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Per the OP’s specific question, I’m sure the history books abound with point-to-pointers being dragged out for one last hurrah between the flags after five, six, seven, who knows how many years’ retirement – maybe in a hunt members race rather than anything more competitive.
One example at least partly grounded in Rules racing which sprang immediately to mind, however, was that of TELF, Peter Clarke’s owner-trained former pointer who found himself contesting basement grade handicap chases off a low-60s mark in 1995-6.
Telf’s reappearance in a Plumpton selling chase in October 1995 as a 15-year-old represented his first outing of any description since unseating in a point at Dunthrop in April 1990!
I think that’s the winner so far, but doubtless there’ll be something to top even that. I’ve got it in the back of my brain that one of Ted Caine’s charges went even longer between outings, but I’ve no way of checking that right now whilst enjoying the heatwave on my holiday in Saxony…
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.
Some very moving testimonies on this thread, and I tip my hat to all who have shared for having done so.
There is a further, specious underlying narrative to Mr Chapman’s outburst, I think, and it is that which goes along the lines of thinking someone can’t be *that* ill, either any more or at all, if they don’t *look* ill.
Those of us, and statistically there’ll be plenty on here, who grapple with mental health issues on a daily basis will be all too familiar with this particular line of reasoning.
Debilitating or ravaging illnesses manifest themselves in rather more ways than limbs hanging off or the appearance-altering effects of chemo. Whichever appearance they take, however, is absolutely no business of Mr Chapman’s unless the subject expressly makes it his.
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.
Taken from Katie Frisby’s Facebook feed. Square brackets are my own:
“Barrington got down to the start and didn’t want to go. He wasn’t naughty. He has done nothing wrong. He has done everything I have ever asked of him. He made the decision today not to jump off and I would rather him of [SIC] done that than head to the first not really wanting to go and fall. He has been through so much over the last few years [accident with a lorry over a year ago] and I am so proud of everything he has overcome. So I can now say Happy Retirement Barrington you truly deserve it”.
HTH,
gc (on holiday)
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Take a metaphor and run with it, eh, Nathan…
This is a temporary return, as I am off to Germany for a fortnight from Saturday morning and will be giving all things equine nary a thought. We’ll see what happens again after that.
Is that Mr Klopp on your avatar, by the way? Will be lots of Germans rooting for Liverpool this weekend, I fancy, and not just my mum (who’s decided that as a practising Lutheran, he’s utterly beyond reproach).
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 hardware in question was absolutely gunwhaled with adblockers, trust me. No other site I was visiting then was exhibiting, or visit now exhibits, even the slightest similar symptom.
I also ought to make clear that it wasn’t a case of ads appearing on top of the TRF site when attempting to access it – it was ads appearing instead of TRF.
Either way, I can access the site again, though as had been the case for several years before the rammel was appearing instead, its response time is far slower than any other site I can think of. This is not a new issue – IIRC there have been complaints about response times from other users periodically over the years, some but not all coinciding with the latest reskinning of the site’s UI.
Very small beer on the spectrum of global suffering, obviously, and nothing anywhere near as likely to dissuade me from posting more often again as intemporate or intolerant posters, but a curious state of affairs nonetheless.
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.
Nathan Hughes wrote:
“The mere mention of Quixall Crossett and Sir Jeremy Grayson will be on the forum quicker than a Thursday night 5f F1 style tripe handicap run downhill with the jockeys holding sticks with tripe tied to the end of them and dangled in front of the horses nose”.=============================
Ah, so this is the thread you PMd me on Facebook about, is it?
Apologies for the sluggish response. If I’m honest I wasn’t 100% sure that TRF was still a thing, considering the extended period of time during the past few months in which every attempt to access the site via whichever browser resulted in some sort of crash, or else some sort of clickbait tat-selling site appearing on my screen instead. Glad it’s still alive, and evidently working again for me.
Now, then, if there is any worshipping of Quixall Crossett to be done, stand aside and leave it to me
It’ll surprise few here that I’ve met Ted Caine of QC fame a few times during the course of the current pointing season, most recently at Easingwold a week last Sunday when Black Pepper Lady, a 16yo maiden homebred out of stable stalwart Cregg Rose, popped away beautifully for the first two thirds of the Bilsdale Members race before emptying out. Ever the optimist at 75 years of age, he’s called that it for this season now but would love to go close with a younger horse in a Yorkshire Area point race of any description next term.
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 notice that a Mr Mason has a Red Striker in training with Sir Michael Stoute. Not Norman this time but Ged, along with Sir Alex and others.
It’s twelve years since the previous Red Striker, an erstwhile Dipper and Peter Marsh Chase winner, passed away whilst in service with Tina Jackson.
I notice also that there is another Alph in training, just eight years after Andy Chard and Roger Teal’s popular giant ran his last. This latest incarnation contested a Ludlow newcomers’ bumper for Nicky Henderson a week last Sunday.
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.
A strongish April probably ought not detract from the fact that, by her standards, Venetia Williams endured a rancid 2017-18, numerically her worst for 21 years, despite as prolonged a period of deep underfoot conditions as her often soft/heavy ground-biased string could ever have wished for.
I’ve heard it suggested that the improvement in March and April coincided with Liam Treadwell’s installation as assistant trainer giving the place a much-needed shot in the arm, but that will count for little in the longer term if the Kings Caple handler suffers an even halfway comparable 2018-19.
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 sad irony of Lilbitluso’s demise in the Foxhunters was that up until that fence, it had been the jumping performance of his life.
Those of us who’d seen him between the flags frequently in the preceding years had long harboured a few concerns that his quick, flattish but often one-note style of jumping would hinder his progress either around bigger courses with bigger fences and/or once the win penalties started to stack up; and those fears had been realised in the more recent past.
