It doesn't matter if it's a selling plater or a Derby winner, nostalgia is a great leveller, people love to see photos of lesser known horses and jockeys just as much as they do classic winners...
Rare Photos and film footage of
"The Greatest Racehorse Ever"
Revered and idolised by many
The one and only...
VAKIL-UL-MULK
Trained by the irrepressible cult figure and racing icon of the sixties John Meacock.
VAKIL-UL-MULK opened his 3 year old career with a nice little pipe opener in the one mile Warwickshire Handicap at Birmingham. With only 7stone 4lbs to carry lightweight jockey David East took the mount.
David East
Onwards and Upwards to Epsom
VAKIL-UL-MULK proudly shows off in the paddock at Epsom
The Jockeys enter the paddock and first in is Harrison VAKIL-UL-MULK'S jockey... but will he be first back?
A very relaxed VAKIL-UL MULK (third in line) makes his way to the start
Milling round at the start
Lining up for the start
And They're off
Tucked in behind... A late run maybe
Hmmmmmm...
Some Footage of the race
Fabulous. I always think PJ Poston should have had a Derby runner.
ReplyDeleteHi Felix,
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Peter Poston may have come within a whisker of not only having a Derby runner but also of very nearly winning it. He bought a yearling filly named Athene for 140 guineas in 1961, she failed to win in eight races although did manage one third place. In true Poston/Meacock style he gave her away as a prize in a £1 raffle! Athene was sent to stud and was covered by Faberge 11 producing a foal born in 1969. In 1971 Athene’s foal won on his two year old debut and that season went on to be second in both the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster and the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. At three years old the colt continued to improve winning the Dante Stakes at York and Grand Prix De Saint Cloud in France, sandwiched in between these two good wins he was also a short head second in the Epsom Derby. At four years he was still improving winning the John Porter Stakes at Newbury, the Hardwicke Stakes at Ascot, the Prix Ganay at Longchamp, the Grand Prix De Saint Cloud in France for the second year running as well as two Group three races in Italy, and was also placed in both the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup and the King George the 6th & Queen Elizabeth Diamond stakes. Then to finish off a very good season he produced the best performance of his career to win the Prix De Larc De Triomphe. All told the colt won 11 group races and was also placed five times in Group Company, the most startling statistic being that he raced abroad seven times in France and Italy in Group races and won every single time. I’m thinking you’ve guessed the name of Athene’s foal by now, you can see him here coming very close to winning the Epsom Derby...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOL4Sqk_0Ss
Best Wishes
Burnsy
Hi Burnsy,
ReplyDeleteMy Dad is an avid horseracing fan and has asked me if I could find information on John Meacock and his horses. This and other articles have been excellent. If you could email me anything you have on this topic I would very grateful, thank you!
Nigel
lane84lane@gmail.com
Hi Nigel,
ReplyDeleteI’m thinking that mostly what I have is already here on the site. It’s amazing how many people are interested in John Meacock. He’s mentioned on many racing forums, but you rarely see anything new that maybe you didn’t know before, mostly it’s people remembering his horses having all those Persian names and the fact that he didn’t have too many winners, I think 5 was the most he ever had in a season. But certainly if I come across anything new I’ll pass a copy on to you with pleasure especially if I find any news clippings about the man himself.
Best wishes and fingers crossed it would be nice to find something for your Dad.
Burnsy
Thanks, Burnsy for that info. One of Poston's apprenticies aboard might have reversed that short head which Piggott lost by. Interesting that Lester puts Roberto in the top 5 of horses he has ridden...
ReplyDeleteHi Nigel,
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather is David East and I was just wondering if you have any more photos or information you could tell me. The picture on here none of us had seen before my mum so we were all very pleasantly surprised!
Thank you,
Rebecca Martin.
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteI’m not Nigel but Burnsy lol, Nigel was the one who placed the previous comment… That’s so interesting that you are David East’s Granddaughter and I’m absolutely delighted that you found a photo here that you’ve never seen before.
Right a little about that photo… when I came across the photo it didn’t name the Jockey nor the owner or trainer with him, the only details with the photo at the time were that it was taken on June the 2nd 1965 in the paddock at Epsom races. However, I did recognise your Grandfather straight away so I had a little to go on from there, by the date of the photo I’m thinking your Grandfather would have been around 28 years old when it was taken. When I checked the old form books I could see that David East had just the one ride that day in the 22 runner Stewards H’cap over 5 furlongs which was the first race on the card. Your Grandfather rode a horse named Ghulam Hussain which was carrying bottom weight of 7 stone and finished down the field. From that info I think it’s safe to say that the Trainer pictured with him is John Meacock as he was the trainer of Ghulam Hussain and this is supported by the fact that although the photo is in black and white you can see that the colours are much the same as those carried by Vakil-Ul-Mulk in the Derby in 1963. I haven’t seen many photos of David East and to be honest that’s the only photo I can ever remember seeing of John Meacock so all in all I’d say it’s a pretty rare photograph with both of them pictured together.
There is another photo of your Grandfather in one of the other posts that is currently on the blog… If you look down the right hand side of the blog page for “Blog Archive” and click on the month of June there is a post called “Medley of Jockeys” and there you will find another photo of your Grandfather… This particular photograph I believe was taken at Windsor races in September 1962 so he would have been about 25 years old if I’m right in thinking he was born around 1937 but do correct me if I’m wrong on that.
I’ll see what else I can find on your Grandfather and send it on to you with pleasure.
Best wishes
Burnsy
Sorry about the confusion Burnsy.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all that, really appreciate you taking your time out to do it.
I think he was born in 1941 or 1942, would be 70 or 71 now.
You have a lot of jockeys on here my mum recognises from when she was young as well.
Thanks again,
Rebecca Martin
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteI have found a few things concerning your Grandfather and his racing career… One that I think you’ll find interesting is an entry for him in "The 1973 Directory of the Turf". This publication is a bit like a "who's who in racing" and it has a section on Jockeys that contains information that although it’s quite brief it’s very informative such as big race winners he rode, where and when his very first winner was, who he was apprenticed to, and even some personal details and your Mum Carolyn gets a mention too. I also have a couple of scanned photos from a book of him winning at Royal Ascot in 1965 and again in 1968… he actually had another Royal Ascot winner in 1967 but I haven’t been able to find any photo’s of that one yet.
Also this is a longshot really but I have my fingers crossed on it… I have a jpeg of a photo that was taken at Alexandra park in 1959, it’s an intriguing photo really as it’s just two days after Manny Mercer was killed at Ascot and the Jockeys are wearing black armbands in respect of him. The photo shows some jockeys going to the paddock from the weighing room and Doug Smith is turning around talking to a couple of apprentice jockeys, I know your Grandfather rode there that day, in fact he had two winners so I am thinking there's a chance it could it be him as Doug Smith certainly rode in one of the races that your Grandfather won on that day… Despite the sombre occasion it’s a great photo and I’d be delighted if it did turn out to be your Grandfather I’m thinking Carolyn could confirm whether it's him or not.
Going forward from here I’ve checked Carolyn’s Blog page several times to see if I can email her there but it appears I can't so the easiest way forward I think is for Carolyn to click on the button to join/become a follower of this Blog and that then enables me to email Carolyn direct via Blogger so I can send on some of the info and photos.
Best Wishes to you both
Burnsy