SECRETS LOST TO THE GRAVEYARD

Racing stands alone from other sports in the varied, in depth facets it has to offer that together make up the whole model. Some are so wide apart from one another - you could spend a lifetime engrossed in the intricities and theories of the breeding side without having the slightest interest in the betting and bookmaking side, with the reverse also applying.

It also blows the other sports out of the water for its multitude of characters, many long passed, others more recently passed, and some still on this earth. Put it this way, stable staff who have worked for a lifetime in the sport, even in basic ranking positions, would be such a fruitful source of page after page of anecdotes and if inclined, could write a book purely reminiscing in warts and all manner, one which would probably prove to be a more enjoyable read than a tow the line publication penned by a champion trainer or jockey.

The same cannot be said for football. A boot polisher would no doubt be able to recite some amusing tales but the chances are they would have been done to death and have been in the public arena, either through one of the red top newspapers, or from player autobiographies. 

But racing owns such a deep, congested well of secrets, gossip, along with a large basket of dirty linen  that could probably fill a large book cabinet with memoirs that contain a substantial amount of truth, with many being fully accurate.

Sadly, those who would have most to tell are now into extra time on the life clock and will pass on taking their experiences to the grave with nothing left behind in recorded format - they may have have recited bits and pieces to a young relative likely to have no interest in the sport, meaning the names and incidents would mean nothing and fade to oblivion

The problem arising with racing's grapevine is that many of these recitals could be libelous unless the character who is the subject of the nostalgic scribblings has passed on in which case care would still have to be careful not to implicate a living, touchy relative. Or even a dangerous, powerful one.

This means that anyone seeking to find an old hand long born of experience within the game would have to keep fingers crossed that your discovered  living source remains in reasonable good mental health, while most of the subjects of the tales have passed on.

The legal ramifications in this area leave some interestingly poised situations in all walks of life. An acquaintance who is employed in the fields of attempted rehabilitation of offenders told me that it is common knowledge within some sections of the Police force that the media outlets are sharpening their knives ready to go to war on an ageing, long established household name once he passes away.

The stories that could be drawn out of some old racing folk would not be of the deeply disturbing nature as those, which if true, are to be revealed about this household name. In fact by comparison many would in the main be damn funny but still, the person on the other end may not be so tickled on finding they are in the public domain.

For us enthusiastic racing fans on the outside looking in, we can pick up some fascinating titbits when having the opportunity to talk to those within the bubble, off record as opposed to chatting to a trainer from being part of a syndicate, or having a conversation with a guest speaker at a racing club function. Such private encounters make us realise just how many untold factual tales must be held by the many, mature silent beholders within the sport.

I can recall being in the company of an ex jockey in a northern racecourse bar over forty years ago. I have no idea if he is still alive - I cannot find any record of him passing, though he had such a profound drinking problem that he would be a symbol of hope for all incurable guzzlers as he would now be in his mid seventies if he is still on this earth.

He was in the Tattersalls bar as he would not have welcomed being recognised in the members areas. As a rider he finished in the frame in an English classic, rode Royal Ascot winners, and in his pomp was sought after in the big handicaps. He also rode often for an emerging owner who would go on to be one of the most successful in the sport. 

Anyway, at the time he revealed that he had just left a position working in a well known Newmarket yard - " I wouldn't advise my worst enemy to work there. Christ, it was a nightmare. At evening stables you have to stand to attention outside the box with your stable cloth, body and dandy brushes, and curry comb all laid out neatly while the boss walks around carrying out inspections."

After each race he was back in the bar, drinking double scotches.  He gave three tips ridden by a well known successful jockey he had driven to the course. The horses lost. I could not not be sure of  the volume of alcohol he had consumed, but enough at least to blow a breathalyzer reading off the scale and he was driving the jockey all the way back down to Newmarket after his last ride!

I was also once priveliged to have several conversations with a person who I belive is still alive and has held both a jockeys and trainers licence in his time. He would reminisce back through his racing life, recalling all the trainers he has worked for, some legends who themselves trained equine legends.

He recalled that when he worked for Atty Persse, the lads would be taking a risk if the lights were switched back on after lights out time in the dorm. Apparently, if this rule breaking act was spotted from the main yard the guvnor and senior staff would burst into the dorm carrying long toms and the lads had to duck and dive to avoid a thrashing.

