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Has anybody any info on jockey Peter Madden ? A 1977 season stats book listing tells me that he had 58 winners that season but I damn sure that I can't recall him having that many. I know he started out with Doug Marks and rode a few winners for him and then had a good season or two with Ian Walker and I seem to recall him as stable jockey to Neil Adam when the stable suddenly shut down mid season in the late 70s. TMan, have you any details for Peter Madden ?

1977 FORM BOOK - list Peter MADDEN as having ridden 58 winners 13 2nds 15 3rds - from 245 rides - giving Winning percentage of 23.67%

He is also listed as being with Richard HANNON - and riding at 8st 5lbs.

in 1978 he is listed as having moved to T Molony, Newmarket -
The lowest listed jockey for that year is Alan Mercer on 30 - so Peter Madden was below that in 1978.

In 1979 - T Molony again, and Jack Hardy - whilst contactable on a Newmarket number
In 1980 he is listed as Free-Lance.

Peter MADDEN rode 14 winners when with Ian Walker, in 1972 -
11 winners in 1973, 8 in '74, and 7 in '75... riding at 8st 0lb

Thanks TMan, great write up as usual, Peter Madden may have gone to Richard Hannon's in 1977 but the stable wasn't the force then that it is today with 30-40 the usual aggregate and mostly with Frankie Durr on board.
Onlooker, you've cracked it, 58 winners, 13 seconds, 15 third paces in 1977 for Peter Madden just doesn't happen in the real racing world. The 58 must be a misprint. To my mind, Peter Madden never rode that many winners.

Trained at Moss nr Doncaster, Two sons, Tim who worked for B Hills at one stage and younger one Jason who has had a few winners this season from a yard in Middleham.

Around about 1973 Bob Ward made a return to the racing scene. I lost count of the number of times, be it on course or in the betting shop, that I heard it said whenever he had a runner and usually from an elderly person, 'That Bob Ward, fiddling git, should be in jail'. Evidently he had been warned off for ten years in the early 1960s when he trained over in Staffordshire. They reckon that he was called 'King of the Sellers' long before Ken Payne was even thought of.

Earlier on this thread someone was asking about Peter Ennis.Peter lives in the same village as I do & he has only recently retired from working at his garage on car repairs.
I asked earlier about Swannee Haldane,I was told on Saturday that he'd had a stroke a few months ago so if anyone on here sees Swannee could you tell him there's an English bookie who goes pointing asking after him.
Paddy Broderick,I know he moved down Newmarket quite a few years ago to be nearer his daughter but does anyone know if he's still about?Spent many an hour cracking with Paddy at Spennymoor dogs,he was always good craic.

allpoints

I was working in 2 shops in Spennymoor both Saturday and Sunday, Just got the car back from the garage after having the armour plating removed! What a place.

Although not as bad as the place up from you ferry on the hill, where a couple of weeks ago the boss said will you go and look after the shop as we haven’t got anyone who will cover, I agreed and come out of the shop at 9.30pm to find the car had been nicked and written off!

£35 for a cab home and the boss couldn’t have give a take it from me the girl who runs your local shop is one of the best by a country mile.

Guardamar, the race was  seller at Lincoln. Piggott was on Ward's tissue fav at long odds on which went off second fav. Ward's Polly Macaw was backed from 3s to evens fav and won beating Piggott's mount by 2 lengths. It has been said that the influence of the big bookies had a lot to do with Ward being warned off for such a length of time.

Paulbu

Funny enough I work in one of these permanently and in the last fortnight the only place I haven’t worked is Trimdon but that’s probably because we haven’t got a shop there! The other half’s on about putting the life insurance up.

allpoints

talking about the pits a guy’s been coming into my shop for the last 5 years from a pit village, like me he suffered the big c a few years ago, normally bets 50p lucky 15 every day, 2 year ago cops 1.5m on the lott, comes in the next day has a bet 50p lucky 15 till this day still does the same as he says nothing changes, lovely guy.

Like this lad I will never change no matter how much or little I have, I have a tin put by and every tip I get goes in it, last year I amassed a good few quid but as always it goes to the homeless unit in the town, and this lad is always tipping me.

John Matthias a Jockey who I followed in the day....he must have been good as I Balding retained him for 22 years.

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From 2001

LIFE has turned full circle for John Matthias as he is now back working at the historic Kingsclere yard of Ian Balding.

But whereas between 1968 and 1989 he was stable jockey, Matthias is nowadays employed as top work rider and Balding's racecourse representative in his absence.

Still only 47, he told me this week: "I obviously miss the race-riding but I had trouble with my weight and I don't miss all the dieting and saunas.

"I wouldn't want to come back and do what the lads have to go through now as it took us two hours 20 minutes to get to Bath recently one Friday when it's normally a 50- minute journey. It seems now that if you don't fly you can't compete at the top level."

