Birmingham Racecourse

I JUST remember Birmingham. Went at much the same time as Manchester,with Hurst Park a year or two before. Was looking like the end of all courses that were very suitable for residential development but luckily most have survived ( so far ).

Another course disappeared at around the same time, Rothbury a once a year meeting as I recall. Perhaps ged or onlooker can tell us more.

Sparrow,

Loads of info and pictures here:

http://www.greyhoundderby.com/Rothbury.htm

Thanks anorak although I have seen some of those photos before. I was wondering if any posters had actually been to the course despite there being only one meeting a year.

Is that - Lukehart/Cubone (Don Butler) in the background of the crowd - Betting on 'The Aways'.

1.01 He was there that day.

No drones in the picture .... just a load of droning brummies

It's probably been mentioned before but I believe Birmingham Racecourse had the longest bar in the world at the time.

Went there  early sixties a horse called Anzio ran there in it's prep race prior  to the Champion hurdle

I remember Anzio winning and trained by Fulke Walwyn.

A grey I think.

He was.

Thanks Salmon Spray. I wasn't sure of his colour.I don't recall Anzio running on the flat and F Walwyn having a flat runner either.Every day's a school day.

Fulke Walwyn trained flat horses for Dorothy Paget - he won a few big races including the Doncaster Cup and the Queen Alexandra at Royal Ascot

Thanks Blackbarn.Probably before my time of being interested in racing 1959/60.To jog my memory,do you know the names of the horses?

Tommy - the horse was Aldborough - won the Doncaster Cup in 1950, ridden by Doug Smith.

Fulke also won the Windsor Castle Stakes in 1959 with Monamolin (owned by his wife, Cath).

One of his last flat winners, if not his last, would have been the 2yo filly Mountain Rescue, who won at Epsom in August 1975, at 40-85, ridden by Geoff Lewis. She was owned by Fulke's sister-in-law, Mrs Parker-Bowles. Both her and Cath were daughters of Sir Humphrey de Trafford (he owned Parthia and Alcide, and Approval who was one of the first class horses that Henry Cecil trained. Sir Humph died in 1971, and Mrs P-B inherited his colours, and bought Mountain Rescue out of his estate).

The race following Mountain Resue's at Epsom that day was won by Buckle, trained by Bob Turnell.

The excellent jockeypedia website has a great photo of Anzio on his way to winning the 1962 Champion Hurdle.

https://sites.google.com/site/jockeypedia/robinson-g-w

I think Anzio's Birmingham appearance was the season before his Champion Hurdle win. He won Div 3 of the Graveley maiden hurdle at 4/7 by 10 lengths. (There were 24 runners; the other 2 divisions had 18 and 29 runners. The card also featured the Fred Withington Chase over 4 miles, and the Coventry Handicap Chase over 2. In all, there were 117 runners on the 6 race card).

...that was Feb 1961.

Ged.Thank you for your findings re Anzio and F.Walwyn. What I take from it is 1/ Anzio ran at Birmingham over jumps.2/ I still don't recall F.Walwyn having flat runners in my era. Not saying he didn't, just don't remember. I remember Parthia/Alcide and Approval and well remember Bob Turnell having flat runners. 1975 was Grundy etc and I cant remember.

Ged,

Timeform annuals from the late 70's and early 80's, show Fulke Walwyn having trained one flat winner in 1978 and the same in 1979. Short of ploughing through the whole book to find it, I've no idea if both were achieved by the same horse, or what it was called. So my info is just short of useless!

Anorak - thanks for that. I'll see if I can find those a bit later.

Regarding Bob Turnell,  I'm pretty sure I remember backing his jumper Flash Bulb to win on the flat in the 60s.

I have a feeling that's right. A lot of Turnell's horses were amongst my favourites as a youngster     

If your on the M6 between J5 & J6 below was the racecourse.
The housing estate (which I visit once a week) is called Bromford.
All the roads are named after race courses.
Across from Bromford estate is Castle Vale,where they built the Spitfires for the war.
The factories where demolished for a new housing estate.
M38 coming into Birmingham off the M6 was terrace housing.
Residents were moved to a new housing estate Castle Vale (Aston fans live there)
There is a tale,plenty of Spitfires are still under the estate. 

I went to last meeting with my Dad on midsummer's evening in June 1965. Poured down all night on a miserable evening.

The 1978 F Walwyn flat winner was a 3yo called Beggars Bridge, who won a 1M Stakes at Brighton on Aug 2nd. Had previously been trained in Ireland and went on to run over hurdles for Walwyn. Was rated 101 by TF in the 1978 flat annual.

Well done Anorak. Was that the horse that was once let into a handicap about a stone light due to a clerical error? It was either him, or one with a very similar name.

Pure chance - I have a 'Races of 1978' hard cover results annual produced by Furlong Press, and I was checking something else. I'd been to one of three days at Brighton that week with my Dad and my brother, which so far as I know, is still the only time my brother has ever set foot on a racecourse. I'm lunching with him tomorrow, so looked up the results to remind me which day it was, and there was the name F Walwyn!

No idea about the handicap error.

ged - Well remembered, that was him!!!  Trained by R Laing in the 79 and 80 season. At Ascot in 80, he was "very leniently treated owing to a handicapping error" when beating Shaftesbury by 3/4 length. Connections of the latter were probably quite cross

Thanks blackbarn. I've been trying to recall it. I could remember where I was when I was looking at the race in the paper (a Ladbrokes on Smithdown Road in Liverpool). I tried to find it on the web, but couldn't. I thought he'd either struggled to win it or just been beaten.

Anzio was useful on the flat. He was paper favourite for the Queens Vase at Royal Ascot in 1960, but went off 9/1 and was unplaced, ridden by Eddie Hide. He came into the race having won '3 good races in Ireland', and was trained in Ireland until Fulke Walwyn took him over to go hurdling later that year. He was owned by Sir Thomas Ainsworth, and I think perhaps also trained by him in Ireland.

Salmon Spray.At that time Bob Turnell trained a lot of my favourites also. The Laird-Buona Notte- Birds Nest- Secret Ballot-Pas Seul-Rondetto I remember.There was also another good hurdler that I can't recall, may have had a fish in it's name.