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Hello again,
Strikes me there are one or two on here who may be able to help me out. Could it be confirmed who the racecourse commentator on this clip is, please?
https://twitter.com/horsevault/status/1569220711872356352
My money’s on Bryan Firth, but having never heard Harry Beeby or Michael White in action and knowing both were still active on the then RTS roster around the same time (if all three not for much longer), I’m reluctant to guess too hastily.
Similarly, who can provide a positive ID for this gentleman, please?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVME0Mk-2t0&t=1s
I’m thinking John Cotterell, ubiquitous in the West Country for a couple of decades at least. My personal racecard archive confirms he was the duty commentator at two Newton Abbot meetings I attended in 1987 and 1989; but as those were meetings from the time I’d just wander deep into the infield to take photos at runners crossing fences, oblivious to the sounds over the PA system, I wouldn’t have the vaguest recollection of what John would have sounded like on those days.
I’ve managed to put names to voices of a few callers over the extended lifespan of this thread, but new questions emerge all the time as long-lost or forgotten footage continues to be unearthed. And as for the number of racecards I’ve scrutinised on eBay… Well, it gets something done whilst I’m sitting up at 3am and waiting for the kids to doze back to sleep.
Thanks in advance!
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
However, is talk of a lifetime ban fair or realistic? As Lydia Hislop said in yesterday’s podcast, Mick Quinn mistreated horses that were alive. He only got a three year ban and is now training again.
There may be an issue of scale. From memory, Kamil Mahdi got warned off for ten years and a lifetime ban from caring for horses (one he was trying to find ways to circumvent as recently as 2013, to the horror of the Scargill family who’d exposed him).
Without having yet checked to confirm, I assume Mick Quinn’s mistreatment either concerned fewer horses or was seen as less systemic as Mahdi’s. Regardless, I imagine it’s been pretty hard for some to enjoy in isolation the achievements of the game front-runner Pink Sheets in mares’ hurdles this autumn and winter, whilst still remembering her trainer’s previous misdemeanours.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Search Youtube for Wocket Woy to get as much Mattie Batchelor as you could possibly ever need. Sixty-nine comedy mini-films of him on there, and counting.
He also made a guest appearance on Hole in the Wall, BBC1’s conversion of the Japanese gameshow Minasan no Okage desita, in autumn 2008. I’d tell you exactly which episode and date, except that the guest list for each episode on Wikipedia contains the guests for the US and Australian conversions instead. Duh.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I’m guessing it didn’t lure you away from the likes of Plumpton on too many winter Mondays during your ORS days, Paul!
It felt like I was making up about 2% of the paying audience on the day of its first jumpers’ bumper fixture almost exactly eight years ago. But, y’know, it was a clear, bright winter’s afternoon with some fine sport and lots of friendly faces; and until they ruined it with a second such fixture last year, I could legitimately claim to have seen all of the jumps racing held under Rules at Dunstall Park since 2002.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Sorry, ap- I meant during the turf flat season. AW flat racing is fine during the winter.
The unusual circumstances of 2020 are likely best ignored for analytical purposes, but the significant number of artificial surface meetings held during the summer months in the preceding years that attracted runner totals in the 80s, 90s and even 100s does demand closer scrutiny.
There’s clearly a sizeable cohort of trainers out there prepared to use them. Is that a consequence of too few turf Flat meetings being programmed at certain pinch points of the summer (for the very reasons of course husbandry ap referred to)? Or does it speak of an ever greater trust among trainers in the quality and integrity of an AS surface versus a turf equivalent that may have been chewed up, overwatered, etc.?
Or is it simply the case that as so many horses will have been trained on an AS at home, that racing on an AS even in the height of summer is regarded as being as natural (an ironic choice of word in this context, I appreciate) to the horses in question as at any other time of year?
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
The argument still applies even if we’re just talking about the turf flat season. There simply aren’t enough tracks to handle the number of fixtures required by a) the horse population and b) the deal with the bookies.
And that’s even with both tracks at Newmarket divided down the middle to provide two separate racing surfaces – and similar arrangements at Haydock and Nottingham where they have two tracks available for sprints.
…plus, ap, numerous racing lines available around big, wide tracks such as Newbury, Ffos Las and Doncaster. And still these aren’t necessarily enough.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I would certainly mourn Wolverhampton’s passing were it to come to that, and the arguments you’ve raised for its retention are certainly strong. I can vouch for the decent facilities, too – not yet three decades old, so spring chickens compared to those of many of its peers.
I suppose the worries are that ARC have already shown their true colours where closing racecourses for housing development opportunities are concerned, and of that course bits of the site were already being sold off for non-racing purposes six years before ARC even hoved into view. Fundamentally, and perhaps worryingly, it’s a lucrative-looking site in an urban setting.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Whenever the argument comes up about “too many meetings”, it tends to ignore the fact that racing’s income is derived from the number of meetings, and we need to acknowledge that there is a place for races which are tailored to satisfy the needs of the (generally moderate) equine population.
Arguably more races need to be framed to give our lesser lights a better chance of a run! The menu needs to be balanced, and excellence rewarded, so I quite see how some more prestigious events would want to gravitate to weekend slots. You don’t need to bet on them if you don’t want to, but I often think it is easier to spot the least-bad horse in a bad race than the best horse in an elite event.
