Favourite Guy Harwood horses ....

Sadeem.....dual gold cup winner  ( although one of those down to Royal Gait being sensationally disqualified )

Bit left field and doubt many of you have heard of this one but Blowing was my fav for purely financial reasons
Had the nod that he would run above himself in a Newmarket seller carrying the trainers own black H colours as mentioned on here previously
So a few quid was suitably invested and it duly won................at 33/1!! Oh happy days and info of that sort just doesnt exist any more but for what its worth I saw the great man at Glorious Goodwood last year and hes still an absolute gent

Assatis.

Rousillon for me.

just bringing the thread back up

He was getting the best of Khalid Abdullah's stock when it was only him and Jeremy Tree receiving them, when Khalid Abdullah spread them onto other trainers like Henry Cecil seemed to hasten his decline as a trainer.

Testforfree

Bellotto was Jeremy trees still have a betting slip from the 87 derby.

Vagador for me

Hi Foxy,i always remember one of his owners Roy Taino whose horses ran with the "Santella" prefix,used to stroll up to Laddies with the huge cigar going and we used to follow him in if he had a decent bet,fairly sure he was in the rag trade,his brother George worked for Laddies on course then ran William Beresford firm on course.

Probably spelt Tiano thinking about it.

I remember Stella bobkis but that was trained by Maurice Barnes.

Santella

These horses would be late 70s early 80s I guess.Just handicappers from memory but he was just one of the many characters who adorned the ring then.

I sort of remember the names ribero but not properly.

the one an only dancing brave + Hays - I was working in my summer holidays delivering lemonade and beer to pubs/clubs throughout NE Scotland for Hays & Co so when a fto 2yo of Guy Harwood was running I remember I had 25p ew and it won at 8s - probably as much as I was getting paid for a tough 9 hour day of carrying and lifting up and down stairs and cellars!! followed the horse each race after that and won a few quid and decent races including mill reef which is on youtube - happy days!! hardly ever back fto 2yos nowadays - the naivety and confidence of youth!!

Excellent thread...and a really good trip down memory lane.
I can't believe ALPHABATIM hasn't been mentioned though

I remember seeing Crazy win an amateur race at Bath, by a street. one more race after then the EBOR.
If memory serves .

Brocade.
Had to look up the year she won the Oak Tree Stakes('84) but remember the price: 7/1.

Ziperdodahzippiedoi

I think he ended up going of nearly favourite for the leger

I can't remember after the ebor foxy!

I no 100% zip I will try and find out

Primary another harwood ebor winner

i don't think there are any free online horse searches . Racing post is members only etc.

I will have the old form books it was 1984 commanche run Piggott nicked the ride of darrell mchargue someone said to him on the morning of the race darrell says he is not going to watch the race he is going to play golf ,Piggott replied I hope it doesn’t rain.

Got to be Dancing Brave and Warning. Rousillon is not far behind; Lear Fan is another I remember.

Greville made the horses of Guy come alive, but then he became delusional. I din't know how. Perhaps riding the best?

Your were not allowed dancing brave impossible.

Zip crazy was 4 th n the 84 st leger guy harwood also had the 3 rd alphabatium

That's a very anal and analytically pushed remark, Foxy. Do you always penetrate this deep, or touch with your forefinger only?

cheers foxy. he ran a decent race then.

Yes beaten around 4 lengths not bad having ran at bath earlier in the season.

probably already mentioned on the thread, but some might not know, that jeremy tree had first offer of dancing brave

Crazy! Primary; Cacoethes; Cataldi. That's as far as my memory of Harwood's horses goes. Starkey was a good jockey even better than Moore the presently acclaimed best jockey by the racing sycophants at the Racing Post.

to agori mou v kings lake battles, brilliant well worth watching on you tube

I am glad he didn’t get him

dancing brave breaking goodwood course record in a canter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvEbmJwavbI

The 3 rd clash at goodwood elisejohn took place on a very significant day in this country’s history

Foxy - "I will have the old form books it was 1984 commanche run Piggott nicked the ride of darrell mchargue someone said to him on the morning of the race darrell says he is not going to watch the race he is going to play golf ,Piggott replied I hope it doesn’t rain"

Sorry to be a pedant mate but it was tennis.
PIggott was a funny fcuk back in the day

brilliant^

What was significant about the goodwood race won by dancing brave never happened since

DANCING BRAVE@ Goodwood

gibberish

If memory serves...I think someone asked Piggott how the rain would affect Commanche Run's chances in the Leger - he said he wasn't that worried but it's gonna fcuk Darrel's tennis match up

Foxy - you've got me on that one - all I remember about the Supreme stakes was when Mtoto and the rest of the field ran about 2f short of what the trip was supposed to be. It was the time merchants who spotted the mistake.

