LOST KINGDOMS

The curious claim on Karl Burke's website that Chris Thornton continued to produce high class winners from the famous Spigot Lodge,is made probably out of respect as opposed to accuracy.

As assistant to Sam Hall,Thornton would have been part of the team when Dakota ran a close fourth in the 1976 King George V1 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.Then,at the helm himself,he would have briefly dreamed of success at the very top through his 1981 Derby hope,Shotgun.

What cannot be denied,is that a property that is part of the sport's heritage has been somewhat put back on the map in the past couple of years with successes at the highest level,including a Prix Morny last month.In a sport that is losing ground on its contemporaries,the facility to join the present with the long ago past is one of the few assets it has to cling on to.These links need to be maintained and should be celebrated.

Unfortunately,many of our famous establishments have gone for good and cannot be salvaged.Castle Stables,on the Arundel Estate,where John Dunlop pillaged many of the top prizes in the sport,is the most recent,high profile case.It's disquieting that this is allowed to happen.

Others fortunately remain active, even if they just appear to exist to make up the numbers,long removed from the old days.Two other West Sussex bases fall into this category. Findon, under the care of Nick Gifford, and the neutered,Coombelands Stables,run now by two separate licence holders.

Coombelands Stables in Pulborough may not flow off the tongue like a Beckhampton ,a Seven Barrows or a Manton. It cannot boast of having a long lived history,but will never be forgotten for being a powerbase for a prolonged spell beginning in the late 1970's.

How times change.The facilities are now shared by Amanda Perrett, and John Dunlop's former assistant, the Frenchman David Menuisier. Let's face it, it's never a promising sign when this sort of thing happens.More of a way of saying, 'right, those times have finished for good, we will just have to make hay as best as we can'. 

Amanda Perrett was never going to emulate much of what her father Guy Harwood achieved.It started well enough though.After a few progressive years the turn of the millennium saw her guide Indian Lodge to two Group One success's.Not long after,she had in her care what was arguably the horse she is most associated with,Tillerman. He won three Group races,none of which were at the highest level, but he was popular with racing fans.

It's been quiet for a while now.Two Group Three winners from 2007 onwards,a rare big handicap success in the Royal Hunt Cup this year,but permanently out of the limelight for most of the time.

Perrett continues to receive support from Khalid Abdullah,and her present string includes seven of his juveniles.If it can be described as token support it's not bad by such standards,but what hits home is that there is a generation of racing fans in their thirties who will not link Coombelands Stables to success in the world of horse racing.

The trainer's husband, Mark Perrett,acts as her assistant.He's been there since the days he rode the few jumpers that his wife oversaw in the late eighties.Still, back in the yard's heyday, there existed one of the most revered trainer's assistants who had also been a journeyman rider.

Mention the name Geoff Lawson,and to many the first image that comes into the mind's eye is that of the Australian fast bowler from the 1980's. But there was also a well known Geoff Lawson in UK racing.He was the brother of Harwood's wife,and many attributed the success at Coombelands Stables to Lawson,as much they did to Harwood.

You could have called him the Peter Taylor of racing.If anyone needs reminding how low profile racing has become, they should note that the celebrated football figure has a Wikipedia entry longer than most of the racing legends.What some would have called racing's most influential assistant does not receive a single acknowledgement, not even on Guy Harwood's page which consists of a single,long paragraph.

Harwood started training from the yard in 1966. Lawson joined up in 1973.Three American style barns, three all weather gallops and a turf gallop were developed. Coombelands Racing Ltd had both Harwood and Lawson as directors. Harwood was a car dealer, at the Bentley end of the scale as opposed to the welded together pieces of junk type.It all fitted nicely into the narrative that Lawson was the main driving force behind the success.

There were other notable members of racing's A Team. Head Lad Tom Townsend, rough edged but astute stable jockey Greville Starkey, and not to forget the bloodstock agent, James Delahooke. Known as the man who picked out Dancing Brave,Delahooke was also responsible for some snips at the lower end of the market. Of the 1981 three year old team, he acquired To-Agori-Mou, Kalaglow and Recitation for a combined amount of under £50,000.

Top class performer after top class performer appeared on the racetracks with regularity.So when the success eventually started to flag, they all whispered that it had all been down to Geoff Lawson, despite the assistant remaining in place.