Matthias left Balding to take up a two-year riding contract in Hong Kong followed by a short stint in Dubai. But he finally hung up his saddle in 1993 after getting the opportunity to train in the desert state.

He said: "I trained over there for five years and it was great experience. You couldn't afford to do it in this country but it's a different story when Sheikh Mohammed sets you up."

As happens now, Matthias often had to step aside to allow more so-called 'fashionable' jockeys to take his best rides but he has no regrets and still has fabulous memories of riding some terrific horses.

"Glint Of Gold had to be the best colt I rode and we were second to Shergar in the 1981 Derby. He was a decent horse and we won a Group 1 together in Germany.

"Mrs Penny - the classiest filly I rode - won the Cheveley Park and Cherry Hinton Stakes. Silver Fling, Robellino and Dashing Blade were other good ones.

"Working at Kingsclere was a great job as you knew there was going to be top class horses turning up all the time."

Matthias recalls riding plenty of winners at Ayr and Hamilton but Musselburgh was the only track in the UK where he never managed to be first past the post.

"It wasn't for the lack of trying as I was beaten a short-head on at least two occasions."
COPYRIGHT 2001 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday

After Paul Mellon died in 1999..

WHAT will happen to those so familiar black and gold colours? They have been such a constant part of British racing for so long. Paul Mellon's colours-black with a gold cross and stripe on cap.

Just imagine those colours carried to victory, for the first time, by Drinmore Lad in the Horne Chase at Gatwick in February 1936 and, for the final time, by Fields Of Omagh at Lingfield in January '99. That's an awful long time.

Old men, when they get older, fade away; contemporaries dead, interests wound down, passion spent. The talk is of new men. Paul Mellon was 91 when he died, on Monday. He had already slimmed down his once mighty, trans-Atlantic racing empire. His name was rarely mentioned. So Mellon left British racing, to which he had given so much, not with a shout, but a sigh.

Years after Mellon's colours had become a comfortingly familiar sight at the racecourse, I visited John Matthias, who often wore them. Matthias was 35. He had ridden the winners of 18 Group races, all over Europe, and been placed in five English Classics.

But his career was in depressing decline. That season, 1988, he rode seven winners from just 93 rides. Paul Mellon and Ian Balding had given Matthias a taste of glory, and then taken it away. In 1982, he had been sacked as Balding's stable jockey, and being Balding's stable jockey meant riding for Mellon.

Matthias was sacked because Balding and Mellon weren't happy with the way he had ridden Glint Of Gold in the Coronation Cup and Hardwicke Stakes, and Diamond Shoal in the King Edward VII Stakes. In future, the plum rides would go to Steve Cauthen and Pat Eddery.

Sackings cause resentment, but Matthias wasn't bitter. When I asked him about Paul Mellon, he smiled and said: "He's a lovely man, a marvellous man."

In 1981, there had been a queue of jockeys keen to partner Mellon's Derby hope, Glint Of Gold. They thought they had a chance, because Matthias was not a great jockey, and the Derby was a great prize. "No," Mellon told Balding, when he was asked if he wanted someone else to ride. "John has been winning on him, he stays on him."

Glint Of Gold finished an honourable runner-up to Shergar, and Matthias remembered Mellon's loyalty. "When I did get the sack, and was taken off Glint Of Gold, Mr Mellon made a point of coming to tell me himself. He told me that he hadn't been happy with the way things had been going in '82, but said he wanted to thank me for all the winners I had ridden for him, and that I would ride for him again."

He did. In 1983, Balding used Matthias more than any other jockey, and he still rode for Mellon, but not the stable stars.

It made me more curious to meet Mellon and, in 1991, on one of his increasingly rare visits to England, I did. Mellon was impeccably dressed and, like other wealthy men mellowing into old age, courteous. What made him different was a natural shyness and humility.

Mellon was a modest, self-aware man, acutely conscious of his own limitations. Those are not qualities easy to retain when you are head of one of the three richest families in the US, third only to the Rockefeller and Ford dynasties.

The same qualities shone through in Mellon's ghosted autobiography, the tellingly titled "Reflections in a Silver Spoon", published in 1992. It was a brave and honest book, about a man who knew that he was not clever and never conquered doubts about his own worth.

MELLON's love of racing, and of sporting art, was born during his time at Cambridge University, in the early '30s, but his personality was shaped by the lasting influence of his cold and distant father, Andrew.

In sharp contrast to his father, Paul saw no merit in the obsessive accumulation of yet more wealth. His efforts were devoted to putting the Mellon millions to good use. It was typical that he remarked: "I love my horses, and I love to see them run, but I sometimes feel guilty about it because it is a luxury and an economically useless hobby."

