SHARPE MIND: August Firsts

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 digs out some of the golden moments from the week between 15 August and 21 August.

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🗓️ AUGUST 15, 1720……RACING ROYALS…..Racing resumed at Ascot after a six year gap following the death of founder, Queen Anne……..230 years later to the day another racing-loving royal appeared – when our current Queen gave birth to her only daughter, Anne, the Princess Royal, who has, of course, raced and won under rules. In 2004 a horse called Princess Anne raced 7 times in the States, winning twice at Arlington, at 2/1 and 5/1.

AUGUST 15, 2007…….TOM WHACKS BRIT JOCKS…….It was an opinion…….and the Weekender writer, Tom Segal did not mind making it,even if it did not endear him to many jockeys; ‘In Britain we seem to think that jockeys are good if they whack their mounts really hard lots of times and win by a short head. The rest of the world is much more interested in jockeys who get horses to settle, run at an even pace and maximise their potential.’

AUG, 16, 1952….…DERBY WINNING DEFAULT….….Henry Glenister’s 1949 2000 Guineas and Derby winner, Nimbus, cost him 5000 guineas at Newmarket’s July Sales in 1947, and ran in his wife’s name. Best of those who ran in his own name, was 11 times winner, Sicavo. Tragically, on this date in 1952, Glenister, a salaried bank official, took his own life ‘at the wheel of his stationary car’. At the inquest it was revealed that he ‘was in default of a considerable sum of money’ from the bank where he was an assistant manager.

AUGUST 16, 1960…..…OBJECTIONABLE OUTCOME …For the first time on a British course the Camera Patrol film was used officially, having been called in by the York stewards when jockey Geoff Lewis, riding Viburnum, objected to Joe Mercer on Tender Word, who passed the post first in the Acomb Stakes, for ‘boring and taking my ground.’ The stewards watched the race on a projector in their room within six minutes of the incident – and delivered the verdict…..’objection overruled.’

AUG 17, 1898……FOLKESTONE IN FULL FLIGHT….. Racing began at Folkestone on this date – the course surviving until 2012. The racecourse was first used for aviation purposes in September 1910, when a flying meeting. Three aircraft were present, watched by a large crowd. Between 1940 and 1941 the racecourse was used as a decoy airfield with dummy aircraft placed to look like an active one.

AUG 17, 1995…ODDS-ON LUCA’S SIX-TIMER……Luca Cumani-trained filly, Larrocha started as 4/11 favourite to win the Galtres Stakes at York – the odds probably influenced by the fact that this was the 6th successive year that Cumani had saddled the winner of the race.

AUG 18, 1975……..BY GEORGE, FOR PETE’S STAKE…..…Stellemon was unplaced on the flat Leicester, and few racegoers or punters paid any attention to the lad who rode him – one Peter Scudamore, who would soon make everyone sit up and take notice of him over jumps…….on the same date five years later, Leicester was in the news as the Leicester City FC Stakes was won by two-year old, Spindrifter, the 11th consecutive win for the horse, who put his jockey George Duffield into the Guinness Book of Records during the season, in which he was beaten just once – when George wasn’t in the saddle.

AUGUST 18, 1989…..ROOKIE DOUBLE…….Two new trainers appeared on the scene – and both Ian Semple, at Perth, with Good Mood, and Henrietta Kinght with The Grey Gunner at Bangor got off the mark with their first runners.

AUGUST 19, 2002….…HEAD-TURNER HAYLEY…….Rookie jockey,Hayley Turner showed she was becoming a force to be reckoned with as she rode her first double on Blue Streak, 13/2, and Timeless Chick, 20/1, at Brighton.

AUGUST 19, 1967…….FIRST TO LAST…….Rookie jockey Pat Eddery’s first mount, True Time, at the Curragh, finished last. Undeterred, he stuck at it and eventually became champion jockey on 11 occasions, winning the Derby three times. He rode the winners of 4,632 British flat races, a figure exceeded only by Sir Gordon Richards. He was also awarded an OBE.

AUG 20, 1860…FLAT OUT CHAMPS……The first ever official champion flat jockey, in 1846, and also for the next six seasons, Nat Flatman died on this date, aged 50. He was buried under the tower of All Saints Church in Newmarket. A contemporary report said of him; ‘A good jockey by profession, rather than a brilliant horseman by intuition.’……exactly 111 years later, Willie Carson brought up his first century of winners in style – scoring a hat-trick at Haydock. He would become champion jockey for the first of five times, during the next season.

AUG 20, 2021…TWO OF A KIND?……Trainer Richard Hannon gave his verdict on his Lusail and jockey Pat Dobbs, unbeaten in three races on the horse, after they won the Gimcrack at York: ‘He’s laid-back like Dobbsy and the two of them go well together – neither of them really like people.’

AUG 21, 1897……QUEEN’S SHORT STORY…….Sabine Queen was fancied for the Londonderry Plate at Leopardstown, but disappointed and finished unplaced. Owner, Lt Col F F McCabe thought something was wrong with the course and lodged an objection that it was shorter than the advertised five furlongs. The Turf Club investigated and discovered that the course had indeed been 100 yards too short. The racecourse was fined and ordered to correct the distance.

AUG 21, 2021…DRAMATIC DAY FOR BOSSY FILLY……Two-year-old filly, Bold And Bossy, set to make her debut in the opener at Ellis Park in Kentucky on Saturday, August 21 unseated her rider, Migel Mena, then managed to get outside the racetrack, and ran loose on a nearby highway.

Trainer Michael Ann Ewing’s youngster was finally caught half an hour later, by “a gentleman and his wife.” The horse suffered superficial cuts. But the drama wasn’t over for Bold And Bossy…. as her weekend took another dramatic turn when the barn she was in at Ellis Park caught fire during the early hours of Sunday morning.

Firefighters arrived at 4.39am and fortunately all of the horses were succesfully rescued.

AUGUST 19, 1773….AND FINALLY……MIXED FORTUNES AT THE RACES…….The Morning Chronicle newspaper reported on an eventful race meeting at Barnet at which the rain fell so copiously that ‘as some tradesmen and their wives were returning to town from the races they were near being lost in the River Brent, which was swelled to such a height that it made a clear passage through the coach, and with difficulty the persons were saved.’

The same meeting saw a different but equally unpleasant experience for one ‘genteel young fellow, dressed in brown and a gold-laced hat, detected in picking a gentleman’s pocket of his purse, in which were about twenty guineas. The gentleman delivered him up to the populace, who ducked him severely in an adjacent pond.’
Not so fortunate was Mr Veltford, from Holborn. As he travelled home from the races he was ‘attacked on Finchley Common by a single highwayman, poorly mounted and shabbily dressed (would it have been any less of an ordeal had he been impeccably dressed and mounted, one wonders?), who robbed him of near £9 and his watch.’

GRAHAM SHARPE

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