Records show the last winner for Guy Harwood at the very highest level, was Polish Patriot in the 1991 July Cup.He trained fifty five winners that year,but it was far off the heady days of a few years earlier for consolidated quality.The following five years were the last five that Harwood held a licence for,and his yearly totals never passed thirty,his final two years yielding nine and eighteen winners.

Lawson continued his association with the yard after Harwood senior retired. His health however deteriorated and he was eventually dismissed, reportedly suffering from alcoholism.Lawson died in 2001 at the age of just 56.

It was a sad finale to a long association.The well being of the sport requires a wide geographical spread of power.That it's all in too few spots than ever before is not an encouraging sign.

PRETEND PERSONALITIES AND A PRETEND AUDIENCE

Nine months have now passed since the new look team were assembled to cover horse racing on terrestrial television.After a start that promised there would be improvement on the recent past, it quickly went astray on the wrong path, and by Royal Ascot time was already looking an untidy mess.There has been no steadying of the ship since.

Yesterday, among other things,we had a moment with Matt Chapman acting very silly in cheer leading part of the crowd beneath him.Whether Chapman's script sheet has Brough Scott's paws on, is something only known by those behind the scenes,but the,'tut tut, oh Matt', from the rest of the team has remnants of the,'Oh Big Mac, you can't take him anywhere',attitude from the olden days.

They are creating Chapman as the new McCririck. It's clearly a case of, 'this is the character you will play, here is your script'.I've no idea what Chapman is like in real life.He was once a jockey's agent and a Racing Post staff writer,then got the break into television,an arena he is comfortable in. However,I would be confident that the person in real life is far distanced from the character he is playing.

There is footage on You Tube of McCririck speaking in the days when he was a greyhound and hare coursing correspondent for the Sporting Life.He spoke with an authentic, plummy accent, consistent with his education and upbringing.He hails from Jersey.

He was then given a character makeover,where he was portrayed as a working class citizen who supported Newcastle United.He would consistently refer to himself as being 'common'.He would jest with John Oaksey,comparing their different stations in life.He also claimed to be against the use of the whip in racing,and tried vainly to fashion a niche for himself in this area,something that was surprising and hard to take seriously given his support for hare coursing.

Strangely enough,McCririck did have a CV that included experience working in the betting ring,so his knowledge and suitability for the role was better than most.Nevertheless, it does not explain why they needed to invent a character for him to play.

Brough Scott has an advisory role on the program and his own appearances are happening more regularly.I would not be surprised if he was behind the addition of Tony McCoy to the team.No doubt on the basis that McCoy is one of the very few recognisable names in the sport.To many, Dettori and McCoy are the only names and faces they are familiar with,so Scott doubtless hopes to make more use of both of them.

The issue with the likes of Mick Fitzgerald and McCoy appearing on flat racing days,is that you don't have to be on the inside to recognise that the jump jockey community in general have little interest in flat racing and rightly feel threatened by its expansion into the Winter season.

Remember that interview with Josh Gifford a good few years back,when in his typical,emotive style, he expressed disbelief that he had heard rumours that the the bookmaking firms wanted to embrace the All Weather at the expense of National Hunt racing,as an All Weather contest takes far less time to be run,and frees more of it to allow them to peddle all the other dreadful stuff.

McCoy seems pretty deadpan with no annoyance factor.He would be fine on a jump race program, but trying to pretend he is a lover of the flat game is not going to stick.The only reason we need the likes of him and Mick Fitgerald,would be to benefit us with the nuances of steeplechasing and hurdle racing that only they will know about.

As an example,we are all guilty of making statements about such and such jockey is good at 'presenting' a horse at his fences.We often say this about jockeys that sit quiet and look stylish at their obstacles - John Francome and Graham Bradley for example.They looked good at 'presenting' horses to their fences.The forums regularly have posters claiming that Richard Johnson cannot 'present' a horse at its fences.We make such observations in blase tones without working out if we know what we are talking about, and whether, if it is true,is it that important seeing how successful someone like Johnson is.

As for whether racing fans have a right to criticise what we see as inept rides - yes, we certainly do in the same sense that a football follower can comment on a missed goal scoring opportunity due to incompetence.