Very much agree with the above, not least the last line, even before considering that my single biggest win last year came in a 0-55 classified at Chelmsford. I’ve never been convinced that a mooted reduction of moderate races would result in a commensurate reduction of the number or percentage of moderate horses, but rather just hide more of them out of sight.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Mike if you want to put summer jumps into a one race summary then the Summer National, although Gray really sums it up with the going being too hard to jump on
For the avoidance of doubt, RedRum, can I perhaps gently point out that that was actually the opposite of what I was saying.
I’m a fierce advocate of summer jumping, Summer Cup and all (the Summer National hasn’t existed for a while now, either by name (since 2012) or race distance (since 2009)), and with few concerns regarding the veracity of its surfaces on account of the watering requirements mentioned previously.
Hard ground hasn’t existed as an entity in summer jumping at any stage of its now 25-year existence, nor firm ground for the vast majority of that. Wincanton or Taunton or Exeter, however…
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I STRONGLY dislike All Weather Jumps, the best thing they did was get rid of it. Also summer jumps as the ground might be too firm for them.
Three weeks shy of the 27th anniversary of the last ever artificial surface hurdle in this country (and War Beat’s conspicuously graphic demise), I think you can rest assured that that mode of racing isn’t coming back any time soon. Barring a steeplechase on dirt at Honzrath in Germany most years if not quite annually, there’s negligible appetite for it elsewhere in mainland Europe either.
The mention of summer jumping reminds me of another reason for my dislike of that Chepstow October meeting, and more broadly of a lot of jumps racing in October generally. Provision of sufficient watering facilities is an absolute prerequisite for courses wanting to race over jumps from June to September – no watering, no fixtures granted.
No such edict exists for October fixtures, when in many cases it probably ought to. Only last year, the good to soft ground promised for the Chepstow fixture proved to be anything but, with conditions officially changed to good two races into the Friday card of what is nowadays a two-day fixture. Even that analysis didn’t sit entirely right with the evidence of a raft of late non-runners and a 103-rated animal breaking the 3m chase course record (with the actual race distance the same as advertised).
Simply put, I’d be far happier running something around Cartmel in mid-July than Chepstow nearly three months later.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Indeed yes, Drone, for nine of the last eleven years including the last seven and a half. Unless circumstances necessitate or accommodate (delete as applicable) a move to Scotland or Darmstadt in the future, we’re Sheffo for good now and will be very happy to remain so.
Covid hasn’t sunk its claws into this neck of the woods as much as many, it’s true, such that we were in a lower tier than anywhere else in Yorkshire immediately prior to the present lockdown. We’re quite good at doing as we’re told around here, all in all.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
The moment the Southwell surface switch was announced, I thought this might spell the beginning of the end of Wolverhampton. Anyone else?
Three other AS courses in the ARC portfolio to absorb Wolvo’s fixtures, two with a straight course that Wolvo doesn’t offer and two using Tapeta or about to. It adds up.
The new Southwell surface needs to prove itself capable of withstanding the inevitable much higher usage.
Assuming it answers those questions of it affirmatively, however, and that the site’s previous flooding issues have been fixed for good, the end for Wolvo isn’t hard to imagine.That’ll sadden me, as in its previous dual-purpose form it was the venue of the first race meeting I ever went to, back in March 1983. It’s also the AS track I’ve fared best at punting-wise over the years, and I doubt I’m alone in that.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Oh and ta for the kind words, Nathan and Friendsheep! No idea how long this stay will last, as life has been getting in the way of such Web 2.0-related pursuits something rotten of late; but as the great philosopher Lord Tommo of the Crown Inn, Bawtry once said, let’s see what happens…
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Aye, agree that Corm having won it that year would make perfect sense.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
It tends to be forgotten that he is unbeaten over fences. His rating is 151, 7 lbs lower than his hurdle rating.
Maybe Henderson should enter him in the Grand Annual.
Somebody on another forum I frequent drew people’s attention to that perfect chasing record (2-2) right after Buveur D’Air’s Newcastle injury. Their own view was that, returning at least a year older and feasibly a bit slower, the first race to target with him on return ought to have been a graduation chase at 2m4f or thereabouts, with a view to campaigning him for the Ryanair.
I’d imagine 151 leaves him with a bit to find to trouble the best in that division, but as a half-sibling to Rachkam Lerouge and Punchestowns it’s not as if there’s a lack of good winning prowess at 2m4f and beyond in the immediate family.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
TRF awards thread updated accordingly, Friendsheep
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Happy to confirm that I won two poster awards, but not the 2006 renewal.
If I remember rightly I barely posted on TRF during 2006, as the fair folk at the cheerily doomed Sportsman had first refusal on both my time and most of the words in my brain for the first ten months of it. Thereafter, thoughts turned to getting a corpus of work on my blog sufficiently quickly to use as a potential calling card should anyone else in the sport have been mad enough to employ me (turns out they were).
I can’t recall who might have been the actual 2006 winner. I’d like to think perhaps one of Rory, Zoz, Zome or Happy Jack, but that’s mere guesswork nearly a decade and a half on.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
