Thursday 24 December 2015

Christmas Eve Thursday December 24, 2015.


  
 
GLOBAL HORSERACING 
Your adventure into the world of Global Horseracing
a warm welcome to Nicholas Godfrey  2015.


 
 
Image result for small pic candle


COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS 
 2015
Preparing Christmas Food
A busy time in every global kitchen.
 
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE.

RICK STEIN


 

Sacred Sunday December 20 2015, get your Racing Post’s Big Read every Sunday included in your Racing Post, you won’t be disappointed.
 
Monday December 21, 2015 Racing Post 
JMC: Yesterday’s Big Read focus was about the present life and times of Gary Moore British Jumps trainer, who went close to losing his life when kicked by one of his horses in training a few days back,  interviewed by Peter Thomas, for the Racing Post.

Quote Moore: “I was a bit worried when I had to go into intensive care but a couple of days of morphine and I didn’t feel too bad. ”



 
 
PLUS: ON LOCATION FOR THE RACING POST NICHOLAS GODFREY BRINGS NEWS: About Epsom Flat Turf Trainer Simon Dow who has recently moved his horses in training to Thirty Acre Barn, in a bid to revitalise his training career. (Staff Ingham’s training home base from 1947 to 1977.” Geoff Lewis taking over after.

Dow, “There’s so much history here you can almost feel it. If this place is haunted, it’ll be him for sure, “ grin’s Dow.

JMC: Photograph of what we used to call “The Cinder Track”. Now looks like a decent “All Weather Surface Track.”  

Persian Bold was the last yearling that Ingham bought in Ireland, at a time when his health was causing him problems, letting him down, causing hospital care sometimes. When he came home from hospital just before he died, he would walk out to watch Persian Bold at exercise driven in the long reins, learning to become an athlete, learning to change the pace, to change the rein. Swing to the left, swing to the right, walk, trot, canter, wow ... steady up. Learning to understand the words used by his daily handler, tutor work rider, Eugene Clarke (Group 1) true top professional bloodhorse literate achiever in his own right working every day, and every year with the yearlings, the 2 year olds, the apprentices, guiding them every step of the way. No matter what the weather.

When each yearling was ready for a rider they soon join the older horses in training at exercise second and third lot every morning, colts at the front, fillies at the back of string. You try to bring a yearling, 2 year old divine mercy every day, to bring these beautiful  creatures trust and peace.  The same should apply with little children. As our Queen Elizabeth 11 and her true American horseman friend Monty Roberts, the author of the book: The  Man who Listens to Horses, showing us so clearly the way.
 The Man Who Listens to...1996

EXCITING TIMES FOR EUGENE AND TEAM (Tony) INGHAM WITH PERSIAN BOLD.
Sadly Staff Ingham didn't live to see him race.
1976 - 1979:

 

Pedigree for Persian Bold, photos and offspring from the All Breed Horse Pedigree Database.

Persian Bold - Sporting Life www.sportinglife.com › Racing › Profiles › Persian Bold

Persian Bold. Sex: Brown Horse; Sire: Bold Lad (IRE); Dam: Relkarunner ... Persian Bold Progeny Stats ... Noble Persian (IRE) (Combined), 3, 0, 0, 0, 0.0, -3.0.
PERSIAN BOLD, a high-class racehorse and sire of Kooyonga and Persian Heights, has died at Corbally Stud in Co Kildare, his home since he retired from ...
Persian Bold’s sire Bold Lad (IRE) dam Relkarunner

Kooyonga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kooyonga was an Irish champion Thoroughbred racehorse who raced from 1990 to 1992. ... She stayed in training as a four-year-old and became the second filly (after ... Kooyonga was trained throughout her career by Michael Kauntze at ...


Trainer Michael Kauntze | Big Race Wins | Racing Post

www.racingpost.com/horses/trainer_home.sd?trainer...topTrainerTabs=tr...
10+ items - Trainer Michael Kauntze's big race wins. Data includes race ...
RACE NAME
DATE
PRIZE MONEY.
Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (Grade 1)
29Oct94
£83,784.
Blandford Stakes (Group 2)
15Oct94
£21,905.
 
