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In the Directory of the Turf (1989 edition) I mentioned earlier, Chapman names Quistador as the best horse he’d trained up to that time. That’s not a name that rang any bells with me, so I did a bit of digging into my Timeform annuals.
Quistador began racing as a sprint handicapper trained by Geoff Huffer in Newmarket, won twice as a 3yo, but disappointed as a 4yo in 1980 and was rated 54 in Racehorse of 1980. His breeding shouted sprinter on both sides, sired by Le Johnstan out a mare by Bleep-Bleep. Not an obvious candidate for hurdling, but he was sold to Chapman at the autumn sales for 620 gns and Chapman proceeded to work miracles.
Quistador ran 16 times in his first season and as he was bought in October, that’s 16 races in six months – he won four of them and got a TF rating of 113. The following season he was injured in his first run and off until the spring, when he won two handicap hurdles at Stratford.
Then in 1982/83, he ran 21 times over hurdles, winning three in the spring, the last one at Chapmans favourite track, Cartmel. His TF rating rose to 126. Finally in 1983/84, he won at Worcester in August, finished second on his chase debut at cartmel, then returned to hurdles, suffered a career ending injury in October.
So that 54 rated sprinter, who’d never won over further than 6F on the flat, produced 10 wins over hurdles in four seasons of action. No wonder he was a favourite with his trainer. I just wonder what Willie Mullins or Nicky Henderson would have made of such unpromising material.
Chasers and Hurdlers, first ever edition covering 1975/76, shows Foresail trained by Earl Jones, a 30L winner of a 3M chase at Worcester with an end of season Timeform rating of 113.
The 1976/77 edition confirms the switch to M Chapman and the run in the National. So far as I remember, there was no set of qualification rules for entry in those days. It was just the highest weighted 40 that were declared would run.
CAS – quite right, I’d forgotten Spittin’ Mick was still going strong and when you see him these days, a great advert for the efficiency of braces.
I have an old Directory of the Turf, which tells me that Michael Chapman was born in March, 1938 and obtained his trainers licence in 1976.
So he’s probably the oldest trainer still active in this country and the colours carried by that winner today are certainly familiar. His only other winner this season was back in August at his beloved Cartmel and that one started at 80/1. So any stable followers are well in profit this season!
He bought a horse from me back in 1982, the Rising Fast whose story is told elsewhere on the forum. A few weeks after the sale he ran the horse from about 15lbs wrong in the handicap in a 2M flat race at Kempton. I introduced myself to him and he told me this was just a prep for his main target, a novice hurdle at Cartmel.
Moe,
No, a horse that is pulled up would normally be dropped by the handicapper, unless the PU was due to something other than being well beaten – e.g injury, or being badly hampered by a loose horse etc.
And a horse can be raised even if it falls at one of the last two fences. So for example, six lengths clear at the last and still on the bridle, then falls, would be treated as the easy winner for handicapping purposes.
And as a famous example demonstrated, you can be raised for winning a race from which you are subsequently disqualified, as when The Young Master won at Wincanton. He was DQ’d because he wasn’t qualified to run in that race and the owners never got any prize money, but his handicap mark was put up from 130 to 144.
“Contrary to other views , retain grade 1s , at both championship and novice level at 2 and a half miles.”
Coggy,
I don’t disagree in princple, but the current program at 2 and half miles is ridiculous. Both for novices and experienced chasers.
The novices have G1 races in February (Scilly isles), March (Cheltenham whatever it’s now called) and April (Manifesto). The older horses have the Ascot Chase in February, the Ryanair in March and the Melling in April.
No other category has G1 races in three consecutive months and nothing before February.
” Imagine making The Derby a mile race on a straight mile and saying it’s still The Derby.”
You don’t have to imagine it, as the first four runnings of the Derby were staged over a mile on a more or less straight course that joined the current one at the 5F start. It only changed to 1M 4F on the current course in 1784.
I lost interest weeks ago when it became clear that Irish trained horses would make up 80% of the runners. I can’t help wondering what the reaction would be in Ireland if the Galway Plate was run this year with 80% of the runners trained in England.