Looking forward to this answer...please tell.

Mtoto was a different year gibberish but I do remember it.

THE Royal Wedding.

That’s correct biscuits on the kings lake one

Jumped up car dealer

Foxy - I meant Select Stakes (not Supreme Stakes)
Are you gonna put us out of our misery with the answer?

I will give you a clue gibberish back then there was still betting tax

Now you mention it...I do have a vague recollection.
Was he about 1/12...thereby making a bet useless?

OR was there no betting returned?

Harwood garages still sell Bentleys in that corner of the world.

Good for him.


Back in the golden age of racing, there were two certainties: the second run of a promising Cecil or Harwood two year old. At the same time, Timeform was mustard; if they gave a Large P to either, you could go to the bank.

Simpler times. Could not hope to defeat a 10% betting-tax now.

I should say...no official SP.

Correct no sp returned back then if you couldn’t win you couldn’t lose the new breed of bookmakers and exchanges don’t really care much for that old unwritten rule.

Foxy - good question mate...I was thinking around 1/12 or 1/14 as that's probably what the morning price was.

Yeah just looked it up!

Interesting Raceform doesn't show overrounds back then.

So in September Greville Starkey was still riding Brave.

Was Starkey sat on him that day?

Credit to Abdulla: Starkey would have f****ed the Arc up too.

I always thought Starkey was a top jockey...he just fcuked up ONCE (that I can recall) on the biggest stage, and that's all he's remembered for.

He isn’t the only one to mess up in the derby.

One day I will wake up and el gran Senor will be on the derby roll of honour.

Lester to Robert Sangster in passing just after that Derby "Missing me"?

ryan moore messed up in the last 4 derbys

Correct biscuits although as gibberish corrected me on tennis I think he said to Vincent

Ah yes, quite right, foxy!!

Greensmith.

A son of Known Fact. Rather wasted as a pacemaker to Warning and other K Abdullah horses, but still good enough to win a Whitsun Cup off a mark of 107.

Went on to sire quite a lot of winners in this country from very few and very poor opportunities at a £500 fee. Then got a couple Group 1 winners in India.

Was forcast bets and/or the tote not tax free? And on course?                                    Guy Harwood started as a second hand car dealer?

How did Pat Eddery mess up on EGS?
He got there in plenty of time and exerted very little energy doing it.
What did Pat do wrong?
The horse's fault it got beat

Having just watched it back a few times I agree, Pat started riding well before the post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL98yjDCq-s

A thrilling race to watch!

On-course betting tax was 4% until Nigel Lawson (God bless you, sir) abolished it during the 1987 Cheltenham festival.

It was the off course 10% which is why no so return at 4% if someone bet a 1200/100 on they could still win £60.

Good morning fire and ice

The reason I felt pat messed up in hindsight of course was between 3 f out and 2f out the whole field was in trouble including secreto,pat had loads of horse perhaps if he had taken a few lengths out of secreto on the approach to the final furlong it would have been a race winning move ,I know if you just watch the final furlong there are no excuses.

Just looking back on the field what a weak derby.

Sorry £48 not £60

Foxy a very weak derby field I was there that day, but a really strong 2000 Guineas renewal the same year.

I don’t remember the 71 2000 Guineas gh so the best I’ve seen is the 84 race

I had a good touch (for me) £250, on Kalmadene at Folkestone, in April/May 1991 I think t was, I will have to check, it was hammered in the betting as well iirc, went on to win a couple more races I think, will dig out the formbook.

