Welcome to Live View – Take the tour to learn more
Start Tour
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
66 years old.
last runner 23rd feb was a winner.
last runner 23rd feb was a winner.
Show More
Nice to go out with a winner, RIP Mark, Gold Cup winner.
hope it pours down everyday and they let mr vango have a crack
Mark Bradstock, who trained Coneygree to become the first novice to win the Gold Cup for over 40 years, has died aged 66 after a long illness.
Although Bradstock and his wife Sara rarely had more than a dozen cheaply bought or home-bred horses at Old Manor Stables in Letcombe Bassett, they punched well above their weight with chasers not only winning the Gold Cup in 2015, but also the 2011 Hennessy Gold Cup with Carruthers and the 2018 Bet365 Gold Cup with Step Back.
His last runner Mr Vango won the Devon National by 60 lengths last week and, if the going at Cheltenham remains soft or testing, the horse could take on the Irish in the National Hunt Chase the week after next.
Bradstock spent 10 years with the legendary Fulke Walwyn in Lambourn, initially as a stable lad before spending the last five seasons as his assistant. Diamond Edge and Special Cargo were the stable’s star chasers. Bradstock also rode 18 winners as an amateur including three for the Queen Mother.
His initial winner as a trainer was Deep Impression in November 1988 and in 1995 he chalked up his first Festival winner when King Harald won the Jewsons Novice Chase by four lengths. It was not without drama as the horse nearly unshipped Mattie Batchelor at the last and the jockey rode home with his feet out of the irons.
If there was one purchase, however, that proved to be the gift that kept on giving it was £3,000 the Bradstocks paid for the mare Plaid Maid to amuse Mark’s father-in-law, the late amateur jockey and retired Telegraph Sport racing correspondent Lord Oaksey.
Bradstock was enormous fun with a great sense of humour. He had that one shot at racing history and he absolutely nailed it. Not many people can say that and with Mr Vango in the yard, Sara and his daughter Lily, a successful point–to-point rider – his son Alfie is an international showjumper – will carry on in the knowledge they are continuing his legacy.
Although Bradstock and his wife Sara rarely had more than a dozen cheaply bought or home-bred horses at Old Manor Stables in Letcombe Bassett, they punched well above their weight with chasers not only winning the Gold Cup in 2015, but also the 2011 Hennessy Gold Cup with Carruthers and the 2018 Bet365 Gold Cup with Step Back.
His last runner Mr Vango won the Devon National by 60 lengths last week and, if the going at Cheltenham remains soft or testing, the horse could take on the Irish in the National Hunt Chase the week after next.
Bradstock spent 10 years with the legendary Fulke Walwyn in Lambourn, initially as a stable lad before spending the last five seasons as his assistant. Diamond Edge and Special Cargo were the stable’s star chasers. Bradstock also rode 18 winners as an amateur including three for the Queen Mother.
His initial winner as a trainer was Deep Impression in November 1988 and in 1995 he chalked up his first Festival winner when King Harald won the Jewsons Novice Chase by four lengths. It was not without drama as the horse nearly unshipped Mattie Batchelor at the last and the jockey rode home with his feet out of the irons.
If there was one purchase, however, that proved to be the gift that kept on giving it was £3,000 the Bradstocks paid for the mare Plaid Maid to amuse Mark’s father-in-law, the late amateur jockey and retired Telegraph Sport racing correspondent Lord Oaksey.
Bradstock was enormous fun with a great sense of humour. He had that one shot at racing history and he absolutely nailed it. Not many people can say that and with Mr Vango in the yard, Sara and his daughter Lily, a successful point–to-point rider – his son Alfie is an international showjumper – will carry on in the knowledge they are continuing his legacy.
carruthers hennessy & coneygree gold cup 2 iconic races in the history of the sport
RIP
RIP
His old boss Fulke Welwyn ran a horse called Gaffer in the 1979 Gold Cup on his third start - not making his debut over fences until January at Kempton, then winning the Compton at Newbury in style, being backed down to favourite in some Ante- Post books afterwards. Disappointed on the day but finished lame. Think Bradstock may have just started at the yard then or arrived at the shortly afterwards but likely never steered away from the Walwyn methods when taking out a licence. A brave call to run Coneygree - if it happened even just a few years on and went wrong it would not be surprising if the authorities banned novices from the race, such are the nervy reactionary times we are in. They’ve already spoilt the National Hunt Chase and no doubt more snipping here and there will follow in other events, whether it be field sizes, fences, distances, eligibility status ect
Two of us in the Annual Members had backed King Harald on the trends (Plumpton cant have been a negative ) we disgraced ourselves after the last , fond memory .
Very sad news, rest in peace Mark.
Remember in the 90's he ran an old favourite Montagnard at Newton Abbot off bottom weight with a 7lb claimer called Robert Thornton on board, it was a couple of weeks before Christmas and Mark was quietly confident he had him back to his best and that he would pay the Christmas expenses if he consented to do his best.
