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Agree LD73 – you use to have to rumble around second hand bookshops or visit dusty libraries to find out of print racing books. Now there is minimum effort involved for those who have an appetite for digesting historical information. A couple of clicks on e bay and you can find Timeform Annuals at bargain basement prices – just the other day I was reading the essay on Alcide from the 1958 Annual.
Two other cracking books, both from late 70’s early 80’s are Classic Lines and Decade of Champions – without sounding all gooey the prose from Patrick Robinson is beautifully created and there are full plate sized reproductions of Richard Stone Reeves paintings. Both great dip in and out books and would be hugely educational too for those wanting to pick up on some of the great equine contributors to the sport.
I have come across two work colleagues, both forties, who claim to be racing fans but looked nonplussed when you mention Nijinsky – it is the equivalent of someone saying they are footy fans but who have never heard of Eusebio or Puskas. They are also not familiar with Kieren Fallon – unbelievable.
I call these the ‘ Rooster Booster brigade’ after that survey the RP conducted around ten years back asking for readers to nominate who they thought was the best Champion Hurdle winner and shockingly Rooster came out top.
I can guarantee that those who got hooked in the 70’s if faced with a similar survey would have been enthusiastic enough to have gone back down the years and put the likes of Sir Ken, Hatton’s Grace and Persian War under consideration, besides those greats of that then present decade.
As said, age is everything here, location too – is anyone from Ireland not going to have Arkle top?- but a fair list. I’m a Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, King George snob, but for fame Red Rum was from the three channel era when the Grand National was a proper stomach churning race and would top the list – though my personal mid seventies favourite was Captain Christy, and my three favourite jumpers of all time, Monksfield, Night Nurse and Sea Pigeon. Captain Christy probably unjustified in retrospect being a good ground/fast ground, difficult to train horse, but the other three would stand the test of time. In relatively recent times though that Kauto / Denman era was truly riveting and will maybe prove to be the last great steeplechasing era of the sport – and thankfully I did attend their Gold Cups but haven’t been since and maybe never again.
Once you continue to yield you eventually end up back to the wall with nothing more to offer.Racing has already reached this point with the Grand National and I fear just one renewal with multiple deaths that happen on the day during the race ( as opposed to later complications from an injury incurred) will be the end of it. In one recent running a daft woman in the workplace on the Monday was vocally telling all who cared to listen that she was yelling at the screen after the race. “ Quick, quick, get some water on those horses ! “. Decades back it would have been,” My bet was winnning but the jockey fell off.”
With this whip hullabaloo I fear now that the BHB, under pressure from the negative publicity the issue is attracting, will call it a day and ban use altogether.They’ll try and justify the decision by pointing to the part time racing jurisdictions where this has happened.Of course as pointed out, this would be the end of those lovable animals we often refer to as being lazy but tough and willing when given the message.
Another point; we live in a world where change now happens fast – we already have many strange customs that are becoming the norm that would in past times have existed only in daft Monty Python or Two Ronnies sketches. It’s not a case of change happening gradually anymore, with those in favour just chipping away over a long period of time – we are now in an environment where it can occur in one fell swoop. That is frightening prospect and I really do fear that jump racing in the UK (the next target after whip use has been outlawed) will have had it’s day sooner than we could imagine.
The below is from the front page of the Life taken from a scrapbook – not certain of the year as I’d stupidly cut off the top with the date on though it’s definitely second half of the 1980’s. It’s in a way racing’s first extra big step in voluntary yielding as I don’t recall there being too much pressure from the outside at the time.
“Jockeys will be suspended rather than fined for whip offences from March 24 under tough new Jockey Cub rules announced yesterday.
The Jockey Club stewards are so determined to stop improper use of the whip that top jockey’s including Pat Eddery,will have to change the style of riding which won them many races
last year.Lord Vestey, chairman of Jockey Club Disciplinary Committee, revealed that Lester Piggott’s high pressure ride on The Minstrel, who was hit 20 times to win the 1977 Derby, would have contravened the new rules and earned Piggott a suspension.