Then there was a stable lad who I was chatting to in the late 1970's. He had worked for two big, very successful set ups. He revealed to me that in one these former yards they carry out x rays on their animals - this at a time when the practice was not routine in most establishments. He spoke of a progressive young horse housed in one of these yards. " There is early arthritis setting in",  he divulged. " They'll sell him soon....... while he is still able to get past most vets."

In the following years I watched on with interest as this animal developed into one of the biggest stars in the jumping game, the best in his division. I'd convinced myself that I was told a load of nonsense until reading one day that the said horse was indeed developing arthritis, so it seems the tale had some substance to it after all.

The point of these recitals is that they have been picked up from being outside the bubble. God only knows the amount that are kept in the mental lockers of those within. Compelling accounts that must live lucidly in the mind of souls who have spent a lifetime in racing yards, irrespective of rank or standing.

Of course, stories that have bits added on need to be spotted and either discarded, or downsized. I can recall a few decades back being told that during the funeral of a stable lad who had committed suicide while working for one of the most successful southern yards of the 1970's, the deceased's colleagues were physically spitting on the trainer's back. It just didn't have a convincing ring to it, even allowing for the fact that the narrator worked for this famous yard, though admittedly not at the time the alleged episode took place.

We know the sport is littered with non triers, that many jockeys bet, some far more successfully so than others, or have their punters paying them to the odds, that one or two mix or have mixed with some very unsavory characters, that something may or may not be 'going on' when a yard suddenly begins to extract improvement from a succession of newly arrived inmates, that big name horses have been doped to lose. 

One has visions of a partly retired seventy odd year old stable lad, wearing a cap and sporting a ruddy complexion. All his marbles are still in place. He's worked for many successful trainers. He has a wealth of knowledge and holds on to many secrets that he will alas take to the grave. And that is a real shame.

graveyard image taken by author

This is the title track from an album released a few weeks before Burrough Hill Lad put up that wonderful weight carrying performance in the Hennessey. Vinyl remained supreme so the album would have found it's way to many households by the time of the race. The album marked Deep Purple's reunion and while not in the same grade of those released in the early 1970's, is surprisingly strong throughout for a comeback production.The video has the reuniting theme. It could easily be jump jockeys from the 1970's and 1980's. Sadly, a portrayal of a similar version for flat jockeys would be missing the passed on legends of Pat Eddery, Walter Swinburn and Greville Starkey.

ANOTHER PART OF RACING’S SOUL IS LOST

For those under a certain age who view printed reference type books as something now needless and cumbersome to navigate through, the news that Timeform are ceasing hard copy publication of their showcase product caused no ripples; but to many mature racing fans it ends a link to the sport at its peak era, an era that no one at the time could have foresaw the end of.

The Timeform Racehorse annuals, developed from Phil Bull’s Best Horses annuals, were viewed as collector’s items that owners believed would increase at least modestly in comparable value. All genuine racing fans have shelves lined with copies. 

As the sport has gradually lost its place in the major sport league, its memorabilia has dropped in relative value to other sports, including the Timeform Annuals which from the 1960’s onwards you can now acquire from online stores and private sellers for relatively modest sums.

Computerisation of form books made them less necessary. Indeed for all the benefits that computers and the internet have brought they spoil many a heartfelt nostalgic discussion with quizes, or just plain enjoyable reminiscing somewhat ruined by the availability of speedy, soulless Googling.

This is why you may find yourself falling into a conversation about horse racing with a member of the emerging generations who may initially say something like, “ Cyrname is now officially the top rated chaser which he confirmed when beating Altior  - but it will be interesting if both meet over three miles on Boxing Day when Altior will be fully tuned up”.

Initially you are impressed, but as the conversation continues it dawns on you that they are just repeating almost word for word something they’ve read off their smartphone, probably when browsing through a racing article on a bookmaker’s site which they’d initially been on to look at the odds for footy matches or other sports.

It’s even more demoralising when you find these so called fans have no interest at all in any historical perspective to the sport. Even recent history. Nijinsky, Brigadier Gerard, Phil Bull, Pinza, mean nothing. Same with Persian War, Tom Dreaper, Michael Dickinson, and Pendil.

This may sound of little relevance in the grand scheme of all things racing but if the affinity towards the sport is a tenuous one, then those characters who may be betting on it regularly now, can very easily be weaned off it. This happening in significant numbers would  do grave damage to a game whose future itself is already uncertain.

Contrast with those who got hooked on the game during the 1970's when it was a truly major sport. It was essential to read Oaksey's Mill Reef book and Hislop's Brigadier Gerard book, to compare the two greats. Going back further in history to learn something about the great names of the sport was also an obligation - Atty Persse, Keith Piggott, Frank Butters, Fred Darling, Fred Archer.