Half way point and it didn't look great as RT was having to scrub him along, thankfully RT kept at it though and Montagnard finally decided it was going to be a best foot forward day, took it up from two out, was a little risky for my heart at the last, but strode home for a comfortable victory at very rewarding odds and Christmas was handsomely paid for.
Thanks for all the memories Mark, the good far outweighed the sad.
Remember in the 90's he ran an old favourite Montagnard at Newton Abbot off bottom weight with a 7lb claimer called Robert Thornton on board, it was a couple of weeks before Christmas and Mark was quietly confident he had him back to his best and that he would pay the Christmas expenses if he consented to do his best.
Half way point and it didn't look great as RT was having to scrub him along, thankfully RT kept at it though and Montagnard finally decided it was going to be a best foot forward day, took it up from two out, was a little risky for my heart at the last, but strode home for a comfortable victory at very rewarding odds and Christmas was handsomely paid for.
Thanks for all the memories Mark, the good far outweighed the sad.
Mr Vango could be anything. The horse dwarfed his rivals in the paddock at Exeter before the Devon National. He looks like another Coneygree. Simply galloped his rivals into the ground from the front. Awe-inspiring if you were there and saw just how far clear the horse was.
It's not much of a consolation in the greater scheme of things, but I'm pleased that it happened before Bradstock's death. He would have known that his family have got something to really look forward to.
It's not much of a consolation in the greater scheme of things, but I'm pleased that it happened before Bradstock's death. He would have known that his family have got something to really look forward to.
re Montagnard - didn't he benefit from going wide that day? I think there was a marked bias that day on the soft ground. They don't seem to do it now. I guess screaming would know why/why not.
Purely a guess, but Montagnard's race was in the run-up to Christmas, and they don't race at that time of year at Newton any more. When they get heavy ground there now in July (and they do), it's from a combination of watering and heavy summer showers, rather than persistent autumn and winter rainfall. For whatever reason, that strip of better ground to the outside as they approach the home straight 2 out on the hurdles course no longer seems to be relevant, as you say.
The trouble is that I'm completely deaf now, so I don't get to hear people discussing these things. But it's Wincanton tomorrow, and D & E on Friday. There'll be a few punters there - Alan the Beard, Gad, Plymouth Steve - who would know more than I do. I'll ask them.
Your comment brought back all sorts of memories though. I can picture Fremantle at Newton thirty years ago, arms waving, ranting about some clueless rider who had stuck to the inner 2 out. And Dodger and Adge and Argeband looking on in amusement.
The trouble is that I'm completely deaf now, so I don't get to hear people discussing these things. But it's Wincanton tomorrow, and D & E on Friday. There'll be a few punters there - Alan the Beard, Gad, Plymouth Steve - who would know more than I do. I'll ask them.
Your comment brought back all sorts of memories though. I can picture Fremantle at Newton thirty years ago, arms waving, ranting about some clueless rider who had stuck to the inner 2 out. And Dodger and Adge and Argeband looking on in amusement.
I backed Montagnard that day - I can't think why now, looking at his form - (maybe I saw him line up on the outside, with the hot new kid riding him). My memory is of him going wide all the way, and following a pattern that had been established earlier on the card.
...looking at the race comments, 2 went wide, and they finished 25 clear in a field of 15.
Montagnard had been a very good second at Newbury under a 5 lb claimer 24 months earlier. And look at the jockeys who had ridden the horse in the interim: G Bradley, S McNeill, M Richards, P Holley and Bradley again. One or two of those names would be enough to excuse a bad run (not all of them - just one or two). But here the horse was now, 27 lb lower, in an amateurs' race, with a 7 lb claimer who had somehow got a Robin Dickin horse to rally and get up on the line at Cheltenham a couple of months earlier.
https://www.racingpost.com/results/11/cheltenham/1995-10-25/65683
No wonder the antennae were twitching that afternoon at Newton!
https://www.racingpost.com/results/11/cheltenham/1995-10-25/65683
No wonder the antennae were twitching that afternoon at Newton!
I spoke to Alan at Wincanton, and he pointed out the obvious reason they no longer come wide into the straight at Newton Abbot: the hurdles in the straight are now positioned next to the chase course on the inside.
Thanks for that.
That day when Montagnard won did seem to be a one-off. I did a scan of all Nov/Dec meetings from 1994 thru 2004 (when they last raced in those months) - there were 30, of which 22 were run on Soft or Heavy, and all had either 3 or 4 hurdles races. Of those 22 meetings, apart from Montagnard's day, only 2 horses 'raced wide'. One (at the corresponding meeting a year earlier) was beaten a neck at 10/1 after veering left on the run-in (rider = G Bradley - interpretations available); the other, in 1996, never featured (10/1) and fell 2 out. On Montagnard's day, they pretty much swept the board - the pattern started by a Pipe/Bridgewater odds-on in the first, followed by another Bridgewater effort, followed by Montagnard.
