Van der Ploeg had horses with Sid Dale too.He wasnt an easy man to train for apparently.
On one occasion VDP found out ryan Price was charging him £5 per week more than the his other owners, he took it up with RP and asked him why.  RP told him "Because you're more fking trouble than the rest of them."

Richard Marshall had a bad fall, saw him 8 to 10 years ago he was working at the Racing Museum we had a long chat, nice fellow.

I hope Ray Goldstein looks on here and gives us some stories,i had many drinks with Ray in the early 90s in the pub next to Plumpton,i can't tell them,as i don't know if Ray would want me to...great stories none the less, and a lovely bloke as well.

pleasant!

Thanks for info on Van der Ploeg whitwhitlaw and Mr E.

Honey End's owner was "Mr C Pugh".

It was 100-1 shot Foinavon, a cast-off from Tom Dreaper's stable. Very few had heard of Foinavon and not many knew of his jockey, John Buckingham. They passed the post in stunned silence.

I watched in disbelief as Josh Gifford retreated 50 yards and then negotiated the 23rd fence. Honey End did finish second so my stake was saved and we had the price of fish and chips on our return trip.

When the race was over I ran to the unsaddling enclosure. There wasn't any security then so I stood in the runner-up's box. Josh Gifford dismounted from Honey End.

I overheard the most vitriolic attack from trainer Ryan Price as he berated his jockey: "Honey End should have p****d in!" Even though I hadn't won my fortune, I could empathise with Josh Gifford. Foinavon's victory in 1967 will forever be etched in my memory.
I

RE- HONEY END. It was Josh Gifford's brother Macer who 'caused' all the trouble in the first place when he came off Popham Down at the first fence.

Yes sparrow, very good horse I Say, but I was just listing his big race winners. I may have erred, but I can`t find any info about I Say winning a prestigious race? I seem to remember him siring a Grand National winner though, think it might have been Rubstic but not 100% sure.

neil pollard mentioned i backed lear spear 25/1  nwvwr forget that lol

whats t quinn up to now?

Think Quinn was involved in Show Jumping after he married Alex Hammond. After they split, I heard he became assistant trainer to Margusson at Newmarket and to the best of my knowledge he now holds a similar position with David Arbuthnot, whom he rode a lot of winners for. Must be planning to start training sometime in the future. Must be one of the top dozen jockeys past 10 years or so. Was unlucky he got the Cecil job when Warren Place were in the doldrums.

Think Quinn started career with Hbt Jones then transferred his indentures to Paul Cole in the early 80s. He rode a lot for Richmond Sturdy in his early days. One had to admire his professional attitude when he lost the Fahd Salman retainer to Munro. It cost him the ride on Generous and he must have been gutted at the time. Feelings must have been boiling up over the years, as it was reported that he alledgedly fought with Munro in the changing rooms about 20 years later. Don`t think he knew that "Wang Chang" Munro was a Kung Fu expert

Quinn was a very good rider and is a credit to the game. I wish him well.

Today’s Birthdays
Ben Brackenbury, Northamptonshire-based ex-amateur and avid Newcastle United fan who last rode on March 9th at Exeter (Uncle Lionel). Like his only other 5 rides, it was unplaced.
Jeremy Glover born this day 1944. Fisrt ride – on Tired Tim - came on July 11 1961 (other apprentices in that race were B.Taylor, J.White, A.Boyle, D.Guest, B Raymond, C.Cordrey, D.Yates and C.Little).
Lambeth-born Charlie Smirke 1906. Died in Leatherhead 20 Dec 1993. Won 11 classics including 4 Derbies. Given a wholly unjust five-year suspension when the Jockey club found him guilty of not trying on a horse called Welcome Gift 4/11 fav. The horse subsequently repeated his reluctance to race on a number of other occassions, but the suspension stood.

In today's birthday section of the Post it states that Peter Jones is 64 today. I remember him riding the likes of Fortina's Palace amongst others when I was getting into racing. Surprised to see he is only 64. His brother Buck used to ride The Otter and Highland Seal, a couple of good stayers from 40+ years sgo.

PAULBU - Your memory serves you well. The Blues first ran at Newmarket, Tuesday 16th April 1973 winning by 5 lengths.19 ran. The tote win paid £2.21. The place paid 51p. The SP was 10-1.

Mighty Mac - Well remembered I Say was indeed the sire of Rubstic.  Rubstic was in turn a half brother to the occasionally brilliant Kildimo.

Richard Quinn.

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This from 2004.


THERE may well be a saying in racing circles that you know you're getting old when the jockeys start looking too young. Normally, though, the ones who look too young have the decency to be young.

The apprentices look like spotty kids; the rising stars look like kids; George Duffield looks sprightly for his 57 years but you wouldn't mistake him for Peter Pan, or Cliff Richard for that matter.

Richard Quinn, however, refuses to play the game. As a result of what must be pretty serious doses of monkey glands, or some other Jockey Club-approved regime, the fresh-faced Scot has the look of a man barely out of short trousers, but the birth certificate of a

42-year-old who has been round the block more than once.

