There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
These 89 comments are related to the topic:
Betfair Hurdle or the Schweppes?
Betfair Hurdle or the Schweppes?
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 89
|
By:
Ryan Price was a character and great trainer on Flat and over Jumps. Did you know him blackbarn? him coming from your neck of the woods. Was it Hill House that manufactured it`s own dope?
 |
|
By:
As I think you know Mac, I did meet him once or twice, because my Uncle Jack knew him (only on a hello Captain Price, hello Jack basis). On reflection this was perhaps a bit weird because Uncle Jack was on first name terms with most Sussex/Lewes trainers (Gosden, Masson, Smyth, and at least a dozen more). I remember Towzer (cos he gave me a shilling to bet at Brighton when I was about 10) and HRP (who just looked like a schoolboys idea of a racehorse trainer - a cross between Terry-Thomas and a very posh mix of Tommy Trinder and Private Walker.
|
|
By:
I recollect you saying before blackbarn now that I see your post. Sorry, I wasn`t trying to catch you out, just that sometimes I forget things. Even when I read some of my old posts I can`t remember making them. I can remember things that happened 30 years ago and struggle to remember what I done yesterday. It`s scary mate
 I need a dram, lol.That was a great site you posted a link previously for about FINDON. A terrific read. The Smyth`s were big favourites of mine. Thanks |
|
By:
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/grand-national-horses-training
Pause it at 18 to 20 seconds. |
|
By:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unJQvFOu3ec
Sundew's 1957 Grand National, worth watching all the way through but from 7.30 there are good images of HRP with tilted trilby and sheepskin coat. |
|
By:
It was still called the Schweppes last time I backed the winner (Ra Nova 84)
93 was an unusual year, 16 runners , 11 of them out of the handicap including the 1st three home. The winner was King Credo, the trainer Steve Woodmans only winner of the season. |
|
By:
My advice is drink Scweppes and save your money..
|
|
By:
The first time I went to the race was 1989 when a truly pathetic field of 10 lined up, all the rest having been scared off by an odds-on favourite Vicario di Bray, which was dutifully turned over.
. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7awzpPu_9Q |
|
By:
It`s a sign of getting old, referring to races by their past names. Whitbread Gold Cup, Massey Ferguson Gold Cup, Sweeps Hurdle, etc etc
|
|
By:
Schweppes dropped one when they stopped sponsorship this. Anybody who knew anything about the horses would have Schweppes tonic with a glug of gin. No more. Sign of the times.
|
|
By:
tbf this race hit a terrible patch of abandonments, didn't it (it's still frequently touch and go)?
From memory (could be wrong) wasn't it lost 2/3/4 years on the trot and the sponsors got the hump? |
|
By:
Lost in '81, '83, '85 and '86.
It was lucky it got off to a good start in '63 by being held at Aintree in late March, rather than Newbury in mid-Feb, because the winter of '63 wiped out racing for weeks in Jan and Feb that year. I never answered the original question, but it would be Schweppes for me, partly because my uncle was a foreman at the Schweppes factory in Sidcup in the '60s. He was captain of their cricket team when he was in his 50s. He and my aunt both had betting accounts, and had a stock of the old Copes racegoers annuals from when their accounts were with that firm before they got absorbed by William Hill. I used to spend my Saturday afternoons reading through those while I was cleaning my aunt's collection of brass rubbish that she bought for pennies at the stalls in the Caledonian market in Deptford. I went on a Schweppes company coach trip to Ascot in 1970 - my uncle didn't want to go, so my aunt took me instead. It was supposed to be the Heath meeting on the Saturday, but because there was a General Election on the Thursday, the Saturday had the Gold Cup card instead, so I saw the previous year's Derby winner Blakeney make a good but unavailing effort to win what was probably not a very good Gold Cup. |
|
By:
** maybe it wasn't luck. Perhaps it was meant to be at Newbury in Feb '63.
I think one of Price's winners, Le Vermontois, got stuck in France by the outbreak of swamp fever there in the '60s. |
|
By:
I was at Newbury when Hill House won and many in the stands were booing ...the problem was he'd been well beaten at Sandown a couple of weeks beforehand and then walked away with the richest handicap hurdle of the year. Capt Price was something else and not a man to cross.
|
|
By:
I was trying to remember why the horse was so unpopular. It was reported that objects were thrown at him as he entered the winner's enclosure. I hope it was not you doing the throwing Posy.
|
|
By:
Not long after that race Captain Price was interviewed on tv. When asked if he had backed Hill House he replied,"Backed it? I have never backed a racehorse in my life! Far too risky."
