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A marvellous horse, who had a very long and varied career.
He won over a million pounds, and completed every single one of his 80 races. 58 of these were over hurdles.
It sounds as if he was well-loved in retirement, which is wonderful to hear.
RIP Thousand Stars
The French miler Solow is another fairly recent top-class grey, though his peak was now a decade ago.
I think British racing’s profile has diminished sufficiently that a racehorse of any colour would struggle to capture the public imagination nowadays. The recent dual National winner Tiger Roll never came remotely close to having the fame of Red Rum, for example.
Grey horses are eyecatching, and I am sure this helps make them more memorable to those who engage with racing on a casual basis. It’s an interesting question as to whether Desert Orchid would have been as popular with the general public if he hadn’t been grey. I suspect his colour did contribute towards his popularity.
There’s some information on how Retraining of Racehorses is funded at present at the link below. Owners pay a small levy on each entry fee, currently £3 per entry.
https://www.ror.org.uk/about-us/funding
Without wishing to diminish the excellent efforts and generous contributions made by some, there is still colossal room for improvement in this area. I agree with the previous comments that all parties who benefit from the sport should be making a significant contribution.
100% agree zilzal, it beggars belief that the stewards felt it was worth commenting that Stark Warning had been wearing earplugs, but not that he was dead.
To be fair, the horse could have been put down later in the day after the stewards’ report was filed, but the fact that the second favourite had pulled up early in the race was surely worthy of mention. I believe all horse injuries and deaths on the track should be reported as routine.
It certainly doesn’t look like “the horse comes first” as one of the previous industry public relations lines claimed.
And now he’s recorded on the BHA database as dying the same day as he was pulled up at Chester.
I won’t post separately in the Memorials section just yet as the admins may decide to move this thread to there.
RIP Stark Warning
Seemingly not worthy of mention by the stewards, which reflects very poorly on both them and the oversight of British racing in my view.
Don’t worry though, as the crucial fact that the horse wore earplugs beforehand has been recorded for posterity.
Not sure how this one slipped through the net, but forum favourite Music Society was added to the BHA’s non-racing agreements list in February!
Wishing him a long and happy retirement.
Nathan, it appears Music Society has been retired. He is on the BHA’s non-racing agreements list with a date of 25 February 2025.
The golden age of the Easterby stable had passed by the time I developed an interest in racing, but it did not take long to glean that the trainer and his equine stars were titans of the sport. What some of them achieved seems unbelievable nowadays, truly the stuff of legend.
I am glad he reached such a great age. A life very well lived.
RIP Peter Easterby
I know that a lot of people attending the Derby could not tell a good racehorse from a bad one, but it’s notable that the decline in the race’s attendance mirrors the decline in its stature.
Winning the Derby is nowhere near as prestigious as it used to be. More and more high profile international races seem to be chipping away at its place in the pecking order.
Even if it was a poor year, the idea of the Derby winner being gelded to continue racing rather than going to stud would have been unthinkable a couple of decades ago, yet that is the fate that befell Serpentine after his victory in 2020.
Miss Woodford – Great post. Any idea why there would be a reluctance to record a horse as black without photo evidence? I could understand if someone was claiming green or pink!
The larger and more competitive field actually made the race more interesting to me.
The horses at bigger prices were far from hopeless cases, and plenty of horses at large odds have performed well in the race previously.
As someone who loves dour stayers, this thread provides a great opportunity to mention two of my favourites – Just So and Killeshin, both black.
Just So’s finest hour was a second in the 1994 National, and Killeshin won the Aintree Foxhunters the previous day. He went on to win the Eider in 1996.
I am sure the organisers are breathing a big sigh of relief.
I went for Ukraine and Switzerland to finish top 10 and got very lucky as they were 9th and 10th.
Thought the UK performance was good tonight. They can sing well live, which puts it ahead of some of our recent entries. Still don’t like the song much though.
Great stuff gc!
Switzerland was the standout for me from semifinal 1. I don’t favour ballads usually, but it’s a nice song and the simple staging provided a welcome change of pace from the onslaught of beats and strobe lights. I’d be hopeful it will do well on Saturday.
Agree with moehat about liking Albania too.
