Today’s Birthday:
       
Slade O’Hara – Born 1983.    Rode 39 winners from 630 rides.

May 23 2009
LOOK BUSY came from last to first to land the biggest prize of her career under a fine ride by S. O’Hara in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock.   Settled at the rear in the early stages, Look Busy (15-2) made her move entering the final two furlongs and stayed on gamely to edge out the ultra-consistent Borderlescott.
A delighted winning trainer, Alan Berry said: “She is as game as a pebble and this is amazing for the yard. “Apart from when I ran her on the wrong ground at Nottingham, she's been consistent all her life and she's a credit to the yard. It was nice for Slade as he rides her a lot at home. She's not the most straight forward so it was great to have some continuity and he was entitled to ride her. Hopefully he'll ride his claim out soon. It's nice to get a good winner at Haydock. The plan was to come here because it's local and then go back to Ireland for a race she won last year. She won't go to Royal Ascot but I'd love to go for the Nunthorpe at York. I know it's tilting at stars but it would be great."
Slade O’Hara said: “I thought I’d take my time wirh her. She prefers ro run that way, so I didn’t see the need to change tactics. I did think they might get away but she quickened up well on that ground and kept going. I thought I was going to get collared right on the line.”


March 16 2011
JOCKEY Slade O'Hara's hopes of building a new life in Japan have been shattered after he found himself caught up in last Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

O'Hara is marooned around 40 miles from the malfunctioning nuclear reactors in Fukushima. He is desperately waiting for transport links to be re-established with Tokyo so he can return to Britain, where his girlfriend is expecting a baby in the next couple of weeks.

Best known for winning the Group 2 Betfred.com Temple Stakes on the Alan Berry-trained Look Busy two years ago, O'Hara, 27, had most recently been working for Newmarket trainer Alan Bailey, but left three weeks ago after securing a job as an exercise rider with a Japanese trainer.

His agent Andy Lewis said yesterday: "I spoke to Slade this morning and he is safe and well, but he has nowhere to go at the minute because there is no way out without any planes or trains."
Although the tsunami did not penetrate that far inland, O'Hara, who is just outside the exclusion zone around Fukushima, experienced the full destructive force of the earthquake.

Lewis said: "He says that the track where he was working has totally gone and he just wants to get back to be with his girlfriend. Slade was due to stay in Japan indefinitely, with his girlfriend joining him once the baby was born, but now this has happened I don't know how it will affect him."


Slade eventually got back home to England to resume riding, taking his last ever mount at Kempton Park on Dingaan, 10th  Sep 2011, when finishing 6th to Genes Of A Dancer.


Slade's photo


http://community.cdnbf.net/community.betfair.com/user/whitwhitlaw/c4e0ed78b3c652918e7989800172fc3a.png?v=31106

christy roche did it for darkie in the  ir 2,000..i was told about it by a certain jockey ..would i listen ...naw i'm to clever for that.....

A word about the great Sam Hall the master of Spigot Lodge Coverham.



He died in 1977 aged only 58 ....a month later his older brother Charlie died at 74.
Here is the commerative from Redcar race course.

Redcar Racecourse honour the memory of Sam Hall by hosting the fourth running of The Sam Hall Memorial Handicap Stakes.








In today’s modern parlance of hype and superlative the word legendary is frequently over used but we would make no apology in applying that description to the great Sam Hall. His obituary in the Sporting Life began: ‘Sam Hall was the very epitome of a popular trainer, a genial, good-humoured, often out-spoken Yorkshireman with a natural inborn judgement and understanding of horses.’

Indeed his record speaks for itself. Multiple wins at Royal Ascot, two Ebors, the Ayr Gold Cup, the St Simon Stakes, the Dewhurst, the Cesarewitch, the November Handicap (five times no less), two Lincolns and the list goes on. Sam also had a tremendous record at Redcar - four Zetland Gold Cups, three Andy Capps (in successive years), the Vaux Gold Tankard and the William Hill Gold Cup.

Sam was the youngest of three brothers who all went on to be hugely successful trainers. In fact Charlie, the middle son, had few peers over the jumps and is annually commemorated with the running of the eponymous‘chase at Wetherby in October. Sam started out assisting both Charlie and elder brother Tom before taking out his own licence in 1949 originally pased at Brecongill in Middleham. In 1967 he moved to Spigot Lodge at Leyburn with the Brecongill stable remaining in the family when Sally Hall, daughter of Tom became, at 29, the first licensed woman trainer in the North.

