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Here is another classic from 1969 – an event which was probably unique I think on a racecourse.It happened at the Whaddon Point-to-Point at Great Horwood and the unfortunate horse in question was Pontoon II (1960) br g (Cambyses – Flyaway by Fesway). Pontoon II came into the Whaddon Moderate race still a maiden but with steadily improving form, and he was extremely unlucky not to open his account in this race.Here is the summary from Geoffrey Sale :

“Desperately unlucky in Whaddon Moderate ([b:2mgel6bd]Joined leader 1 mile out, went on 3 out, 10ls clear at last, landed safely but collided with an ambulance tardily leaving the course[/b:2mgel6bd])”

I think he was ridden that day by John Leadbeater, who recalled the incident years later in something I read in the Sporting Life I think. However, there is a happy ending to this story. Pontoon II was happily uninjured (and I’m not sure whether or not his jockey was hurtled through the ambulance doors ! ), but both lived to fight another day. He had one more race that season finishing 5th in the Bar Maiden before returning to action the following pointing season.

12 months later, he once again lined up for the Whaddon Moderate, still a maiden after four further runs in Open and Ladies Open company, as well as a run at Sandown in a hunter-chase and now ridden by Terry Miall. This time, all went to plan and for a change, he had a bit of luck on his side as the likely winner Progress, a horse of Bill Shand-Kydd’s fell 4 out when in his slipstream. The comment by Geoffrey Sale this time was :

“Jumped well, led 6 out and left clear when likely winner Progress fell 4 out” as Pontoon II galloped on to his well deserved day of glory, beating Stories Zephyr and Gold Coast II a distance, without any further hindrances from ambulances !

Connections must have been delighted, especially in winning the exact same race in which disaster had struck so unexpectedly the previous year, so well done Pontoon II – I salute you !

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Following on from my earlier posting, here is a summary of the racing record of Peggy’s Pet (1960) gr g (Vigo – Polly Doodle by Dante)

Flat Racing Ran 83 Placed 10 (I don’t have the full details)
N/H Rules 1967 / 69 Ran 8 Placed 0
Point- to-Points 1967
and 1969 Ran 17 Placed 2 (2nd twice – beaten 5 lengths in Essex Members race by Myrebecca and 10 lengths by The Blazers in the Essex Union Maiden)

This only comes to 108 starts so I think there are 2 missing somewhere. He was described as being diminutive, best on the hard and a wearer of blinkers. His last reported owner (in 1969) was Mrs S.M. Mayes of the Essex Hunt.

Hope this may be of interest.

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Seventy Four, when I was a little girl my Uncle had a dog called Peggy & he always backed Peggys Pet, obviously unsuccessfully! He always followed a trainer called Peter Poston who had long priced winners occasionally so I’m assuming dear Peggys Pet was trained by him.
It must be a family trait following underdogs as I was a proud member of the Quixall Crossett Fan Club!

Thanks for that information Quixall Crossett.

I’ll check in the formbook tonight about what Peggy’s Pet actually did achieve in his career in terms of placings and report back a bit later. It’s a shame he didn’t have his moment of glory, but as long as he was loved and well looked after, that is the main thing.

Your memory is a good one – Peter Poston always seemed to have very long-priced winners, who usually had a string of duckeggs to their name. The only one of his that I can remember winning was a horse called Church Mouse (I liked her because of the name), who won an appallingly bad 3 runner novices selling hurdle (possibly at Ayr), but started at short odds because the other two were even worse than she was ! She scrambled home by half a length to record her only racecourse victory, but I was happy !

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The annual editions of "Hunter-Chasers and Point to Pointers" from Sale and Mackenzie were always eagerly awaited for some of the classic comments on the runners and I’ll have to dig through some of my old editions to unearth some gems.

One of the few that I can remember was about Urban Spaceman (who in his early career frequently unseated his rider ) :

"Tossed the rider into orbit in Maidens………………….."

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I agree totally.

Reg Green was almost "Mr Grand National" and I don’t think there was much about the race or many of the horses who ran in it that Reg didn’t know about.

RIP Reg.

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Thanks everyone, especially Gaz.

I got in touch with them and I’ve just had an invite to visit her and her foal in June, I’m absolutely made up

And just to confirm, she is currently in Germany being covered by Monsun.

That is excellent news Chris and I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time visiting Ouija Board and foal. Great photo by the way too Gaz – nice touch !

I remember clearly how excited I was meeting Mill House, Stalbridge Colonist, Brigadier Gerard, Dancing Brave and Maori Venture – especially Mill House and Brigadier Gerard (who was such a wonderful horse) – and it is always nice to have that special time with them well away from the racecourse and the crowds.

