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15 Jan 15
12:31
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24 Jul 06
MINE WAS WITH MY DAD AND THE LOCAL WORKINGMENS CLUB ,WE WENT TO CHESTER RACES AND SEEING THE JOCKEYS ON THE HORSES WAS VERY STRANGE THE HORSES LOOKED MUCH LEANER AND FITTER THAN I IMAGINED AND THE JOCKEYS WERE ALL SHAPES AND SIZES ,THE TWO TOGETHER LOOKED ODD TO ME ,I LOVED THE COLOUR AND THE EXCITEMENT AND I LOVED SEEING ALL THE LADIES IN THEIR FINERY,ESPECIALLY ONE LADY WHO CROSSED THE COURSE IN A BEAUTIFULL FLOWING DRESS THAT BLEW IN THE WIND, ONLY BET A FEW POUNDS CANT REMEMBER IF I WON OR LOST THEN BACK ON COACH FOR A NIGHT OUT AT SOME OTHER WORKINGMENS CLUB ON THE WAY HOME
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Carlisle many years ago glorious day in June and made a nice profit too.
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Gold cup day 2003. Best mates 2nd gold cup.
I backed 4 winners that day including my all time favourite horse, spirit leader in the county hurdle. It's gone downhill ever since!   Scary to think it was 12 years ago  |
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My abiding memory of early visits to the Racecourse were ...
How slow the horses appeared to be traveling, at the finish - compared to watching them on television. Or - before some smart alec posts .... was it just the one that I had backed?  |
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you will like this one onlooker
unsurprisingly my first trip to the races was haydock as I did not have any binoculars at that time I took my dads telescope instead. |
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Carlisle, summers day glorious weather and massive turnout. Went with the lads and the local betting shop "expert" had told me to back dalgliesh horse in the last as it was "pounds in" in The Cumberland plate trials. Got on it early at 10's and every winning fiver and change from the pints went on this thing all day, last race came and it was 4-1 2nd fav. Turned out the expert was right, it absolutely hosed up and I became instant hero dos I'd being telling anyone who would listen to me to back this beast, everyone made a tidy profit and a massive night out was had in carlisle after the races. What a cracking day!!
The name of the horse.... Chookie Hamilton. Never forget it! |
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My first three in order were Brighton, Lewes then Goodwood, but I think there were a couple more Brighton trips before Goodwood. Never looked back
I think I have been to Goodwood every year at least once for the last 53 years. |
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Same as Blackbarn.......i think (i actually can't remember
) my first visit to a racecourse....but it was between Brighton and Goodwood?Hooked straight away |
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Sunday Silence, Churchill Downs 1989 winning the Kentucky Derby in a very slow time of 2:05 flat.
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foxy - Why did you bother going to Haydock, though?
You could have just stayed at home - and watched the racing through your, "dad's telescope." |
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Stratford night meeting summer '72 ish... Terry Biddlecombe fell off an odds on chance in the country..... got spat on weighing in... never forgot that !
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Epsom for the Derby many years ago. Couldn't believe how many had taken the Wednesday off work, put on their Sunday best, and paid for the posh tickets in order to spend the entire meeting indoors moving only the few yards from bar to Tote and back again.
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Haydock,fri night meeting,early 80s Horage won odds on.
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Upton on Severn Point to Point, early 60,s(63 I think), there where a lot of people there, it was The Lady Dudley Cup Day, one thing I do remember was that the lady jockeys had thick red lipstick and I was also struck by all of the different colours the jockeys wore.
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Cheltenham Gold Cup day 1971 with my Dad, a pretendy illness having kept me from primary school. I saw L'Escargot complete the GC double, Boxer winning the Triumph Hurdle, and Sally Furlong win the Hunters race. The opening race was won by Hound Tor, possibly a West Country success??
Years later when looking through my race card (signed by Sir Peter O on the day) in the last race I saw a horse called RED RUM had taken part, though under different training and riding connections to his later storied ones. A race possibly won by The Laird but I wouldn't swear to it. Not a bad first day. A few months later we went to Hereford to see Bula win a pulsating Welsh Champion Hurdle in a three way photo. |
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One of my first bets Alun, was backing Canasta Lad to beat him... remember the price was 11/2 !
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A mixed card @ Aintree in the 70's.
Got in for free by showing my mates bus driver's badge. Remember Credit Call won the Hunter. I was on Creme Brule 3rd @ 8/1, 1/4 of the odds. |
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Cheers Halcyon….. an error almost as grievous as the one I had to pull you up about on a Mandy R-D thread !!
