PAULBU. thanks for that info. You asked if there was any more stables any more any more stories,there  was only one more.I left Malton went north,even now i could not tell you or anyone what happenend there,not on this Open Forum anyway,the trainer was eventually warned off, Maybe over a "Pint"  in a quite "pub" on my next visit back to the U.K. thats all i will ever say on that one.

Yes ,the horses name would not appear in the morning paper,it would be only when the "poor punter" checked  the results in the evening paper that he would find sometimes that it had been won by a horse he had not even considered as it had not been in the runners. The system was changed (not sure when) but with the advent of declarations (Overnight)" additional runners" become a thing of the past.

great memories guardamar and paul....

Sparrow..

1964 The second win of the season for the twoyear-old filly Merry Madcap, trained by Freddie Maxwell and ridden by Lester Piggott, as she gets the better of Sailing, trained by Ian Balding and ridden by Geoff Lewis, in the conditions event at Newbury.

Merry Madcap won two of her subsequent starts that year, but her big day was to come the following season. Ridden by Ron Hutchinson, as 7st 13lb would have been pushing it a bit for Piggott, she won the July Cup at Newmarket from Port Merion and Goldhill. She won two other races that year, as well as finishing second in the Diadem and third in the Prix de la Foret.

How did the process of 'additional runners'operate ? Was it like a reserve list ? Surely Pat Rohan couldn't just turn up at a meeting and say 'I want to run 'Tin Whistle' in the 4.30'. The horse must have been entered for the race at some stage and go through the entry fee/ forfeit decaration process, otherwise it becomes a 'free for all'. As it happens in this case, I've just checked, Tin Whistle was listed as a runner in the Glasgow Herald in both 2-y-o races at York that day but ran in the easier option.

Merry Madcap is listed as a runner in that Newbury race on 25th June 1964 in the Glasgow Herald, 3-1 second fav. Five runners listed in the paper, five actual runners.

It was definitely Merry Madcap and probably not the Newbury race, as Tambourine suggested.

guardamar, you didn't look after Vittorio by any chance, did you ? The jockey at both Catterick and Kelso, D Shedden, was he son of Tommy ?

guardamar, thanks for that. I now take it that even though the lads will have seen Tin Whistle entered to run in two races in the morning paper, Rohan told them it wasn't running but sneeked the horse down the road to York and ran it in the maiden.
I bet Lester knew what was happening.

The Vittorio story was in the racing news just as I was becoming interested in racing. I was still at school doing A-levels and it was the autumn of 1964. Trainer Harry Bell was warned off for five years over the affair which in the current climate now seems a bit harsh. One bad run at Catterick when well backed and then wins easily next time when well backed. There might have been more to it but it was 48 years ago.

Ged . In an earlier  post you asked me about the "French" woman connected with the dopers of Roy Whistons Fresh Winds, I asked a friend who i knew would know ,when i replied to you i was not sure of all the facts .The "French woman" was called Micheline Lugeon she was in fact Swiss, a "stunner" as usual smart men went weak at the knees when she arrived.  They were only too happy too show her round. In the Autumn of 1961 she visited 21 racing stables in the U.K.from Roxburghshire in the north to Kent.As you said  everywhere Micheline Lugeon went one got doped. At that time Micheline Lugeons lover a man called Billy Roper a professional gambler from London was the brains behind the gang. "Roper the Doper" had bet on the racecourses for the bookmaker Max Parker,he left him in 1959 and went professional gambling working on commission placing bets for some pretty big names, Lord Roseberry for one ,although he denied it and said his account was with Max Parker. Ropers gang were supplied by a chemist from Surrey,they supplied lots of stable lads at that time ,when there was lots of doping in racing. They got careless,it concerned a filly trained by Dick Thrale at Epsom. Three horse race at Warwick he had the 4-11 favourite "Countess". trailed in last ,like a drunk they said at the time.It was the last race on the card, though the owner wanted a drugs test done,the vet had already done a "flyer". But the dopers had left a trail, the same way they get them today following Betfair accounts ,in those days it was the bookmakers they found that the two other runners in the three horse race Lucky Seven 11/4 and Dozy Joe 20/1 had been backed in straight forecasts to huge amounts. The Roper gang almost got my old boss Derek Ancil killed (As you found in the peice you posted on him) on a horse of ours The Finn at Hurst Park, The giveaway for the dopers as we all knew was the presence of elastic bands in the horses dung. The gang wrapped the dope in a tissue then put adesive tape surrounded by elastic bands,this delayed the dope by 12 hours until the digestive juices broke it down and the dope was slowly released into the system,leaving only the elastic bands.  Roper and his gang aimed pretty high they were involved in trying to bribe the lad who looked after the Derby winner St. Paddy of 1960. The lad agreed and then didnt do it. There were many horses done by Roper  and his gang,One was at Malton "Henrys Choice" trained by Rufus Beasley they did him twice Roper had his "men" everywhere at that time. The net was closing on Roper and Micheline Lugeon when the Noel Murless stable lad who looked after St Paddy turned Queens evidence with the condition that the "Pinturischio" doping  would be dropped they called the lad Phillip Lawler. Roper and Lugeon were tried at Lewes Crown court Roper got three years ,Micheline Lugeon got one year. I never met the beautiful  Micheline Lugeon , i was pretty unlucky, She turned up at  a few places i had been or was going to Epsom , Hodnet, Middleton Stoney,Malton and Roxburghshire. before anybody on here puts two and two together and gets five it was pure coincidence.