Aintree, however, was inspiring him to bend his back and improvise like never previously, until that misjudgment at the Canal Turn which did not appear at first glance to be the worst-looking fall you’ll ever see by any means, but which quickly proved first grave and then terminal.
As an added poignant note Lilbitluso’s regular work rider Vicki Park had died suddenly on the weekend of her local Flint & Denbigh point-to-point fixture at Bangor-on-Dee in mid-March. It had been the intention that the Foxhunters would have been both her and the gelding’s valedictory, with Park leading her pride and joy around the paddock and both enjoying retirement thereafter. Tragically, neither lived to.
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.
Richard Pugh is tremendous, though as well as the bloodstock commitments Jack mentions there are appreciable commitments to point-to-pointing in Ireland (and increasingly frequently also in Britain, q.v. commentary gigs at Kingston Blount last year and Barbury Racecourse this) which I imagine he’d be loath to give up.
Methinks for the time being at least, he is destined to remain jack of all trades (and as far as I can ascertain, master of most of those, too).
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.
After a long and happy dotage between the flags under Laura Bradstock, it’s finally pipe and slippers time for:
A very happy retirement to our absolute legend Carruthers! He has been a horse of a lifetime and we all absolutely love him to bits. 12 years without missing a season and making us so proud everyday, he retires very happy, healthy and ready for his next adventure #oursuperhero pic.twitter.com/v9yZQhgDvu
— MarkBradstockRacing (@BradstockRacing) May 8, 2018
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.
If the sport isn’t intrinsically racist, and I do not believe that it is, it nevertheless leaves itself clumsily open to that accusation often enough.
Note Jamie Moore’s use of the term Kit-Kat in reference to a non-white member of stable staff on live TV.
Note Jason Ward’s fine for comparing a horse’s tongue to a black man’s todger at the end of 2016.
Note the unfortunate nickname of Osama with which certain in the changing room saddled Shashi Righton during his riding career (I wonder whether any of those have approached him for rides since then, in his capacity of jockey’s agent).
Note the frequent half-hearted misspellings of Rishi Persad (not a hard name to get right, considering it’s spelled exactly as it sounds) on internet fora and social media everywhere.
Note one point-to-point trainer’s fondness for stating his more stamina-imbued horses stay longer than asylum seekers.
Then compare and contrast these awkward episodes with the story of Abdulkareem Musa Adam, the Sudanese refugee turned workrider for Nikki Evans:
https://www.racingpost.com/news/young-rider-from-darfur-recognised-with-nomination/268744
Adam’s story shows what’s achievable with sufficient application from the rider and sufficient openness and encouragement from racing as a whole and trainers in particular; and considering Newmarket isn’t prohibitively far away from the Dovers of this world, I would be imploring trainers there to be putting out feelers to the authorities to determine whether any of those refugees currently being processed have either previous experience of, or an interest in, working with horses.
I’m sure there are rather more steps to the workflow than even I’m aware of, but in essence there is a readymade solution to Newmarket’s shortage of workriders and stable staff hidden in plain sight. Some may cite language issues as a reason not to recruit refugees, but then one Lanfranco Dettori’s English skills were precisely those of Abdulkareem Musa Adam when he first arrived in Britain – absolutely zip.
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.
thejudge1 wrote:
“So what racing could do is go out and headhunt someone from other parts of media, (I presume that’s how richi got his job- he wasn’t in racing in the first place?”===========================
No, Rishi sought and gained work in the broader racing broadcasting arena from the floorboards up, the same as quite a number of people I’m currently monitoring the progress of between the flags. Plenty from the East Anglia administrative Area recall his infant steps at commentating on point-to-points there what must have been not shy of two decades ago now.
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.
Drone wrote:
“Having said that I do find it outrageous and deeply offensive that there hasn’t been a decent White since the elderly Dessie”===================
Russe Blanc won the Warwick Classic Chase (National as was) in 2016 – that decent enough?
(Hello again, FriendDrone, by the way. It’s been a little while).
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.
Twice Over wrote:
“I am sure Persad is a decent bloke , he tries hard, but he just is not that knowledgeable, or at least fails to show it.”=============================
His terrestrial TV racing gigs, and the role of interview muppet he’s invariably been asked to play in most of those, regularly do him a disservice. Simply by expedient of a broader remit I think his RUK work is better, and the Armchair Jockeys webcasts alongside Lydia Hislop and Steve Mellish were better still (I don’t know if these are still going, but I fear possibly not).
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.
Phil Walker wrote:
“Don’t do it Musselburgh! If you think the situation is bad now just wait until ARC get their greedy hands on it and ruins the place. They’ll likely dig up the jumps course, replace it with an all-weather surface […]”=============================
I’m pretty certain that the permitted usages of what is an historic links course as well as a racecourse would likely forbid such a conversion.
At least, they have prevented and continue to prevent the erecting of any floodlights around the existing course, which was one of the main reasons why previous proposals for Musselburgh to house the first artificial surface track in the north ultimately came to nothing.
If anywhere in the ARC portfolio might be being scrutinised with a view to adding a synthetic track, I wonder if it might be Ffos Las, which passed fully into ARC’s ownership this week. Lovely, big, flat sweeping oval – it’d make for a fairer challenge than most AS tracks.
I suppose the matter of whether sufficient Irish horses (say, those, that get balloted out of races at Dundalk) could help the Dave Evanses of this world to service a programme of AS fixtures there could prove key to its feasibility.
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 very end, with the two characters going off on a roadtrip with apparent murderous intent, felt a bit bolted on and not entirely satisfactory. The rest of it, however, was inarguably tremendous, powerful and pitch-dark funny. Very glad I got to see it.
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.
