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Sad to hear of this but he leaves a great legacy. My abiding memory of him was an analysis he did back in 1992 of the fatal fall of Mr Brooks in the Breeders Cup Sprint and the associated injury to Lester Piggott. It was a short analysis but his sorrow when referring to the horse’s fall was touching. It was neither saccharine nor semtimentalised – just a simple, brief and human response to the injury and death of a well-liked horse. Funny the things you remember……….
Terimon (first horse I ever backed – 20/1 winner of the 1991 Juddmonte International)
Yahoo
Remedy the Malady
Maid of Money
Fidway
Royal Derbi
Cacoethes
Ill de Chypre
King Credo
Twin Oaks
Run For Free
Nick The Brief
Condor Pan
Ashfold Copse
Monsieur Le Cure
Shadow Leader
(the last three of which all died on the track)Jaunty Flight seemed to take a horrible fall in the race before the National and he seemed to be injured as he tried to get up. Camera panned away from the fence then. Anybody know if he was ok?
but one that continues to slip under the radar is
Land Afar
. He was cantering in the ’94 and ’95 Champion Hurdle before tipping up late on in both contests.
He would have gone very close in both.
Theatreworld
also deserves a special mention – second on three occasions behind the mighty Istabraq (twice) and Make A Stand.
I think your memory has deserted you in respect of Land Afar. I backed him at a huge price the only year he fell. Although he was travelling well it was far too early to be definite about what would have happened. There is a strong possibility he would have folded up the hill. His overall record is really not good enough for consideration under this thread. The same remark could be applied to Theatreworld who only won six races over hurdles for win prize money of about £40,000. He is a pretty good indicator of the paucity of opposition to Istabraq.
It would make sense to pick a loser from what is considered by many to be the golden era of hurdling – Birds Nest springs to mind.
Whatever your view on whether Land Afar would have won a Chapion Hurdle, on a note of pedantry, Stilvi, he fell while travelling well in
two
Champion Hurdles. His counterpart in the Champion Chase I guess would be Latalomne.
On a personal note, I think Fidway was robbed of a Champion in 1992. IMHO would have won had his path not been crossed by Royal Gait. His stride was just a bit too big to get back on an even keel after that. Not a great horse, but certainly unlucky.Black Humour for me – think he’s the only horse to fall in the Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup
and
Grand National. Don’t know why that makes him a favourite…..but it does
No one death is any more tragic than the next. Each highlights the uneasy pact we enter into when taking an interest in this sport. For me, it was really hammered home when The Last Fling was killed in the Grand National a few years ago. It’s those talented but unpredictable and sometimes wayward horses that really capture us and for him to lose his life ignominiously out in the country at Aintree was as ironic as it was sad after spearheading the field so boldly for so long. The two sides one the one coin were, for me, never so starkly demonstrated.
For me, Upgrade had a real quirk. Was really talented but was a total monkey. Ended up taking a few heavy falls in his time cos his mind was elsewhere. Hope he’s happily retired somewhere now, mulling over Nietzsche.
And you gotta just love the thinly veiled malevolence of Arcadian Heights and Moonax. I remember when he won the St Leger, all he wanted to do was bite whoever was near him. Love it!