At the end of the day not many of us would pass a screen test for television work.I once decided I would like to record all my comments about all the different red wines,then broadcast them on You Tube.This type of thing is popular now.If you are thinking of trying, for example,the Aldi Taurus Cider,or Asda own brand Merlot,you go on You Tube, type in and find some character consuming and giving frank assessments.  

So away I went, picked up a bottle,read out from the label,opened it and poured a glass out.I then commented on the aroma, then took a sip.After, I sat back and assessed my performance.It was absolutely shocking.Strange expressions, a daft 'pretend to be a connoisseur' tone and language,and embarrassing mannerisms such as a weird sniffing noise when 'sampling the aroma'.

If anyone believes working in front of a camera is easy,they could be advised firstly try themselves out on a You Tube video first, as the odds are they'll come a cropper at the first hurdle.

Nevertheless, passing a screen test but having no enthusiasm or limited knowledge for the subject matter is also a recipe for disaster.While terrestrial television has become a limited medium in the age of one thousand channels,play stations and the like,racing must broadcast its showcase events free to air.The oversized ITV racing team needs pruning,with those remaining delivering a professional output aimed at a knowledgeable audience.

But the show continues to speak to this mysterious,young audience,who are supposed to be eagerly watching. Anyone working in normal, packed workplaces know how much interest in horse racing has fallen.Footy is the God for the under thirty five punter. Even darts,snooker,golf,cricket and tennis are rivals to racing.Listen to them and note their ages.The very few who talk about a bet on the horses are over fifty. 

So, in explaining what the five classics and the Triple Crown are,they are not capturing this imaginary new fanbase, who they believe they have welcomed in.We know how audience viewing figures are measured.They are unreliable at best and more reasonably could be described as falsehoods.This new fanbase consists of an empty room with the light turned off and door closed.

RED AND WHITE TRACTORS AND 32 RED

Yesterday was Vernons day.Do not allow anyone to tell you any different because as with all those other races that have undergone sponsorship changes,the original name will always stick .

It's a long,long time since the race was called the Vernons Sprint Cup.Thirty years in fact.You have to go further back to the last time it was run in early November,which was its traditional slot.

That was 1978.I remember that day well.A typical murky, November day, that never seemed to reach full daylight.The big race was won by Ryan Jarvis's  grey Absalom, from the French trained favourite Sanedkti,and Vaigly Great,handled by the up and coming Michael Stoute.

Moving it to the September slot has been justified.More chance of better ground, more interest too,as the original timing was when most fans had switched to jumping mode.The move undoubtedly assisted in getting the upgrade to Group One status,an upgrade which was one of the less dubious promotions.

But whatever,to the traditional racing fans it will always be the Vernons.Those who remember it from a time when it was the Ladbrokes Sprint and the name changes since,are from the generation of the sports betting fan, almost all of whom will not take an awful lot of interest in these issues anyway and could not care about the racing calendar or the 'Pattern'.

Sponsors like to speak of such things like 'overt branding opportunities',but when it comes to the widely misunderstood sport of horse racing,they clearly do not carry out meaningful research.

Betfred have been crafty with the Ebor.Sponsored by the Tote from 1976 -it had been the Terry's All Gold Ebor before that - Betfred put their brand name to the race after they purchased the Tote,along with the right to control racecourse pool betting for a fixed spell, making sure they would have had their name up in lights even if they sell on their ownership of the nanny.

Royal Ascot is deemed too treasured for its races to be 'tarred' by sponsorship,but that will surely change sometime soon as the Monarchy continues to modernise.Sponsorship of races at the meeting could come soon after the present Queen passes on,with each sponsor having to be specially approved of course,and God forbid any thought of dot com names in the title.

They all said the Epsom Derby would never be sponsored,speaking of which how many people could tell you who Investec are,and which events they sponsor?

Sponsorship and the Derby will always conjure up Ever Ready batteries to the last generation of proper racing fans.Many will know that Sir Gordon White was the chairman of the company and owned Hardgreen,who finished sixth to Troy in the 1979 Ever Ready Derby,which was a vintage renewal.

National Hunt racing has more traditional links with sponsorship than the Summer game.The Whitbread will always be known by that name,as will the connected Mackeson,despite the former race not being run under that title for many years,and the latter for an age.

