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With the news that Cheltenham may be hosting a rescheduled Victor Chadler Chase next week, let’s take a trip down memory lane:
Following some inclement weather in the winter of 1994, the powers that be made what was at the time a quite revolutionary decision to restage Ascot’s abandoned Victor Chandler Chase at Warwick.
There was much criticism of the move, the thinking being that the local track was too ‘minor’ to host such a prestigious race and the arbitary restaging of races could only lead to very bad things. Fortunately, Channel Four weren’t so Luddite and sent their full team down to give it the works.
It was a desperate, soaking day with really heavy ground but Warwick and C4 were rewarded with a big crowd and a cracking atmosphere.
The Victor Chandler itself featured just four runners but it was nevertheless a real quality quartet: Waterloo Boy, Billy Bathgate, Egypt Mill Prince and Viking Flagship. The betting was really tight, all four going off between 5-2 and 3-1. The latter pairing fought out the finish with Richard Dunwoody getting David Nicholson’s brutish Viking Flagship up to win by 2l.
The winner went on to land the Champion Chase a couple of months later at the expense of the quirky Deep Sensation and repeated the feat in 1995 with victory over the same opponent. He also finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th in the race over subsequent years and cemented his place as a true legend of the two-mile division.
Also winning on the card were Kadastrof who took the 4yo hurdle and was to become a smart chaser for Robin Dickin, and Nicholson’s doughty Moorcroft Boy who took the Warwick National (now the Betfair Classic Chase as run last Saturday) under Adrian Maguire. He would go on to win the Scottish National a couple of years later as an 11yo and from more than a stone out of the handicap.
Mike
What a good post
Racing was proper then , no messing , no exchanges , Sensible jockey club , best racing in the world , form meant something , ask AP he was in his pomp ,
Look where we are now
imo
Ricky
The decision not to run the Dipper Chase due to only three runners was ludicrous and shows where we are these days
Warwick’s chase track is excellent: that line of fences down the back presents as good a test of fluid jumping as you’ll find anywhere and provides as good a spectacle as the railway fences at Sandown
So it deserves ‘good’ races: but no matter, those 27-29f 0-90 chases the track specialises in are terrific races
With the news that Cheltenham may be hosting a rescheduled Victor Chadler Chase next week, let’s take a trip down memory lane:
Following some inclement weather in the winter of 1994, the powers that be made what was at the time a quite revolutionary decision to restage Ascot’s abandoned Victor Chandler Chase at Warwick.
There was much criticism of the move, the thinking being that the local track was too ‘minor’ to host such a prestigious race and the arbitary restaging of races could only lead to
very bad things
. Fortunately, Channel Four weren’t so Luddite and sent their full team down to give it the works.
It was a desperate, soaking day with really heavy ground but Warwick and C4 were rewarded with a big crowd and a cracking atmosphere.
The Victor Chandler itself featured just four runners but it was nevertheless a real quality quartet: Waterloo Boy, Billy Bathgate, Egypt Mill Prince and Viking Flagship. The betting was really tight, all four going off between 5-2 and 3-1. The latter pairing fought out the finish with Richard Dunwoody getting David Nicholson’s brutish
Viking Flagship
up to win by 2l.
To see the race in full……http://youtu.be/jn_WpO-tJ2c
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
To see the race in full……http://youtu.be/jn_WpO-tJ2c
Thank-you Espmadrid, that is really superb – top quality video too!
Can anyone answer me:
1. What was the NR in the race (not listed on the RP site)?
2. Who is the chap reading the final result at the end of the video (5.01 onwards). Sounds like Alastair Burnet the recently-deceased ITN newreader but presuming it isn’t!
Mike
Mike,
2. The late John Tyrrell, a former actor who read the results on ITV/CH4 for many years until the mid 1990’s.
Mike,
2. The late John Tyrrell, a former actor who read the results on ITV/CH4 for many years until the mid 1990’s.
Thank-you Carry On. I recognised the voice. Sure he had the World of Sport gig on Saturday afternoons but that ended years before.
Mike
1. Storm Alert (shown at start of vid when they read out runners & riders)
Thanks Alf – senior moment!!
Mike
Remember it well as was racecourse commentator at Warwick that day and apart from a Welsh National had never done a race that big,
The day was most memorable however for a race that a few may remember between Ramstar and Castle Diamond which was the best Maguire Dunwoody battle I ever saw. Not more than half a length between them for last half mile and an epic finish.
It also was one of the earliest examples of race being marred by the whip rules both getting bans despite in my opinion getting rides that showed off the attributes of their respective jockeys so briliantly.
Richard,
Just watched the race and I could be mistaken but it sounded like Jeremy Branfoot doing the course commentating in the background, it doesn’t sound like you.
Could there have been 2 other commentators on the day apart from GG?
yes in those days there was a separate betting shop and course commentary, I was doing the shops.
The day was most memorable however for a race that a few may remember between Ramstar and Castle Diamond which was the best Maguire Dunwoody battle I ever saw. Not more than half a length between them for last half mile and an epic finish.
It also was one of the earliest examples of race being marred by the whip rules both getting bans despite in my opinion getting rides that showed off the attributes of their respective jockeys so briliantly.
Indeed a thrilling race, a 16 runner Novices’ Chase, a rare event these days!
Click the link to watch the full race with Graham Goode in the C4 commentary box…http://youtu.be/HDRmprmJzs0
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
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