- This topic has 24 replies, 21 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Shahrastani for me…its achievements were blighted by the fact that Dancing Brave got all the attention…at the end of the day Sharastani won the race and the fact i backed it was even better.
Oh Ian you are so right, Steve Cauthen was peerless when it came to judging pace. I had a crush on him too; although his mid atlantic accent did used to grate a little. <br> <br>It might have been a height thing at the time, I was a bit smaller then. However, a man’s talents on horseback used to count for a lot in my book.  If they were young with a full head of hair all the better! ÂÂÂ
For your information though Ian, now that I am fully grown i do prefer my men to be tall & with a full head of hair.  Only one of us needs to be good at riding.
(Edited by Pocket Rocket at 3:32 pm on June 6, 2003)
All through my life i have fought the English mentality and tried to replace it with the Yankie mentality of a winner over a good trier everytime,but even though i backed Sharastani and enjoyed his racing career,i watched in amazment at Dancing Brave on the replay and admired the horse with complete admiration for the rest of his career.
Without question Galileo – financial, sentimental and patriotic reasons
Never drank so much champane in my life that day
The first Derby I ever saw was Larkspur’s in 1962. But without doubt the greatest performance I have ever witnessed was Sea Bird II winning the 1965 Derby. He is the only horse in the modern era to have won that great race while still on the bridle, a feat he went on to repeat later that year in the Prix de l’arc de Triomphe.
What a nice thread! As I am bored and ill, I’ll tell my 1986 Derby story for posterity. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
The 1986 Blue Riband was my first Derby and I was absolutely convinced that Dancing Brave was going to win it. He was the buzz horse, the Craven and Guineas winner. Sexy as Sophia Loren, the name on everyone’s lips.
I’d seen his Sandown maiden win, all his races so far. Never off the bridle, smooth as silk: An equine magic carpet ride. If the racegoers were in awe of this magnificent beast, then how were the opposition going to feel?
At the time, I was in between jobs and in good company, right in the middle of Thatcher’s Britain, in the North, and there was still five million out of work. I was due to recieve my giro on the Monday morning, about fifty quid all told if I remember rightly. A pint was over a quid and fags two quid for twenty. That giro was all the money I had in the world or was likely to have for the next fortnight.
On the Monday morning directly before that first Wednesday in June, Greville Starkey (Guy Harwood’s stalwart stable pilot and rider of the Brave), was interviewed in the Sporting Life.
In the article, he enthused that the Brave was the best horse he had ever ridden but he was concerned about his stamina. He repeated this seven, eight times. Greville seemed preoccupied – perhaps, in hindsight, unduly so. The horse had so much speed, he said. The pedigree signals were mixed, he said. He told the world that he planned to hold the horse up to make sure he got the trip and that if he did get the trip, then the Brave would beat Sharastani and the rest. Of that he was sure.
But would he get the trip?
I knew he would. To me, Starkey’s interview was a clarion call to the faithful and a full go message. I rolled up the paper under my arm, walked over to the post office, cashed the giro, walked to the high street Ladbrokes and put the lot on Dancing Brave to win at 5/1. It was the kind of impulsive, crazy thing crazy kids do but not once did I countenance defeat. Not once. Mark Coton described it as The Zone. I’ve had it ten, fifteen times in my betting life. No nerves, no doubts. An overwhelming feeling of Zenlike certainty that the great Dancing Brave was going to win the 1986 Derby. The gamble which saw the Brave go off 2/1 favourite with antepost favourite Shahrastani now friendless suggests that others must have heard the clarion call too.
You all know the result.
Even writing this now is painful. For years I hated Starkey. Genuinely hated him (which is unusual for me). Now, the pain and dislike has dimmed with the passage of time to be replaced by new thought processes. I wonder what Greville thinks now about that day. Like the Battle of Arnhem, which is recalled in higher esteem than El Alamein, the British love a heroic defeat and maybe it was this defeat which secured the Brave’s place in the pantheon of truly great racehorses. Maybe I should be thanking him, but at the time, it hurt. That final two furlongs, the unavailing dash for glory, is still burned in my mind. It has all the unnerving power of a particularly bad recurring nightmare.
I agree Sea Bird’s victory was mind blowing – even Lester, who rode runner-up, Meadow Court, said that he ( Sea Bird ) could have gone round again and would still have won. Still the best Derby winner I’ve seen. Had Glennon let him go full throttle, he’d have won by a distance and would likely have smashed the course record to smithereens.
There are many, but one other which stands out is Shergar’s. I immediately backed him ante-post at 4-1 with a small independent bookmaker after his facile wins at Sandown and Chester. The odds didn’t last an hour. I can still see his face ( like thunder
) and recall his comment as I placed the bet." Outrageous odds ! " he snorted.
He too thought that Stoute’s horse was an absolute penalty kick and should have been odds on – even at that stage.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.