We were also aware that over in the USA they were experiencing a decade like no other, from Secretariat, to Seattle Slew, Affirmed, and finishing with Spectacular Bid. We probably still have a Totopoly in a box in the loft, along with Escalado, no doubt with signs of heavy wear and tear. And on the run up to Christmas the telly adverts even use to regularly show a board game called Kentucky Derby.

In the past three decades the sport declined in prominence in the psyche of the general population.This sadly meant that it was only a matter of time before the demand for publications such as Timeform Racehorses and Timeform Chasers and Hurdlers would cease to exist as the older racing fans became infirm, ill of mind, or passed away with the numbers of those with similar enthusiasm that should have been replacing them comparably tiny.

Once the independent Timeform organisation sold out to bookmaking interests respect began to wain and many of us had long stopped purchasing the annuals in real time. Sadly it will now only be from a historical perspective that we will pick up old copies, browsing randomly through, reading the odd essay, studying the posed portraits. 

The physical descriptions used a consistent terminology down the years though there did seem to be some additions added in later years. I've been looking through Racehorses of 1968 and you do not come across anything described as 'good topped' or 'angular', which don't seem to have been introduced until two decades later.

Then you can't help noting the dress of the 'lad' holding each animal deemed good enough for a posed portrait. A cap covering short cropped hair appears mandatory in the 1960's, then all hell looks to have been let loose the following decade when there is no shortage of lads resembling Robert Plant holding on to their charges. 

There are of course some aspects of the publications that should have been arrested long ago. Not least the introduction which claims that the book, as well as being a historical record, is designed for weighing up a race, a purpose for which in reality it is outdated once the new season is in motion. Has anybody actually ever received a copy of Chasers and Hurdlers for Christmas then gone about using its now outdated ratings and comments to assess the Welsh National?

Another point is the weight for age scale. Timeforms varies slightly from the official one but it too has changed down the years. As an example, for the second half of July, the present Timeform weight for age scale deems that over a mile and a half a three year old should be receiving 12lb from older horses. 

Now, when Grundy and The Minstrel won their respective runnings of the King George in 1975 and 1977 respectively, Timeform had the margin at 14 lb which means that if the organisation's present weight for age scale applied back then, Grundy would have ended with an annual rating of 135 instead of 137, and The Minstrel with one of 133 instead of 135,  as both horses performances in the Ascot event where seen as career bests at weights and measures.

Admittedly the response for being nit picky over this issue would no doubt be that the change is merely keeping in line with what is seen ( but not proven) as horses maturing faster than in decades earlier - indeed, the Timeform weight for age scale at King George time for a mile and a half in the 1960's reckoned that the three year olds should be in receipt of 16 lb!

The fact that we would obsess over such issues in being so critical does however go to show how much respect we had for Timeform and the cold objective views of their senior staff whose dabs were on the annuals. Those are days are now gone for good with no hope of them ever returning.

The online Racing Post form book begins in 1988.To start a good level research prior to then it’s your own personal collections of books, magazines, newspaper cuttings and by visiting libraries or the like. Subscribing to newspaper archives is also a great help but limited in the sense that you won’t, for example find an available Sporting Life or Sporting Chronicle archive from the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s.

The British Newspaper Archive website has both the Sporting Life and Sporting Chronicle available to the end of the 1940’s, while many other racing publications will have been lost too long to be recoverable unless you’ve kept old copies or built up scrapbooks.

When research is needed, the Timeform Annuals form part of the backbone of the material to be  consulted if they cover the period being examined. But if truth be told, hardly anyone without a racing background amongst the under forties will feel any desire to look up an historical racing subject when they can play FIFA 21, or Football Manager.

That the publication is soon to be no more allied to the fact that Wisden remains strong and treasured in hard copy form, says much about the comparable present standings of the sports of cricket and horse racing in Great Britain.

This track is from an album released a few weeks before Comedy Of Errors took back his hurdling crown from Lanzarote, and when Ten Up took the Gold Cup in a quagmire.  The lyrics have no connection to the Alps but the music has a Gstaad or Crans Montana feel and conjures up images of the likes of Roger Moore, Peter Sellers and Clay Regazzoni. No doubt many who visit these locations have full sets of Timeform Annuals.