May 8 th 1990

Wow was it I was on course that day

I use to love Folkestone I had been there on the Thursday night on the eve of the Olympic Games opening ceremony, travelling back Friday morning the announcement was made it was closing down for a short period and Hereford was to close permanently,Folkestone will never reopen which is very

I was also there on a wet Tuesday in December 2012 when one of jonjos owned by jp made his debut in a weak looking maiden hurdle ,it drifted out to 20/1 but that didn’t stop him winning with chunks in hand 3 months later he beat Annie power in the stayers hurdle.

anyone remember phardante, didnt he beat slip anchor as 4 year old!
just came across this good read
principal jumps meeting, received little publicity in the wider world thanks to coinciding with various big Flat fixtures, including the Guineas Meeting at Newmarket and Kentucky Derby/Oaks weekend at Churchill Downs. However, its clash with the Guineas Meeting turned out to be rather appropriate because one of the stallions to make the biggest mark at Punchestown (PHARDANTE, maternal grandsire of three Grade One winners at the Festival) will forever be best remembered for his triumphs in the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket’s Guineas Meeting in both 1986 and 1987. In particular, the first of those two victories was particularly memorable, with Phardante inflicting a notable defeat on the previous year’s Derby winner SLIP ANCHOR, writesJohn Berry.

For a decade from the late 1970s, Phardante’s trainer Guy Harwood handled a succession of terrific horses including Ela-Mana-Mou, To-Agori-Mou, Lear Fan, Dancing Brave, Assatis, Warning, Sadeem, Ile De Chypre, Cacoethes and Digression. Scouring the world’s yearling sales, often alongside James Delahooke, he unearthed a stream of big, strong colts who developed into terrific gallopers. Many of these came from America, but Phardante was an exception, being bought as a yearling in France for 340,000 francs (roughly £28,100). As the price suggests, Phardante was not a blue-blood, but he conformed to the stable’s type by being a handsome, imposing colt; and it did not take him long to live up to his looks, because he won the first four of his five starts as a two-year-old in 1984. These victories (over six furlongs at Ascot and over seven furlongs at Kempton, Salisbury and Lingfield) established him as being well above average, even if his limitations were seemingly exposed on his final start of the year when he tackled Pattern company for the first time, finishing only seventh of the eight runners in the Royal Lodge Stakes over a mile at Ascot, won by REACH.

Phardante and Reach faced each other again in the following year’s Derby, but neither was good enough to get near the winner Slip Anchor. Admittedly, nothing else was good enough to get near Slip Anchor that day either, as Lord Howard de Walden’s son of Shirley Heights strolled home by seven lengths, having made all the running. Subsequent Irish Derby winner LAW SOCIETY was Slip Anchor’s closest pursuer, with Reach sixth and Phardante eighth, the pair split by the subsequent six-time US Grade One winner THEATRICAL. The merit of Phardante’s performance is further highlighted by the fact that he had both PETOSKI (who landed a shock win the following month in Ascot’s Group One King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, beating OH SO SHARP and RAINBOW QUEST) and the 2,000 Guineas winner SHADEED behind him. Phardante, whose form that season admittedly lacked the consistency which he had shown as a juvenile, was clearly progressing nicely. He had chased home Derby fifth LANFRANCO on his resumption, and later in the season he put up a great performance to finish second in the St Leger, beaten only three quarters of a length by Oh So Sharp (with Lanfranco a neck back in third) as that great filly completed the Fillies’ Triple Crown.

Phardante’s four-year-old season was clearly going to be one to look forward to – but, even saying that, few could have predicted just how well it would go in the spring of 1985. Slip Anchor was naturally the horse most pundits were looking forward to seeing that year – so it came as a major shock when Slip Anchor was beaten a neck by Phardante in the Group Two Jockey Club Stakes over a mile and a half at Newmarket’s Guineas Meeting on his resumption. This proved to be Slip Anchor’s first and last race of the season, but Phardante was kept busy. He ran another eight times that year and, even if he could not repeat the achievement of beating a horse of the calibre of Slip Anchor (who, admittedly, must surely have run way below his best in the Jockey Club Stakes), he put up several more very good runs.

Hard though it is to believe nowadays (bearing in mind that racing in Belgium has more or less disappeared off the map), two of Phardante’s races that year where in Belgium, trips which yielded victory in the Grand Prix de Bruxelles over 2200m at Groenendael and a close third to ANATAS and HIGHLAND CHIEFTAIN in the Grand Prix Prince Rose at Ostend. He also ran in Germany, where he finished fifth to the German champion ACATENANGO in the country’s premier weight-for-age race, the Grosser Preis von Baden over 2400m, but arguably his most distinguished defeat came at Newmarket, where he failed by only short head behind VALUABLE WITNESS in the autumn over two miles in the Jockey Club Cup.

