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“Brighton’s 2m course ran south from the 1m4f start towards the coast.”
Ravel,
I now learn that Brighton’s first recorded meeting on 26/27 August 1783 featured a race decided by 4m heats. From this I deduce that the racecourse was a circuit at that time.
Source:
http://www.greyhoundderby.com/Brighton%20Racecourse%20History.html
Within this link are a couple of racecards. The card for 10 October 1851 shows a mixed meeting of two flat & two hurdle races. These contests were followed by an option sadly no longer available in the modern era, namely the Consolation Scramble Handicap, open to all horses that had run but not won at the two day meeting. This allowed a horse that finished tailed-off in an earlier hurdle race to try its luck again over 4F on the flat.
(I confess to being equally engaged by the poster of advertisements just below the racecard. This promotes the undoubted virtues of Dr. Locock’s Pulmonic Wafers, Mr. Smith’s Daguerreotypes and, most intriguingly, Lipscombe’s Pure Bear’s Grease Depot which offered haircuts for sixpence.)
Gladiateur – Jamie Reid is a prolific author on horse racing.
Below is a select bibliography. I say ‘select’ because at least one of his books is absent from the list, namely ‘Emperors of the Turf’ which contains the Julian Wilson character sketch as above. I’ve always found him both informative and entertaining.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/275955.Jamie_Reid
Note also his two music biographies of Diana Krall & Chris Isaak.
Thanks, Ravel.
This snippet comes from James Gill’s book on racecourses:
“They say that, once upon a time, the course was two miles long, but it was shortened because thoroughbreds were being lost over the anfractuous rocks.”
I learn that anfractuous means ‘full of windings and intricate turnings’. I can’t believe that racehorses ran off the course and disappeared over some rocks, unless you advise me otherwise.
“Unless my memory deceives me there is no way itv comes close to the quality of coverage you got with julian wilson on the bbc.”
Just using this post as a hook to hang the following description of Julian Wilson as observed by Jamie Reid on 1,000 Guineas day in 1988.
“Ears flapping, hair slicked back severely and with the most doleful and humourless expression on his face, the greying Wislon (sic) looks more than ever like some haunted character out of a Bram Stoker novel. He rightly regards himself as a highly experienced journalist, cruelly underestimated by comparison with his more charismatic colleagues, but it would still be fair to say that he will never enjoy a thriving alternative career as a stand-up comedian.”
Ouch.
When Favonius (1871) and Isonomy (1879) won the Brighton Cup the race distance was 2m.
I’m curious to know what route a 2m contest would have taken back then. The course would certainly have occupied more acreage thus offering more scope for distance races.
Many thanks.
“Hethersett 134
Park Top 131
Cacoethes 130
Sodium 128”Having failed to locate a copy of his book ‘The Brighton Races’ I contacted author Jim Beavis who kindly sent me this message:
“A bit below the standard of those four were Operatic Society (seven of his 30 wins were at Brighton) and Dart Board (winner of the 1967 Brighton Derby Trial before finishing third in the English and Irish Derbys).
Rather higher was the 1879 Brighton Cup winner Isonomy, who won the Ascot Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup, the Gold Vase (a 2m weight for age race at Royal Ascot), the Doncaster Cup and the Ebor in the same year. He won the Cambridgeshire the year before and the Gold Cup a second time a year later and sired two Triple Crown winners.”
Isonomy now tops the list of Brighton’s best for me. This horse had such a towering reputation that he gets a mention in a Sherlock Holmes story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isonomy_(horse)
Thanks, Jim.
.
.
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Below is Jim’s website address listing other books written by him, like so:The Croydon Races (1999)
The Brighton Races (2003)
The History of Fontwell Park (2008)
The Days of Fontwell (2011)
The History of Bath Racecourse (2011)
The History of Uttoxeter Races (2015) (now out of stock)
The History of Royal Windsor Racecourse (2016)
The History of Salisbury Racecourse (2019) (£12 plus p&p)
Ffos Las: The Birth of a Racecourse (£8 plus p&p)“These are the Timeform ratings of Brighton’s best. Any others to add?”
Probably not during the life of Timeform.
Derby winner Favonius won the Brighton Challenge Cup in 1871 but rating performances from that era is fraught with difficulty.
Park Top was sent off at 6/4 for her first Brighton Challenge Cup.
I concur these old newspapers/racecards are wonderful to behold. A great resource.
The Brighton Challenge Cup was certainly worth winning back then.
The 1967 renewal carried added money of £3,000 (£40,000 in today’s coin) whereas Royal Ascot’s vaguely equivalent Bessborough Stakes was worth a mere £1,500 (£20,000). Park Top’s Ribblesdale featured added money of £5,000 (£65,000).
Meandering further down memory lane I found racecards for Brighton 2 August 1967:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BlxAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c6MMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6103%2C263021
and for Royal Ascot 21 June 1967:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AmtAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=baMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6344%2C3759412
The Brighton Challenge Cup was won twice by Park Top. Her 1967 victory came after a win in the Ribblesdale and she got in the race with 8st 2lb.
In the early to mid 1960s there was a Brighton Derby Trial. No Derby winner came out of the event but it did feature two subsequent St Leger winners in the shape of Hethersett & Sodium.
I can’t find the racecard for Dafayna’s Cork & Orrery but in 1989 the 3-y-o filly Bay Bay ran in the race carrying 7st 12lb (including 1lb overweight).
Dafayna would likely have carried 7st 11lb in 1985.
It’s unlikely that Willie Carson, or any other jockey, rode in the Jersey Stakes off 7st something unless the race conditions have changed drastically since the 1980s. I’d be interested to know whether that’s the case.
Current weights are 9st 1lb plus a 5lb penalty for a G1/G2 winner and 3lb for a G3 winner. There’s a 3lb allowance for fillies.
Tecorno was trained by Dick Hern.
“Does anyone remember a classic winner winning it?”
Two months before Peleid won the 1973 St Leger he won this race off 7st 9lb.
There was no particular nemesis for Song In The Air but I’m reliably informed that Barry Hills trained this filly to finish second 10 times in a row during 1973-1974.
She eventually broke her duck after a transfer to Frank Carr.
It’s asking for trouble to name a horse Entire.
Fate decrees the beast is a short price to be gelded at some stage (which is exactly what happened).
2:30 – Dark Thirty (Alzahir)
3:05 – Stars Girl Aalmal **NB** (Samburu)
3:40 – Solid Stone (Third Realm)
4:20 – A Case Of You (Campanelle)
5:00 – Silver Samurai & Prince Lancelot (Batwan)
5:35 – Tollard Royal **Nap** (Phantom Flight)
6:10 – Stratum (Falcon Eight)BigG & Triptych – many thanks for organising this. One day I’ll finish on the top half.
Not today, though.
