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I’m unsure as to why Sporazene is so highly regarded; his finest moment over hurdles was probably winning the County Hurdle, and he was very well treated on that occassion (something like 14lb ‘well in’?); and I’ve yet to see any evidence that he is superior over fences. Although, your right, the division is very weak at the moment, and he would have to be rated as a contender by default.
Quote: from andyod on 6:00 pm on Dec. 12, 2006[br]I don’t believe Lester was as good as they make him out to be either. As for Gordon what’s his name if the jockeys were any good he would not have set that record . Right? And there was Ali; who did he ever beat ? Nobody equal to today’s heavyweights.The boxers of the sixtees were clowns. Ask George Forman. As for Vincent winning three nationals and three gold cups and three champion hurdles before he decided to go flat racing! Not worth mentioning since they did not know how to train in  those days.I mean that was the FIFTIES. The reason we cannot beat their records is because we are so much better.Right!<br>
Ah, but your attempt at Reductio ad absurdum is misdirected; if this thread was implying that some members of a particular generation are liable to prejudice (but I would say, more generously in this case: nostalgia and sentimentality), it was those who lived during the Fifties. I think that racing is particularly prone to sentimentality, even above all other sports. Probably because horses are so loveable. I’m sure if horses didn’t exist, and instead the sport revolved around, say, freakishly large Dobermans, the exploits of the past wouldn’t have such a cosy charm.
I’m sure that I’ll growup the same, but far worse. I’ll be telling my grandchildren (or otherwise random children on the estate) about the great Rifleman, and the way he boosted a nation’s moral with his feats at radiant Hexham.<br> <br>
Quote: from SwallowCottage on 8:58 pm on Sep. 7, 2006[br]I really like asian people and their culture so for this reason<br>
I hate to be pedantic but that comment makes it sound as if the Asian continent has a shared culture (which would be odd, i.e., the countries of Japan and North Korea probably have very different ones).
I could ramble for ages on this topic, so instead I will restrict myself to listing my favourite films which start with the letter ‘m’: I like  Manhattan, Mean Streets and Midnight Cowboy.<br>
(Edited by NWRA at 8:05 pm on Dec. 12, 2006)
Quote: from clivex on 5:42 pm on Dec. 11, 2006[br]Oh lord…here we go :o
Personally, i am not sure he even existed. Dont trust those black and white films myself <br>
Yes! Arkle may have been invented by nostalgic bores as a means of downplaying the hype about every contemporary champion. I bet the government were involved too.<br>
Quote: from The Market Man on 5:24 pm on Dec. 11, 2006[br]I don’t usualy like voicing an opinion on something I didn’t see or wasn’t around to judge for myself. <br>
Ah, don’t worry about that… I do it all of the time!
I agree with your point about the difficulty of separating facts from the general romanticisation of the 1960s.
Although, I bet it really was a marvellous decade if you was young, white, rich and lived in specific areas of London or Liverpool.
For me, Peter Braddock’s ‘Complete Guide to Horse Race Selection And Betting’ is The Bible/Qu’ran/Bravo Two Zero of racing literature. It’s a thick hardback, written in rather a formal, scholarly way (as it should be); while Braddock has a logical, rational approach to selecting horses. It has chapters on everything (you can ‘search inside this book’ and read the table of contents on amazon.co.uk).
It changed my appraoch. It made me realise that, before I could progess, I had to, paradoxically, return to the fundamentals, to cleanse my mind of clutter and groundless theories.
And (this is the inspiring bit), now I lose slightly less money.
My favourites are Nirvana’s covers of The Vaseline’s songs on Incesticide, Bruce Springsteen’s acoustic version of Dreams (originally by Suicide), The Cramp’s Surfin’ Bird (can’t remember), and those on Sonic Youth’s Peel Session of Fall covers.
The worst … well, this must take some beating.<br>
Quote: from The Market Man on 4:30 pm on Dec. 10, 2006[br]I’m going to be controversial now lol but I don’t think Best Mate was anywhere near as good as some people made him out to be. Ok he won three Gold Cups and by doing that that in itself can’t be argued with but what did he ever beat that was geuninely top class and loved the conditions of the Gold Cup? Best Mate was arguably no better than any other staying chaser at 3 miles, was very vulnerable at any trip under 3 miles and won Gold Cups basically because everything was in his favour at Cheltenham and he loved the conditions of the race whereas anything else top class didn’t i.e. Florida Pearl, Beef Or Salmon.
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<br>RE: ‘controversial’. I know the idea that the Internet is a repressive, censorious system, and you’re a hip young iconoclast here to bring The Truth to the brainwashed masses, is quite attractive, but… hark! didn’t people on here used to criticise Best Mate every other week while the horse was still alive?
Anyway, to your point; there are a few mistakes…
Yes, Best Mate’s ability seemed to decline as time passed, and subsequently he ended his career on a downer. However, far too many watchers have forgotten how classy he once was.
Personally, I think when he first started chasing, Best Mate was as impressive as Kauto Star has been in his recent performances. He was effortlessly cruising to victory in races at two miles (The Independent Novices Chase at Chelt., The Haldon Gold Cup), before he started winning Gold Cups.
And one of his greatest performances was in Ireland, The Ericsson Chase, where he easily beat Beef Or Salmon in the conditions the latter loves.
Search for the horse on the RP website. They have the evidence!
I always thought it was harsh to criticise Knight for the way she campaigned Best Mate. If he was more vigorously campaigned, he probably wouldn’t have achieved what he did. Some horses can’t take that much racing in competitive 3m+ chases; look at Kicking King, etc (and the way the subject did, y’know, collapse and die during a race).<br> <br>Oh, and the whole ‘Best Mate didn’t beat much’ thing. Now, when most of them have retired, and we have the benefit of hindsight, we forget that, at the time, many of the horses had potential and promise, and were threats; The Gold Cups seemed fairly open. But we only selectively remember the greats of the past, and not the horses who chased their shadows. The fields that Kicking King and War Of Attrition beat, and the majority of the horses in the antepost betting for next year’s Gold Cup, will not be thought of anymore favourably; and in the future will be unfairly remembered as having been ‘no hopers’. <br>
