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Just So (or Just Slow as he was affectionately known) – he needed all of six miles in the mud – his slow-motion victory over Cythere at Chepstow will live long in the memory. In the rare event that he ever hit the front he used to go on and win, except in the ’94 National when that pesky Pipe horse Minnehoma did him close home after I’d told all and sundry to lump on at 40-1. Doh!
Just so was a real favourite of mine also, Mounty, and I was similarly on at exotic ante-post odds that day. Ah, that reminds me – I’ve not stuck a pin in my Simon Burrough voodoo doll yet this morning.
Other fave jumps horses of mine? Mostly mere footnotes in the annals of racing history, really, but all animals I grew to love;
Better Times Ahead
Dubacilla
Fiddlers Pike
Flying Ace
Hellcatmudwrestler
Just Beth
Mac Vidi
Monaughty Man
Mr Christie
Mr Dow Jones
Nosam
Perroquet
Quixall Crossett
Spot Thedifference
Teaplanter
Weewumpawud
Xaipetegc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Nice to see Corporal Clinger mentioned! Always fun to follow.
He was a real tough nut to crack and a class animal, Definately one of my favourites too.
My friend was thinking about sending a horse to Ascot he was entered in.
There was another horse in that race and my friend and I met John Francome at mussleburgh. I am pretty sure he was down to ride this other horse but I am going on memory so forgive me if I am wrong.
We asked him how good he thought the horse he was die to ride was and I will never forget what he said. Don’t bother coming he said "He takes off like a bat out of hell then quickens up" were his very words.
My friend never sent the horse and we sat down to watch the race on the telly as amatter of interest. Unfortuantely for Corporal Clinger the horse Francome was talking about was Desert Orchid who did exactly what francome had said he would do.
Corporal Clinger finished a very good 2nd about 15 lengths behind. . I made lots of money following him after that knowing he had finished 2nd to a horse the Champion Jockey thought was a flying machine.
Grand National pedantry forces me to put the record straight about Aintree stalwart Rondetto – he did in fact run in five Nationals, the last as a fourteen-year-old in 1970. He was partnered by Jeff King in four of his five outings in the race, with the only exception being in 1967 when Johnny Haine took the ride.
1965 – fell 26th
1967 – refused
1968 – fell 23rd
1969 – 3rd
1970 – u.r. 3rdThanks for correcting me Jack old memory not what it was. In the famouse gallagher race I had The Rip down as having finished 2nd to Arkle in one post and Rondetto in another. It was Rondetto one of my favs and I still got it wrong. shows you where my brain is at
Incidentally it used to be quite fashionable to run a 2 1/2 mile horse in the national hence Out and About running. Gay Trip was one of the best horses over 2 1/2 of his time and won the National in a canter.
As a new-comer to racing I can’t recall many of the greats mentioned above although I know all about them thanks to YouTube and what not.
My first real memory of jump racing was watching Party Politics winning the 92 National. Sure the colours were pink but I was only 7 so I plead innocence!!
Was he a decent horse and did he win much else?
Gay Trip was one of the best horses over 2 1/2 of his time and won the National in a canter.
Indeed he was, and his name is still dredged up year upon year by ignorant trainers who are desperately trying to give a valid reason as to why they are running totally unsuitable animals over a trip two miles in excess of their optimum.
I would suggest that Gay Trip’s National win was a minor fluke – there were only around 28 runners that year and only eight still going after the second Bechers. They hacked around for four miles and a furlong before Gay Trip did ’em for speed on the flat. To give the horse a bit of credit, though, he did run well in the race again when placed in ’72.
My first real memory of jump racing was watching Party Politics winning the 92 National. Sure the colours were pink but I was only 7 so I plead innocence!!
Was he a decent horse and did he win much else?
He was a big, wheezy horse who was tubed for the majority of his career, and that condition inevitably compromised him now and then, particularly (but not every time, before anyone writes in) on deep ground.
(NB can’t think of too many horses in training at present that have been tubed, other than Gunson Hight and Lik Wood Power – anyone know any more?)
Party Politics won 8-27 races, all steeplechases, and after his Aintree victory he went in again in the 93 renewals of the Greenalls Gold Cup at Haydock and the Rehearsal Chase (still then at Chepstow). He earned connections a quarter of a million pounds in total.
The latter race, in December of that year, was his last victory. He was limited to just six more starts after that, failing to finish in three but placing in the other three – another Rehearsal Chase, the 94 Welsh National (re-routed to Newbury) and his second to Royal Athlete in the 95 Grand National. He bowed out of racing after lasting just two fences in the 96 Grand National.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Party Politics…I remember really fancying this horse to win the National and tipped it all over the place. I think it was 14/1 and made a load of money but am I right in thinking it was the year of a general election? therefore the price could have been even bigger..
am I right in thinking it was the year of a general election? therefore the price could have been even bigger..
Yep, 92 was an election year, and yep, I don’t doubt "coincidence backers" chomped a few points off his otherwise likely SP.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
after Party Politics the owners bought another horse who was even bigger – I went to Uttoxeter to see him run but I can’t remember his name [may have been something or other collonges] but the horse never did anything of note. Think I was the only person in the country not to back Party Politics that year; he can’t breathe y’know I kept telling people…interesting to find out about the origin of this 2 1/2 mile horse for the National idea, it’ss omething that has always puzzled me. Is tubing different to all these wind operations that horses seem to have these days?
The wind ops these days fix the specific problem, tubing completely bypassed the problem.
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