You can be a jockey for one race…

[Himself]

Sea-Bird, in the 1965 Arc would have been a truly magical experience.

Although, as the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud remains the only race during his 3 year old season I have yet to see, maybe I should plump for that race instead; as by all accounts it was the most effortless win of his illustrious career. Apparently, he beat a class line-up without coming out of a hack canter and was still on the bridle as he went past the winning post. What a horse !

Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning

[Marginal Value]

I would choose to ride Crocket in the St James’s Palace Stakes of 1963. It was an exceptional performance in magnificent style at Royal Ascot, on a horse said by his jockey to be the best-moving horse seen in the second half of the twentieth century. His jockey, champion five times, had ridden the likes of superb movers such as Petite Etoile, Sing Sing, Migoli and another exceptional mover in Nasrullah. Since I cannot ride for toffee, I think this horse and this occasion would let me know what it feels like to be riding an equine athlete at its best. I have seen some beautiful-moving racehorses, and lots of you will know that watching horses move at speed is part of the awe and fascination of horse racing, but to ride Crocket in that race would have been a joy.

Crocket had won all of his two-year-old races, including the Coventry, Gimcrack and Middle Park Stakes – the six furlong 2yo Triple Crown which had never been done before. No other horse had given him a race. He won the Coventry by five lengths, and the Middle Park "easily". As a three-year-old he had won the Craven Stakes before starting as unbeaten favourite for the 2000 Guineas where he finished absolutely last of the twenty-one runners. So the St James’s Palace Stakes was an attempt to re-establish his reputation. The Form Book says: "Made all, drew clear 1.5 furlongs out, easily". The second was Follow Suit (Timeform 124 – beaten six lengths) who was beaten only two lengths in the Eclipse; and the third was Ionian (Timeform 126 – beaten seven-and-a-half lengths) who was beaten only a nostril in the 2000 Guineas.

Over jumps – anything for or alongside the greatest man who ever took part in the sport: F. T. Winter.

[The Young Fella]

I would pick Ouninpohja in pretty much any of his runs over hurdles.

I like the idea of the ‘battle of wits’ but think he would outsmart me like he did Ruby Walsh and Sam Thomas! By the way, does anybody know what Ouninpohja is up to nowadays? Last I heard, he was with Jeremy Gask.

Alternatively, Rith Dubh in his National Hunt Chase would be a similarly intellectual challenge.

[vikingflagship]

red rum grand national

vf

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