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i remember as a kid watching this guy ride , we had the old black and white telly , it was like looking at a snowstorm most days ..but was just wondering if anyone can tell me , did he ride magic court the day stan mellor rode his 1,000th winner ..i think stans winner was called ozso ....maybe one of the older formites might help....tia....
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tks ged , seem to remember b scott having a few mounts that day as well ....?
Pat won the champion Hurdle on Magic Court in 1964, so if the horse was still going in 1971, he'd have been an old timer.
Pendil and Spanish Steps won at Ascot that day.
Pendil and Spanish Steps won at Ascot that day.
As for Magic Court, he rode it in 1964, whether he was still riding it in 1971 is another matter..
Magic Court was NOT running in 1971. I remember beating him on the bridle at Liverpool one day in 1965 and he was 7 then.
Found this bit..
LD and little and a bit frail though he may be, Stan Mellor remains much more than a milestone. Forty years ago this afternoon he became the first jockey to ride 1,000 jumps winners but long before that he had set examples in and out of the saddle that remain unmatched to this day.
No-one, not even McCoy or Walsh, has ever ridden into and over the last fence with quite the unique match-winning flair of Mellor at his best. And nobody ever better served the interest of his fellow riders than Mellor did when he became the first chairman of the Jockeys Association and used his intelligence and determination and charm to equal effect. But we will come to that. Let's start with the 1,000-winner milestone, which Mellor eventually passed at Nottingham on a grey horse called Ouzo in the appropriately named Christmas Spirit Novice Chase at Nottingham. It was a week late.
It was all meant to happen on the previous Saturday at Cheltenham. The 999th winner had come on a chaser called Prairie Dog on the Friday and, with five good rides, the BBC cameras in attendance and the clear cold December air, everything seemed set for Mellor to be sprayed with the waiting champagne. Even the as yet not-in-service Concorde swirled majestically and noisily across the Cotswold sky in what seemed appropriate supersonic appreciation.
It all went wrong. The big chestnut Ben Dearg was hot favourite in the first but went out like a light when cruising at the top of the hill. A horse called Night And Day ran badly in the next; Orient War never featured in the Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup; Charlie Potheen ended up off the course after swerving freakishly at the second-last, and finally the blinkered Westward Lad stumbled on landing when challenging at the final flight. But it had been almost 18 years since a 16-year-old Stan Mellor had ridden the selling hurdler Straight Border to land the first winner at Wolverhampton on January 19, 1954. He could wait.
"I thought I could knock it off in the first; it was a big shock when Ben Dearg got beat," says Mellor, smiling wryly at the memory as we sit in his and wife Elain's immaculate little house at the foot of the Downs on the other side of Lambourn. "After the 999th winner on the Friday everything appeared laid on. There was huge expectation in the papers and the media as a whole. It would have been great, but it just didn't happen and they had to cart that champagne around for a week."
It is very precious to sit beside a history maker as he remembers his moment - particularly someone who delves back the way Mellor does. "I got lots of offers of rides to make the 1,000," he remembers.
Stan Mellor: "I was never a great whip man but a jockey should know if a horse is not giving everything. He should be riding for the horse, not counting how many hits"
LD and little and a bit frail though he may be, Stan Mellor remains much more than a milestone. Forty years ago this afternoon he became the first jockey to ride 1,000 jumps winners but long before that he had set examples in and out of the saddle that remain unmatched to this day.
No-one, not even McCoy or Walsh, has ever ridden into and over the last fence with quite the unique match-winning flair of Mellor at his best. And nobody ever better served the interest of his fellow riders than Mellor did when he became the first chairman of the Jockeys Association and used his intelligence and determination and charm to equal effect. But we will come to that. Let's start with the 1,000-winner milestone, which Mellor eventually passed at Nottingham on a grey horse called Ouzo in the appropriately named Christmas Spirit Novice Chase at Nottingham. It was a week late.
It was all meant to happen on the previous Saturday at Cheltenham. The 999th winner had come on a chaser called Prairie Dog on the Friday and, with five good rides, the BBC cameras in attendance and the clear cold December air, everything seemed set for Mellor to be sprayed with the waiting champagne. Even the as yet not-in-service Concorde swirled majestically and noisily across the Cotswold sky in what seemed appropriate supersonic appreciation.
It all went wrong. The big chestnut Ben Dearg was hot favourite in the first but went out like a light when cruising at the top of the hill. A horse called Night And Day ran badly in the next; Orient War never featured in the Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup; Charlie Potheen ended up off the course after swerving freakishly at the second-last, and finally the blinkered Westward Lad stumbled on landing when challenging at the final flight. But it had been almost 18 years since a 16-year-old Stan Mellor had ridden the selling hurdler Straight Border to land the first winner at Wolverhampton on January 19, 1954. He could wait.
