There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
These 181 comments are related to the topic:
jumps racing at Nottingham, Windsor and Wolverhampton
jumps racing at Nottingham, Windsor and Wolverhampton
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 181
|
By:
Oh well I will have another try at some stage ribero ,but yes I did agree.
|
|
By:
I think I only made the one trip to Wolverhampton to see the much vaunted Danny Harrold makes his hurdling debut. He was very disappointing and I remember Mrs P giving the official a rollicking for calling horses away before the owners had arrived to see the horse.
Many decent jumpers won at these tracks. Here are a few from the late 60's/early 70's. Alu Alu Bighorn Black Baize Bula Canasta Lad Celtic Cone Chapmans Peak Clear Cut Clever Scot Coral Diver Dondieu Easby Abbey Frozen Dawn Indianapolis Into View Invincible Maid Of Lorien Mocharabuice Phaestus Summerville Tantalum Young Ash Leaf |
|
By:
I remember the first time I walked into the new, all-weather track at Wolverhampton. I was crossing a road through a housing estate, and thought, that's the exact spot where John Manners' Pearly White fell when challenging at the last in a selling hurdle in 1993. Fifty-to-one she'd been that day.
 Never did win a race either.The old NH course used to have a Baluchi bar, named after Bill Preece's handicap chaser, who seemed to win an extraordinary number of races across the Midlands at the end of the 1980s. It was a bit of a rough-and-ready building, like a lot of the old course was, but disappeared along with the rest of it when the Muddles took over and paved the lot over. |
|
By:
Windsor jumps? that's a track that should be shut down even for flat racing
 |
|
By:
Stan Mellor won the Christmas Spirit Novices Chase on the grey Ouzo by 5 lengths in December 1971 to win his 1000 race , 6-4 favourite beating Ponty Pierre and Northern Territory.
It took a week go from win number 999 at Cheltenham. I have two great pictures of it. |
|
By:
It happened on a Saturday - December 18th
ITV showed the race as they made a fuss about Stan's 1000th winner. It was the first race on the card - and Ouzo won at 4/5 FAV - having also Won on it's previous outing. Stan had 4 other rides at the meeting - Winning on his next ride, Clear Water, with two 3rd places from the other rides. The other meeting on ITV was Ascot - The SGB Chase meeting - Won by Spanish Steps - W 'Bill' Smith - at 4/1 FAV, from Charles Dickens and Royal Toss - 12 ran. 'Bill' Smith also won the previous Long Walk Hurdle on St Patrick's Blue, 7/2 FAV, from Fleet Fox, ridden by Hurdles ONLY jockey Jimmy Uttley. The opening race - The Moonshine Novices' Chase- was Won by - Pendil, 8/11 FAV - ridden by Richard Pitman. Pendil had easily Won on his Chase debut 8 days earlier at Cheltenham |
|
By:
Good knowledge there onlooker.
|
|
By:
I think First Bout made its debut at Wolverhampton but could be wrong
|
|
By:
Zeta's Lad won the windsor 3m chase a couple of times I think - he was pretty useful on those trappy tracks and won the Racing Post chase at Kempton in the days when it was one of the best staying hcp chases of the season
|
|
By:
GH - First Bout won at Plumpton first time up, then followed up at Newbury 4 days later. No Fred Winter then, so his Plumpton win (by 6) wouldn't have been good enough to put in him in the Triumph, so he went again at Newbury and won by 20. Pentland Hills also made his hurdles debut at Plumpton in the corresponding week, though it was a different-looking race - First Bout won a division of a 4yo novice hurdle open to winners, whereas Pentland won a 4yo+ maiden hurdle that had only one other 4yo amongst 12 runners.
|
|
By:
I use to like standing in the middle at windsor, you could go from one fence, and walk over to the 2nd last. they use to have loads of runners as well, in the early 80s
i was standing in the middle with a mate, it was a 22 runner novice chase, there was carnage, loose horses everywhere, we were running around trying to dodge them, i remember Graeme Thorner and Roger Rowell both saying, ''grab that one'', i thought ,fook that!, you grab it...  |
|
By:
There's been mention of so many great horses in this thread that stir memories from years back. Who would have thought it on a thread covering racing at these three tracks !
|
|
By:
never made it to jumps at windsor (or indeed nottingham & wolverhampton which is one reason i started the thread, probably had chances to go but didn't which I regret now of course) but at Fontwell you can still cross the course and see multiple jumps.