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Made a mistake my first visit to a Racecourse was York Ebor Day 1980 I had to meet
a girl out of Pans People first then my boss picked us up and we had a really good view from some Majors box supping Champagne out of plastic cups... |
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The first I can remember was 5 August 1992 Kempton evening meeting. I know that because a big cheer went up when Sally Gunnell won the 400m hurdles at the Barcelona Olympics.
I was very impressed by a Sheik Mohammed horse ridden by Walter Swinburn that just seemed to float across the turf. Took the bus home and got lost. |
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Alun, was it 13/2 ?
Accept your memory is better than mine ! |
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I've no idea !!
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alun
bula,welsh champion hurdle and Hereford happy times for a wonderful place to go racing. |
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Will never forget that Bula Welsh Champion Hurdle finish that's for sure. And not on TV sadly.
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Worcester 1963.
Flat meeting. |
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1971/1972 Season: Hurdling[edit]
Bula suffered a defeat on his return in the Autumn, finishing second by a neck to I’m Happy in the Woolton Hill Hurdle at Newbury after making a mistake at the last flight.[8] He returned to winning ways in the Skeaping Trophy Hurdle at Sandown,[8] but badly bruised a foreleg in the process and missed nearly four months of racing.[9] Bula returned to racing in February and, despite the layoff, won the Kingwell Hurdle for the second time by four lengths hard held from Irish Sweeps winner Kelanne.[8] Despite the interrupted campaign, Bula’s Kingwell win confirmed his well being and he was rated an 8/11 favourite to win his second Champion Hurdle. This year, he faced two former Triumph Hurdle winners in Varma and Boxer, dual Christmas Hurdle winner Coral Diver, Cheltenham Trial and Christmas Hurdle winner Canasta Lad and the re-opposing pair of Dondieu and Kelanne.[2] As was the norm, Bula was held up at the back of the field as Varma and Boxer made all the running. Racing down the hill, Paul Kelleway on Bula decided to move to the inside and follow Boxer rather than Dondieu as they had been doing. At the third last flight, Dondieu fell and broke his neck while causing severe interference. Bula avoided the incident and strode past Boxer to win by eight lengths in a “triumphal procession”. However, his win was somewhat overshadowed by the fatal fall of Dondieu.[9] In Bula’s next race, he was beaten in an upset by Canasta Lad, who had fallen in the Champion Hurdle. In the soft ground and under top weight, Bula was under pressure from the second last and lost by three quarters of a length.[8] Despite this loss, Bula was overwhelmingly voted as Champion NH Horse for the second year running, receiving 37 out of 39 votes.[9] |
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Yes I recall Canasta Lad beating Bula in the 1972 renewal of the Welsh Champion. I think they had a quite a few battles.
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I know when I shouted him home listening to the blower in the shop... the heavy hitters' thought I was deranged !
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Not as good as when I was surrounded by middle class Munich men celebrating Peter Withes goal in Rotterdam circa May '82... that really was mental !
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^ They were right.....!
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Übersetzung für Indeed
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Newmarket 1973 - 1000 gns. I went specifically to back the fav Jacinth who couldn't possibly lose
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Newbury in the 60s and Whisky Poker won, from memory it was his second attempt. He won at a big price and one of our party collected a packet courtesy of the tote. I am not sure but I think Derring Do ran that day too in the feature race.
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Great Yarmouth!
Love the place! |
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Funny that. Given your name I would have had you down as a Taunton fan.
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chepstow 1976.very small fields.going officially hard.
seemed like easy pickings. |
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frances melly,so is italy.
15 Jan 15 15:12 Haydock,fri night meeting,early 80s Horage won odds on. ------------- I was there, too - Walked the straight with Horage's trainer Mattie McCormack. Blazing hot day - The track was like concrete, with ridges and dried divot holes. Wouldn't be like that nowadays - with Kirkland Tellwright watering - it would be on the soft side of good. Difficult to decide which scenario is worst. |
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Folkestone the Summer of 1965.
The time is etched in my memory as the Clanging sound of Mcguinns's Rickenbacker was everywhere.. 50 years since Mr.TM was Number 1 ....My Oh My. |
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I am told that my first visit was to Didmarton Point to Point at the age of 11 months. I didn't miss a year there until I went to Uni. in America 21 years later and couldn't afford the air fare back. My first "proper racing" was to Cheltenham in 1955 at age 11.
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1988 Grand National, looked at the results a few months ago and can still remember a few of the winners
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