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Poor Full Strength. I still remember that horrible fall. I think that was when my dislike of water jumps started.
The SGB Chase was the last race ever won by Arkle. Just a few weeks later, he sustained an injury in the King George and never raced again.
Agree with all the comments about how the season used to be better before Cheltenham became too big and now overshadows it all.
AndyRAC – I remember that mixed meeting at Newbury. Wasn’t it Flat on Thursday, jumps on Friday and Flat on Saturday?
Ian – if we were to go back even earlier, the early season Devon fixtures would have included Buckfastleigh as well. I think point to points are still staged there. And trivia fans know it is the longest place name in England to contain no repeated letters!
Totally agree Salut A Toi. Some very good horses, and a lot of them had fantastically long careers. Plenty more I am sure we could both add to that list. A few others that come to mind are Rinus, The Langholm Dyer, Unguided Missile, Addington Boy, Better Times Ahead, McGregor The Third, Feels Like Gold, and of course not forgetting One Man!
Just looking at Full Strength’s record, and it was quite something. He won 10 chases in a row between 28/4/1990 and 13/10/1990 (admittedly none had a field in double figures!), followed by a second place in the H&T Walker Gold Cup in the November and then his fall in the SGB Chase in the December. Such a shame his career was cut tragically short.
Apart from horses that were particularly injury prone, they were not wrapped up in cotton wool and seemed to run considerably more regularly back then. If I could attribute one thing to the change in training approaches and the targetting of Cheltenham above all else, it would possibly be the training of Best Mate to win his Gold Cups. This is not a criticism of how Best Mate was trained as it was obviously right for him, but it seems to have left a heavy influence on the approach taken with top-class horses since.
I’d likie to mention his Cartmel specialist Clever Folly, a winner of 25 chases from 75 races. Surely can’t find one of those nowadays.
The Grey Monk deserves a mention as well. He too, had an incredible strike-rate over fences.
They were all proper NH horses, excellent jumpers of fences and quite a few of them were sired by Strong Gale.
I was at Leopardstown the day The Grey Monk fell in the Hennessy Gold Cup. Happened to be in a box with Gordon Richards, who was an absolute gentleman. When his horse fell down the back straight, still going well, he said ‘That’s racing.”
Would add in the versatile grey Man Alive, a winner for Greystoke on the flat, over hurdles, and fences over which he won the Mackeson. Carried the Jim Ennis colours and was looked after by a young Neal Doughty.
Mention of the H&T Walker Gold Cup at Ascot in which Full Strength finished second. I remembered this race because it was won by Blazing Walker.
Those were the days: when WA Stephenson and GW Richards sent horses down south and finished first and second! Blazing Walker carried the yellow and blue colours of Peter Piller, which were a familiar sight in the late 80s/early 90s.
Loved the H&T Walker- such top-notchers as Wayward Lad (the best of them all), Cybrandian and Very Promising won it in the early days.
Terrific race.
Thanks for uploading, CAS. Fantastic race to watch and I really wonder how good Full Strength might have been as he was 10 from 11 over fences before the fatal accident a race later.
Replying to a few posts:
Yes, Ascot ran a meeting the day before Aintree, and then a week later on the following Wednesday. And staying with Ascot, I recall the February 1989 Wednesday fixture which had £100,000 in total prize money for the day; the richest one day jumps meeting at the time – and Bonanza Boy fell in the feature chase.
As for the mixed Newbury meeting; Thursday was the flat with the Horris Hill stakes, followed by NH on the Friday, and a return to the flat with the St Simon stakes on the Saturday.
I’ll admit that when the Betfair ‘Lancashire’ chase was turned into a Gd1 race, I thought it was a good thing. I’ve since changed my mind; I’m not sure the season is definitely better for it. I just think NH racing is more suited to top horses running in the top handicaps, as opposed to taking on 4-5 rivals in a Gd1 race – which is something I’ve changed my mind on.
Jodami was a great example of Gold Cup winners still running in limited handicaps throughout the season.
But that was the last horse that would bypass anything before heading for Cheltenham.Andy,
Up until 1982, that three day Newbury card was mixed flat and NH on all three days. Four flat races and two NH races each day, so that, for example, the Horris Hill on Thursday was followed by the Embassy Premier Chase Qualifier.
And yes, I’m old enough to have attended quite a few of those mixed meetings, which were popular with the annual members, but not with the jockeys and trainers.
I can understand jockeys not liking mixed meetings. It meant they got less rides and fees.
Personally I do not like mixed meetings either. The last one I attended was at Listowel about five years ago. Four Flat races, a beginners chase, a handicap hurdle and a bumper. It just felt disjointed and I would have preferred it to be either all Flat or all jumps.
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