I used to like backing jumpers at windsor as reg akehurst was one of my fav trainers and he seemed to have a good record there, similarly graham mccourt as a jockey, had a right good bet on him on motivator when at one at the festival and he used to win regularly for john webber and john spearing |
|
By:
I think Wolverhampton had the highest rate of fallers at one stage, so i use to back horses that got round safely, i remember backing Space Project ridden by Ron Hyett that won there and another horse called cartoon time, which had lots of duck eggs but never fell, it won at 25/1 , he just Jumped well and plodded round, i think it was a boxing day, and i heard the results on LBC, THEY USE TO GIVE A FULL ROUND UP OF THE DAYS RESULTS EARLY EVENING, EVEN ON BOXING DAY, WHERE THERE WERE ABOUT 12 MEETINGS...
LEFT CAPS ON, but can't be arsed to type it all again... |
|
By:
somehow i never believed results on the radio - they just seemed too weird!! although I remember backing strigida as a kid with the incomparable Lester up when she won at Royal Ascot (which year??) and listening intently to the racing results that night...ceefax with it's betting shows and results was just much more instant and therefore believable for me at least
|
|
By:
I am tempted to say ... 'I have heard it all now' ...
"I never believed results on the radio"  |
|
By:
its like pre-internet days when you went abroad on holiday or business where there were no UK newspapers, come back ask your mates or catch up on the papers - who won and you found it is was something you would never have bet in 100 years - that's what happened with me and Nortons Coin amongst many others, living in US in 89-91 and listening to the world service early in the morning, where they very occasionally had racing commentaries and the big race results
|
|
By:
LBC use to have sports updates every 30 mins past the hour, with the latest racing results, an Irish guy called Colin Turner was there racing journo.
|
|
By:
I remember Chatham winning a champion hurdle trial I think at Notts, a good race anyway if it wasn't a CH trial.
|
|
By:
Windsor should have been the first track to stage NH racing after the break in the middle of WW2. NH racing had ceased in the UK in March 1942, and was planned to resume at 4 courses - Cheltenham and Windsor in the south, Wetherby and Catterick in the north (and then only on Saturdays and public holidays), with the first 2 meetings planned for Boxing Day at Windsor (8 races starting at noon) and Wetherby. As it turned out, the weather got in the way, and both meetings were abandoned. NH racing eventually resumed at Cheltenham on Jan 6, 1945.
Windsor also saw the eventual return to UK racing of the 1942 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Medoc II (who was also an unlucky 2nd in the Grand Annual the same year, and all told won 4 races at the March meetings, including the juvenile chase). He was banned from racing in the UK in 44/45 because he had been to Ireland in the interim, and finally returned to UK racing at Windsor in Nov 1945, but he was PU, and never raced again. |
|
By:
Was at Nottingham one cold winter day and a 5 runner novice chase features Katabatic who i think returned 15/8..beating a pipe horse Wingspan 10/11 fav out of sight...Peter Shilton owned Wingspan and was haggling with the rails bookies to lay him evens...i saw him get even 400 and even 500...Katabatic was different gravy though.
|
|
By:
Just checked back on results and Katabatic returned 11/10..i must have got 15/8 on course as i remember Wingspan opened 4/7..
|
|
By:
And 7 ran..
|
|
By:
was that the arkle trial? sounds like it if the mighty katabatic was there...in OP I asked if these races had moved on to other courses - I think the fairlawne (ex Windsor may be now at Ascot or Newbury) and I think the City Trial hurdle went to Haydock?? what about the big wolverhampton jumps races?
|
|
By:
Johnny Lights rarely ventured out of the SE, but he did drive to Exeter one day, to back Katabatic in the Haldon Gold Cup. He took the M4 , and managed to get stopped for speeding in his Beamer. The story goes that he was asked whether he knew what speed he was going, and his reply of "it's hard to tell when you're driving a car like this, officer" didn't go down well.
