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Trainers who disappeared
Trainers who disappeared
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She ran eleven times in the US according to Equibase, winning four of them, including a Grade 2 at Belmont and a Grade 3 at Pimlico. In all she earned just over $200,000 in prize money. Her final run was at Saratoga in August 1985, the only time she finished out of the money over there.
She ran in the name of Augustin Stable, and was trained by Johnathon Sheppard. |
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The Anorak, that would be around the time he retired, so quite likely that's what he was down as on racecard, its all about 25-30 years ago I was involved, so memory less than perfect, other than that everyone called him John.
Yes, David Richard Tucker was the one. Vaguely remember he was in Churchstanton, but it qualified as a Cullompton address. |
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The address for DR Tucker in the Directory is Haydon Farm, Blackborough, Cullompton.
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I think Mick Channon's first job in racing was as pupil assistant with "John" Baker ... seem to remember them winning The Chester Cup, in 1981 with Star Player, landed a mammoth gamble. Mick said John was the best teacher he could have had.
Les Montague-Hall was head lad at John Sutcliffe's in the 70's & 80's (The Glory Years). Remember Ravi Tikoo horse Tender Heart winning the Royal Hunt Cup in 1980, landing one of the largest ante-post gambles seen at the Royal meeting. Les later set up on his own in Epsom, also rented Chalk Pit stables, was a renowned master horseman. He had a very bad fall in his yard and laterly had few runners, more of a livery yard, handed in his licence in 2012. Mogok Ruby won a few for him. Brooke Sanders trained at The Chalk Pit stables for a while, Double Dutch & Calapaez were her best horses, she handed in her licence in 2006 after 20 years. All the Epson yards given a write up: http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/RacehorseTrainersAtEpsomA-Z.pdf     |
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typo ...*Epsom ...
Arthur Pitt was a smartly turned out trainer from the Epsom "glory years" era ... known to everyone as "Ces" ... he was the first trainer for prolific owner Alan D. Spence back in the late 60's / 70's... best horse was dual purpose "Freight Forwarder" who won a hatful of races. Alan had his burgeoning freight business at Chessington in those days, before expanding into travel ... I had the same accountant as Alan (Ewart Cockcroft at Henry T Smith., South Lambeth Road, Stockwell, later moved to Surbiton) and took particular interest in his runners ... nice to see him becoming so successful in his business and ownership. |
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Haven't read the whole thread but Ken Payne "king of the Sellers" was a one-off.
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Kim Brassey didn't train for very long.
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Jackie Retter...who Mick Fitzgerald rode many winners for, early in his career .
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The address for DR Tucker in the Directory is Haydon Farm, Blackborough, Cullompton.
It was Haydon Farm, so that's definitely the one |
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If it's the same man, it looks like DRT is still going as a breeder, with A Momentofmadness being perhaps his best, and a half-sister yearling selling for £100k last year.
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I think Jackie Retter may still have a licence.
At the end of the 80s/start of the 90s she was improving horses out of all recognition. Mzima Spring was my favourite - she got the mare from Gerald Cottrell, and turned her into a brilliant, bold-jumping front-running chaser, running up win after win under Brendan Powell on good ground. In the mare's final start she actually led Desert Orchid until the home straight at Wincanton, before fading into third. One of my favourites later on was Faux Pavillon - a chestnut with a big white face. He won first time out at D & E under Mick Fitzgerald - £1,500 to £120, thank you Ivor Perry - then followed up as a short-priced favourite. Then there was The Blue Boy, who had been claimed after winning for John Dunlop, and which she sent out to win seven consecutive 3yo hurdles under Peter Scudamore. About the only horse she had which had ability but failed to win a race was a mare called Allyfair, which kept getting placed under Mick Fitzgerald. Allyfair was a grey, like her sire, Scallywag. And, like most Scallywags, lived up to the sire's name. I suggested to her that the mare needed blinkers, only to be told very forthrightly that none of her horses needed blinkers, thank you. That was the last time we ever spoke.  One of Charlie Appleby's early jobs in racing was in Mrs Retter's yard. Before joining Mrs Retter, Fitzgerald rode quite a few winners for Ray Callow, principally Duncan Idaho. Callow definitely knew what he was doing, but, like so many trainers, got beaten by the economics of the game in the end. I think he went to work for Ron Hodges. And before that, Fitzgerald rode winners for Somerset trainer Gerald Ham (who was also a pig farmer, inevitably). Ham was yet another trainer who defintely knew the time of day. But the big gamblers latched onto his yard, and in the end, despite the number of winners he sent out, it looked like every loser had run badly, simply because they got sent off at such stupidly short prices. And before that, guess who trained Fitzgerald's first couple of winners in this country (Lover's Secret and Corston Springs)? None other than that man of mystery DR (Richard) Tucker! (Incidentally, Churchstanton is up in the Blackdowns, near Cullompton, but just on the Somerset side of the border, with Cullompton being in Devon.) |
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Screaming going back to an earlier point regarding John Hill and Ron Hodges, I don't think there was any hoodwinking going on, Ron ended up with most of Johns horses for one season due to John getting a 12 month suspension of his license. The D R Tucker connection may have come about due to the fact before he trained his own horses John had the flat horses trained by Toby Balding and his jumpers trained by Jack Cann father of Grant Cann
at Cullompton at may well be the yard Tucker took over. |
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C.J Hill now in his 80s and a Chicken Farmer.