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Many thanks for that AP.

I can only vaguely recall the name Liam’s Pride, but am glad to know that he did finally have his winning day, even though his record was not as illustrious as that of Mr Mulligan !

It is a shame that a similar race could not have been found for Amrullah.

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As for High Cotton I finally have given up on him having backed him on many occasions including his near miss in the Eider two years ago.
Maybe connections should campaign for the introduction of a 3m 4f maiden chase for 13 year olds and above!

Wetherby framed one for my special chum Quixall Crossett back in 2001, albeit open to all ages and 3f shorter than your proposed trip. Needless to say the old boy turned up and plodded round very contentedly for a remote last of six finishers (from nine starters). I wonder if the executive could be talked into repeating the exercise…

I also want to pass on my congrats to Spider Boy and all concerned with him. It’s been a long old time coming, and I hope this doesn’t reduce his cult following any!

gc

I really did hope that your special chum Quixall Crossett would have his winning day but I guess it was not meant to be. He did once come a 2 lengths second in a steeplechase I seem to recall, but being placed was not a regular occurrence for him.

I wonder what the record number of starts for a "maiden" is in this country ? An Australian mare I think ran 120 times without winning and in the States, they had Zippy Chippy, who I think notched over 100 starts without success. Here, I don’t think Quixall Crossett has the record, as I remember that Peggy’s Pet had clocked 110 starts without success (including point-to-points) by about 1969, and I think Quixall stopped short of that total.

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Seventy Four,

That’s Burridge – not Burrell.

The owners of Desert Orchid having no connection with the odious butler to the late Princess of Wales.

I’m proud to say I owned a chaser that was beaten by Amrullah in a four runner novice chase at Ascot. He was 3rd, we were 4th and neither of us was in camera shot as Remittance Man and Morley Street fought out the finish!

AP

You are absolutely correct apracing – my only excuse is that it was late when I typed it !!!

Incidentally, what was the name of your horse that finished 4th when Amrullah was 3rd ? Did he/she win a race at all ?

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Sadly, I don’t think that High Cotton will win a race now as he seems to have been out of form on his last couple of starts at least and he is not getting any younger. Had he been mine, I’d have run him in a maiden point-to-point, but I think there are rules which would have prevented him running (having amassed so much prize-money under NH Rules, despite no wins, I think would disqualify him from even being able to be entered).

Not at all. Place prize money doesn’t count one jot when it comes to running in Points, hence the fact that the likes of Seebald, Lord Atterbury and Valley Henry are currently gracing the Pointing fields with varying degrees of success.

High Cotton wouldn’t be able to run in Points this year as he is housed in a professional yard, but there would be nothing to stop him doing so next year for a different trainer (or if the current trainer had him in his own ownership), and there are enough desperate Maidens up north that would give him an outside chance of an elusive first success – even at 14.

While we’re on the subject of ex-Rules horses running in Points, some people may be interested to know that Noel Chance’s former classy prospect Murphy’s Cardinal came out of the wilderness to win easily at Kimble on his Points debut at the weekend – his first appearance on a racecourse for the best part of 38 months.

Thanks for that Happy Jack – it must be old age now (have been around since 1833 ! ) and those senior moments are becoming ever more frequent ! I knew about the yard rule which would have prevented High Cotton from point-to-pointing this season – I must have misread the prize-money thing or imagined I read it somewhere.

I really hope they take that route with him next season if he is well because I think he deserves his day of glory.

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I must admit I was cheering him home (despite not having a bean on).
As for High Cotton I finally have given up on him having backed him on many occasions including his near miss in the Eider two years ago.
Maybe connections should campaign for the introduction of a 3m 4f maiden chase for 13 year olds and above!

Grey Desire, you are clearly someone after my own heart !

I have often thought that the type of race which you mention for High Cotton should definitely be somewhere in the Racing Calendar especially for him ! The frustrating part of it all is that High Cotton clearly has easily enough ability to land a race – and I know that there are 3m 3f maiden chases up north (maybe at Sedgefield and Hexham I think). I’ve always wondered why his connections have never run him in one of those – though it may be that they feel he has a better chance in a handicap. He ran a wonderful race in the Eider two seasons ago and I was hoping that Philson Run would unseat at the last to give him that long overdue win, but I should have known it would not happen !