As an immediate contemporary, I recall the youthful Quinn, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, having his first winner on Bolivar Baby in 1981. I sort of adopted him, as it's nice growing up with someone your own age, until such time as you begin to sag, bulge and wrinkle, and they bastard well don't.

Quinn still has the

bright-eyed thing going on, and, although they don't tell you a lot about what he's thinking, they certainly betray the youthful ambition and enthusiasm still buzzing around in the head of a man who is now spoken of in hushed terms as one of the senior statesman of the weighing room.

The no-nonsense Caledonian clocked up his 2,000th winner last month, a figure bettered only by Duffield's 2,600-odd among the ranks of licensed riders, but Quinn isn't impressed to be mentioned in the same breath as his veteran colleague.

"I'm 40 and he's 60," says Quinn, massaging the figures unnecessarily. "He can't go on much longer, surely, so I'd fancy my chances of catching him!"

Certainly, you'd snap up any even-money that was on offer, because this son of Stirling, newly restored to the list of freelances, is on a mission and doesn't wear the look of a man who will be easily diverted from it.

Quinn has been a fixture in the jockeys' top ten for over a decade, and was long regarded as a certainty to hit three figures every season. Having made his name in a 17-year stint for Paul Cole, he bolstered it as a freelance before hitching his career to Henry Cecil's wagon at the tail-end of 1999, when the master of Warren Place made the controversial decision to send Kieren Fallon packing.

Sadly, after a

Classic-winning start, the partnership began to founder on the rocks of Cecil's tempestuous private life and the stable's loss of form. There were rumours of a split at the end of the first full season, but the pair remained a team until Quinn decided to go it alone again this year.

He says: "It took a lot longer to decide to leave than it did to decide to take the job in the first place.

"You get offered a position like the one with Henry and it doesn't take a lot of thinking about, and we started off with a really good year. We won the Oaks with Love Divine and were third in the Derby with Beat Hollow, who just didn't stay, and who was beaten by two future Arc winners, Sinndar and Sakhee.

"Then Beat Hollow got unhealthy, like a lot of the horses at Warren Place, so they sent him off to America, dropped him back in trip, and he won the Arlington Million.

"Midway through that year was when the horses got sick, and they just never really recovered. When we had the annual influx of

two-year-olds, the lurgy must still have been hanging around, because they got it as well.

"We had one horse cantering on Warren Hill that collapsed. It bled so badly that its lungs filled up with blood and it collapsed, and it was lucky the head lad was riding it, or it could have died. There's just nothing you can do about it when that kind of sickness is about."

Quinn remained loyal, but Cecil's tally dwindled from an opening burst of 61 winners (of which his retained jockey rode 55) to a demoralising 25 in 2003.

To cap it all, the hungry Scot broke a collarbone last September and was forced to watch from the sidelines as his tally dipped below the magic ton for the second time in only 12 years. (He broke an arm in 1998.)

The seeds of his discontent had been sown, and they were propagated over the winter.

"Really, I made the decision to leave Henry when I was sitting around with a busted collarbone," he admits. "When you've got a lot of time on your hands, you do a lot of thinking, and that was the option I came up with. I still wanted to be competing and I couldn't see anything being improved by me taking the easy route.

"I could have played it safe, taken a retainer and ridden Henry's horses, but I want to be pushing and pushing and that wouldn't have been the way to do it.

"I went there to try to do the best for everyone, to try to move myself to the next level, and a Classic winner was a great start, but with the best will in the world, if the horses aren't healthy, you can't do anything.

"The next two or three years with Henry were pretty poor and things were gradually getting weaker, even though I was still riding plenty of winners. My main stable was out of sorts and it makes life difficult.

"Henry will be back, though - it just takes time. He's got some lovely owners and he gets some very

well-bred horses, and it's a matter of waiting until you turn the corner and they start winning."

Not content with simply giving up one of the most prestigious jobs in racing, Quinn also parted company with his agent of 14 years, Robert Parsons, leaving himself at the mercy of new man Terry Norman and the notoriously fickle nature of racing.

Fortunately for this most consistent of performers, he has spent 23 years "giving everything a ride", and his relationships with trainers seem to have lasted as well as his reputation among the punting fraternity.

Old flames are being rekindled and divorcee Quinn, long-regarded as his own man in the weighing room, seems to be relishing the independent life again.

He says: "Not taking a retainer freed me up to ride for a lot of other people, and the reason I didn't take one was because I'm still up for it. I'm still keen and eager to ride winners, and good winners. I'm rebuilding my career.

"I was with Paul Cole for 17 years and then had my best season numerically when I went freelance, with 151 winners - I knew what it was like to make that leap.

"So, I've got no job, no retainer, and I'm out there. It was the only way I could see it happening - putting myself out on the circuit again."

Quinn is now getting plenty of quantity - 30 wins from over 300 rides so far - and has already landed the Yorkshire Cup, Victoria Cup and Royal Hunt Cup this season to take his prize-money count well over half a million.