While we remember Mill Reef, art lovers remember what Mellon bestowed on them. Mellon told me about the first painting he bought, a picture of a horse called Pumpkin, by Stubbs, for $5,000, and of how he acquired the entire collection of Degas' wax models. "You can still see his fingerprints on them," he told me.

By then, he had already donated most of them to public galleries, and given away $600 million through his Old Dominion Foundation.

It was in 1936 that Mellon sent Drinmore Lad to Ivor Anthony's stable at Kingsclere and, 63 years later, Mellon still had his horses in the same yard. He displayed the same loyalty to his American trainers, latterly Elliott Burch and Mack Miller.

It was the horses he loved, and the English attitude to them.

"English people pay more attention to the horses and know more about them," he told me. "Somehow, that gives me a better feeling."

In 1972, when Balding rang Mellon to tell him that Mill Reef had broken a leg on the gallops and would never race again, Mellon's response was: "Is the lad OK?"

It is a shame that British racing did not do more to honour Paul Mellon during his life, for Mellon was a generous-spirited man.
COPYRIGHT 1999 MGN LTD

Ken Gethin and Roy Podmore. Remember Ken Gethin from time i worked in Epsom in the late fifties. Rode for Peter Thrale,who i think was his Father in law. Was at the  Manchester November Handicap in 1960, When he won on Operatic Society for John Benstead who had just taken over from Peter Thrale. I had never seen a bigger field or a bigger crowd at a race meeting. Operatic Society got rid of Ken at the start and there was a long delay must have been 15 minutes while the big chestnut with the white face cantered round the course ,no one in the crowd moved ,there was no room too. The other 48 runners waited for him ,i doubt that the horse would be allowed to take part today. During the race the horse never put a foot wrong, winning easily. I remember the same horse winning many times at Brighton and also Alexandra Park,often being a bit of a character at the gate ,charging the tapes (no starting stalls in those days) when he was ridden by an apprentice called Roy Podmore. Ken Gethins son Peter Gethin who died last year was  a Formula One driver winning at Monza in the 70s.

Paul...Good story re Cucuta....reading that Glasgow paper for that day it seems there was almost a riot.


If you wondered what happened to Ray Podmore...


THE cultural phenomenon of `liming' is virtually an official pastime in Trinidad and Tobago, the twin Caribbean islands whose inhabitants are renowned for their relaxed outlook on life, there to be enjoyed to the full.

It isn't hard to learn how to lime: all it involves is hanging out with friends for a chat and a drink, possibly the local favourite Stag lager, marketed as ``a man's beer''. My preference is for the less gender-specific Carib.

Although sunseekers descend in their droves for the mellow vibe and the vast golden strands of Tobago, this picture-postcard tropical paradise no longer has a racecourse, so I have to give it a miss in favour of its tougher big brother, which does.

Even in high season, between January and March, Trinidad's unvarnished capital Port of Spain is not really geared up for tourists. The rainy season has just started when I arrive, and the city is not so much laid-back as comatose, denuded of life for a bank holiday weekend. The explanation is simple: they've all buggered off to Tobago to chill out.

Those left behind could do a lot worse than heading inland to Santa Rosa Park, half an hour's drive on the East-West Highway from Port of Spain to the busy market town of Arima, where it is overlooked by the rainforest heights of the Northern Range.

It is here that I witness the greatest clash in horseracing history. Well, kind of. On paper. If you leave out some salient points.

Anyway, how about this for a field? Among the seven runners for the nine-furlong National Stakes are a pair of Triple Crown winners plus two further Derby winners and, for good measure, the best sprinter in the land.

What this omits to mention is that we are talking about a low standard of racing worth peanuts, and that all three legs of the T rinidad Triple Crown are restricted to creole thoroughbreds (horses bred in the West Indies) and thus may not be the most competitive races in the world.

Still, there are enough domestic stars in this collection to get the crowd excited. Cheers are heard as the stalls open, and a rising hum throughout the race develops into fierce vocal encouragement as the favourite, 2003 Triple Crown winner Top Of The Class, taken on for the lead for much of the race, asserts two furlongs out. He wins convincingly from his Glenn Mendez-trained stablemate Cardinal Messiah, the 2001 Triple Crown winner. So what if it is only T rinidad? The chunky Mendez seems to know what he's doing - and it is also a fine day for winning rider Ricky Jadoo. With Trinidad number one Emile Ramsammy away riding in Canada, he bags a treble.

When last week I wrote about a midweek card in Puerto Rico where the biggest race was worth just $11,000 (about pounds 6,000) and only a handful of people turned up to watch, that was unrepresentative of the foremost venue in the Caribbean, where they race five days a week for average purses of $14,000 (pounds 7,700) per race.

