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Quote: from Alderbrook on 2:06 pm on Nov. 3, 2005[br]One thing to bear in mind, 15 years or so ago there was a pretty darn good grey called Desert Orchid.  I imagine there would have been some clamour for a top class race to be named after him too in his retirement.  Not sure a Class B (Class C last year) handicap chase run on a Sunday in October was what would have been expected.
<br>His Gold Cup win in 1989 notwithstanding, Dessie always gave me the impression of being happiest going right-handed, so the choice of Wincanton as venue of the chase named after him for so many years didn’t seem especially inappropriate to me.
I would, however, have thought him worthy of "getting" a better race than the one he did. Given his obvious liking for Kempton, I’d be quite relaxed about the Feltham Chase being renamed after him.
At a much, much lower level, and having seen him pelt round there so many times in the last few years, I’d one day like to see a handicap chase at Cartmel named after Flahive’s First, races at Sedgefield immortalising Fatehalkhair and Teme Valley, and a Some Jinks Chase at Southwell.
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hello again,
At the risk of walking into a whole minefield of "who’s the greatest" comparisons, is there not a good case for Cheltenham to revisit its entire "named race" programme and potentially swap or replace names more in accordance with individual horses’ achievements?
Arkle would surely be regarded as the most fitting horse to carry the name of the current Gold Cup, should any horse carry it at all.
Golden Miller’s achievements arguably warrant him being commemorated in a more significant race than the one he currently has his name against at the April meeting, though finding 3m+ chases (only appropriate, I think, for Gold Cup winners) for both him and Best Mate at the Festival would presumably mean the likes of Kim Muir’s name being removed or repatriated.
Multiple Festival hurdles winners are less uncommon, so I don’t see too many of those, if any at all, being prefixed to Festival race names, although maybe some folk out there would like to see Istabraq or Baracouda commemorated somehow.
My prefered option would still be to have Best Mate’s name against the Pillar Chase, as it is a big enough 3m+ chase in Cheltenham’s calendar, yet not too big to imply he was a greater horse in the great pantheon of equine stars than he actually was.
(steps into minefield after all :) )
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Quote: from Kotkijet on 12:18 am on Nov. 2, 2005[br]By the way, you missed out the apostrophe and an ‘e’ on the first sentence of your (possessive) post. Now if you’re (omission of letter ‘a‘) going to champion the ‘one rule for us, another for those allowed to let off fireworks after eleven’ argument, then for your own sake, sort your English out! If you don’t, then the poor MP who has to read your letter of complaint will think that you’re a d!ck.
<br>Very, very nice! :clap:<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hello there,
I found out the breaking news via the RSS feed I have to and from the BBC website – some of the bileous, callous comments on the Forums there have to be read to be (dis)believed.
Connections have, of course, been berated in many quarters for not running Best Mate more frequently per season, so there could be a horrible irony read into the horse perishing in his first race in what was mooted as going to be potentially a busier campaign for him than usual.
Opportunistic snipes will point out that all the kid gloves treatment and keeping of the horse from the track for fear of injury, etc. couldn’t save him from meeting his tragic end today, but that’s really not helpful talk. If something, be that a genetic predisposition or cruel fate, decreed that Best Mate was going to die aged ten, I can’t imagine how the manner in which he was raced (or not raced) up to today would have influenced that more.
There is already talk on the same forum of Cheltenham renaming the Gold Cup after him. I don’t know whether that would be wholly appropriate, as if any horse were to have that honour bestowed on him it would surely have been Arkle, but something along the lines of the Pillar Chase could always carry his name in the fullness of time.
R.I.P. Best Mate – not THE great, but A great, and for that we honour your memory now and always.
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 4:59 pm on Nov. 1, 2005)
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Quote: from stevedvg on 4:42 pm on Oct. 28, 2005<br>I’ve got a great plan for you.
Use a pacemaker to set off in front and destroy the fences during the first circuit and Ted can jump through gaps for the whole race! :biggrin:   <br>
<br>I’m sure if you spoke to Eric Elliott nicely, he could make Place Above – the nearest the equine world has to a Sherman Tank at present – available for that precise purpose. :biggrin:
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Quote: from Zoz on 9:36 pm on Oct. 7, 2005[br]Arctic Monkeys sound great live GC, lively and confident, and if it gives you any inclination as to the type of audience they command I believe that the label that signed Franz Ferdinand (good second album btw) paid their record fee to sign them.