Phardante ran another seven times as a five-year-old in 1997, when he posted several more excellent performances, most notably at Newmarket, where he won the Jockey Club Stakes on the Rowley Mile for a second time and finished second to CELESTIAL STORM in the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes on the July Course. The worth of the latter performance was emphasized three weeks later when Celestial Storm split two true champions, REFERENCE POINT and TRIPTYCH, in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot.

At the end of the year Phardante was recruited as a National Hunt sire by Liam Cashman, who retired him to Rathbarry Stud in Ireland at a fee of 1,000 Irish pounds.

It might seem strange that a horse as good and tough as Phardante should go to stud at such a low fee, but, while Belgian racing has changed a lot since the mid 1980s, the stallion market has remained the same. In other words, then as now, stallions who do not ‘tick all the boxes’ for ‘commercial breeders’ were and are ignored; and stayers who have raced a lot tend not to tick those boxes. Furthermore, Phardante did not possess a particularly stunning pedigree.

Phardante’s sire PHARLY was, like his sire LYPHARD, a small horse who showed top-class form around a mile when trained in France. He won three Group One races: the Prix de la Foret over 1400m at weight-for-age as a two-year-old, and the Prix Lupin over 2100m and the Prix du Moulin du Longchamp over 1600m at three. However, while Lyphard (a Group One winner of the Prix de la Foret over 1400m and of the Prix Jacques le Marois over 1600m) took off as a stallion, starting off in France before moving to America where he sired many stars including the aforementioned DANCING BRAVE, Pharly did not.
Pharly’s stud career started in France where he came up with LE NAIN JAUNE (a Group One winner of the Grand Prix de Paris in the days when that race was still run over 3000m) and ended in England, where he continued to consolidate his reputation as a sire of stayers, most notably courtesy of the numerous victories of his terrific son FURTHER FLIGHT, winner of five consecutive Jockey Club Cups (1991 to 1995 inclusive) as well as two Goodwood Cups and one Doncaster Cup. By a sire of stayers from a family largely of middle-of-the-road stayers and jumpers, Phardante was clearly (and sadly) never going to be of any interest to the majority of Flat breeders, even if there was one top-class French two-year-old filly (THEIA, Group One winner of the Criterium des Pouliches at Longchamp in 1975) in his immediate family.

Naturally, some of Phardante’s sons contested staying races on the Flat and he had some winners in that sphere, but more or less all of his offspring were bred for National Hunt racing. He came up with some very good jumpers, including Grade One-winning steeplechasers TRUCKERS TAVERN and HANAKHAM, dual Grade One-winning hurdler URUBANDE and Grade Two-winning steeplechaser THE TOISEACH. And now his daughters are breeding some very good jumpers indeed.

At the Punchestown Festival alone, Phardante was maternal grandsire of three Grade One winners: JEZKI and his half-brother JETSON, and GOD'S OWN. Jezki had previously won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March and the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse last December, while two other grandsons of Phardante (OSCAR WHISKY and DEFY LOGIC) have also won Grade One National Hunt races this season. In previous seasons, Grade One-winning grandsons of Phardante have included JESSIES DREAM, OSCAR DAN DAN, JERED, RULE SUPREME and SNOOPY LOOPY.

It might be significant that the majority of the Grade One winners produced by Pharly mares are by Sadlers’s Wells stallions; but, then again, that might just be a reminder that many of the best National Hunt sires in recent times are/were sons of SADLER'S WELLS.

Phardante proved to be merely one of many very good staying Flat horses in recent decades to have been completely ignored by the Flat breeding community, so it is nice to see his descendants making their mark in big races, even if solely over jumps. He would almost certainly have sired some good stayers on the Flat if given the chance to do so; but, then again, we shall, sadly, never know.

missed the 1st part sorry
The Grey Panel

Phardante far from forgotten

Punchestown’s spring National Hunt Festival, Ireland’s principal jumps meeting, received little publicity in the wider world thanks to coinciding with various big Flat fixtures, including the Guineas Meeting at Newmarket and Kentucky Derby/Oaks weekend at Churchill Downs. However, its clash with the Guineas Meeting turned out to be rather appropriate because one of the stallions to make the biggest mark at Punchestown (PHARDANTE, maternal grandsire of three Grade One winners at the Festival) will forever be best remembered for his triumphs in the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket’s Guineas Meeting in both 1986 and 1987. In particular, the first of those two victories was particularly memorable, with Phardante inflicting a notable defeat on the previous year’s Derby winner SLIP ANCHOR, writesJohn Berry.

