SHARPE MIND: Grand Effort…

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 24 May and 30 May.

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▫️ OH, NOT AGAIN!… for Aidan O’Brien as his run of nine consecutive Irish Classic victories came to an end on MAY 24, 2009 as David Wachman-trained 5/2 favourite Again, won the 1000 Guineas – a first winning ride in the race for Johnny Murtagh, who became the first rider since 1946 to win both Irish Guineas in the same season. He won the 2000 Guineas on Mastercraftsman – trained by, yes, Aidan O’Brien. Also on MAY 24, 2009 Aidan’s 16 year old son Joseph made his racecourse debut as a jockey, unplaced on Coat Of Arms at the Curragh – hard to believe that merely eight years later in 2017, Joseph would be training his first Melbourne Cup winner, Rekindling.

▫️ SURPLICE TO REQUIREMENTS… Deciding to concentrate on his political career, including promoting his proposal that Parliament should take Derby Day off, Lord George Bentinck sold his horse Surplice to Edward Lloyd-Moston who, in turn, sold the Derby entered horse on to Lord Clifden who then celebrated on MAY 24, 1848 when Surplice won the Derby. Still, Bentinck did get his wish and for 40 years Parliament did adjourn on Derby Day.

▫️ WITHOUT A BACKWARD LOOK… Five racegoers were injured on MAY 25, 2009 in a freak accident at Goodwood, when a car being parked by a racecourse vet accelerated backwards through a protective rail and shot down a bank, colliding with other cars, some occupied. Racing was delayed for best part of an hour.

▫️ TRYNG HER BEST… Jockey Julie Bowker rode her first winner, Misha, at Doncaster on MAY 25, 1985. Asked after the race about her favourite recreation she replied; ‘Training with the St Helens rugby league team.’

▫️ DUCKING OUT… Spotted ‘picking a gentleman’s pocket’ at Epsom races, reported the Morning Chronicle on MAY 26, 1773, ‘a poor wretch was so severely ducked, that he could not have escaped with his life, but for the interposition of his Royal Highness, the Duke of Cumberland, who displayed upon this occasion a humanity that must endear him to all considerate Englishmen’. It obviously wasn’t HIS pocket that was picked!

▫️ QUOTE OF THE WEEK… Owner-gambler and MP, Horatio Bottomley, who won £50,000 backing his 20/1 Stewards Cup winner Northern Farmer in 1899, and who died on MAY 26, 1933, was once asked by a Judge during a court case, ‘You keep racehorses, I believe?’, and he answered: ‘No…….they keep me……’

▫️ HERE’S TODAY’S NUDES… Four female members of Hereford racecourse staff – names withheld to spare their blushes (!) – appeared in a Racing Post of MAY 27, 2007, photograph, clad in hats and, apparently, nothing else – promoting the track’s forthcoming Ladies’ Day.

▫️ KEEPING MUM… Natalie Gemelova, 29, rode Cativo to finish 4th at Lingfield on MAY 27, 2009- just nine weeks after giving birth to daughter Nicole on March 21. ‘I’ve found being a mother harder than being a jockey’ she commented after the race.

▫️ FIRST COINCIDENCE PUNTER?… A ‘beaming’ Poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson, explained that he had staked £5 on 20/1 Sir Bevys, winner of the 100th anniversary Derby, run on MAY 28, 1879, ‘because Sir Bevys was the hero of one of my early poems.’

▫️ LESTER FINED HALF A MILLION… He rode a double at Capannelle in Rome, on MAY 28, 1994, but Lester Piggott was then fined for failing to make the weight on another intended mount. He blanched when told the fine was half a million, but was relieved to learn that it was in lira – worth about two hundred quid in sterling.

▫️ GRAND EFFORT… Champion jump jockey, Richard Dunwoody, set off from the Bedford Lodge Hotel in Newmarket on MAY 29, 2009, in a successful bid to walk 1000 miles in 1000 hours to raise cash for four charities.

▫️ DOGGONE HARSH… The racecard for the meeting at Sheffield & Rotherham on MAY 29, 1777, contained this uncompromising warning to racegoers; ‘All persons are desired to keep their dogs at home; and if any be found upon the Race-ground, it is hoped the populace will destroy them.’

▫️ NO MORE QUAY… Over 8000 racegoers attended the meeting at Torquay held at Easter, 1940 – which turned out to be the final one ever run there as on MAY 30, 1943 Hitler’s bombs did for the track, destroying the grandstand, weighing room and stabling block in an air-raid.

▫️ LOCH ON SONG… Flying filly Lochsong, dubbed the Queen of Speed by Frankie Dettori, romped home in Sandown’s 5 furlong Temple Stakes on MAY 30, 1994, after which the Italian compared her to a certain Olympic Gold Medal-winning sprinter as he dubbed her ‘Linford without the lunchbox.’

▫️ AND FINALLY… WHAT A LEG-END… Jockey Benjamin Smith, winner of six St Legers, died on MAY 27, 1835 aged 65. He once won on Ironside at York, despite breaking his leg after being kicked by a horse before the race started.

GRAHAM SHARPE

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