So no score from me, I didn’t even watch it. But one anomaly is clear from the result. The winner ran from a mark at least 5lbs lower than his current Irish chase rating – because he won his most recent race a few days after the pointless lunch at which the weights are announced. This sort of thing might have been acceptable in 1924, but it’s a farce now when modern communication methods would easily cope with either a later publication of the weights, or a provision for the handicapper to apply a penalty for improved form after publication. This system works perfectly OK for the Melbourne Cup, so don’t tell me it couldn’t be used for the National.
Pity really as the first two days at Aintree were the best NH racing of the season to date. The shuffling of the program on Saturday that saw the Grade 1 2M novice chase run an hour after the National should see somebody sacked.
CAS,
Have no fear, the authorities have every base covered and if it comes down to a stewards enquiry after the National, Tiddles is in charge.
No really, here’s the info on stewards working at Aintree from the BHA website:
Steward: Adrian Sharpe, Louise Moore, Shaun Parker.
Stewards’ Panel Chair: Caroline (Tiddles) Tellwright, Jeremy Barlow.OK, no doubt it’s just a family nickname used by Kirkland and other members of the Tellwrong clan, but why on earth would you want to include it in an official document?
Worth reading the longer piece referenced in that article as well – just download the free PDF:
Henderson quote about Sir Gino handling the ground at Aintree:
“He won at Auteuil and as everybody knows, if you can handle that you can handle most things”
He really does spout rubbish at times. OK, the official going for Auteuil that day was heavy, but Sir Gino ran 1M 7F in 3m 36s very early in the year for a 3yo hurdler. Safe to say that ground was not anything like what we’d call heavy, nor anything like what he’ll face at Aintree.
Willie Mullins has won this race twice, both with fillies that had been placed in the Triumph. So you can guess what I’ll be backing to beat Sir Gino.
Every time a horse runs, the owner pays currently £24 and change to pay for insurance for the jockey. That insurance is designed to provide an income when a jockey is unable to ride, and also something that they call career ending insurance.
Like others, I’m surprised that with the funds available, theres no provision for private treatment. In this specific case, there’s an argument for saying that NH courses shouldn’t be racing on a Saturday evening, when it’s known that local A+E departments will be at their busiest.
It’s not a new phenomenon. Try this old newspaper report:
“Rain is threatening to devastate this week’s racing in Britain and there’s no comfort from the weathermen who predict more to come. Yesterday’s original program of 10 meetings was halved when Haydock, Newcastle and Southwell joined the casualty list. The fixtures at Warwick and Towcester were abandoned on Sunday.
The stewards at Chester who called off todays card have also abandoned tomorrow’s meeting. It was the same story in Scotland, where today’s Kelso meeting was called off because of waterlogging.”
It goes on to report inspections at Salisbury, Wetherby and Cheltenham, all waterlogged. That was published on Tuesday, early May, 1983.
As reported in the Post this morning, he runs in the final established trial for the Grand Steeple at Auteuil on Saturday. The race is the Prix Murat, Grade 2, over 4400m and currently has six possible runners.
Il Est Francais has a 5kg penalty for his Grade 1 win at Kempton – none of this half penalty for wins in novice races in France. His main challenger seems likely to be his stable companion, Gallipoli, a 7yo. He has improved his French chase rating by 12kgs since his owner switched him to Noel George and partner last summer. He’s been second in two Grade 3 chases over C+D this year, so has the advantage of race fitness, as well as being in receipt of 5kgs.
The race also features Gran Diose, trained by Louisa Carberry, who finished second in the Prix Haye Jousselin over 5500m last November – that race is the other Grade 1 chase for older horses in the French program, effectively their equivalent of the King George. He did however finish 20L behind Gallipoli recently and probably needs the longer trip.
Two things that could be done:
1. Tighten up the qualifying conditions. Currently it is just required for a horse to have finished in the first four in a chase over 3M or more at any point in its career. So if you finish 4th of 5 in a 3M novice chase, even if only four finish, you’re qualified for the National. I would opt for either ruling out novice races as a way to qualify, or make it first four in a race with at least 10 runners. And I’d extend the rule to first six in races like the Hennessy and other named major handicaps.
2. Introduce a quota system. Maximum field is 34, then only 14 (or 16, or 20) can be Irish trained. And leave it up to the Irish authorities to decide how they select the runners to fill the quota. Seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable thing to do, given that most of the prize money comes from UK sources.
