Although I mostly follow NH racing I agree with some of the other posts in that the nature of Frankel's 2000gns win was quite incredible. I can't ever remember seeing a horse run at sprint pace in 1 mile Classic race and still win it with such authority.

Danedream winning the 2011 Arc - probably the most confident ive ever been on a flat horse and was screaming about the filly for 2 weeks leading up to the race - was that confident i was saying that she would leave them for dead and win by 5+  lengths.

Was still 48/1 just before the off for decent money - great day ! and im still searching for another .

I was lucky enough to be in NY for the 1990 Breeders Cup, and had what was for me, a lumpy bet on Dayjur. In real time I didn't notice him jump the shadow, just knew one second he had the race won and as they went past the post he was second! Gutted.

            Also saw Dessies Gold Cup that was fantastic, and have to give Frankel a mention even though I never saw him live, he was breathtaking.

Red Rum, third National (as a 14yo glued to TV) and Dancing Brave 2nd in Derby, walked back from epsom to relatives in chessington where i was staying in a state of shock, convinced i'd seen one of the greats and it made the KG and Arc even more special.

DAWN RUN 1986 Gold Cup......had £500 at 5/2......happy days!!
Thought she was beat......but what a performance to get up!! Heart rate was off the scale that day!!

When Queally pressed the button in Frankel's Queen Anne romp, that moment of acceleration was something else.

frankels queen anne win, best i have ever seen

Live ... Cheltenham ... Bobsline and Noddy's Ride

NH on TV ...  Neblin winning the Tote Gold Trophy beating Mrs Muck
Flat on TV ... Any of Royal Match's handicap wins 1976 trainer by R Jarvis ridden by Taffy Thomas

A huge crowd booing when the Ryan Price trained Hill House easily won the Schweppes Hurdle at Newbury in 1967.

Went to my first Cheltenham Festival this year and the noise when Sprinter Sacre came up that hill is something I'll never forget.

SELDOM has a race been so closely identified with one trainer as the Totesport Trophy was with Ryan Price in its early years.

This was not merely because Price won four of the first five runnings of the Schweppes (its original title) but also because two of his winners, Rosyth and Hill House, were highly controversial. The five times champion jumps trainer was banned for four months after Rosyth's victory in 1964.

The inaugural Schweppes Gold Trophy, more valuable than the Champion Hurdle, was run at Aintree's Grand National meeting in 1963. In a huge field of 41 (no safety limits in those days) the winner was Rosyth (10st), a novice trained by Price and ridden by Josh Gifford.

The following year the race was transferred to Newbury in mid-February and was again won by Rosyth, though on this occasion amid a storm of controversy.

Rosyth had failed to win in five races over hurdles since his victory in the previous year's Schweppes, finishing unplaced in four of them, yet this time, carrying 10st 2lb and again ridden by Gifford, he scored by two lengths. His closest pursuers were Salmon Spray, Sempervivum and Magic Court, three horses of championship calibre, while Price's first-string, the favourite Catapult, was unplaced.

Rosyth's dramatic improvement caused the Newbury stewards to refer the case to the stewards of the National Hunt Committee (which was then separate from the Jockey Club) at an inquiry in London five days later.

At the time, racing justice was crude by modern standards and Price had no legal representation. He explained that Rosyth kept on breaking blood vessels and therefore could not be trained properly early in the season, and that, as an entire horse, he did not blossom until the spring anyway.

The stewards rejected this defence; they suspended Gifford until the end of March and took away Price's licence for the rest of the season, which ended in mid-June. In effect, it was a four-month ban with no guarantee that his licence would be restored the following season, though in the end it was.

His horses therefore had to be dispersed from his stables at Findon in Sussex to other trainers. Some of them never returned, including Anglo, who won the Grand National for his former stable jockey, Fred Winter, in 1966.

Probably the only offence that Price had committed was to be too good at his job. He was a great trainer but the authorities found Rosyth's win too much to swallow. He observed bitterly: "It is a crime to improve a horse and a far bigger crime to win too many races."

In the 1965 Schweppes, Price's two runners were unplaced as Elan, trained by John Sutcliffe, prevailed from none other than Rosyth, who was now with Tom Masson and yet again proved himself a spring horse. And in 1966 Price scored a six-length triumph with popular fancy Le Vermontois.

But the trainer's runaway victory with Hill House in 1967 caused him more grief.

Hill House had finished only fourth in a Sandown handicap a week before the Schweppes, but in the big race Gifford sent him to the front two out and, carrying 10st 10lb, he came right away to score by 12 lengths from Celtic Gold. Price's second-string, Burlington, was unplaced.

THE ease of Hill House's victory was so insulting that boos from spectators started before he jumped the final flight, and continued around the winner's enclosure. As with Rosyth, the local stewards considered the winner's improvement to be abnormal, and reported Price and Gifford to the NH Committee.

Another ban for Price seemed inevitable, especially when Hill House's post-race sample tested positive for the steroid cortisol.

But the gelding was sent to the Equine Research Station in Newmarket, where analysis showed that he had a naturally high level of cortisol in his body and therefore had not needed to have dope administered to him in order to test positive. In effect, he was a horse who doped himself.

For six months the Hill House saga was a constant source of news and speculation in the press, and anxiety for Price, but eventually, at an inquiry in August, the case against him was dismissed.

The following year Price and Gifford nearly made it five wins in six runnings of the Schweppes when Major Rose (11st 8lb) was beaten only by the great Persian War (11st 13lb).

Price handed over his string of jumpers to Gifford in 1970 and thereafter trained mainly on the Flat, though he did have Moonlight Bay, third in the Schweppes as a juvenile in 1973. He died in 1986 on his 74th birthday.

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."

Meyer - I have read that report (many times!!) and others. I can only speak from memory, and I remember boos for Rosyth but not for Hill House.  I was young though, but there.  Wish my Uncle Jack was alive; he'd remember.

ProSniper
     08 Jun 16 17:33 

The ludicrous hype every time Frankel slaughtered a mickey mouse filed. 


Nathaniel, Dream Ahead, Excelebration, Canford Cliffs, Immortal Verse, Farhh, St Nicholas Abbey, Twice Over, Cirrus Des Aigles.

Those Mickey Mouse types you mean.

Booing, when top cees won Chester cup.Not a clue at the time what it was for

Old Vic winning the 89 French Derby for Cecil and Cauthen, a much underrated horse

for personal financial reasons Pennekamp winning the Guineas from Celtic Swing. A very exciting race (for me)

saxon farm    08 Jun 16 20:17 
Can anyone let me know where and when Gay George was tragically killed please?

Windsor

Just read other posts on the Hill House affair so apologies for repeating it so soon

saxon farm    08 Jun 16 20:17 
Can anyone let me know where and when Gay George was tragically killed please?

Windsor

Thanks Andrew, but could you give me the date?

it was 1982 when bill smith rode him to win the scottish champion hurdle hopefully that might help  anybody with form books from that season.

reversing placings from york life lucky one of the forgotten great fillies.