of call. HTH, sir!
It does indeed Clouseauscolumn, thanks
is how the Clutterbucks KNEW it could and would win a sprint
That they knew he
could
win is a given: he was entered in an-on-the-face-of-it very strange choice of race
I doubt they knew he
would
win, as his SP of 7/1 second fav would suggest. This was returned at ‘three tramps’ Kempton on a gloomy evening in February remember, so it strikes me as unlikely that Ken and Co travelled to Sunbury in a Brinks-Mat van
The money was down early doors at double-figure odds which connections no doubt felt were sufficiently generous to warrant a peppering of ponies, half-tons and centuries hither and yon. Well organised, well executed
Exning is near Newmarket remember. So it’s possible Stoneacre Gareth had access to AW gallops and/or was out with dyed-in-the-wool Flat horses on the regulation gallops, from which comparison could be made
‘By gum just look at him go, who’d have thought he’d take to the flat game like this again, after all this time’ says Ken to James or perhaps more likely the fresh-faced, keen and eager young James reports to old Ken back home over breakfast
‘Let’s try something a little different’…
Mr Grayson: Your very informative post serves only to deepen the mystery.
Now, not only do we have a muddy old hurdler winning a flat sprint handicap, but we also have a hunter doing so.
I am so intrigued by this story that I showed this thread to the one trainer with whom I am on friendly terms, because in 45 years around horses I have never known a hunter or hurdler to return to the track after three years and win a flat sprint handicap.
The trainer is as mystified as I and many others are.
The sticking point for us all is how the Clutterbucks KNEW it could and would win a sprint handicap after they had had it out hunting.
Apparently they have no comparable horses to test it against, so how did they know it was ready?
Did they do it on a stopwatch?
Mr Grayson, I assume you are a journalist. Can you put your fellow pros to shame and write this fascinating story?Stoneacre Gareth was never really a ‘muddy old hurdler’. He was an all weather sprinter who attempted hurdling and failed miserably. It’s not too hard to imagine the horse capable of winning rated 45, after all he was once in the care of Peter Grayson and a winner off 73 as a 2yo. I would imagine there are a host of Graysons current charges who for a change of hands would prove well handicapped in the current system. Shame another Stoneacre isn’t up for sale
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