"I thought I could knock it off in the first; it was a big shock when Ben Dearg got beat," says Mellor, smiling wryly at the memory as we sit in his and wife Elain's immaculate little house at the foot of the Downs on the other side of Lambourn. "After the 999th winner on the Friday everything appeared laid on. There was huge expectation in the papers and the media as a whole. It would have been great, but it just didn't happen and they had to cart that champagne around for a week."
It is very precious to sit beside a history maker as he remembers his moment - particularly someone who delves back the way Mellor does. "I got lots of offers of rides to make the 1,000," he remembers.
Stan Mellor: "I was never a great whip man but a jockey should know if a horse is not giving everything. He should be riding for the horse, not counting how many hits"
I am sure someone will tell me but i think Magic court was trained by T Robson i think i remember his trainer saying after it had been beaten one day at odds on "there is nothing like a horse to make you look a fool "or words to that effect.
Stan Mellor was my fav jockey i have never seen since a jockey to be able to wind up a horse without touching it with the whip and getting every last ounce out of it.
Must admit I'd forgotten MacCarron rode Magic Court. Always associated him with Freddie.
TOMMY ROBSON's CV included two champion jumpers, Magic Court and Harvest Gold, as well as a five-month warning-off in 1965-66 and his
Magic Court, a cast-off from Noel Murless's yard, was an outsider for the 1964 Champion Hurdle but there was no fluke about the way he quickened away on the run-in under Pat McCarron to score by four lengths from Another Flash.
Champion Hurdle winners were not supposed to be trained in Cumberland and Magic Court never received the credit he deserved, but he was a worthy champion.
He was a quirky individual, as he unseated Lester Piggott in the Melrose Handicap at York and was disqualified from two of his first three wins over hurdles for causing interference. He even hung when winning the Champion Hurdle.
Magic Court, a cast-off from Noel Murless's yard, was an outsider for the 1964 Champion Hurdle but there was no fluke about the way he quickened away on the run-in under Pat McCarron to score by four lengths from Another Flash.
Champion Hurdle winners were not supposed to be trained in Cumberland and Magic Court never received the credit he deserved, but he was a worthy champion.
He was a quirky individual, as he unseated Lester Piggott in the Melrose Handicap at York and was disqualified from two of his first three wins over hurdles for causing interference. He even hung when winning the Champion Hurdle.
I was at ludlow one day in the early 70s,Stan rode the fist winner Complicity for Ken Bailey his next ride fell and his last ride was unplaced.The next day Stan had a lot of pain in his neck, xrays revealed a broken bone, if his last ride had fallen it might have killed him.Great guy Stan.It was a long time ago so I hope my memory is correct !
Pat McCarron retired in 1972 when the winners had dried up (had a ride in the National that year) and got out of the game as he took over his father in laws haulage business. Hope this helps.
great to see so many recollections of these fine jockeys ...one of my standout memories is having my biggest ever bet to date (£5.00, which was like, a week's wages) in, probably, 1966, on RUE DE PARIS, at 5/2 , in the Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase at Wetherby. Stan Mellor got him home, and I was top of the heap for at least a week ...
some real hard men around in those days ....i remember talking to booby breasly back in the 70s ...lots of them went out to ride with injuries so bad the could hardly mount the horse , never mind it ..they would never get away with it today ..the doctor would sign them off ...
bobby even , i slag a guy over on the irish forum ..call him booby....
Pat McCarron was runner up in the National two years on the trot 2nd on Freddie in 1965 & 66. He was a close second to Jay Trump and then finished second a year later, beat 20 lenghts that time by Anglo.
Workrider
I have the Formbook for the year prior to Mellor riding his 1000th winner...think it was 1972...so in 1970 to 1971 Magic Court would be 12/13.The Formbook has him in a few Hunter Chases trained then by F. Walton and ridden by his son J. Walton.It seems unlikely then that Pat Mc?Carron would be riding him on the day you had in mind.
I have the Formbook for the year prior to Mellor riding his 1000th winner...think it was 1972...so in 1970 to 1971 Magic Court would be 12/13.The Formbook has him in a few Hunter Chases trained then by F. Walton and ridden by his son J. Walton.It seems unlikely then that Pat Mc?Carron would be riding him on the day you had in mind.
In 1964,when I was a boy, I was making my way out of Newcastle racecourse,taking a short cut across the course. From a distance I saw a hurdle,which didn't look too big, so I decided to jump it. The closer I got, the bigger it became. As I was about to jump it I heard a thundering sound of hooves and a shout from the rider. The horse flew the hurdle and galloped on. I later found out it was Magic Court having a racecourse school before Cheltenham.
....i thought it was 69/70 ish
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