The Thinker 1987 Gold Cup

Any of the Lads on here go to that Meeting , there must have been a lot of card playing on the Non racing days

I was there and there was 3 days racing

See you then won the champions hurdle on the Tuesday

Cathcart run around 640 on the day pretty sure half free won it,your right about wayward lad nanny

Ronnie was there sure the trainer of the thinker was at Hexham.
Hope you are all well.
Ronnie.

Hello Ronnie your spot on Arthur was at Hexham didn’t fancy all the hassle of going to Cheltenham

Jimnast. Arthur  had a winner at the festival  Timmies Battle  glad to say I had a good few quid on the horse was owned by 2 regular  punters of the northern racetracks your pal will tell you who they were.
Ronnie.

It was a great 3 days, if not I must have taken a hallucinogenic and imagined standing on the scaffolding stand behind the Tote building when a bunch of idiots climbed on the roof and fell through!! If it happened today the meeting would probably be abandoned.

Well remembered calglieri not only would it have been abandoned the 88 festival would have been in doubt.

Remember it well.  Snowed like hell, start delayed for about an hour.  Quite a tonic it was.

Neblin won the county hurdle after landing a touch at Newbury in the old Schweppes hurdle.

I stopped in Rheindahlen to pick up a car on the way home, collected it from the Officers Mess car park, half an hour later an IRA bomb exploded a few yards from where it had been parked so a week forever imprinted in my memory jimnast.

They messed around with the county hurdle in the early 80s the likes of path of peace and staplestown won it as the last race then the likes of neblin won it earlier on the final day when the Cathcart finished the festival then in 88 cashew king won it when the last race then it switched a few times now it’s ran early on the Friday,it should be the last race of the meeting.

Good grief Cagliari I’m not surprised it’s imprinted on your memory

I must have misunderstood what they said in the Comments Regarding the days ,Thought me Memory was gone TBH

Ridleys Car plunged into the Harbour at Seahouses , they were probably in the Olde  Ship before , Wtf were they  driving to the Harbour 

Alan Merrigan also Died

Same sort of thing happened at Leith Docks in ‘85 I think it was.  Five died, drowned, after driving off road and into the wate late at night.  It was a terrible tragedy so talking about it now might be painful to some readers, so apologies in advance.  The story did the rounds that they’d all been drinking locally, spotted the police following them, took a detour through the docks to try and shake them off, and got it tragically wrong.  Very dark of course, easy to lose your bearings.
As you say no reason whatsoever to drive harbour-ways from The Ship.  People do unexplainable things when under stress, get confused, follow one mistake with another not knowing the inherent dangers. 
R.I.P. to them all.

The old nanny.
Steve Charlton  was also in the car .Spoke to him in the shop only a couple of weeks ago.
Have a good day off to a funeral today of a pal of mine we each had a keg in one with MDodds nearly 30 years ago.

We backed forgive and forget in the hotel the previous night at 15/8. Thought wed5had a right touch till it started snowing

Year Pearlyman won the 1ST of his 2 Chmpn Chs's, both years he beat the same 2
horses,Very Promising (2ND & 3RD) & Dessert Orchid (3RD & 2ND).

One of the very best 2 mile chasers often forgotten when we talk about the great 2 milers.

Re the Thinker, I had 250 antepost at 25s for the national......Was gutted when he won the Gold Cup in that delayed gold cup.

Great days though....

Memorable horse jimnast.  Carried top weights to hard fought big wins is my memory of him.

Pearlyman won off top weight at Aintree, his best performance ever....I love an aftertime,  I had lots on at 3s...

If you steal a moment to watch the race again on YT, the mistake W.A Stephenson charge makes at 3rd last is testament to a diff era altogether, the jarring loss of momentum stops the horse to such a degree you wonder how he manages to get up the hill in such game fashion as it never appears Ridley Lamb is being hard on him.
The fence done it's jawb perfectly but so did the horse and jockey.

The Thinker finished 3rd in the 89 GN ridden by S.Sherwood ,another race worth a swatch, under top weight runs a remarkable race coming from what looks like 25l back at 4 out to appear from out of the grass going to the second last where another story of tougher fences play thar hand,for years the obstacle has been no more than a pile of hedge trimmings but The Thinker makes a bad error and nose keeps show on track,  prob more mistake than fence stiffness but all in all a fair run off top weight and not sure how many GC winners could do that now.

Memory can play tricks but W.A Stephenson was a fair old Trainer.

He was as far I am concerned but rarely got the plaudits he deserved from a grudging Press/Media.

Just watched it breadnbutter.  Many thanks.  Fabulous run as you say, overlooked by history.  West Tip well there too after his ‘86 win.  Jimmy Frost winning in his first National.
An astonishing piece of the commentary which would cause outrage in some quarters today when Julian Wilson said “as they approach Becher’s for the second time they’re being forced to move out to the right to avoid a dead horse”.
Also, a real co-incidence when, after the race, O’Sullivan mentions Beech Road winning earlier in the day, also for Toby Balding, a great story about which we read elsewhere on the forum.

WA must have been a decent trainer, it took Martin Pipe to overtake his record for number of winners. Old school northern trainer, he was happy to watch The Thinker win the Gold Cup from Hexham.

Loyal

You mention beech road well I can say without doubt the most remarkable sp of my lifetime that day he had won the champion hurdle less than a month earlier and was returned 10/1 at Aintree.

Went the 3 days and agree with the sentiments over Pearlyman. Beat two class acts who ran to form over the  C&D, and a scenario far more comfortable to digest than wide margin winners throwing up doubts about how far off their game those behind were.

Jimnast, re your post 2 up...
I had backed Beech Road at 50s in the Champion Hurdle after seeing him win at either Plumpton or Fontwell in the February
I couldn't let him go off at 10s just 3 weeks later
And Little Polvier had also previously won a Scottish National, from memory
To complete a great GN day for Toby Balding, and me, a certain Morley Street won the last on the card, a Novice hurdle... He turned out OK as well!

Good morning reg

It was fontwell where beech road won before his champion hurdle win it was the national spirit hurdle a race batacouda would use prior to running in the stayers hurdle,50/1 was a big price in a pretty open race.

Morley street

He was some horse his champion hurdle there were 24 runners a joint biggest field for the race