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Shalimah - Thank you so much for that. After twenty-seven years it all gets cleared up.
Also, I just looked up Deccan Prince on the Racing Post site, and it turns out that the registered owner during the 18 months the horse was off the track was Tony Newcombe. Of course, in those pre-internet days there was no way of knowing that. If it had been public knowledge, then the whole world would have realized CJ Hill was involved, and it never would have been available at 14s. Incidentally, Deccan Psince's jockey that night was Brian Clifford, who of course went on to ride for Tony Newcombe when the latter took out a licence in his own name. Well, at least he rode for him until winning on Casual Water at a Stratford evening meeting at an SP of 16/1. After that he never rode for Newcombe again. |
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To be fair, its well over 30 years since I had a horse (Lift High) with Mr Tucker, so its hardly surprising that with time, and the recent seizures I suffered (which has done my brain no favours), that my memory of the location of the stable is somewhat faded. The jockey I remember riding for the stable is Simon McNeill.
In truth, I remember even less about the Baker horses I was involved in now. One was called Perforate, the other I cannot remember the name, and I suspect that short of looking at a list of horses in the stable in the mid to late 80's, I'm not going to, and no guarantees even then. It was great fun, but the limits of getting around by public transport, combined with work, and starting to cohabit with someone brought the fun days to an end |
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Brian 'Barney' Clifford, seen here on his greatest day, winning the Midlands National on Glenbrook D'Or for Jim Wilson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS-jAz0WCeg Plenty of nostalgia to be had from the list of names at the start of that film. |
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(To stephaniebot)
What am I now that I was then? May memory restore again and again The smallest color of the smallest day: Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn. |
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Dandy nichols
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Stephanie,
Perforate ran in the colours of a Mrs Merrilyn Rowe and the other two horses she had with John Baker at that time were called Sandro and Ziegfeld. Perforate won two novice hurdles in August 1993 at Exeter and Worcester, ridden in both by Luke Harvey. |
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I think Perforate was with R J Baker, rather than his father, J H (John) Baker, who previously held the licence. Though I may well have misremembered/misunderstood all this.
One horse of John Baker's I won't forget is a hurdler called Midnight Strike. Willie McFarland used to ride it as a conditional jockey, holding it up miles off the pace at D&E in the early autumn, before unleashing a devastating turn of foot. I remember it shooting about half a furlong clear one day at D&E, in a good race, which prompted me to waste £50 backing it at 50/1 for the Champion Hurdle. It ran once (well beaten) in the next three years. |
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Yes, quite possible. Syndicate horses back then tended to run in the colours of 1 owner. Lift High was listed as owned by Malcolm Endicott, but there were 4 us as equal owners. I did meet 2 of the other 3 owners (he was one of them), but never met the final one in my time as owner.
Perforate was the last horse I had any share in, the previous horse was prior to him. Never saw either run in person, that I remember. I remember McFarland riding for Baker, though. Allow that I used to go racing a bit more back then on weekdays when not working, thanks to a veteran bookie named Tony (Conky) Woods, so I did tend to see trainer from time to time that way, mainly Taunton, and Wincanton. Equally, asking me now as to who held the licence at the time, no idea now. screaming from beneaththewaves 08 May 19 10:04 (To stephaniebot) What am I now that I was then? May memory restore again and again The smallest color of the smallest day: Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn. Yes, unfortunately time isn't kind to us, grand mal seizures even less so, and I've been through both. Just trying to keep the brain as active as possible now, and threads like this definitely help, even if I cant remember all my personal details |
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Excellent thread.... some great stories of the West Country circuit.
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yes a very interesting thread going back so so far ,,, i wish you well stephaniebot and glad yr enjoying the stuff on the forum ;;;
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A relatively recent one Alan McAbe, thinks wife did a piece in the most for a while.
Oldies- D Plant -Kingfisher Blue. Nigel Angus-Roman Warrior Geoff Toft--Gunner B Jack Hardy. V Mitchell -trained at Carburton i think, where Jeremy Glover ended up. John Bingham--Sage Merlin. list is probably endless. |
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A relatively recent one Alan McAbe, thinks wife did a piece in the most for a while.
runs pre training yard outside HQ currently |