But the most chaotic example comes in the shape of the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup.For many,Peter Easterby's exciting front running chaser Easby Abbey, springs immediately to mind with mention of the race,for others it may be Pendil or Titus Oates,or further back still,Flyingbolt.The roll of honour is impressive, and the 'Massey Ferguson' remains an event to look forward to on the run up to Christmas.

Unfortunately for the numerous organisations who have affixed their brands to the race,they are names that have slipped away to oblivion,despite plenty of water flowing under the bridge since it was run under the original title.You see,in the minds and souls of the final generation of the genuine racing fan,it remains the Massey Ferguson.

It was as long ago as 1980 when the race last carried the famous tractor firm title.JennyPitman's chestnut Bueche Girod, from the bottom of the handicap, made most of the weight concessions from the three that followed him home,Lord Greystoke,former King George winner,Bachelor's Hall,and Western Rose.

In 1981 the meeting was lost to snow.The following year the race had become the Kennedy Construction Gold Cup.It was a cracking renewal,Wayward Lad narrowly failing to give away 17 lb to Observe.It remained by the same name until 1985,when it was for a sole year sponsored by Still Forks Trucks and was won by the popular Combs Ditch.

In 1986 it changed to the Glen International Gold Cup,the sponsor being Terry Ramsden's investment firm.Next change was to the AF Budge Gold Cup in 1988,then finally in 1992 the beginning of a steadying period under the name of theTripleprint Gold Cup,the first running producing David Nicholson's sole winner of the race,Another Coral.

The last two runnings under the Tripleprint name came in 2002 and 2003,with Nicky Henderson winning both times with Fondmort and Iris Royal.In 2004 it was run under the related Bonusprint title for a single year.

Then it all went out of control again with the Robin Cook Memorial Gold Cup, followed by the Boyesports.com Gold Cup, the Vote AP Gold Cup in 2010, a result of horse racing and Brough Scott's push for people to spend their spare time constantly phoning to vote in the Sports Personality of the Year Award.Three years of sponsorship by spinal research related charities came next.

Since 2014 it has been known as the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup and will do so again this December.Their products will appeal to the wealthy hunting,shooting, and fishing factions who fit in snugly with the Cotswold communities,National Hunt racing,and Cheltenham racecourse itself.So,they are probably getting at least some 'Bang for the Buck',even if their name will cease being linked with the sport the moment their support stops.

The same cannot be said of the original sponsors.For it would be no exaggeration to state that Massey Ferguson,a Stateside company,arguably have the distinction of procuring more mileage from their sponsorship than all other similar ventures in the sport.

AN EPISODE THAT LEFT UK RACING ALL THE POORER

It was May 1986 when Veryan Bay made her racecourse debut at Chester against a backdrop of grey skies and a half reconstructed County Stand,the original having been burnt to the ground by two teenage delinquents the previous year.

Henry Cecil was watching from the makeshift trainers stand with heightened interest,but he was not the trainer of the animal.That was Michael Dickinson,who had chosen to tend to business back at the yard as all eyes focused on his first juvenile runner.

A well bred Storm Bird filly, but not a scopey specimen physically,Veryan Bay ran a poor race to finish well beaten.It did not mean much at the time,but would be a sign of things to come and a puzzling ,unexpected loss of mojo for a legend who did not restore his training credibility until moving to the States.

What cannot be denied is that while Harewood continued on a smaller but successful scale under Monica Dickinson,the whole episode left a void in the jumping scene.It would be wrong to say that it kick started the downfall of the quality of the sport in the north,but it made a contribution and it weakened the arm of the sport that indoctrinates most new fans.

The appointment of Dickinson by Robert Sangster was a bold one that captured the imagination and took many by surprise.It conjured up a mixed response.Some rightly construed it as show of disrespect to the sphere of the sport that has real soul,but at least we would have the opportunity to find out how far the genius touch could go.

We often wonder how some of the top national hunt trainers would handle a yard of blue blooded flat horses.We know they are a force in Cesarewitchs's,Chester Cups, Ascot Stakes and so forth, but that is almost their terrain anyway, thus means nothing.

M V O'Brien managed the transition spectacularly,and a decade on from Dickinson, Aiden O'Brien would reward those who took the gamble with him.Then there is the great survivor in David Elsworth,who has achieved feats right across the scale from top class sprinters to top class stayers,from Champion Hurdle class horses to Grand National and Gold Cup winners.