Maybe a cross between FF and The Strokes? Lyrically very clever and sharp with catchy guitars.<br>
<br>I fear it must be a different Arctic Monkeys atop the hit parade, then, as I really cannot stand either I Bet You Look Good… or anything else I’ve heard to date, alas. Far too much like those blasted Libertines for my liking. The idea is good enough – the whole Streets-like oikish thing set to guitars – but the execution is not. Ah well (polishes zimmer frame, collects pension).
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Joe Haywood? Ian Davies? Golden Cygnet?
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Can that dead parrot in the news be described as a polygon?
<br>Polygon? Polly-gone? See what I did there?
Christ I’m wasted on you people :biggrin:
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Quote: from Meshaheer on 11:57 pm on Oct. 24, 2005Dumped under Thatcher – even that made me chuckle!<br>
<br>I was dumped on under Thatcher – is that the same sort of thing?
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Essentially yes, a good point, David; albeit slightly tempered by a Newsnight expose I saw a while back, which revealed the Swedish authorities still practised eugenics on people thought likely to produce disabled or unintelligent offpsring up until around 15 years ago.
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Best tracks in Britain? Cartmel, Bangor, Market Rasen, Uttoxeter, Perth, Southwell (NH), Dalton Park, Clifton-upon-Dunsmore.
In my skewed little brain, anyway.
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Quote: from graysonscolumn on 11:05 am on Oct. 5, 2005[br]Arctic Monkeys have been bigged up on Planet Sound (C4 Teletext pages 351-60) for a few months now, but I haven’t invested any time or money in them yet. What are they like?
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)
<br>Come to think of it I should be able to answer my own question shortly, given that I’ve just learned they’ve been confirmed for the new series of Later With Jools Holland.
Can’t say every last act on the program ever meets with my approval (get thee to Hades, Jamiroquai!), but last series it gave me the divine Mali duo AMADOU AND MARIAM (produced by Manu Chao – what more do you want, world music fans?!?!), and the Canadian nutjobs ARCADE FIRE, so for those nuggets alone I expect I’ll be tuning in.
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 4:35 pm on Oct. 6, 2005)
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Arctic Monkeys have been bigged up on Planet Sound (C4 Teletext pages 351-60) for a few months now, but I haven’t invested any time or money in them yet. What are they like?
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hiya,
Frankly there is only really the variety of horse racing and the music that hasn’t made me quit the UK a long time ago. The product of an Anglo-German marriage, I am, and will always remain, a proud EUROPEAN.
For all its undeniable excesses, verbosity, red tape, etc., I am more comfortable to throw in my lot under the EU flag – in the defence of which hardly anyone, if anyone at all, has ever killed or been killed – than the Union Jack or St George’s wotsit.
I appreciate this is an opinion probably at odds with that of most posters to what is a more right-wing leaning Forum than left or centrist (get thee to Blackpool, Mesh!), but anything other than this would be wholly dishonest of me.
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hiya,
Was Twice Nightly a particular fan of York over Beverley (which is at least 4 miles closer to Wetwang)? I’d have thought an event there may have been at least as appropriate.
Mare of Wetwang only ever won in selling class, incidentally, so it’s not as if staging a Class 2 or 3 handicap or similar in Richard Whiteley’s memory would be in keeping with his success as a horse owner (although it may well be commensurate with the celebrity / degree of affection with which he was held).
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Quote: from lollys mates girl on 7:48 pm on Sep. 28, 2005[br]bumhole!
Just trying to make you laugh.
Dads gone for a shower, and I feel sorry for you.
Laugh MAN!
<br>Post something even remotely on nodding terms with "funny" and I’ll consider it. Said joke is so poor it wouldn’t even have passed the quality control for the last series of Bo! Selecta.
I don’t dislike all toilet gags, but I do dislike crap toilet gags.
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)
<br>
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 2:07 am on Sep. 30, 2005)
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hiya,
I can’t bring myself to complain about the admission prices of race meetings when one considers what VFM they represent set against £40 for a Premiership match (90 mins, might be a dire match), or a Test Match seat (longer day but weather more likely to intervene).
In writing a review for another forum back in May, I made a few displeased noises about the increasing prices at Cartmel – £12 to £17 in the last two years, a much larger percentagewise increase than any other track over the same period, I would guess – but in retrospect I can’t even crab about that too much. In an era where meetings have now to be bid for, to some greater of lesser extent, Lord Cavendish probably had the near and mid-term threats to little courses like Cartmel, and the need to have a "fighting fund" with which to buy meetings they’d hitherto always had, when alluding to the price hikes in his recent programme notes.
Plus, for a follower of the jumps, where else beyond Great Britain and Ireland am I going to get such a rich diet of the racing I enjoy all year round, regardless of whether the admission is half or a third of the price?
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