He added that Eddery’s much copied technique of hitting a horse continuously in ‘rat-tat-tar‘ action close home in a desperate finish will no longer be allowed.”
It actually continues for a few more paragraphs with Vestey quoted as saying “ Savagery cannot be tolerated on humanitarian grounds”. – talk about hanging out your own dirty washing, the silly old fool!
Hoiles suggestion of representatives from the sport visiting schools and demonstrating how soft these modern cushioned whips are, would seem a workable and beneficial one. However I just wonder whether some local authorities would veto such a proposal which they’d have the power to do as realistically it will never be part of the National Curriculum
Thus in general I would guess that, at opposite ends of the spectrum, a militant left wing council would not welcome visiting parties entering schools in their locality to promote horse racing, while the reverse would likely be true of local councils in the likes of the Cotswolds, whose school pupils would be more in sync with the equine world and would not need educating on such subjects anyway.
I realise there are a few inner city riding schools spread around the country but they will not necessarily promote horse racing per se – they could even be wanting to separate themselves from such links.
Even with time restraints they really have dissected this case and it paints a sorry tale of the sport. There is a point in the broadcast when – I think it’s Hugh Farrelly – states something similar to , “ Those in racing like to laud their equine heroes and go into mourning when one of their stars suffers a fatal injury – but what of all those who don’t make enough money for their connections ? Is it a case of being taken around the back of the stable block and a bullet put into the head ?”
I doubt Ed and the team will have anything to say about this on Saturday morning. They never did visit the wastage issue again after promising to in light of the Panorama programme. I have also noticed that their propaganda feature ‘ Home Schooling’ has included an increasing number of horses in their twenties of late, no doubt trying to convey the impression that it is the norm for the majority of ex racehorses live a life of bliss after their careers have ended.
Another Forum has a thread where several articles have been reproduced from the Irish press – absolutely shocking and well done to the bold lady employee for standing up and ensuring this was brought out into the open as it appears many likely knew what was happening (or at the very least least had heard successions of rumours that matched up) but chose to keep quiet.
Interesting thread for those of us who still partly live in the 1970’s. Agree that they need to leave Fawlty alone. Though there was (if different circumstances had prevailed) mileage left for more at the time when the second series concluded there would have come a point when the quality could not be maintained, so let’s treasure what was left and leave alone.
Could not bring myself to watch Heir & Grace, neither the modern day Van Der Valk, but they did bring back a new look Barry Foster version in the early 1990’s after the original style, third series, ended in 1977. The 1990’s series’s consisted of longer episodes and were apparently inspired by Inspector Morse. They were actually OK if not quite matching the aura of the 1970’s episodes.
Was there that day too – Ron Barry just let the horse pop and he folded on landing. My father was livid, “ that Barry is past it now, he’s a binman !”
The pundits no doubt have their own personal list of who is off boundaries for criticism, influenced by their own connections, how dauntless they are, and who they don’t consider it wise to get on the wrong side of.
The late Tom O’Ryan, when writing a report on the race, made what could be construed as an ‘in house northern racing clique comment’ when covering Tony Dobbin’s last ride where the rider of the only other horse still in with a chance late on dropped his reins. John Francome was consistently complimentary of J P Magniers riding of Rhinestone Cowboy, something that those who were on the pair in the Coral Cup would not have shared.
For some reason it reminds me of a pub in Blackpool (name escapes me) with a bold, in house comedian who gets stuck into the audience, warts and all,citing looks,shapes,race ect However,a pal told me he was up there with his wife recently and the front of the small stage where the comedian performs was occupied on this occasion by a gang of rum looking bikers. No reference, not even a whisper, was made over them during the act.