In contrast, while a couple of thousand turn up at Santa Rosa P ark, the big race is worth only 60,000 T&T dollars - that's around pounds 5,200.

Although Santa Rosa has a turf track, US-style racing dominates: that means mainly anti-clockwise around the sand oval, claimers and Lasix. Race distances are expressed metrically; the Labour Day meeting I attend has the customary uninspiring range, from 1,100 metres up to just 1,800 metres.

ALL EIGHTraces are on the dirt, because two scheduled for the inner turf track are shifted when the rainy season hits with a vengeance before racing. Mountains that were in plain sight behind the Larry Gomes stadium towering majestically over the track minutes beforehand are suddenly hidden from view amid a torrential downpour that lasts nearly the whole afternoon.

The racing surface takes the rain amazingly well. The conditions might be excessive, but such fantastic storms are a hazard of the climate in Trinidad, and Santa Rosa manages to race all year round, with a limited programme, comprising meetings on 50 per cent of Saturdays and Bank Holidays.

A day's racing there offers a miniature version of Trinidad society as a whole: a diverse, multicultural crowd of Africans, Indians and Europeans mix in a down-to-earth environment; it is basic and unfussy, doubtless a bit rough round the edges, totally uncontrived. Keeping it real, you might say.

The compact grandstand is divided into three floors. The bottom, which costs nothing to enter, is a raw place, featuring two rudimentary betting cages, beer outlets, a Kentucky Fried chicken franchise - and rammed with people avoiding the squall. As scruffy dogs roam loose among discarded betting slips, a heavy security presence maintains a semblance of order among individuals whose charms are of the rough-hewn variety.

A ticket must be purchased for the other floors - Level 2's Clubhouse even has a dress code, ``elegantly casual'', allowing no shorts, denim jeans, sandals, sneakers. No-one seems bothered enough to worry about enforcing it; the emphasis is more on the ``casual'' than the ``elegantly''.

While Trinidad's racing programme is intermittent, punters can also bet on North American racing - and there is also extensive coverage of racing in Britain in the local daily newspapers, with previews, tips and reports. SIS is beamed live to the country's handful of off-course fixed-odds betting shops; on-course betting is exclusively pari-mutuel.

Among many welcoming officials, I find one with a distant expatriate link. Steward Roy Podmore is a former jockey from Liverpool who used to ride for Peter Thrale and John Benstead in Epsom.

Now 63, Podmore has been in the Caribbean for 40 years. His stepson, Joshua Stephen, is a rider. ``He should win the first, if he doesn't mess it up,'' Podmore tells me. In a display approaching competence, Stephen doesn't mess up on a 3-5 favourite.

I am introduced to `The Skipper' of the Daily Express. His real name is Shammi Kowlessar, but pseudonyms are much favoured among the tipping clique, where his colleagues include The Guru, Earl J and Mr Knowledge.

The Skipper exudes the self-confident air of someone who is about to give me the trifecta in the next. ``I'm going to give you the trifecta in the next,'' he says, self-confidently.

It pays just over 5-1. Maybe I could at least have found the winner Getdjobdone myself as the US-bred three-year-old, ineligible for the Classics, is a 1-9 chance.

I'm told he could be the best in T rinidad, and he wins like he is, Jadoo (him again) leaning, stiff-backed as they cross the line. The jockey isn't showboating, having lost his irons two furlongs out, much to the merriment of one happy soul among the rougher necks on the ground floor who accosts me with a massive grin as he runs out into the rain to welcome the impressive winner.

``He ride backward and do the job,'' he tells me. Pleased with himself, he says it again: ``He ride backward and do the job,'' and then goes off to impart his wisdom to a group of his mates huddled nearby. They all have a good laugh about it over their tins of beer, soaked to the skin.

You can't let the weather get in the way of a good lime.

The journey so far

Racing in TrinidadRacecourses 1 Racedays 38 Racehorses 500 Studs 25 Mares 350 Stallions 38 Estimated foals 165(2005 breeding statistics supplied by David Loregnard, secretary to Trinidad Racing Authority Board)H THIS column was written well before I heard the news of Thursday's bombings via CNN in South America.

As a native Londoner who has spent most of his life living in the city and uses the tube daily to get to work at Canary Wharf, a huge part of me was transported straight back home this week. While I cannot imagine how those who have lost loved ones can try to cope after such an outrage, I know one thing that has been confirmed to me on on this journey.

There may be many great cities in the world, but I live in the greatest of them all.
COPYRIGHT 2005 MGN LTD

www.theapprenticejockey  is a good website.

Somebody was asking about Roy Podmore there not long ago.

Thanks Onlooker, 10 winners in 77 instead of 58. I sometimes wonder where Raceform get their data from.

Pathetic Betfair, Val **** goter.