Harringay Can’t Go To The Dogs Anymore!

A s child, I used to go here to the Harringay Arena to see the ice shows.  There was also a dog and speedway track called Harringay Stadium.  Now all that remains is the name, in that of the large retail park.

Where’s the Dog Track?

With the recent loss of Walthamstow dog track to developers and the abandoning of horse racing at Alexandra Palace, life has lost some excitement in that area of North London.

My great-uncle Charlie, who introduced me to cider lived somewhere locally. He had been some sort of minor official in the colonies.

An Appropriate Punishment for Mr. Brooks

There has been a straw poll of horses in Lambourn about what would be an appropriate punishment for Mr. Brooks, if he should be found guilty.

Ninety percent said he should be gelded.  The rest said neigh.

I’m Now on Lasix

Or a generic form of furosemide, which is the drug known as Lasix.  As it helps stop racehorses from nose-bleeding, I wonder if it will affect my nose-bleeds.  But then I haven’t had any in the last week or so.

Lasix is banned for racehorses in the UK, but it is allowed freely in a lot of states in the US.

Let’s hope it helps me go a bit faster and further.

 

Horse Racing Leaves the BBC

A sad day!

I enjoy my horse-racing, especially as my late wife and I bred and owned race-horses for nearly thirty years.

I shall still go occasionally, but I doubt I’ll watch it on the television any more.  The reason is adverts. I find them so annoying.

That’s why I must be one of the few people, who has never seen any of Downton Abbey.

I did enjoy the Cheltenham Festival though on Radio 5.

Millions of us are paying for the very silly move to Salford.

The Luck of the Irish

Only the Irish would strike oil a few days before St. Patrick’s Day as is reported here.

Then they win the Gold Cup at Cheltenham today.

So what will happen tomorrow in the rugby.  It’s obvious.

Even this van had the flag out.

The Irish Are Flying The Flag

I don’t wish the Irish bad luck tomorrow.  But I do hope England win!

 

Richard Pitman’s Good Deed

Richard Pitman was a good jump jockey, but more famous for losing the Grand National on Crisp in the last few strides to Red Rum. He was also a reliable BBC commentator and presenter.

He was reported yesterday as having donated a kidney to a complete stranger, after seeing his friend deteriorate whilst waiting for a transplant.  He was on BBC Breakfast and the story is also related here.

On a day when Baroness Warsi was complaining that we are turning from religion, isn’t what Pitman did a much more altruistic act, than most of the worthless words we get from those with so-called religion.  Name a religious leader, who did what Pitman did for a start!

Incidentally, a kidney transplant expert, told me that one in a hundred of us only have one kidney.

I do think that Pitman upset a few people in what he did, as it wasn’t covered very deeply in the media.

The Greatest Steeplechaser

After Kauto Star ‘s epic victory yesterday, to give him a fifth King George VI Chase, there has been a lot of discussion about who was the greatest steeplechaser.

My late father saw Golden Miller win at Cheltenham in the 1930s a couple of times, just as he saw Arkle win on the television as I did in the 1960s.  Unquestionably, to my father, Golden Miller was the greatest and having seen all of those so called greatest since Arkle, like Desert Orchid and Kauto Star, I won’t change my father’s view.

Golden Miller too had a very big handicap and rose above it all.  His owner Dorothy Paget was a complete nutcase and insisted he run in the Grand National every year, which he hated. Although he did win the National in record time in 1934, when the fences were a lot bigger, in the midst of his five Cheltenham Gold Cup triumphs.

 

Is It All In The Name?

George Baker rode for C and myself a couple of times and he is one of the nicest and best.  Even if he is perhaps a bit tall to be a jockey.

But yesterday, he won on a horse he also trained called George Baker.  He didn’t own it, but it was partly owned by another George Baker. Read about it here in the Guardian.

This coincidence couldn’t have happened to a better person.

The Man Who Could Have Changed History

I’m half watching a play about Hitler.  But I’m finding it a bit difficult to follow, probably because of the hay fever’s effect on my hearing.

It is set in or about 1930 and I am reminded of another tale. It is in Lord Howard de Walden’s obituary in The Guardian.

He inherited 120 acres of London’s west end and bred and owned the 1985 Derby winner, Slip Anchor. But the story he loved to dine out on was when, as a young Cambridge student fresh out of Eton, he was driving a new car in Munich when a man walked out in front of him and was knocked down. “He was only shaken up,” recalled de Walden. “But had I killed him, it would have changed the history of the world.” The man was Adolf Hitler.

I never actually met him, but I knew a few people who worked for him, who never said any word about him that wasn’t complimentary.  My last vision of him was shortly before he died, sitting in state in a wheel-chair at Newmarket races, immaculately turned out ciomplete with apricot coloured socks; his racing colours as suggested by Augustus John.

A Four Horse Steeplechase

A friend of mine, long since dead, was a bookmaker.

 He gets a call from a jockey, who was on the second favourite in a four horse steeplechase.  But the favourite will surely win it, says my friend.  Oh No! Says the jockey, we’re all in on it. At the last fence the favourite was ten lengths clear, but sadly upended on landing, allowing the second favourite to come through to win. My friend said the favourite’s fall was the best bit of riding he’d ever seen.

 He’d of course been prudent and laid off the bet to a major bookmaker, who could afford it. Adding a bit of the action for himself of course!