Correct The Pies.
I found the place pretty soulless even in those days.

My first visit to a racecourse was when my mother and I took the 441 bus to Windsor for the New Year's Day Hurdle in 1976. We both fell in love with the magnificent Sea Pigeon in the paddock, and that was our bet of the day.

Jonjo was riding Sea Pigeon for GW Richards, and was tracking Fulke Walwyn's Dramatist when the latter fell in front of him. Comedy Of Errors went clear, but Jonjo drove Sea Pigeon up to take the lead as they passed us in the stands. Inevitably Sea Pigeon then threw it away just before the line, but I didn't realize in those days that you're supposed to avoid ungenuine creatures like that, and Sea Pigeon was the one I followed for the rest of his career.

Luckily the horse moved on the MH Easterby, or the next few years might not have turned out half as thrilling.

Trains and buses use to run on Boxing day as well, i remember going Kempton when Silver Buck beat Jack of Trumps on B day,
nowadays the lazy bar steward train drivers won't work, not that they do much anyway

sure francome stood out cause the rest around that time weren't very good, some will say bradley or scu or jonjo but no doubt the bar was raised in the 90s..up here we need an extra day holiday!! even as a kid, hogmanay was a much bigger thing for me than Christmas - loved all the first footing, staggering around invariably icy/snowy back roads terrified of falling and breaking the bottles in the co-op plastic bag, but knowing you'd get a warm welcome (even though well under age) a choice of broth, stovies or dumpling, and a wee dram or twa - happy days!! unfortunately in course of less than 2 generations those traditions have disappeared - such is change

I was talking about the colours on here the other day Mac ,1982 peacetime also trained by Jeremy tree also ran in the derby but obviously didn’t go on to be the great hurdler sea pigeon become.

It should be remembered that Sea Pigeon had astonking record in the race being runner up as an 8yo and 9yo then winning as a 10yo and 11yo.
I certainly can't remember another 10yo winning the race.

Hattons Grace won at 10 and 11 posy but the Pigeon was a different animal,hard to decide between him and Night Nurse as to my fav of all time in the CH.

Beat me to it glentoby.

Sorry foxy,the CH is one of the few races I really know any history about and the Pigeon/Hattons achievements were so unique it sticks in the memory.

When Night Nurse won in 77 it was my first bet in the race,I had £1 ew at sp whilst my mate had £500 (Our leave clerk whos dad was a bookie).We were on about £14 a week as soldiers.He was nearly crying as heavy as the rain that fell and resigned to NN losing,the 15/2 was manna from heaven and tha real catalyst for me getting into racing and punting.He had more on Sea Pigeon both times and my own bet had been upped to a score both times.

Happy days!!!

I was at Cheltenham the day Sea Pigeon won the Champion Hurdle under Francome, i was only and had just started managing one of Joes shops. 3 customers had said they were going so i asked if i could go with them to make up 4. They said no problem.
They were what you would call dodgy and picked me up at 8.0
On the way we stopped at a pub at about 11.0, 3 of us went in for a bottle beer and the driver stayed in the car, after a couple of bottles we set off again. The drivet said did we fancy another but we hadnt got a carry out but he opened the boot and there were 2 cratez in there, the dray had been delivering and he helped himself to the crates.
At the races i had a decent day having backed the Pigeon as i always did but one of the others won £800 and after racing we shot off tto Slough dogs where he lost the lot.
When we got back i stayed at one of the chaps house for the night and i was that worried that he might get my keys as they my shop key on them and go and rob the shop so i slept with the keys in my underpants, uncomfortable but nothing happened.
Still see one of the guys around the town occasionally and he was on Jeremy Kyle at one stage, not really a surprise.

It was certainly a magical era for hurdlers foxy.As for the Pigeon,you have to believe that he was bit of a rogue going by certain comments about JF "Smuggling" him into the race.I don't subscribe to that,he had a huge amount of guts and knew how to battle,to this day if push came to shove I would still be undecided between him and Night Nurse as my all time fav.

What I will say is that I am convinced Harchibald would have won had JF been on his back instead of Carberry regardless of what Carberry has said since,what do you reckon?

I well remember John Cherry,MM,my mate of the Night Nurse bet had him down as a Champion Hurdle winner of the future,never quite lived up to the ability he obviously possessed.

Royal Relief won the Nottingham Champion Chase in 1971. It was a new race first run in 1970 when the tearaway Even Keel won it at 4/9 from 2 others by 20 lengths and 'bad'. Even Keel had not long turned 8, but it was his 18th win over obstacles.

Even Keel was expected to follow up in the 1971 race, but Ken Oliver decided to re-route him, and with 2 other non-runners (including Titus Oates), it was reduced to a 3-runner affair, and a virtual match between Royal Relief and the high-class WA Stephenson hurdler, Celtic Gold. The latter never really took to fences though, and having fallen in his previous race, he came down 4 out just as he had joined the 12yo Muir for the lead (he was remounted for 3rd).

The race was lost to the weather in 1972, and won by Tingle Creek in '73 and '74. Both were 2-runner affairs. 1974 was a virtual walkover with SPs of 1/5 and 4/1, but 1973 should have been interesting as his rival was another high class front-runner in Clear Cut - they went off 8/13 and 6/4. Clear Cut had probably never had to go up against anything like the 7yo Tingle Creek though, and he came down at the 2nd fence, being remounted to come home for a share of the prize money.

It would seem the Nottingham exec felt obliged to make some changes to the race, it having attracted just 10 runners in 4 runnings, and in 1975, the race name was unchanged, but was confined to novices, and the distance upped to 2m 6f. It was won by GWR's high class novice Tamalin, ridden by Ron Barry, with his usual jockey JJ O'Neill (who'd won 10 races on him) off with a broken leg. GW did assure reporters afterwards that the horse was still "little John's ride". Tamalin went on to be 2nd in the Sun Alliance Chase at Cheltenham (re-arranged to April) to Pengrail, a horse who hadn't been in the original race that was meant to follow Ten Up's Gold Cup, but the ground was considered too bad to continue the card. Tamalin was 2nd fav for both instances, and in the original he would have had to have gone up against Brown Lad rather than Pengrail.

I remember Ten Up winning one of the Military races Ged,76 or 77 I think? Ridden by Captain Hodges who was stationed in the barracks opposite me at 47 Light Regt,RA.I was then at 657 Sqn Army Air Corps at McMunn Barracks,Colchester.Seemed the whole Garrison was on and the bookies took a real pasting.

John Cherry won the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in 1978 and 1979, then finished second to Derring Rose in 1980, after which he was retired. Those were far and away his best runs over hurdles. He never ran anywhere near his best round Cheltenham.

The Timeform comment on his novice season says that he was ante post third favourite for the Champion Hurdle before he had ever jumped a hurdle in public. He won his first two starts as a novice, but didn't go on after that and ended his first season rated 130 by Timeform.

Quiet Fling was a good horse of Whitney's,won the coronation cup under Lester.

It's a Kadastrofee.

morning foxy - it's interesting that pat never got the same amount of flak for el gran senor as paul on harchibald, both were similar sorts of ride, personally I always like my fancies to be kicked on at least 1f out on flat or before last hurdle/fence over jumps, if they don't stay or are too rogueish to get home then at least you'll find out

true but there are enough on here who remember those days - personally I was on Secreto so right outcome!! for a horse which the maestro Vincent O'Brien rated highly, his stud career was very disappointing..of course Greville's ride on Dancing Brave is one of the most painful to recall, but totally different scenario to the other two

Mr Frisk won at Nottingham on Feb 21 1987

Sabin Du Loir won at Wolves on Nov 24 1986