Anyway, he finally made it to Haldon Hill, just in time to bet £15,000 to £8,000 ON Katabatic, with Luke Harvey up. It came second. Lights had some good days over the years, but that wasn't one of them. He tended to stick more to Plumpton after that. |
|
By:
leg lock could stop trains
|
|
By:
Wolverhampton used to have rugby/football pitches on the infield. Played rugby there against a school called Municipal I think ,they were from Wolverhampton. Remember got changed at the school and then got back on the coach to go to the racecourse.
Used to go to the Boxing day meeting with my dad, we always went in the silver ring cos it was near where they jumped the last fence, not sure but was there a seperate run in ? bit like cheltenham, think that was why we went into the silver ring. My only memories was it was always bloody freezing. Thinking about it it was cold and windy when I played rugby there as well.The course was a big galloping one I think, flat and left handed. This was 35 years ago! Still few years later I moved to London and my dad used to come down for kempton, that was much better, the Desert Orchid era |
|
By:
Screaming he enjoyed venturing up to Perth and the gleneagles .
|
|
By:
Wolverhampton weds 13 nov 1985 going good to firm 6 races, runners 9-2-1-2-4-1 yes 2 walkovers
|
|
By:
The great Pearlyman won at 3-1 fav a 2m novice chase by 20 lengths 12 ran on boxing day 1985
|
|
By:
Then won at Cheltenham Festival 1986 good to soft on the Tuesday, the impossible to win for a novice the grand annual hcap chase over 2 miles 19 ran, whats more remarkable the weight carried 11st 5lb sp 14-1.
|
|
By:
Grand Annual used to be a race where a class horse could win under a big weight. My Young Man won under 11.10. Graham Bradley had an exceptional record on such horses.
|
|
By:
Screaming: I think I backed Katabatic that day - was he second to Waterloo Boy and there were 3 runners? An expensive lesson for a young man at 1/2.
|
|
By:
I used to watch the jumps regularly at Nottingham when I was at university - a fair test with well positioned fences. I think Country Member and Strath Royal won there. I was also in attendance when Coulton got turned over at odds-on in a limited handicap hurdle where he looked totally asleep in the paddock, yet I was still stubborn enough to back him. I think there was also an almost-white hunter chaser who won as a 16yo and dropped dead right after the winning post (although possibly Southwell) - he refused to die until he'd won.
|
|
By:
O Sherwood runners at Nottingham in Hcaps were quite noteworthy, i remember c cox claiming 5lbs riding Drowsy into a place at decent odds...he's a better trainer than he was a jockey...
|
|
By:
Pearlyman was also declared to run the year before (1984) on the Boxing Day card at Wolverhampton, in a handicap hurdle, but was a NR. Racegoers that day would however have seen Run And Skip defy 12 st 1 lb to beat Mrs P's Smith's Man in the 3m chase,winning his 4th race on the bounce, and in the following race, the Harry Brown Challenge Cup, seen The Tsarevich triumph under top weight. The Harry Brown was the 4th most valuable race of the day's 8 cards, exceeded only by the KG and Christmas Hurdle at Kempton, and the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby.
Viking Flagship made his hurdles debut at Wolverhampton, and his chase debut at Nottingham. He fell in both. In between times, he ran in 15 hurdles races, falling once, also at Nottingham. |
|
By:
jeez ged that boxing day card 1984 wolverhampton would be second only to KG now! wetherby, wincanton and the others have all sadly deteriorated over time - sure they'll get decent crowds weather permitting but at the expense (every pun intended) of good class handicaps or conditions races although trainers have played a major part in their downfall due to unwillingness to take each others 'best' horses on
|
|
By:
serious omissions above are Noddys Ryde winning the Nottinghamshire Novices Chase 1984 I think?
Royal Relief winning several times at Wolverhampton in the 1970s, both over hurdles and fences. The Yellow Pages Hurdle springs to mind. Zongalero winning at Wolverhampton. I can remember him winning on the old chase course which got changed in the 80s I seem to remember. Possibly to do with the housing development projects. |
|
By:
It's 30+ years since I last went to Wolves and I've got it in my mind that after the winning post they used to ease down to finish below a railway viaduct, am I right?
|
|
By:
Memory working well loper it was 84 then 2 nd to bobsline in the arkle,then sadly killed at Exeter.
|