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wtf -she stopped -had the race won
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I remember a Henry Cecil trained nag called Faustus, might have been Stavros Niarchos sprinter type.
Another Greek owner I remember was Athos Christodulu, he owned that nag that was lasered at Ascot and larer on won what is now the Judmontte under Tony Clark at a big price.
I'm going off on a tangent here Do Forgive Me
I'm going off on a tangent here Do Forgive Me
I think Cauthen got a rollicking from Sir Cecil for not getting to the course on time to ride Faustas. There was fog and the jockey's copter (Cauthen was hitching a ride) could not take off. Sir Cecil said "he should have driven".
It was the Thursday of Royal Ascot, June 16, 1988, Gold Cup day. Racegoers were debating the controversial disqualification of Royal Gait, the Gold Cup's easy winner, and some were looking forward to the traditional sing-song around the bandstand that takes place after each day’s final race.
Royal Gait's loss had been Sadeem's gain, for Guy Harwood’s five-year-old, ridden by Greville Starkey, had been promoted from second place to first. The duo had a fine chance of doubling up in the closing King George V Handicap, for which their Ile De Chypre was 4-1 second favourite.
There were 18 runners for the mile-and-a-half contest but as the leader entered the final furlong there could be only one winner. Ile De Chypre was three lengths clear and going to win comfortably.
Suddenly, though, Starkey's mount veered left, towards the stands' rail. Starkey was unseated, leaving Thethingaboutitis, trained by Geoff Lewis and ridden by Tony Culhane, to take the prize.
Ile De Chypre was said to be "not straightforward", but he was straightforward enough to finish second when carrying top weight in that year's Cambridgeshire and in 1989 to finish second in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom before winning the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York.
Ile De Chypre's inexplicable behaviour was one more case of a horse snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Ten years earlier, at Newbury, Jellaby was about to win the Lockinge Stakes when he put a foot in a hole and unseated Brian Taylor. In 1986, at what was then known as Devon & Exeter, Amantiss got to within two feet of the winning post and victory when jinking and sending a distraught Tony Charlton to the turf.
So the Ile De Chypre incident might simply have been added to the list of bizarre defeats if it had not been for James Laming's appearance at Southwark Crown Court in October 1989.
Laming, a 49-year-old car dealer from Peckham, was there to be tried for allegedly conspiring with others to supply cocaine and for possessing half a kilo of the drug, worth £100,000. Escaping conviction and prison was going to be tricky because Laming had been found in possession of bank notes containing traces of cocaine and was obliged to admit an association with the conspiracy's Mr Big – Rene Black, a Peruvian drug baron who, unfortunately for Laming, had turned Queen's evidence.
Black and his brother Rudi produced drugs on an industrial scale at a rural factory in Surrey and had a distribution warehouse near Heathrow airport. Already awash with houses and expensive cars, they were planning to distribute drugs worth £15.5 million before the Drug Squad arrested Rene and made what was then the largest ever seizure of cocaine.
Rudi, fortuitously or presciently, was in the US at the time but Rene was being held in Lewes prison. He decided to play his only card and spill the proverbial beans. With a £1 million price on their prize witness's head, the police went to extraordinary lengths to prevent him being murdered. Black was flown by helicopter from Lewes to Redhill, where he was installed in an armed van and escorted to Southwark with a helicopter hovering overhead.
For Laming, a desperate situation demanded a desperate gamble or, as his defence counsel, Jonathan Goldberg QC, put it, "one of the most remarkable [defences] ever presented in Crown Court".
Laming admitted involvement with Black but maintained that he was not involved in drug dealing but in a new initiative based, Goldberg told the jury, on Laming's development of "a technically brilliant ultrasonic gun". It was a conspiracy, not to distribute cocaine but "to undermine the entire system of racecourse betting and bookmaking in this country by the use of [this] device".
Black, attracted by the potential for influencing race results, successful betting and money laundering, allegedly gave Laming £10,000 to fund the device's development. It was comfortably enough, as Laming stated that "all the information on ultrasonics came from Encyclopedia Britannica".
The King George V Handicap was used as a trial run for the device, cleverly concealed in a pair of large binoculars.