The jockeys' title may be a pipedream for the time being, but with John Dunlop (who supplied him with St Leger winner Millenary during the first year at Cecil's) emerging once again as his biggest fan, he may be getting warm again in the search for 100 winners and a high-grade animal to put him back centre-stage.

Quinn says: "I joined Henry hoping for that one top-class horse and now I'm looking again, although I still think I may have found him in Norse Dancer."

Some punters may have their own words to describe this quirky nearly-horse, mostly broad Anglo-Saxon, but the man who knows him best won't go any further than calling him "a character".

He says: "The horse is a challenge. He has got so much ability, he's so talented, but he's been hard to work out.

"We've tried a couple of times to get him close in a race and he doesn't finish.

"He jumped okay in the Derby, but when they all came across towards him, he couldn't handle it - he won't run up behind horses - and that's how we got in the position we found ourselves in. It was an accident, but we found out the way he has to be ridden. When things go right, he will win a big race.

"Of all the horses I've ridden, he's probably got the most ability of the lot."

The troubled Derby passage Quinn alludes to, finishing fast and late from a desperate spot, earned him a pasting from some quarters of the press, and with hindsight to justify his indignation, he still bristles when the subject comes up.

"I got a lot of flak about that ride, but none of the people who were dishing it out then are saying too much now," he says. "It takes a man to correct a mistake, and obviously none of them are up to it!

"There was a lot of stuff that was nasty in the sense that it was incorrect. I know their job is to write, but inaccurate writing can damage people's careers. What they were writing wasn't true, and that has been borne out by the horse's runs since then.

"One journalist put it in the same context as Dancing Brave's Derby, which was total bollocks. If journalists had to have licences to write, his should have been revoked.

"You get good press and you get bad press, and I don't think you should believe either, but it's not so much me as the owners, and the owner's friends, and the trainers, and the trainers friends - that's where the damage is done."

Of course, just as when he was jocked off Cole's 1991 Derby winner Generous, Quinn's natural response was not to sound off, but to put his head down and get on with the job.

He is not one for idle chat or flamboyant gestures. A playground accident as a child left him hard of hearing in one ear and, as a result, he isn't one of the weighing room wags - "I'm better off sitting in the corner reading a newspaper, because I miss half of what's said and could make a fool of myself." And he admits that it wasn't until 1999, in Mauritius, that he first waved his stick in celebration after a win.

"I'm not a flash person - we all leave that to Frankie," he says. "I'm not aware of punters or the press when I go out. As a jockey, all I can do is put a horse in a position where it can win and, if it's good enough, it will win."

It's a characteristically straightforward assessment of the jockey's job, but one which will find little favour with those who would have you believe that Quinn and his colleagues are carving up the Sport of Kings to suit themselves and their illicit paymasters.

Quinn, not surprisingly, offers a matter-of-fact defence: "I think British racing is straight. I've been in it 20 years, and I've only ever had two jobs, but both were for yards that were running horses to win.

"You read so many comments about horses not trying, but most of it is mistakes, genuine errors. You'd rather it didn't happen at all, but when it does these days, luckily it's picked up and stamped on."

Quinn was not one of those on the list of "friends of Brian Wright" produced recently in court by the banned Graham Bradley, but he isn't impressed at the suggestion of guilt by association with such undesirables.

He says: "We're all part of the game - the press, the owners, the jockeys, the trainers - and we're all being portrayed in a bad light. What Bradley's trying to say and do to save his new career, only he can tell you that, but it paints a bad picture of all of us.

"There are so many measures these days to make sure the sport is clean. We get drug-tested, alcohol-tested, breath-tested, phone-tested, the lot, and I think it's fair. Anybody who thinks it's not fair must be guilty to some degree."

Quinn, quite clearly, keeps the faith and intends to keep on keeping on for some time to come, reconnecting with his freelance past and re-establishing himself as a live contender for the jockeys' crown.

"I've been second and third in the title a few times, but you need a good network of trainers to have a chance," he says. "I lost that when I went to Henry and it'll take a little while to build up again."

Not too long, I hope, because Quinn has no intention of following the Duffield lead and riding deep into his dotage.

"I can't see myself being a 60-year-old jockey - that's not for me," he says.

"It goes through my mind what I might do when I pack in riding, and obviously people think of you going on to train. But when you've done one job all your life, riding horses, anything else is a new career entirely - training is so different.

"You can do it, though - Mick Channon is a prime example of what you can do if you put your mind to it - and although I don't know what my second career is going to be yet, there will definitely be one. Perhaps I'll be a journalist!"

Paul
Great to see you can still post in OZ hope you're having a good time over there...couldn't believe they had a race every 5 mins. last night ...allin running.

^ "........... so I trotted off home where the beer was cheaper.
The betting hall at the track was reminiscent of a betting shop forty years ago,The betting hall at the track was reminiscent of a betting shop forty years ago,"
--------------

If only the beer prices were, "reminiscent of forty years ago," too.

But for Fred Archer I think we would have heard a lot more about George Fordham.