THIS LOT WILL NOT RELENT UNTIL THEY HAVE THEIR WAY

The absence of a strong Ballydoyle presence, the fact that Tarnawa should have been supplemented for the big event, and the prevailing conditions that compromised too many hopes, all still could not take away from what was a most enjoyable weekend of racing.

In any normal year we'd be bemoaning separate events that came together to reduce the status of some of the races, some of which were not vintage renewals, notably the juvenile events. But because, with so much uncertainty prevailing, we are unable realistically to look more than a few weeks ahead in the calendar, simply having a weekend of overall high class racing to savior was more appreciated than it normally is.

There would however have been one notable item of news over the past week that did not go down too well for traditionalists. It was easy to miss it as the build up to the weekend got nearer. It was the announcement that the postponed team racing event originally planned for summer 2020 has been rearranged to begin in 2021, the intention no doubt to make it a permanent part of the calendar.

This whole team sport concept never will blend in snugly in this sport. The Shergar Cup has lasted because it's over in a day, one in which many fans will have a welcome rest where thoughts of the sport are put aside for one Saturday a year. A few decades back we curiously looked in on a couple of team competitions with visiting American jockeys which stoked up interest, not because fans got into the mode of teams and points but due to the rare opportunity to see the likes of Shoemaker and McCarron in action.

The delayed event proposed for next year is a purists nightmare, it really is. Twelve teams with their squads of horse from up to four trainers each, three jockeys representing each team which will have its own colours. In light of more pressing issues existing in the world, it may seem a little out of proportion to  overreact to this silly concept, but it makes one wonder whether the sport in this country is past the point of no return.

It is so hard to conjure up an image of teams communally managed by two to four trainers. Can you imagine this in the 1970's, a team with a management board of Ryan Price, Dick Hern, Peter Walwyn and Noel Murless - all would want to be the leading voice, none would surely agree to be lower in rank. Similar to a jumping one with Fred Rimmell, Fred Winter, Fulke Walwyn and Bob Turnell, together in allegiance. 

The whole concept is so stupid and unworthy for the sport that you would almost have expected Noel Edmunds, or the shamed Stuart Hall to be part of the production, in fact I'm sure there would have been a chance that they might have been if such a wacky contest had been staged back then.

The characters now may not be so maverick, blunt and individualistic,but you have to wonder in such a dog eat dog sport which ones would blend together. Perhaps Owen Burrows, Charlie Hills, and Richard Hughes would get through it, but a team comprised of Michael Stoute, Paul  Cole and David Elsworth would be a non starter and I cannot imagine any of these three seeking any involvement in this nonsense,

And how about if they extended it to the modern National Hunt arena - the West Country rivals Hobbs, Nicholls  and Pipe would not really want to join together as a team given the rivalry and no doubt levels of jealousy varying from season to season that must be forever ongoing between the three - though I suppose Colin Tizzard is now as powerful as any of them and he would be able to bud up with Paul Nicholls given their operations have always had links.

In part, it is tempting to make comparisons with charity rock events which are seen as opportunities to rekindle fizzled out careers, to boost sales and royalties from music released long ago, but in the racing arena the owners will have a bigger input thus amid the significant cutbacks in prize money levels, all but the top band of elite patrons will probably be open to the idea. There is no doubt that the large bulk of journeyman riders will be very keen to find a place so with the generous number of places available there will be room for plenty. 

There is also a belief held by organisers of these events that just because the emerging generations of racegoers come along for a session of alcohol consumption, which they still would do if they raced motor bikes around the course, means they will embrace the idea by visiting in their hordes.

Well, in view of the fact that these meetings are being staged at the height of the Twenty-20 Cricket domestic cricket season, I don't think anyone should be taking patronage for granted. There is not much chance of many genuine racing fans making an appearance - no one in their right mind would want to be one of the members of the paying public to be selected as an 'ambassador ' for the teams which is enough anyone needs to know about how trashy this concept is - making some no marks 'stars' for the night who have no real feel for the true attractions of the sport.

We keep hearing that racing needs to be open to new ideas, but this ornate rubbish not only devalues the sport's wonderful history, it seeks to move away from it in the belief that it will become stronger by rebranding it's image.

This is a notion that will only hasten horse racing's decline in the UK down to a part time tier that we could never of previously imagined. We will watch the whole charade unfold, knowing the dreadful outcome but unable to do anything to prevent it.

image in public domain

 Back to a time when the sport's problems pale into insignificance compared to today, when it was truly a major sport, when music too was in its element - this track from a terrific album released the day before Brigadier Gerard won the King George.......