Of course I don't know when the hurdles were moved, but 1994 had 3 meetings in Nov/Dec, all on Heavy, and only that one horse (the Bradley veerer) raced wide.
There have been a few since that have tried it, without spectacular success, though a couple of notable winners went solo - Rodi Greene on Bubbs in August 2009 (14/1), and Willie T-D on Mad Moose in August 2011 (14/1). They were lone efforts, but there were also a couple of 1-2s - Hill Forts Timmy and Top Trees in June 2007, and Wilde Ruby and R Craig in June 2012. Both the latter 2 races were the last hurdle races on the card and no-one had tried earlier, but Bubbs and Mad Moose were the first on their cards, and no-one elected to follow in their footsteps in later hurdle races, though the Moose could have had plenty else going for him.
'Raced wide' can of course mean different things at different times. I'm fairly sure Montagnard went wide all the way, and the comment for Bubbs says he was wide throughout, but the RP analysis for Wilde Ruby says 'her jockey was keen to bring her wide up the straight', so presumably she didn't go wide throughout.
That day when Montagnard won did seem to be a one-off. I did a scan of all Nov/Dec meetings from 1994 thru 2004 (when they last raced in those months) - there were 30, of which 22 were run on Soft or Heavy, and all had either 3 or 4 hurdles races. Of those 22 meetings, apart from Montagnard's day, only 2 horses 'raced wide'. One (at the corresponding meeting a year earlier) was beaten a neck at 10/1 after veering left on the run-in (rider = G Bradley - interpretations available); the other, in 1996, never featured (10/1) and fell 2 out. On Montagnard's day, they pretty much swept the board - the pattern started by a Pipe/Bridgewater odds-on in the first, followed by another Bridgewater effort, followed by Montagnard.
Of course I don't know when the hurdles were moved, but 1994 had 3 meetings in Nov/Dec, all on Heavy, and only that one horse (the Bradley veerer) raced wide.
There have been a few since that have tried it, without spectacular success, though a couple of notable winners went solo - Rodi Greene on Bubbs in August 2009 (14/1), and Willie T-D on Mad Moose in August 2011 (14/1). They were lone efforts, but there were also a couple of 1-2s - Hill Forts Timmy and Top Trees in June 2007, and Wilde Ruby and R Craig in June 2012. Both the latter 2 races were the last hurdle races on the card and no-one had tried earlier, but Bubbs and Mad Moose were the first on their cards, and no-one elected to follow in their footsteps in later hurdle races, though the Moose could have had plenty else going for him.
'Raced wide' can of course mean different things at different times. I'm fairly sure Montagnard went wide all the way, and the comment for Bubbs says he was wide throughout, but the RP analysis for Wilde Ruby says 'her jockey was keen to bring her wide up the straight', so presumably she didn't go wide throughout.
As you say, it's hard to tell from the Form Book comments, not least because back in the 1990s the Newton close-ups were done my Mary Truman. Truman was a lovely lady, I'm sure - she used to present Mick Connaughton of the Life with a box of duck eggs when he made the journey down to Newton - but her close-ups were sketchy, to say the least. I remember Dodger spotting someone consulting a copy of the loose-leaf Chaseform Notebook one afternoon, and telling the punter not to carry it around with him.
"If you have an accident and they find that on you, they'll commit you to a mental home. It's all written by a blind woman in Devon."
The key thing at Newton was to come wide 2 out, but that level of detail was beyond most racereaders in those days (for a long time no one even got to see replays).
"If you have an accident and they find that on you, they'll commit you to a mental home. It's all written by a blind woman in Devon."
The key thing at Newton was to come wide 2 out, but that level of detail was beyond most racereaders in those days (for a long time no one even got to see replays).
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Mr Vango could win the NH Chase?
The rain is doing its best to help him...
The rain is doing its best to help him...
hope i am not jinxing it but backed mr vango a few days ago ew 3 places at 25/1 nrnb ,hadnt even looked at the race tbh but screamingabovethewaves selected it for the comp i am running on here and it got me looking at the race and finding i agreed with most of what he was saying ,absolutly routed em last time and with the rain we are having he should relish it today and a few of the others might not .
Yep , plenty of 40s here too , couldnt have been more impressed at Exeter , obviously may not have the class , but fingers xd .(and for the Mr double ).
Oh brilliant. Not only has the rain ruined the SP for Foyles' marvellous competition, but now it turns out I took under the odds too.
think paulo might have got the 40s on here either that or he got on earlier than most when the books were much bigger on vango !
Well done, paolo. Taking advantage of Denise's good nature. Unfortunately I took too much advantage of it in years gone by.
I feel better about the 25s now.
I feel better about the 25s now.
Yes , Wouldn’t it be a fitting tribute if he could win today.
I only met him the once at KB pt to pt but he was very happy to stop and have a chat about coneygree.
I only met him the once at KB pt to pt but he was very happy to stop and have a chat about coneygree.
well done screaming and paulo
Post Your Reply
Please login to post a reply.
Wonder
Instance ID: 13539