Some Odds and Ends

1923 - Probably the earliest photo I've ever seen of Charlie Smirke... pictured here as a young jockey with Chubb Leach after unsaddling following the City and Suburban

1925 - A nice photo of 21 year old Gordon Richards

1950 - Billy Turtle (left) and Barney Sergeant at Stanley Wootton's stables Epsom

1960 - Jimmy Lindley, Tom Masson, and Bobby Elliott at Newmarket Sales

1963 -  Drama at the starting gate at Yarmouth Races... The wooden structure supporting the barrier was pulled apart when some of the runners charged the tapes

1966 - Gaudy Commodore and apprentice jockey M Bradley

1966 - Happy Haven (Scobie Breasley)

1968 - Warwick Results Saturday April 13th



1968 - Ascend (Paul Tulk)



1968 - Jimmy Reppin (Geoff Lewis)



1968 Remand (Joe Mercer)



1970 - Cawston's Pride (Brian Taylor)



1970 - Two Greys at Windsor

1971 Cider With Rosie and Lester Piggott at Epsom

Some photos and features from the 1961 edition of Cope's Racegoer's Encyclopaedia

Jockeys Bobby Elliott, Doug Smith and Lester Piggott, Bill Elliott and Derek Morris , Ken Gethin and Frankie Durr, Brian Lee, Bill Elliott and Derek Morris, Bill Williamson, Garnet Bougoure, and Ron Hutchinson. A National Hunt trio of Jockeys from this era comprising of Stan Mellor, Bill Rees, and David Nicholson. The Athlone Stakes at Sandown, Lowther Stakes at York, Great Met at Epsom, and the Stayers’ Handicap at Alexandra Park.





Red Rum on the Flat

1967 - Red Rum's first ever race, at Aintree of all places in the Thursby 2yo Selling Plate just getting up in the last stride to Dead Heat with Curlicue...

A rare Picture of Red Rum left and Paul Cook just getting up to dead heat

1968 - Red Rum wins again first time out in his second season on the flat

Geoff Lewis going to post on Red Rum before winning the Waterdale Selling Handicap for 3 yr olds

Red Rum's record on the flat

Copes Racegoer's Encyclopaedia 1960 - The Best Apprentices of 1959 By Lionel Cureton

Our Apprentices Learned it the Hard Way

Bright futures for Elliott, Henry, and Singer

Pages 104 to 105

Pages 106 to 107

Pages 108 to 109

Racing at Birmingham

The race card that appeared in the Daily Mirror for Birmingham's Bromford Bridge races on the 1st of Sept 1953… Includes the apprentices Dominic and John Forte, the twins pictured below were both riding in the first race. Other apprentices riding included Eddie Hide and Wally Swinburn, whilst amongst the senior jockeys were Brian Swift, Tommy Gosling, Manny Mercer, Mickey Greening, and Ray Reader.

The Forte Twins

The race results... A good day at the office for Doug Smith.



Piggott the Hurdles Jockey

Lester schooling a horse at Lambourn in 1954

Lester Piggott, being tall for a jockey, battled with the scales throughout his career, the problem was so serious that at one point in his career Lester turned his hand to hurdling and it looked very much like his future lay in National Hunt racing.  He recorded some twenty or so wins over hurdles in a brief but successful flirtation with being a National Hunt Jockey. His first winner over hurdles arrived on Boxing Day 1953 at Wincanton when Lester successfully won on Eldoret, this was quickly followed by his second winner on January the 2^nd 1954 at Newbury when he won the Hants Maiden Hurdle on Stranger trained by Bill Payne.

Lester as always was guided by his father Keith who himself had been a successful National Hunt Jockey, Keith’s knowledge of Cheltenham racecourse proved invaluable in helping Lester to win when riding at the Cheltenham festival meeting in March 1954.

On March the 1^st 1954 Lester rode the last winner of the day Carola Pride for his father Keith when winning 3.15 Astwood Hurdle over two miles at Worcester. With darkness soon to fall Lester was keen to get home to Lambourn after a very long day but his father had different ideas, Keith insisted they detour to Cheltenham on the way home and walk the course so with a grumpy Lester in tow they headed from Worcester to Cheltenham. When they got there they trekked round the course as the last rays of sun were setting over the Cotswolds. This all seemed pretty standard stuff to Lester until they got to the home stretch and Cheltenham's notorious stamina sapping final hill, at this point Keith emphasised and emphasised again and again the importance of saving that little bit for the final push up the hill… Lester was now all set and prepared to tackle the Cheltenham course for the first time.

It was Champion Hurdle day and Lester was riding in the first race on Mull Sack for Peter Cazalet in the "Birdlip Selling Hurdle"… Yes quite unbelievable and unheard of these days, a selling race at the illustrious Cheltenham festival meeting! Lester followed his father’s advice to the letter holding enough in reserve to bring Mull Sack up that final hill and win the race by a length. Lester many years later recalled the day and the visit the evening before "I rode the winner of the last race at Worcester over hurdles and I was anxious to get home to Lambourn, but he insisted we walk the track together that night, even though it was getting dark. I was surprised at just how steep the hill is in the home straight, he told me to wait and wait, and not to go for my horse until jumping the last, which is what I did."

Four days later Piggott achieved the biggest success of his brief jump racing career, when riding a horse that had finished second in the 1953 Blue Riband Derby Trial and had subsequently contested but ran unplaced in the Epsom Derby itself. The horse Prince Charlemagne was sent off at 11/4 favourite for this his debut over hurdles with Lester being booked to ride by trainer Tommy Carey.
 

The race was the Triumph Hurdle which was run at Hurst Park in those days and was transferred to Cheltenham following the closure of Hurst Park. Lester and Prince Charlemagne made all the running and strolled to a comfortable six length win.

Yarmouth runners and riders 14th June 1978

The card for Yarmouth races on the 14^th June 1978

Jockeys riding include… Dean McKeown (5), Peter Madden, Tony Kimberley, Jock Ferguson, Philip Robinson (7), Sean Salmon, Eric Eldin, Richard Marshall, Michael Kettle, Colin Williams, and Alan Bond.

 

And the results from the days racing