There's also a mention of Sing Sing (of Jack Watts) being found in "a dazed condition" a few hours before being due to meet Tin Whistle in a match for the July Cup, and being withdrawn, producing a "positive" in a private urine test.

Today's Racing Post, Tony Kimberley 70 today. I am feeling old! Remember the Jeremy Hindley horses he rode such as Swell Fellow, Sin Timon, Northern Princess as well as Crash Course and Be Tuneful. As I recall he did a Brian Rouse and came back in the game in his 30's after a break. Ended up riiding plenty for Stoute including a pacemaker in Dancing Brave's Arc.

Paul....re Denis Ryan. from 2001

Byline: Tom O'Ryan

Age: 64

Then: Flat jockey with the late Willie Stephenson

Now: Retired publican 

High: Winning the 1956 Chester Vase on Articulate

Low: Being jocked-off Articulate in the 1956 Derby

With a son as a top-flight jockey, it is no surprise that Denis Ryan-father of Willie-keeps close tabs on the racing scene.

Although retired for the last eight years and living at Cromer on the Norfolk coast, Ryan still pays regular visits to Newmarket during the Flat season.

``We're back and forth frequently and I still see a lot of my old mates, like Kipper Lynch, Bruce Raymond and Paul Tulk,'' he says. ``If you want to meet people you know in Newmarket, all you have to do is go into the Fountain Restaurant and you see everyone!''

Former jockey Ryan, who retired from the saddle in the late 1970s, promptly became a publican. ``I bought the Pheasant at Great Chishill near Royston, the village where I lived. We worked hard and built it up and would get a few of the racing lads down occasionally.

``Willie would bring some of the jockeys over, and when Steve Cauthen, who was riding for Henry Cecil at the time, came for something to eat, he'd always want it steamed.''

Ryan admits that 14 years in the licensed trade rewarded him more fruitfully than his previous racing career. ``I would never have been able to retire from what I made riding,'' he adds with a smile.

Apprenticed to Willie Stephenson after leaving school, Ryan spent his entire career with the late Royston trainer, who became his father-in-law, and partnered some 350 winners.

``I didn't ride many big winners in Britain, though I landed the Calcutta Derby two years running when I was riding in India,'' he says. The highlight of his domestic career came courtesy of Articulate, who triumphed in the 1956 Chester Vase under 7st 6lb when Ryan was an apprentice.

``I was going to ride him in the Derby and had already walked the course when I was jocked-off in favour of Doug Smith. He had been due to ride Idle Rocks, owned by David Robinson, but something happened and the colt didn't run.''

Articulate, who finished out of the frame in the premier Classic, was not a straightforward ride.

``He was a quirky sort of horse, who'd stop at the canter, whip round and half-rear. Doug was frightened to death of him,'' claims Ryan.

Although he has not sat on a horse since he retired, ``and never will again'', Ryan still feels involved in the game he loves through his Derby-winning son.

``Willie is as good as any jockey riding, but I suppose any father would say that about his son,'' he concedes. ``Mind you,'' he adds, ``I'm his biggest critic. If I think Willie has ridden a bad race, I'm soon ringing him up to tell him!''
COPYRIGHT 2001 MGN LTD


This piece was from 2009...he had sadly died prior to this.