Sam trained well over one thousand winners and there was never a trainer more adept at preparing a horse for a big handicap. His impact though was far greater than even the incredible statistics. He touched and greatly improved the lives and careers of many individuals who in turn went on to achieve at the highest level.

We are delighted to honour his memory on Friday with a race that is very much the inspiration of former Redcar Director Jack Hanson. Jack has in his own right owned, trained and ridden with great success and aplomb and had some great days in partnership with long time friend Sam Hall.

We are indebted to the support that we have received from Sam’s immediate family in staging today’s race. His daughters Kate Walton (a trainer of winners over both codes at Sharp Hill Farm, Middleham) and Liz Hall (who plays such an active role at Copgrove Hall Stud near Harrogate) are both coming racing on Friday and will be presenting the trophy to the winning connections.

It is Redcar’s privilege to be hosting the fourth running of the Sam Hall Memorial Handicap Stakes.


Sam Hall-trained Morecambe, who won the Ebor in 1957 and proved himself one of the best geldings ever to race on the Flat in Britain with an astonishing performance in the 1958 Cesarewitch, cantering home by ten lengths under 9st 1lb. That was about a stone superior to Sergeant Cecil's best form.

interesting re sam hall,i remember him not being that old when he died but thought he was a fair bit older than 58,he certainly looked it,always wore a massive cap and had a lot more weight on than that photo seems to show from what i can remember.

re Sam

He trained more than 1,000 winners during an illustrious career which began in 1949, achieving a lot of success at Redcar, including winning the Zetland Gold Cup on four occasions.

from RP 2002.

July 3, 1977

Sam Hall, 30 years a trainer and a pillar of Yorkshire racing, dies at the age of 58. His many big handicap successes included the Ebor on three occasions and the Manchester November Handicap four times.

devon ditty ..she was a flyer...did j tree have her at one time...?

thanks ribero...

punchestown - this might interest you re-Lady Capulet
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Thanks WHITWHITLAW,I was there that evening.

Re Joe Sime





Sime, who died recently aged 73, retired in 1969, having ridden more than 1600 winners.

In a career as a top class jockey which spanned 29 seasons between 1941 and 1969, Joe Sime rode 1,420 winners. He dominated the Flat racing scene in the north during the 1950's and 60's, his best season was 1960, when he achieved 108 winners, finishing fourth in that year's jockey's championship (Lester Piggott's first championship).Although Joe Sime was born in Liverpool in 1923, he lived in Doncaster with his family for many years, passing away in October 1996, aged 73. His memorial race is a contest for three year olds over the St Leger distance of one mile six furlongs and 132 yards.

n his day, Joe Sime was one of the leading Flat jockeys in the north. Born in Liverpool in 1923, he was apprenticed to Dawson Waugh and rode his first winner on Firle at Newmarket in 1941. He was champion apprentice in 1943,
'44 and '46, when his 40 winners included the Portland Handicap on The Shah.

Sime was always able to ride at around 7st 8lb and was noted as an excellent judge of pace. He became something of a big handicap specialist, teaming up on many occasions with Sam Hall, Yorkshire's shrewdest trainer of good handicappers.

For Hall, he won the 1950 Manchester November Handicap on Coltbridge, the 1957 Ebor Handicap and the following year's Cesarewitch Handicap on Morecambe, and the 1960 Wokingham Stakes aboard Silver King.

He also landed the Ebor on Procne (1947), Donino (1948) and Partholon (1963), the Wokingham on Light Harvest (1956) and the Cesarewitch on both Utrillo (1963) and Mintmaster (1965). He won three Lincolns and a Royal Hunt Cup, but his career highlight came with success in the 1964 Great Metropolitan Handicap, aboard Her Majesty The Queen's Gold Aura.

One of the few jockeys to smoke a pipe, the highly popular Sime enjoyed his best season when registering a total of 108 winners. He retired at the end of the 1968 campaign and the first running of the race that honours him took place in May 1999.

Here is a Pathe Video showing him win the 1950 Manchester Handicap on Coltbridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTuTMGCq-Lw

Tman, nice piece on Joe Sime.
Mister E, remember Geoff Lawson over the sticks but not on the flat. He must have crossed over from the flat before 'my time'.