For a decade from the late 1970s, Phardante’s trainer Guy Harwood handled a succession of terrific horses including Ela-Mana-Mou, To-Agori-Mou, Lear Fan, Dancing Brave, Assatis, Warning, Sadeem, Ile De Chypre, Cacoethes and Digression. Scouring the world’s yearling sales, often alongside James Delahooke, he unearthed a stream of big, strong colts who developed into terrific gallopers. Many of these came from America, but Phardante was an exception, being bought as a yearling in France for 340,000 francs (roughly £28,100). As the price suggests, Phardante was not a blue-blood, but he conformed to the stable’s type by being a handsome, imposing colt; and it did not take him long to live up to his looks, because he won the first four of his five starts as a two-year-old in 1984. These victories (over six furlongs at Ascot and over seven furlongs at Kempton, Salisbury and Lingfield) established him as being well above average, even if his limitations were seemingly exposed on his final start of the year when he tackled Pattern company for the first time, finishing only seventh of the eight runners in the Royal Lodge Stakes over a mile at Ascot, won by REACH.

Phardante and Reach faced each other again in the following year’s Derby, but neither was good enough to get near the winner Slip Anchor. Admittedly, nothing else was good enough to get near Slip Anchor that day either, as Lord Howard de Walden’s son of Shirley Heights strolled home by seven lengths, having made all the running. Subsequent Irish Derby winner LAW SOCIETY was Slip Anchor’s closest pursuer, with Reach sixth and Phardante eighth, the pair split by the subsequent six-time US Grade One winner THEATRICAL. The merit of Phardante’s performance is further highlighted by the fact that he had both PETOSKI (who landed a shock win the following month in Ascot’s Group One King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, beating OH SO SHARP and RAINBOW QUEST) and the 2,000 Guineas winner SHADEED behind him. Phardante, whose form that season admittedly lacked the consistency which he had shown as a juvenile, was clearly progressing nicely. He had chased home Derby fifth LANFRANCO on his resumption, and later in the season he put up a great performance to finish second in the St Leger, beaten only three quarters of a length by Oh So Sharp (with Lanfranco a neck back in third) as that great filly completed the Fillies’ Triple Crown.

Phardante’s four-year-old season was clearly going to be one to look forward to – but, even saying that, few could have predicted just how well it would go in the spring of 1985. Slip Anchor was naturally the horse most pundits were looking forward to seeing that year – so it came as a major shock when Slip Anchor was beaten a neck by Phardante in the Group Two Jockey Club Stakes over a mile and a half at Newmarket’s Guineas Meeting on his resumption. This proved to be Slip Anchor’s first and last race of the season, but Phardante was kept busy. He ran another eight times that year and, even if he could not repeat the achievement of beating a horse of the calibre of Slip Anchor (who, admittedly, must surely have run way below his best in the Jockey Club Stakes), he put up several more very good runs.

Hard though it is to believe nowadays (bearing in mind that racing in Belgium has more or less disappeared off the map), two of Phardante’s races that year where in Belgium, trips which yielded victory in the Grand Prix de Bruxelles over 2200m at Groenendael and a close third to ANATAS and HIGHLAND CHIEFTAIN in the Grand Prix Prince Rose at Ostend. He also ran in Germany, where he finished fifth to the German champion ACATENANGO in the country’s premier weight-for-age race, the Grosser Preis von Baden over 2400m, but arguably his most distinguished defeat came at Newmarket, where he failed by only short head behind VALUABLE WITNESS in the autumn over two miles in the Jockey Club Cup.

Phardante ran another seven times as a five-year-old in 1997, when he posted several more excellent performances, most notably at Newmarket, where he won the Jockey Club Stakes on the Rowley Mile for a second time and finished second to CELESTIAL STORM in the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes on the July Course. The worth of the latter performance was emphasized three weeks later when Celestial Storm split two true champions, REFERENCE POINT and TRIPTYCH, in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot.

