SHARPE MIND: Christmas Favourites

In this week’s SHARPE MIND blog, where sports betting PR legend GRAHAM SHARPE aims to bring you a rundown of Sensational, Hard to believe, Amusing, Remarkable, Pertinent & Entertaining events which have happened over the years in the worlds of racing and betting during each specific week of the year, he takes a deep dive into racing at Christmas in the week between December 21 and 27.

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▫️ BUT FOR the birth on Christmas Eve, 1945, of Jeff Smith, perhaps the most sensational racing and betting event ever may not have happened. For Jeff grew up to become an enthusiastic owner, and his sprinter Lochangel was the 6th of the Magnificent 7 Frankie winners at Ascot on that famous day…….Jeff didn’t only own sprinters – but also had great stayer Persian Punch, who won the Doncaster Cup, two Goodwood Cups, and three Jockey Club Cups. I was at Ascot on the day the horse collapsed and died and you could literally hear the stunned silence – as Jeff said ‘It was awful, you could have heard a pin drop, I’ve never experienced anything like it.’ Me neither…….

▫️ WHO’D WANT their birthday on Christmas Day – two big occasions, one lot of presents! No wonder some of those born on December 25 are a little odd – few more so than jockey John ‘Tiny’ (he was very tall and wore high hats to emphasise his height) Wells, who came into the world on this day in 1833. A terrific rider he booted home eight Classic winners including three Derby triumphs in 1858,59 and 68.

Not only his height, but also his dandy-fied dress style singled out Wells – who favoured Alpine hats with feathers, a suit in Gordon tartan, and red Morocco slippers when he was riding out. He also won twenty races in a single season on the prolific Fisherman in 1857, the horse going on to race 121 times, winning 70 of them.

▫️ CHRISTMAS DAY is the time for gifts and trainer Paul Nicholls handed one out to punters on December 2008 when asked about the chances of his Kauto Star completing a King George VI Chase treble at Kempton the next day. He declared: ‘If you can get 11/8 my advice is to lump on.’ They did, and the horse duly obliged at odds-on. Of course we don’t race on Xmas Day, but it was the very date in 1934 that racing began at many people’s choice for the world’s most scenic course (they’ve clearly never been to Merano, mind you!) – Santa Anita in California, where Las Palmas won the inaugural contest, a 7f handicap. Whether and when we’ll see UK racing on this date remains to be seen, but in 2004, the BHB’s Alan Delmonte was surprised to learn that the government’s new Gambling Bill made provision for racing to take place on December 25 and quickly rushed out a comment: ‘Christmas Day has never even been considered before.’

▫️ A GRAND OLD CHESTNUT of a quiz question was born on December 26, 1899 as the chaser Good Friday fell on Boxing Day – capsizing in Wolverhampton’s Thorneycroft Chase. Boxing Day 1991 saw the career of the great grey, Desert Orchid come to an end when he fell at the third last in his final race, the King George VI Chase, won by 10/1 French raider The Fellow, trained by Francois Doumen and ridden by Polish born Adam Kondrat.

▫️ THE WEEK we’re covering in this column, December 21-27 opened on Dec 21, 1985 with a race in which not one punter backed the runner who finished fourth in Lingfield’s 2.15 – largely because Yankee was a greyhound, who escaped owner Mrs Violet Cohen to join in and overtake all but three of the 17 strong field!

▫️ ON DECEMBER 22, 1962 they raced at Fontwell and Uttoxeter. However, racing was then abandoned because of frozen ground right through (bar one rogue card on January 5 at Ayr) to March 8 when it finally resumed at Newbury.

▫️  DEATH OF THE DAY…. December 23, 1958, at the age of 57, Bill Dutton, who achieved a remarkable racing double – winning the 1928 Grand National on 100/1 shot Tipperary Time – and also training the 1956 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Limber Hill, rather better fancied, at 11/8 and later rated the best British winner of the race since Golden Miller.

▫️ FIRST AND LAST OF THE WEEK…… On December 27, 2007 16/1 Notre Pere was the FIRST Irish raider to win the Welsh National in its 113 year history, for trainer Jim Dreaper and jockey Andrew Lynch…..while on the same date in 1966 2/9 favourite Arkle ran his LAST race, finishing 2nd in the King George under Pat Taaffe, despite fracturing a bone in his hoof.

▫️ AND FINALLY……..  perhaps the most poignant bet I’ve ever come across was struck on December 27, 1859, between two fellow officers of the 2nd Battalion (78th) Seaforth Highlanders, whose wager is recorded in that august army division’s Betting Book: ‘Capt Hurst bets Capt Bogle one bottle of champagne that neither he nor Capt Bogle will be killed in action this time twelvemonth.’ A note in the margin of the book reads: ‘Capt Hunt & Capt Bogle both killed.’….

GRAHAM SHARPE

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