Joe sime used to attend doncaster quite a lot after he had retired,which reminds me my parents were members for years and there was a little members bar before the new stand and they used to meet up with plenty of regulars including another old doncaster trainer Alf Bacon.
Paulbu,that midweek ripon day you refer to,i have a feeling i had just pased my driving test and bombed up there for the last few races and have a vague recollection of a van cutsem hotpot in the last race maiden,the name Christmas Chorus keeps going through my head.

cheers whit,was it van cutsems? that was when i was there,no wonder it got beat,was jimsun in the race as well?

thought as much paulbu,as i said that was when i was there,just passed my test and the easter holidays,shame there aren't many young lads about now that keen.

Alf Bacon was leading trainer on the flat for a little while once.


He trained Vincetor - who won the apprentice handicap that always used to open the flat season - beat one of Doug Smith's that started fav. SP was 33-1, but I think it paid more than double that on the tote.

I'd forgotten about Albert Bacon....even though Bobsbest who was one of my fav. horses at that time.
Here is an Obit. from 2003.

ALBERT BACON, who trained at Retford in Nottinghamshire for 22 years, died last Tuesday, the day

after his 95th birthday, writes John Randall.

Bacon was, appropriately, a pork butcher and racing was his hobby. Soon after taking out a permit, he scored his first victory with War Whoop at Market Rasen in October 1956, graduating to a full licence the next

year.

His most notable winner was Bobsbest, a modest mile handicapper who raced until the age of 15 as an entire.

Bobsbest gave the trainer his biggest victory when winning the Zetland Handicap at Doncaster in 1966.

Bacon's most successful jumpers were Guy's Choice and Romany Star. He

enjoyed his best season

numerically with 12 wins in 1966/67 and retired in 1978.

Former trainer Jimmy FitzGerald paid tribute, saying: "I rode for him quite a few times. Albert was a great character and had one of the biggest and certainly the best butchers' shops in Retford. Everybody in racing used to stop there."

Bacon's funeral will take place tomorrow at 2.30pm at East Retford Church.

Reculver

Had you read this about Trevor Kersey from 1999.

TREVOR KERSEY, one of racing's most colourful characters, yesterday explained why he had decided to quit the game after 40 years as a licence-holder.

The 63-year-old Rotherham-based trainer, who will send his remaining horses to Doncaster Sales this month, says he will not be reapplying for his licence following a dispute with racing's authorities over how he pays his bills.

The trouble started last year, when Kersey was placed on the forfeit list over an pounds 834 debt owed to Weatherbys.

"I always used to pay Weatherbys bills at the racecourse," he said. "But then they changed the system and stopped having representatives in the weighing room, which is why I got behind.

"By the time I settled the outstanding amount by post, more debts had piled up. I was then told that, even if I settled the latest amount, I would still have to go to Portman Square to give an explanation to the Disciplinary Committee before my licence could be renewed.

"I told them to forget it and just send my brass back. I couldn't be bothered with the expense and inconvenience of a day in London to beg for my licence back."

Kersey added: "It's a sad way to end a lengthy training career and I feel really sick and hurt over how it's happened.

"But I've enjoyed my time in racing. I was only 20 when I first started as a permit-holder, and I've had plenty of good times."

Kersey's highlights include Domarc winning at Cheltenham, Mandalay Prince finishing sixth in the Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle, and Mardood being placed in the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock.

John Maxse, Jockey Club public relations officer, said: "I'm sad that Mr Kersey is no longer in racing, but the rules have not changed. He was just not abiding by the rules.

"Weatherbys representatives attend racecourses on other duties and, over the years, they helped him out by accepting cash payments to cover debts.

"Everyone else has a bank account. That's how the system works. Weatherbys were doing something out of the ordinary in having this cash arrangement with Mr Kersey. It was not ordinary practice.

"When he was placed on the forfeit list last year he was given plenty of time to settle up.

"Mr Kersey is a colourful character and the game needs people who bring colour to it. But, at the same time, it has to be run on a practical basis."

TMan, have you anything on three trainers local to Darlington around late sixties to seventies, namely Dennis Yeoman at Catterick, John (JRP) Vickers at Sadberge and Tommy Kellett at Middleton One Row.
Vickers had a Catterick 7f specialist called Naymag and Tommy Kellett landed a massive touch at Ripon around 1974 in a 2-y-o seller. Small stables but very entertaining.

Paul
Save for individual race results these chaps must have led unremarkable lives generally...can't find much.
I do remember all the names....there was a Jack Yeomans too that trained in the Midlands I think.

Sadly the only thing that showed up was that Tommy Kellett was found drowned in a friends pool around August/Sept 1974.
Linda Stubbs also got into the game with Tommy in the early 70's.

probably reculver but tbh i don't remember too much of the race.

remember the Piguar in the entrance of kerseys farm