"It looks like an ordinary pair of black racing binoculars," Goldberg explained, showing the binoculars to the jury, "but take off the lens caps and you see what looks like the backside of a jet engine." The lenses had been removed and two high-powered transducers inserted.
Goldberg told the court that the 'stun gun' emitted a high-frequency sound, undetectable to humans but terrifying to animals. The effect on a passing racehorse would, Laming's counsel submitted, be "equivalent in human terms to a hideous, ear-piercing shriek".
As Ile De Chypre galloped towards victory, Laming's brother Robert, standing by the running rail, pulled the trigger with the effect, according to Laming, that Ile De Chypre would "feel like he has got a hornet or wasp in his ear".
Robert was not available to testify, having, as James put it, "legged it". In his absence, James changed his mind about where, exactly, Robert had been standing. This became necessary, first, because it was pointed out that the spot he initially indicated was too far away from Ile De Chypre for the device to have had an effect and, second, because co-defendant Martin Cox testified that both James and Robert had been standing together, in a different spot.
Laming also struggled to explain how, exactly, bets would be placed in a way that ensured a profit.
Proceedings took a turn for the better for the defence on November 6, when Greville Starkey gave evidence about the results of tests with the 'stun gun' carried out at his stud farm that weekend.
The device was directed at three ponies and horses, described by Starkey as "bombproof". It had no effect on Dandino, his daughter Helen's pony, but had a major effect on a Welsh cob called High Flier and a hunter called Minstrel.
With Starkey on board, High Flier "suddenly took off at 100mph" with Starkey trying in vain to stop it. "It was taking me all my strength," he said, "and I was still out of control." When Minstrel went past the 'sonic gun', he also took off.
Sound expert Brandon McHale, in attendance, testified: "We were quite sure we were having an effect on the horses and it was quite alarming."
The jury may or may not have been persuaded of the efficacy of the beaming binoculars but they were satisfied that Laming was part of the conspiracy to supply cocaine and of possessing half a kilo of it. On December 21, all appeals having failed, Laming was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The case of the 'nobbling sonic gun' passed into history but cases of horses casting victory aside persisted. In a hurdle race at Exeter on October 21, 2014, Go West Young Man jumped the final hurdle in front and approached the winning line with the race won only to suddenly veer from the far rail to the stands' rail, very much like Ile De Chypre, and lose all chance.
Unlike Ile De Chypre, Go West Young Man did not go on to glory but only to confirm his waywardness – for which he didn’t need encouragement from beaming binoculars.
from racing post (members), of which i am one...
Royal Gait's loss had been Sadeem's gain, for Guy Harwood’s five-year-old, ridden by Greville Starkey, had been promoted from second place to first. The duo had a fine chance of doubling up in the closing King George V Handicap, for which their Ile De Chypre was 4-1 second favourite.
There were 18 runners for the mile-and-a-half contest but as the leader entered the final furlong there could be only one winner. Ile De Chypre was three lengths clear and going to win comfortably.
Suddenly, though, Starkey's mount veered left, towards the stands' rail. Starkey was unseated, leaving Thethingaboutitis, trained by Geoff Lewis and ridden by Tony Culhane, to take the prize.
Ile De Chypre was said to be "not straightforward", but he was straightforward enough to finish second when carrying top weight in that year's Cambridgeshire and in 1989 to finish second in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom before winning the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York.
Ile De Chypre's inexplicable behaviour was one more case of a horse snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Ten years earlier, at Newbury, Jellaby was about to win the Lockinge Stakes when he put a foot in a hole and unseated Brian Taylor. In 1986, at what was then known as Devon & Exeter, Amantiss got to within two feet of the winning post and victory when jinking and sending a distraught Tony Charlton to the turf.
So the Ile De Chypre incident might simply have been added to the list of bizarre defeats if it had not been for James Laming's appearance at Southwark Crown Court in October 1989.
Laming, a 49-year-old car dealer from Peckham, was there to be tried for allegedly conspiring with others to supply cocaine and for possessing half a kilo of the drug, worth £100,000. Escaping conviction and prison was going to be tricky because Laming had been found in possession of bank notes containing traces of cocaine and was obliged to admit an association with the conspiracy's Mr Big – Rene Black, a Peruvian drug baron who, unfortunately for Laming, had turned Queen's evidence.