Still,there is a tendency from the 'purists' to look down at the jumping trainers and believe that most would be out of their depth with the pressure to get results at the highest level.

They would of course give credit for the skill, patience and for handling the frustrations that comes with tendon injuries and the grim task of phoning an owner to tell them that their animal would need a year on the sidelines,but they would then add that as jump racing was just a hobby,the pressure was unlike that in the real big business world of making stallions.

The Manton project was clearly no whimsical knee-jerk knee jerk urge from Sangster. I found an interview with the owner in the April 1984 edition of Pacemaker,where he was asked some insightful questions by Graeme Kelly.

There was an air of confidence about the whole plan. Sangster was even relaying to Kelly details of mares who were getting into foal then, and whose progeny would be two year olds in 1987.These were earmarked to be with Dickinson as he began his second year with runners at Manton.

Anyone doubting the determination behind the blueprint should consider the part of the interview when Sangster says ,"We will, as in the past, always be looking to pick up a nucleus of five or six two year olds which we would expect to make top class three year olds."

A perfectly fair summary of Dickinson's short tenure at Manton was that it was a disaster.Four winners in total.This failure was rubbed in the following season by the upturn in fortune with the stonewall reliable Barry Hills at the helm,training fifty five winners.

There is no doubt whatsoever that many of the established flat trainers were willing the venture to end in disaster.They would have watched on with glee as it became clear at an early stage that they were faced with little to worry about.

Sangster's own patience ran out in November,and with it the decision to terminate the trainer's tenure, not willing to risk another disastrous year.

Dickinson had many springing to his defence. It has often been stated lazily that he was given too many horses from the first crop of Golden Fleece,who turned out to be a flop in his short lived stallion career.

This is a view not supported by the facts.A look at the 1986 string listed by Dickinson in Horses in Training reveals from a string of forty six animals, he had thirty nine juveniles of which six were sired by the 1982 Epsom Derby winner.

Ironically, what turned out to be the best horse in the care of Dickinson at Manton was the future William Hill Sprint Championship winner Handsome Sailor, who Sangster had purchased from Ron Thompson as a lead horse for the juveniles.

At the time he was some way off the horse he would later be,but Dickinson did get two victories from him.We will never know how the career of this horse would have panned out if the Yorkshireman had remained in charge.

Not all the juveniles turned out to be duds though.Guest Performer,unraced at Manton, moved to John Hills and won the Kiveton Park Stakes the following season.Whether Hills jnr would have managed to produce her on the racecourse as a two year old is something else we can only guess at.

It is well documented that there was a clash of personalities between the work hard and play hard owner, and the work hard and never rest trainer,and when news of the dismissal hit the front pages of the Racing Post on 25 November,the paper quoted Sangster saying,"We do have fundamental differences of opinion which made it very hard for both of us. "

Reflecting upon the achievements of what built the Dickinson legend, it hits home when you realise that he only held the licence at Harewood for four years.

Trying to compare this with the length of time that Martin Pipe held a licence is comparing apples with pears,as Dickinson inherited a quality string from his father.Still,when Pipe hit the headlines with his first major success with Baron Blakeney in the 1981 Triumph Hurdle, he would go on and hold the licence for a further twenty five years,breaking record after record.

Paul Nicholls is more similar to Dickinson than Pipe,with an emphasis leaning heavily to quality,and for chasers over hurdlers. He has held a licence for twenty six years,but more notably it will be twenty years this December since See More Business won him his first King George V1 Chase.

At end of the day all the truly great racehorse trainers combined regular success and longevity.
We wanted to see how Dickinson would handle the dips in form, the consecutive year or two when misfortune strikes and all that can go wrong does.

We have a cringeworthy obsession in this country over being 'proud' how our fellow nationals perform in a foreign arena.Bale,with Real Madrid, Johnny Wilkinson, with Toulon,not forgetting Gazza at Lazio - but all are lost to their respective home based leagues.What is so good about that?

Michael Dickinson was eventually a successful trainer in the states where they affectionately tagged him 'The Mad Professor'.Regrettably,whatever his merits as a trainer across the pond,it was no cause at all for celebration or grandness to the great many dismayed by the void he left when deserting the the UK jumping scene and not returning.