great thread , i remember a maiden a few year back , mayb leicester , stoute had 2/7 fav and henrys was 2nd fav at 8s , fillies , cecils was 3rd on only previous run , pissed the race and turned stoutes over , how mad the bookies were that day , didnt seem to expect any improvement from sir henrys

buggered if i can rememb horse tho

Goodbye Starter and Hello Judge.

.Fidway.     05 Aug 10 20:42 
anyone remember the name of his horse withdrawn at the start in the oaks in the 80s. wouldnt enter stalls   ,Mill On The Floss is the filly,owned by Loius Freedman,pretty sure she was by Mill Reef but can`t remember the dam.

One of the greatest sights for me was Slip Anchor winning the Derby in 1985.  Having watched him win the Lingfield Derby Trial by 10 lengths you just knew that, barring injury, the Derby was at his mercy.  He made all and had the race won at Tattenham Corner coming home by 7 lengths.  Cauthen merely had to point him in the right direction.  Sadly Slip Anchor suffered an injury and never won again but I will never forget that performance at Epsom.

I've really enjoyed reading this thread.  I've been reminded of horses I'd forgotten about.  I can vividly remember, in the days before blanket TV coverage, standing in the local bookies in late September/October when Henry would often have 2 or 3 in those big field Newmarket maidens.  He would nearly always have the favourite but you could never ignore the bigger priced runners.  Nigel Day often rode the stable 2nd or 3rd string in these races.  From what I can remember he won some of them and was often placed at a big price.

belmez won his maiden at 50/1 beating satin wood and a fancied thing of guy harwoods,canna mind its name though.i was in a craft and design lesson at school when i found out the result,was gutted he had a 50/1 winner and i didnt have it on.

Nigel Day, theres a name from the past, anyone know where/what hes doing now?

There was a Charles St George 3 y-r-o in the yard in 1987 called Kruthoffer. He won the Daniel Prenn at York in the style of highly progressive animal with a future and with him being already gelded looked the sort to be on the scene for a few years. A couple of weeks later he started favourite for the Old Newton Cup at Haydock and finished detatched from the field by a distance - the race being won by Stoute's Lake Erie. He was later found to have an irregular heartbeat and I don't think he was ever seen again. Minuites after this race, Reference Point was beaten by Mtoto down at Sandown.

River God

One of the easiest Queen's Vase winners you will see. Don't remember what happened to him after that race though

muisicale did me nicely in the fred darling, was she in the hatoof, marling guineas and i think started fav

considering all the garbage dvd,s out there ,there seems to be plenty of scope for a dvd of some of the old cecil winners ,get your finger out the racing post

same owner as blubook who was mentioned earlier purple stripe colours

Correct.

think it was drawn something like 21 of 21 and was aroun7 to 4 , 9 to 4 touch in the morning

was at york when royal anthem won international for cecil and stevens in them colours

Heard this story a few years after Ardross won the Goodwood Cup in 1981.  Ardross, ridden by Lester Piggott, travelled easily throughout the race and ranged upsides Greville Starkey who was whipping his mount furiously.  Piggott apparently shouted across "what are you doing that for, you've got no chance".  If true, it's a classic.

musicale was a fav of mine too even though i backed against her in  prestige stakes,hern had a one raced maiden who was meant to be a superstar and there was nothing between them in the betting but musicale romped it. the hern filly was called mesaafi

Some great memories on this. I was at Doncaster the day Reference Point won the St Leger; if I recall Mountain Kingdom made quite a race of it around 2f out but Cauthen always had a bit up his sleeve and he won well - that was the moment the Leger became my favourite race.

A year later I'll never forget Diminuendo; her win in the Yorkshire Oaks being one of the easiest in a G1 you'll ever see. She travelled so well in the Leger next time, but the ground was soft and Minster Son had the rail and that probably made the difference. A great race though with those two and Sheriffs Star all level 2f out.

Also relate those great mid-80s days to some great commentaries from Graham Goode, not least the brave call some way out in Slip Anchor's Derby "we know the horse stays and surely Steve has stolen it" or something like that.

The 80s were a fantastic era to be a racing fan with so many greats both human and equine.

just seen the fred darling winners now and i recall nearly all the cecil horses mantioned here, i cannot recall rolly polly who won the 2001 f darling though, can anyone tell me more of her

Does anyone remember a Cecil trained horse called Wellbeing?  He won 4 of his 5 starts as a 3-y-o and finished 5th in Sinndar's Derby.  I thought he was destined for great things but he became very inconsistent.  He was a very useful horse on his day as he showed when beaten a short head by Mutafaweq in the 2001 Coronation Cup.  But again he was very disappointing when favourite for the Hardwicke that year - a race won by his stable companion Sandmason.  He was campaigned exclusively in Europe as a 5-y-o but managed only 1 win from 4 starts.  He ended up going hurdling with Philip Hobbs.  He was a very useful hurdler and I remember him winning the valuable listed handicap hurdle at Aintree on Grand National day 2006.  I think that was his final race- don't know what happened to him after that.