Black and his brother Rudi produced drugs on an industrial scale at a rural factory in Surrey and had a distribution warehouse near Heathrow airport. Already awash with houses and expensive cars, they were planning to distribute drugs worth £15.5 million before the Drug Squad arrested Rene and made what was then the largest ever seizure of cocaine.
Rudi, fortuitously or presciently, was in the US at the time but Rene was being held in Lewes prison. He decided to play his only card and spill the proverbial beans. With a £1 million price on their prize witness's head, the police went to extraordinary lengths to prevent him being murdered. Black was flown by helicopter from Lewes to Redhill, where he was installed in an armed van and escorted to Southwark with a helicopter hovering overhead.
For Laming, a desperate situation demanded a desperate gamble or, as his defence counsel, Jonathan Goldberg QC, put it, "one of the most remarkable [defences] ever presented in Crown Court".
Laming admitted involvement with Black but maintained that he was not involved in drug dealing but in a new initiative based, Goldberg told the jury, on Laming's development of "a technically brilliant ultrasonic gun". It was a conspiracy, not to distribute cocaine but "to undermine the entire system of racecourse betting and bookmaking in this country by the use of [this] device".
Black, attracted by the potential for influencing race results, successful betting and money laundering, allegedly gave Laming £10,000 to fund the device's development. It was comfortably enough, as Laming stated that "all the information on ultrasonics came from Encyclopedia Britannica".
The King George V Handicap was used as a trial run for the device, cleverly concealed in a pair of large binoculars.
"It looks like an ordinary pair of black racing binoculars," Goldberg explained, showing the binoculars to the jury, "but take off the lens caps and you see what looks like the backside of a jet engine." The lenses had been removed and two high-powered transducers inserted.
Goldberg told the court that the 'stun gun' emitted a high-frequency sound, undetectable to humans but terrifying to animals. The effect on a passing racehorse would, Laming's counsel submitted, be "equivalent in human terms to a hideous, ear-piercing shriek".
As Ile De Chypre galloped towards victory, Laming's brother Robert, standing by the running rail, pulled the trigger with the effect, according to Laming, that Ile De Chypre would "feel like he has got a hornet or wasp in his ear".
Robert was not available to testify, having, as James put it, "legged it". In his absence, James changed his mind about where, exactly, Robert had been standing. This became necessary, first, because it was pointed out that the spot he initially indicated was too far away from Ile De Chypre for the device to have had an effect and, second, because co-defendant Martin Cox testified that both James and Robert had been standing together, in a different spot.
Laming also struggled to explain how, exactly, bets would be placed in a way that ensured a profit.
Proceedings took a turn for the better for the defence on November 6, when Greville Starkey gave evidence about the results of tests with the 'stun gun' carried out at his stud farm that weekend.
The device was directed at three ponies and horses, described by Starkey as "bombproof". It had no effect on Dandino, his daughter Helen's pony, but had a major effect on a Welsh cob called High Flier and a hunter called Minstrel.
With Starkey on board, High Flier "suddenly took off at 100mph" with Starkey trying in vain to stop it. "It was taking me all my strength," he said, "and I was still out of control." When Minstrel went past the 'sonic gun', he also took off.
Sound expert Brandon McHale, in attendance, testified: "We were quite sure we were having an effect on the horses and it was quite alarming."
The jury may or may not have been persuaded of the efficacy of the beaming binoculars but they were satisfied that Laming was part of the conspiracy to supply cocaine and of possessing half a kilo of it. On December 21, all appeals having failed, Laming was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The case of the 'nobbling sonic gun' passed into history but cases of horses casting victory aside persisted. In a hurdle race at Exeter on October 21, 2014, Go West Young Man jumped the final hurdle in front and approached the winning line with the race won only to suddenly veer from the far rail to the stands' rail, very much like Ile De Chypre, and lose all chance.
Unlike Ile De Chypre, Go West Young Man did not go on to glory but only to confirm his waywardness – for which he didn’t need encouragement from beaming binoculars.
from racing post (members), of which i am one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2I0AVvFM5Y
not much of a vid but you can the hoss veer left and plant starkey into the mud.
not much of a vid but you can the hoss veer left and plant starkey into the mud.
why would a stun gun only work on the leader?
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