SHARPE MIND: Grand Day for Eddie

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 2 May and 8 May.

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MAY 2, 1984……….HILL’S TOPS….Trainer Barry Hills sent out his 900th winner, Gildoran, ridden by Steve Cauthen in Ascot’s Sagaro Stakes on May 2, 1984. He would hit 3000 in April, 2009, before officially ending his career in August 2011. Made no secret of enjoying a flutter, claiming that he turned a £60,000 betting profit during 1996. Won two 1000 and 2000 Guineas Classics and his Sir Harry Lewis won the 1987 Irish Derby.

MAY 2, 1992……WONDER WHY?……A record total stake of $1,460,470 was gambled on ‘wonder horse’, Arazi to win the Kentucky Derby as the Francois Boutin-French-trained runner went off 9/10 favourite, but finished only 8th, making him the worst-placed odds-on favourite in the event’s history. Arazi had won the previous season’s Breeders Cup Juvenile in almost unbelievable fashion, cruising through the field to victory. Arazi did win again in France, but ended his career with a disappointing 11th in the 1992 Breeders Cup Mile. He died in 2021, aged 32.

MAY 3, 1973……WHITBREAD TRAGEDY……26 year old jockey , Doug Barrott had taken a crashing fall from French Colonist during the Whitbread Gold Cup at Newcastle on April 28. He never regained consciousness and died on this date. And in 1954 on this date popular Aussie jockey Scobie Breasley fractured his skull in a fall at Alexandra Park, which paralysed his eyes and destroyed his sense of balance. Amazingly, he returned to the saddle some months later. He retired in 1968 to begin training. He died in 2006.

MAY 3, 1967……..MOORE GUINEAS FOR GEORGE……The 2000 Guineas was the first British Classic in which starting stalls were used, and the two French runners – used to such devices – broke quickly, but 10/3 joint favourite Royal Palace under George Moore, came through to win by a short head for trainer Noel Murless.
May 4, 1996…..SIX OF THE BEST…….Trainer D. Wayne Lukas saddled his record sixth consecutive winner of Triple Crown races when he won the Kentucky Derby with Grindstone in front of 142,668 spectators.

May 4, 2019…….TRUMP’S DERBY VERDICT….…‘The Kentuky (sic) Derby decision was not a good one. It was a rough and tumble race on a wet and sloppy track, actually. A beautiful thing to watch. Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did not win the Kentucky Derby – not even close!’……tweet on May 4, 2019 from President Trump after long-time leader Maximum Security, a 9/2 shot, passed the post in front, ahead of 2nd placed Country House, a 65/1 chance, only to be controversially disqualified for drifting off a straight line earlier in the race – the first time this had happened in 145 runnings of the event.

MAY 5, 2019……KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY…..It happened in 1888 when father and son Tom Cannon junior and senior both contested the 1000 Guineas and St Leger, but no father and son had raced against each other in a Classic since then, until 19 year old David Egan was 3rd on Qabala and dad, John 12th on Garrel Glen in the 2019 1000 Guineas at Newmarket on this date.

MAY 5, 2005…….TED THE SLASHER….Known as ‘The Slasher’ – allegedly because of the frequency with which he won on outsiders who needed a little persuasion to give of their best, US jockey Ted Atkinson died aged 88 on this date. He was leading jockey there in 1944 and 46, amassing a career total of 3795 winners from 23,661 rides.

MAY 6, 1965…GRAND DAY FOR EDDIE….Jockey Eddie Hide rode his 1000th winner on Three Six at Ayr. The Derby & Oaks winning rider retired in 1986, with 2593 winners to his credit, the highest total for a jockey who had never been Champion.

MAY 6, 1910…MAJESTIC WAY TO GO.. King Edward VII’s love of racing remained steadfast to the very end. His dying words, on May 6, 1910, came after his son, who was about to become King George V, had informed him of the victory that afternoon of the King’s horse Witch Of The Air in the 4.15 at Kempton Park: “Yes, I have heard of it. I am very glad.”

MAY 7, 2002….SLEW THE LEGEND…..Twenty five years to the day since winning the Kentucky Derby, US Triple Crown winner, Seattle Slew died, one of only two horses to win the race having been previously undefeated – Justify was the other in 2018. The 1977 Kentucky Derby was the 103rd running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on May 7, 1977, with 124,038 people in attendance.

MAY 7, 2021………FRANKIE’S CONTINUING APPEAL……Frankie Dettori enjoyed his second Chester Cup vicory, as he booted home Falcon Eight – having won it for the first time THIRTY years earlier on Star Appeal in 1991.

MAY 8, 2011……GRISLY GOINGS ON……The magazine which prides itself on chronicling matters bizarre and inexplicable, Fortean Times, told readers in its issue 280 of a four year old, bay thoroughbred horse with a white star on its head, which had met a truly grisly end, as reported by the Australian Queensland Times in May, 2011:
The horse ‘had its head skinned after being shot through the heart in its paddock near Esk, Queensland, sometime between May 8 and 12 May.’

However there was no sign of the skin at the scene, and a police spokesman commented: ‘It was someone who was quite skilled, who knew what they were doing.

MAY 8, 1915……NO REGRETS FOR FILLIES……For the first time a filly, Regret, won the Kentucky Derby, and that didn’t happen again for another 65 years when Genuine Risk landed the race, followed at a shorter interval by Winning Colors in 1988.

AND FINALLY…….NOWHERE TO HYDE AT ASCOT…….MAY 6, 1991……..Wilfrid Hyde-White a British character actor of stage, film and television, died on this date, six days before his 88th birthday – without ever solving a personal 56 year old racing mystery…. In 1935 Wilfrid went for a stroll around the Ascot racecourse a short while before the Royal meeting was due to take place.

As they walked, he and a friend began to experience the apparition of a race meeting actually taking place. They heard the sounds of a racecourse going on around them, and listened, stunned, as a voice began to announce runners and riders for the afternoon – a system which had yet to be introduced.

While the astonished pair wondered what was going on, they even heard the names of winning horses being announced.

Despite being a racing man, Hyde White did not recognise any of the names of the phantom winners but made a note of them.

For years after, he made a point of checking racecards for the names of these Ascot ‘winners’ but he sadly had never had the ghost of chance of backing any of them before he died.

GRAHAM SHARPE

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