Will sit on the fence but would have plumped for Fallon if Dettori’s career had fully petered out when it looked as though it was about to a decade back. The resurgence was incredible even taking into account the obvious that it would not have happened on the same scale if Gosden was not entering the most fruitful and prolonged successful spell of his training career.
Dettori did however have the fortune of being given the platform to prove his talents at an earlier age. Fallon moved from cutting his teeth with Jimmy Fitzgerald to the Ramsdens where he made a name for himself around the Northern circuit – around the mid nineties people were for the first time putting him into the mix as to who the best rider was and wondered how he’d adapt if offered a showcase job which would shortly be forthcoming.
Two different styles, both visually superb when allied to riding for powerful yards enjoying vintage spells. Both had personal flaws though I suspect that Dettori’s flash/ cockiness/ arrogance was less of a hindrance than Fallon’s short fuse.
This is very sad news despite him making it to the Octogenerian window. He was part of an age when most representing the sport in the media did so without the wish to magnify their own so called ‘personalities’- Hanmer clearly carried out his roles for the BBC, Raceform and in the role of a jockey’s agent to the highest standards.
When he compiled close ups for Raceform and their Note Book, in the same teams as the likes of John Sharratt, Patricia Stoute, Alan Amies ect, there was (apart from the small number of televised races) no help available from recordings until the late eighties – up to then their eyes and acumen had one chance only to get things right.
He did at least enjoy the sport in its heyday and will not be here to witness it go from struggling to farcical to crumbling.
First had access to a VHS recorder on Champion Hurdle day 1983. Had trouble setting it up so missed out recording the Supreme and Arkle, but had it working in time for Gaye Brief’s impressive performance in the big one. From then onwards I built up a big recorded collection of all Group/Graded/ Listed events along with the traditional handicaps, and with lots of post race interviews too.
Unfortunately, in the early noughties I realized the dreaded white mold had set in, rendering the collection all but useless, – so thanks to the likes of espmadrid on You Tube and ‘The History of Horse Racing’ on Twitter, as I needn’t of worried after all. They really are big givers to the sport.
As for unsung hero horses – well, The Dealer seems all but forgotten. Won the Embassy Premier Chase Final in the same season that his stable companion Midnight Court won that rescheduled Gold Cup, and was thought so much of that he had a Gold Cup entry despite being a novice. Unfortunately injury intervened after Haydock and that was it – though years later he made a sole appearance in a Hunter Chase.
Would also add the tough as nails Arthur Stephenson trained Villierstown who ran in the Peter Piller colours. Skipped over the then demanding Aintree fences in his Topham appearances and loved Wetherby too.
Not to forget for his third CH his prep/reappearance was on a miserable, overcast and rainy Friday at Haydock Park in early March.
That’s an excellent piece with the correct, basic solution too. As Philip Hobbs said the other week, ” this was never a issue as recently as 20 years ago”, or similar words.
There is a bigger picture here in that National Hunt racing can ill afford what seems now like every weekend being blighted by rows of obstacles being cordoned off or/and spates of withdrawals.
I think COC’s have a duty to use some foresight, pick up the vibes of how the trainers of those who intend fielding star performers, and act accordingly irrespective if it results in treating the needs of the more powerful yards above those of the rest- put it this way,I doubt any genuine racing fans who attended Ascot yesterday would come away thinking that is was for the good of the game that Stickels was seen to play fair to all.
Reg the durability and conformation of modern NH animals – I seem to recall that when it was made compulsory for wind ops to be declared, a certain stud who housed numerous jump stallion sons of Sadler’s Wells were reportedly against the move as it would expose what could be viewed as a weakness in this line of the breed.
However, on conformation only, as far back as forty plus years ago you had some big name trainers with a mish mash of lookers. Not just Martin Pipe either, some so called traditional jump trainers too – the Dickinsons for example, there was nothing of Silver Buck, Bregawn was very plain on the eye, and Political Pop was as narrow as sliced supermarket ham.