At the end of the year Phardante was recruited as a National Hunt sire by Liam Cashman, who retired him to Rathbarry Stud in Ireland at a fee of 1,000 Irish pounds.

It might seem strange that a horse as good and tough as Phardante should go to stud at such a low fee, but, while Belgian racing has changed a lot since the mid 1980s, the stallion market has remained the same. In other words, then as now, stallions who do not ‘tick all the boxes’ for ‘commercial breeders’ were and are ignored; and stayers who have raced a lot tend not to tick those boxes. Furthermore, Phardante did not possess a particularly stunning pedigree.

Phardante’s sire PHARLY was, like his sire LYPHARD, a small horse who showed top-class form around a mile when trained in France. He won three Group One races: the Prix de la Foret over 1400m at weight-for-age as a two-year-old, and the Prix Lupin over 2100m and the Prix du Moulin du Longchamp over 1600m at three. However, while Lyphard (a Group One winner of the Prix de la Foret over 1400m and of the Prix Jacques le Marois over 1600m) took off as a stallion, starting off in France before moving to America where he sired many stars including the aforementioned DANCING BRAVE, Pharly did not.

Pharly’s stud career started in France where he came up with LE NAIN JAUNE (a Group One winner of the Grand Prix de Paris in the days when that race was still run over 3000m) and ended in England, where he continued to consolidate his reputation as a sire of stayers, most notably courtesy of the numerous victories of his terrific son FURTHER FLIGHT, winner of five consecutive Jockey Club Cups (1991 to 1995 inclusive) as well as two Goodwood Cups and one Doncaster Cup. By a sire of stayers from a family largely of middle-of-the-road stayers and jumpers, Phardante was clearly (and sadly) never going to be of any interest to the majority of Flat breeders, even if there was one top-class French two-year-old filly (THEIA, Group One winner of the Criterium des Pouliches at Longchamp in 1975) in his immediate family.

Naturally, some of Phardante’s sons contested staying races on the Flat and he had some winners in that sphere, but more or less all of his offspring were bred for National Hunt racing. He came up with some very good jumpers, including Grade One-winning steeplechasers TRUCKERS TAVERN and HANAKHAM, dual Grade One-winning hurdler URUBANDE and Grade Two-winning steeplechaser THE TOISEACH. And now his daughters are breeding some very good jumpers indeed.

At the Punchestown Festival alone, Phardante was maternal grandsire of three Grade One winners: JEZKI and his half-brother JETSON, and GOD'S OWN. Jezki had previously won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March and the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse last December, while two other grandsons of Phardante (OSCAR WHISKY and DEFY LOGIC) have also won Grade One National Hunt races this season. In previous seasons, Grade One-winning grandsons of Phardante have included JESSIES DREAM, OSCAR DAN DAN, JERED, RULE SUPREME and SNOOPY LOOPY.

It might be significant that the majority of the Grade One winners produced by Pharly mares are by Sadlers’s Wells stallions; but, then again, that might just be a reminder that many of the best National Hunt sires in recent times are/were sons of SADLER'S WELLS.

Phardante proved to be merely one of many very good staying Flat horses in recent decades to have been completely ignored by the Flat breeding community, so it is nice to see his descendants making their mark in big races, even if solely over jumps. He would almost certainly have sired some good stayers on the Flat if given the chance to do so; but, then again, we shall, sadly, never know.

Beat slip anchor in the jockey club stakes

I was also there on a wet Tuesday in December 2012 when one of jonjos owned by jp made his debut in a weak looking maiden hurdle ,it drifted out to 20/1 but that didn’t stop him winning with chunks in hand 3 months later he beat Annie power in the stayers hurdle.

christ foxy I was there that day too - had been a few times prior but when there was real chance (now come to pass unfortunately) that the course would close I decided to go again, this was the second last meeting there but i couldn't get the time off for the last meeting - more of that was of course the horse and richie mclernon onboard which partly explains the price, doubt he's ridden many in the south since those days as number 2 to AP

i actually quite liked the place, decent viewing, bit like huntingdon or wincanton but definitely better jumps track than flat track, they used to win up the stands side on the flat even in non-sprint races when they came over (bit like goodwood on soft going) for 4-5 meetings in a row then for no apparent reason you couldn't win anywhere but up the far side rails!!

Blimey Gordon I thought I travelled a long way to Folkestone I did go to the last meeting as well I remember mike cattermole doing the commentary as they crossed the line he said I hope it’s not the last race we have here.