|
|
By:
Although i've done some stupid things am glad to confirm that throwing anything at a horse isn't one of them...although i do recall being annoyed cos i'd backed him at Sandown and after that run hadn't given him a chance in the Schweppes. Price's stranglehold on the race in the early years was quite remarkable although to be fair he employed probably the best jockey riding at the time..Josh Gifford.
|
|
By:
John Oaksey once described him as "Capt Ryan Price, ex-Commando, fearless horseman, dedicated animal-lover, outspoken self-publicist and, let no-one doubt or question it, brilliant trainer of racehorses."
|
|
By:
It has always been the Schweppes to me and remember backing Elan when the whole betting shop seemed to be on it.
|
|
By:
I remember reading that he bought back one of his Cesarewitch winners at a sale after his career was pretty much over, just so he could have him in his paddock at home, along with a couple of his other old favourites. I think it was Utrillo.
|
|
By:
*after the horse's career was over.
|
|
By:
Then there was the after-race interview with Brough Scott at Chester afer Obratzovy (sp) had won one of the classic trials there, as reported by Scott...
Scott.. "Have you got any plans for him?" Price.."Plans? Of course I've got f**king plans!! |
|
By:
The Sandown race that Hill House ran in was just 7 days earlier. The booing broke out as the horse went clear on the run to the last, and broke out again as the hore entered the unsaddling ring. The official notice of the enquiry was announced soon after the race, and that the 2 races would be reviewed 'in every aspect', at which "a tumultuous cheer broke out".
|
|
By:
Incidentally, Red Dove, the grand-dam of Flakey Dove, also ran in that 1967 running won by Hill House. She was 11 years old then.
|
|
By:
Excellent work ged
|
|
By:
from memory the horse was never the same again...the reason for his success was put down to something like manufacturing his own cortisone (pull the other one !)
|
|
By:
Hill House was a wonderful name for a nag involved in a coup.
I believe it was cortisone Posy. Happy Days! |
|
By:
As mentioned above, he was set to carry 12-1 in the race the following year - 2 lbs more than Persian War, so, not surprisingly, he wasn't going to be given too much chance in handicap hurdles in the future. I remember him going novice chasing - and I think I remember him racing against Orient War (who was owned by John Banks, and beat Persian War once over hurdles) at Ascot in a decent small field novice chase, but can't remember what happened.
|
|
By:
John Banks also owned Hill House, he bought him afterwards.
|
|
By:
That's right so he did. More publicity the better, I guess. I think the horse became reluctant to start.
Looking at the previous Saturday Sandown card, Hill House had a 'bf' against his name in that race too. The Stones Ginger Wine Chase was on that Sandown card (Dicky May, Pawnbroker, The Laird, Charlie Worcester, Hello Dolly); the Scilly Isles novice (Bowgeeno, Flosuebarb); the Oteley Hurdle (Three No Trumps, Kirriemuir); a hcap hurdle (4yo Spanish Steps). The day before had the Gainsborough Chase with 10yos Mill House and What A Myth. The latter was fav, but the big horse was on the comeback and turned him over by a neck at level weights. They bet 6/5 and 11/10. Must have been a race to remember. |
|
By:
I think I have only backed the winner once (in 32 years of betting)and that was Recession Proof.
One I do remember well though was Neblin beating my well backed Mrs Muck. I also backed Flakey Dove in this but not the CHdl. |
|
By:
Great post ged ;i'll have to go into the attic and see if i can find the saturday racecard...y
|
|
By:
Foxy - it was cortisol that the horse produced abnormal quantities of (naturally!). All charges were dropped in the face of overwhelming veterinary evidence. Hth.
|
|
By:
Message meant for Posy not foxy
 Cortisol is naturally produced by horses, and humans for that matter. |
|
By:
I mentioned that he manufactured his own dope quite early in the thread, but I think it went over everyone's head. What was the name of the Snailwell Stud horse of Easterby's which was proven to have been contaminated by a Mars Bar? Mil's Bomb or something like that?
|
|
By:
Mac it was No Bombs!
|
|
By:
Cheers blackbarn! I was close. Was Mil's Bomb the Murless horse? Can't remember the owner's name but very famous colours, Yellow and Black? Attica Meli carried them.
|
|
By:
Bravo Lizzie !!
|
|
By:
Our Lizzie
  |
|
By:
Mils Bomb was Murless .Louis Freedman Cliveden Stud TMM yellow black spots Reference Point et al
I think No Bombs was owned by Stanhope Joel(Pink and Green stripes?) relative of Jim Joel. |