Sadly, I don’t think that High Cotton will win a race now as he seems to have been out of form on his last couple of starts at least and he is not getting any younger. Had he been mine, I’d have run him in a maiden point-to-point, but I think there are rules which would have prevented him running (having amassed so much prize-money under NH Rules, despite no wins, I think would disqualify him from even being able to be entered). It is such a shame that he has never had his winning day, though it did not seem to bother Richard Burrell when he talked about High Cotton a few weeks back in the Racing Post.

I’m also keeping my fingers crossed too for Norseman Cateline !

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Favourite fillies – mmmmmmm,a tough one for me as there have been so many good ones over the years, but here are a few of mine.

I don’t expect younger racing fans to have heard of all the fillies on this list, but hopefully all of them will be remembered by different people on this forum :

Marisela
Allez France
Dahlia
La Lagune
Riverqueen
Applecross
Indian Skimmer
Kerkura
Urban Sea
User Friendly
Time Charter

and many others……

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Many thanks for all your hard work in running the competition Johnny – it was great fun, even if for me personally, it was a disaster, with Tidal Bay my only winner !

Looking forward to next year’s one already !

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Apologies accepted Himself !!! (No need at all to apologise really).

I know L’Escargot did not grab people’s imagination because he wore blinkers later in his career (he certainly didn’t wear them when winning his Gold Cups) but maybe that was a sign that the horse became a thinker later in his career, a sure sign of character and one to which I am not at all averse.

He wouldn’t have been popular at all as Moehat points out for beating Red Rum at Aintree, but I think it just goes to show what a wonderful, versatile and classy horse he was – that he could beat the best at Cheltenham and also beat Red Rum, who was probably the best Aintree specialist of all time !

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Kauto Star a very good horse; of that there is little doubt. He will probably run at Aintree in a few weeks time and prove to everyone just how good a horse he is – as if we had any doubt – but right now, he is the second best staying chaser in the land.

Is Kauto any better than Desert Orchid, for example, who won four King George’s, a Gold Cup, an SGB chase, not to mention a Whitbread … and a Tingle Creek and an Irish Grand National?

Let’s not forget Best Mate (three Gold Cups in a row), whose achievement in doing so, is being harshly criticised in some quarters. Wrongly, in my opinion.

Then there’s Burrough Hill Lad, champion chaser three years running, and another who is often underrated, or the great Silver Buck, himself a Gold Cup winner and twice victor of the King George, and of course Pendil, winner of his first twenty chases, a brilliant jumper, and a horse who would have given them all something to think about over three miles.

Salselon asked why bring Arkle is forever brought into the equation. I’ll tell you why. He is the standard by which all the aforementioned and those not mentioned ( past, present or future ) will be measured – even Denman !

It should be noted that both Desret Orchid and Arkle achieved their high timeform rating for lumping huge weights when winning good handicaps against other good horses, and not simply because of their Gold Cup and King George victories.

I agree with much of what you say Himself and you obviously cannot include too many horses in your list from over the years, but why oh why everyone seems to forget L’Escargot is beyond me – a very good and totally under-rated horse who won two Cheltenham Gold Cups in a very good era, the Grand National (only the second horse in history to win both events after the great Golden Miller),also placed 2nd and 3rd in the Grand National, winner of the Colonial Cup and also had the speed to win the Gloucestershire Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival as well.

Personally, I rate him well ahead of Best Mate, who though he won 3 Gold Cups, beat relatively poor opposition in my opinion (by Gold Cup standards) unimpressively in at least two of them. He could only beat what was around at the time, I know, but as usual, the media elevated him to superstar status almost instantaneously, as they do so frequently !

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If The Listener could get within 4 lengths of Denman in the Lexus when ridden far too cautiously, then surely he should have run in the Gold Cup and not the Ryaniar.

If Neptune can run so close on an unfavourable left handed undulating track then The Listener was worth another chance and would have added to the class of the race.

It was a shame Star didn’t run as I wanted to back a Nicholls 1 2 3 4. He would have put up a better effort than an unfit Exotic Dancer.

It was not Arkle v Mill House by any stretch of the imagination and I’m not sure Kauto would have jumped the Cheltenham fences of even 10 years ago with such contempt.

Very well said High Ken !!!

It certainly was not Arkle v Mill House (which didn’t have a close finish anyway) and was far from being one of the most exciting races at the Festival – let alone in the history of Gold Cups.The only thing that was the greatest about it was the sheer volume of hype,which some folk feel compelled to justify under any circumstances !

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I thought it was a good performance today by Himalayan Trail, admittedly off a low weight, and he had been my fancy for the race, although I don’t bet at all nowadays.

He jumped and travelled well throughout the race and young Tjade Collier gave him a very good ride.

Well done to the jockey and all the connections !

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