Last I heard that great big fish pond by the paddock was still been looked after.

Foxy - I did one of my 'special' trips, flew to gatwick, rental car, folkestone on tuesday, hereford on wednesday (also their second last meeting before closure but thankfully temporary), wincanton on thursday and sandown on friday where taquin de seuil won the winter hurdle for novices - always one of my fav days at sandown as used to go every year to that meeting in 90s with two old guys who i originally met at catford dogs and who also went each sunday to the casino in brighton all the way from south london - very happy memories, sure they're both long gone but lots of hours spent discussing form, experiences etc on the far side at catford dog track - remember following a very decent hurdler named roger who was good enough to win at wimbledon and walthamstow, i fear for greyhound racing if we don't get out of this lockdown sharpish as it was already struggling beforehand despite brilliant coverage on RPGTV

Many years ago was on holiday with another couple in Brighton when we thought we'd chance it and drive to Pulborough. Pulled up and asked if we could see Dancing Brave, couldn't believe it when we got a full tour of the stables. To cut a long story short we became very friendly through the horses and our love of greyhounds with the Head Lad and one of the nicest men you could ever wish to meet, Tom Townsend and his lovely wife and daughters. We ended up staying over some weekends and had the privilege of watching the likes of the Brave and Warning work, as well as going round feeding at night, can still recall the smell of molasses now. Tom had a bitch called Wonderful Julie who ran at Hove I seem to remember. Somehow managed to get taken to the gallops in Guy Harwoods Range Rover. So, so lucky to be there at that time. I bet it wouldn't happen nowadays.

lucky man, lester, id love and still hoping to go to coombelandsone day, missed out on warren place,

Whatever happened to Tony Clark? Very good 2nd jockey.

Remember having a right touch on Cataldi in the Lincoln.
Loved soft gnd.I think they were in 2 groups and he led
all the way on the far side,at about 12-1.
He carried top weight,but previus year he ran a cracker
in the Champion stakes finishing 6th.He was bang there
until running out of stamina.

I think one of the subscription tipsters in the weekender or handicap book put up cataldi because I remember a Scottish guy I knew having a right touch on him.

Lester - great story that mate

Agree. Speaks volumes about Mr Harwood.

(PS Did he manage to sell you the Range Rover?)

Yes superb story Lester & what a memory that must be.


My personal best ever memory was visiting the Richard Head yard and still exited to remember giving Border Incident his feed , if someone had told me my greatest sporting memory was feeding a racehorse before that day i'd have thought they were mad.

Was at Cheltenham the day Francome was unseated on him in the gold cup , felt ever worse after the post race interview when Francome said he'd have won by a minute , not remembered as much as he would have if injury hadn't plagued him but the day he beat Bunker Hill in the Haydock Chase final was a special performance ( for me anyway )

Great thread guys   

No, no car sale. Think he knew we were just ordinary folks, hence just a week in Brighton for holidays. Unfortunately just had crap cameras in those days, so just some grainy old photos as memories. Remember Dancing Brave not the prettiest horse in the world, but who cares

Border incident there’s a name from the past.

Lovely story lester and one that doesn’t surprise me to much ,I think with the right approach most trainers and stud farms would welcome those types of visits.

Isn`t nostalgia great for the soul in these depressing times, fond memories recalled and names remembered from years ago. Personal favourites were Ela mana mou, Kalaglow, Rousillon, To agori mou.
A particular horse i recall was an unraced 3YO which ran at Newcastle where i was a member for many years called Obertura really liked the look of her in the parade ring and MR Harwood all the way up from West Sussex? won very easily around the 3/1 mark and went on to win at Goodwood, i think, a long distance handicap if i recall correctly. Great times .

great story Lesterlad.  so lucky

Early 1980's. I canto remember the name of the horses, but I remember Guy Harward and Greville Starkey, and they were so good for my profit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUn1n4Vr5V0

To-Agori-Mou

Final leg of my acca. Remember Fairy Footsteps was part of but the other 2 have left me...

£1847.74p Gave me a cheque...

That bet you mention has got me curious so I've checked at the results over the three days...were the others Master Willie & Popsi's Joy?

I placed my bet Ante post with 2 lucky choices on the day i placed it... would have been just after the Craven... (ish)