One young Welshman who was making the racing headlines back in 1955 was apprentice jockey Denis Ryan, who celebrated his 19th birthday by winning the Great Jubilee Stakes at Kempton Park on a four-year-old grey called Swept.

In an exciting finish, the 100-9 outsider got home by a short head from Prefect ridden by Scobie Breasley, with that good old handicapper Durante, ridden by Doug Smith, a further one-and-a-half lengths back in third spot.

Denis’ family, who lived in Milbourne Terrace, Merthyr, crowded around the radio to listen to the race and their cheers were loud and clear when the result was announced.

A week before, Denis, who weighed in at just seven stone, had won the final of a jockeys boxing tournament and was presented with a silver statuette of a horse by the Duke of Norfolk.

He was apprenticed to Royston trainer Willie Stephenson and in 1959 married one of his five daughters, Marshella Lavina.

Stephenson was one of the few trainers who could claim to have trained a winner of the Derby and the Grand National.

Denis, who died after a short illness some years ago, was the father of Willie Ryan, who won the 1997 Derby on Benny The Dip.

Morning, guardamar -

Jimmy Thompson is listed in 'Horses In Training' 1961 - training from - Pasture House Stables, Beverley.

He had 19 in training - The Copper Horse being 7-yrs-old that year.

Amongst his horses were the 3-yr-old Virginia Waters, Fine Yield, and a horse whose nam,e would no be allowed to be registered nowadays - called - M.A.P.P-S

His owners included - N B Stephenson, The Countess of Yarborough, Mr & Mrs H Leggat
----------------

In 1966 - He(?) is listed as one of DAVID ROBINSON's Private Trainers at Newmarket - with 44 horses[/b] .... The same man?

But - by 1968 - he is at Wetherby - 14 Deighton Road - in fact .... surely the strangest 'Stable Address' to ever appear in 'Horses In Training' -

He had - Naval Sound, Regal Dream, Gilded Leader, Mont Blanc, Kellac,

Down to just 10 horses the year after - and not listed in the early 1970s.

One of the funniest things I witnessed on a racecourse occured at a Friday night fixture at Teesside Park in May 1969. Ernie Johnson, who had just moved north to be stable jockey to Sam Hall, had been riding at Haydock in the afternoon and he had several booked rides there on the following afternoon. He had come to Teesside for one ride on a Jack Ormston sprint handicapper that was off 7-7 and a lot of people had cottoned on to this fact. The horse was 'no offers' right up to the 'jockeys please mount' announcement then one layer in Tatts chalked up a 7 next to the name. His pitch was suddenly stampeded by a multitude of floor men and punters, his ledger man was knocked off his box, his stand went over and there was total chaos. After picking up his stand and getting back on his box the bookie yelled, 'hang on I haven't finished yet' and he proceeded to chalk a four under the seven and yelled again, 'seven to four the field'. Needless to say, there were no takers. Madame Quickly went off at around 7-2 after several lumpy bets at a bit bigger but Ernie Weymes' Blatanro under Peter Hetherington came with a wet sail and pipped the filly inside the last. A week or so later Ernie Johnson won the Derby.

Harry Jamison. Thanks for info Jimmy Thompson anyone Know if he had a riding career. Also can anyone tell me about Harry Jamison think that spelling is correct. Knew him when he came to Pat Rohans in the sixties, remember he rode a 2--y-o for Pat at Beverley,we had 3 or 4 runners in a maiden,Eric Bromilow rode one,  Harry  must have been well in his sixties nearer seventy i think,can anyone turn up his history,i would have thought he was one of the oldest jockeys i remember riding in a flat race,Alex (A.J.)Russell was getting on a bit at that time but dont think he was as old as "Harry"

Guardamar, re Harry Jamieson, at Beverley Cup Final day 1960, he rode Noah for Pat Rohan in a 2-y-o race, unplaced at 33-1. Rohan had two others ridden by Ted Carter and G Coleman (who I don't recall). Wolves won the Cup and Noah won next time under Piggott and his next race. I wonder what Harry's orders were that day at Beverley ?

Who did Derek Dougan play for in that final ? I honestly don't remember. I know there was some controversy.

He was Centre forward for Rovers...went to wolves a few years later...they called him Cheyenne for a while ...his haircut.
The controversy was that Derek had asked for a transfer the day before the cup.

TMan, I was at Molyneux in '72 the night that Leeds were going for the double. I was stood amongst the Wolves fans at one end and they absolutely adored DD. They had a sign which read 'Beware of The Doog'.