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Well I was looking through some old videos this morning and came across a memorial which Channel 4 racing ran after the death of the great mare Triptych. I’ve uploaded it to youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S33KFoM3EA for anyone who’s interested.
Good to hear Brough Scott and Lord Oaksey again, from the days when Ch4 racing was worth watching. Sorry about the quality, it’s a very old tape.
Thanks for that. The pleasant memories of a grand mare revived
By gum didn’t John Oaksey look and sound the part. Suave, intelligent sophistication personified. Think it was he who coined the apposite term ‘Queen of Longchamp’ for Triptych…or maybe Miesque
Terrific stuff mate. Great horse Triptych
What watching this does emphasis is what a terrific filly Oh So Sharp was……she murdered Triptych in her Oaks and the other decent filly Dubian as well
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Thanks for that. The pleasant memories of a grand mare revived
By gum didn’t John Oaksey look and sound the part. Suave, intelligent sophistication personified. Think it was he who coined the apposite term ‘Queen of Longchamp’ for Triptych…or maybe Miesque
Oaksey wrote what is for me the best piece of (relatively) modern racing journalism, in his description of Fred Winter’s almost incredible victory on Mandarin in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris: Winter was dizzy with flu, and rode most of the course, with all its twists and turns,
sans
steering as Mandarin’s bit broke very early in the race. The horse also broke down in the last half mile, but somehow they passed the post in front. Oaksey’s article is a beautiful tribute to one of the greatest races of all time.
Incroyable
that Mandarin, one of only two horses to win both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple (the other was The Fellow) does not have so much as an entry on Wikipedia. He also won the King George and the Hennessy, so that oversight might have to be rectified!
Yes, it was splendid. Can’t recall where and when I read it and much is forgotten, but the remarkable tense-and-exciting atmosphere the lil’ lord managed to convey isn’t
Do you know a source on t’net?
I look forward to your wiki-essay on Mandarin
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Drone, it is (just about all) here, if you can wade through the adverts and textual misalignments. Still as stirring as ever!
Triptych was a great filly,very consistent but both
Dancing Brave
and
Oh So Sharp
left her toiling!
John Oakseys book was one of the first racing books I read, but unfortunately I borrowed it from a library and never got round to buying a copy. Must get hold of it again if it’s still in print. One of racings most beloved characters is the noble Lord, and my respect for him is immense.
In fairness to Triptych her ideal distance was 11 furlongs and she was definitely at her best on soft ground. I think her Champion Stakes win where she comes upsides Most Welcome then leaves him for dead was for me her most impressive victory.
I don’t think I’ve seen a better flat horse than Dancing Brave – I wasn’t around for Sea Bird – so finishing not far behind him in the Arc was far from disappointing.
Someone has posted a video of her win in the Fuji Stakes in Japan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAYuUKHl … re=related and that is just one of the many attributes that attracted me to her and to racing. The globetrotting, beating the colts in the Irish 2000, the high head carriage. She had a personality and, though it worked out for the worst with her untimely death at stud, she seemed to come back every year.
I think anyone who was around in the 80s will appreciate just how lucky we were to have had so many really good flat horses back then.
Thanks for the video rich_ie. I was only born in ’84 so seeing her there was a first for me. I have to agree with your there about her head carriage – uncanny to say the least! She looked spectacular though and unfortunate for such a tragic end.
I think anyone who was around in the 80s will appreciate just how lucky we were to have had so many really good flat horses back then.
Sadlers Wells, Time Charter,SunPrincess,Rainbow Quest,Pebbles,El Gran Senor,Chief Singer,Rousillon,Warning,Slip Anchor,Reference Point,Mtoto,Cormorant Wood,Tolomeo,Teleprompter,Miesque,Green Desert,Nashwan,Sonic Lady,Zilzal,Shadeed,Ajdal,Penine Walk,Noalcholic,Bedtime,Never So Bold,Committed,Habibti,Petong,Teenoso,Commanche Run,Flame of Tara,Caerleon,Shergar,Indian Skimmer and of course
Dancing Brave
!
Thanks for the video rich_ie. I was only born in ’84 so seeing her there was a first for me. I have to agree with your there about her head carriage – uncanny to say the least! She looked spectacular though and unfortunate for such a tragic end.
Her final Coronation Cup win was really strange. It looked for the first couple of furlongs as if she would pull herself up. For a lot of the race it didn’t look like she would get into it, but in the end she actually wins snuggly. She liked to do things her way but I think by then she was probably getting fed up with all the travelling.
But it’s easy to get sentimental about the past. Hopefully Frankel and Dream Ahead will serve us up a vintage year next year.
Drone, it is (just about all) here, if you can wade through the adverts and textual misalignments. Still as stirring as ever!
Many thanks
Elegant taut prose written by a man whose passion for the sport was intense then and remains intense today
Let’s hope Carruthers lands a Grade 1 this coming season
France in May milord?
half-blind with tears
once again
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