Lake Coniston | Highclere Thoroughbred Racing
Lake Coniston, by the sprinting sire Bluebird out of a mare by Persian Bold, was bought by John Warren at Tattersalls October sales for just 22,000 gns. Events ...
   

Damsire, Persian Bold ... Owner, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Ltd ... 1991 – May 2014) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire.

 
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Heights

Persian Heights (29 April 1985 – 18 March 1993) was a British ... His sire, Persian Bold was a successful racehorse who won the Richmond Stakes in 1977.

 
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toormore

Toormore (foaled 19 March 2011) is an Irish-bred British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. He was one of .... 1990, Persian Bold, Bold Lad (IRE). Relkarunner.

 
 
 Ballabriggs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballabriggs

... Grand National-winning National Hunt racehorse trained by Donald McCain, Jr. in Cholmondeley, Cheshire and ... D'Azy 1984, Persian Bold, Bold Lad (IRE).
 

    
 
 
Colin Tizzard,  jumps trainer told us live on CH4 racing on Saturday about the new barn's he has built for his horses, and what a difference it has made.


SIMON DOW
(bloodhorse literate achiever  in his own right)


THE INDEPENDENT 27 JANUARY 1999
27 Jan 1999 - ... there were approximately 520 professional racehorse trainers in Britain. ... the accounts book as seriously as the form book is Simon Dow.

TIMELINE: 1947 – 2017 = 70 years.
JMC: Over these last 70 years ( two years to go yet, time span used here) it is estimated that 96 per cent of all owners are bloodhorse illiterate, further it is estimated that government, government regulators and  government disciplinary officials are mostly all bloodhorse illiterate as well, all taking top wages out of  “British Horseracing’s Financial Pot” . Whilst the true bloodhorse literate handler riders are being locked into dishonest third world government minimum wage scams.

TIMELINE: STAFFORD INGHAM

THIRTY ACRE BARN  SHEPHERDS WALK  EPSOM DOWNS:
 1947 –  1977

 

TIMELINE: GEOFF LEWIS


THIRTY ACRE BARN  SHEPHERDS WALK  EPSOM DOWNS

1979  - 1999
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Lewis
Bloodhorse Literate Achiever in His Own Right.
Geoff Lewis retired as a jockey in 1979, after which he applied for a trainer's licence and began to train at Thirty Acre Barn, near Epsom racecourse. He trained ... 
Geoff Lewis retired as a jockey in 1979, after which he applied for a trainer's licence and began to train at Thirty Acre Barn, near Epsom racecourse.[3] He trained almost 500 winners before his retirement to Spain in 1999. In 2014 he moved back to Cranleigh, to be near his daughter in Ewhurst.

Lake Coniston | Highclere Thoroughbred Racing 


GEOFF LEWIS (GB) AT 80
Racing Post Monday December 21, 2015.  Brough Scott Interview pages 8 – 9.
Brough Scott talks to the former top jockey who celebrates his 80th birthday today.


 

“The hotel pageboy who achieved undying fame

in the saddle of mighty Mill Reef.. “
“BY THE time Geoff Lewis stepped up for the interview, he was already the
best-loved stutter in racing.
 
“This was 1971, Mill Reef had just won the British Derby, and the question was a stuffy one. Why, the jockey was asked had he shown such “punch-in-the-air” emotion at the winning post?

“Wh-what’s the p-p-p-point of having e-e-emotions,” said Geoff, “if you never e-e-effing show them?” said Geoff, “
“As so often with Lewis, there was quite a bit more to it than that. A month before the Derby he had endured the most disappointing moment of his racing life when Mill Reef had been beaten by Brigadier Gerard in the 2000,Guineas. Two races later things got decidedly worse when his horse came down a mile from home and there was such a delay with the ambulance that it was almost midnight before he was examined at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon.  They thought he had broken his neck.
“In fact he had ’only’ trapped a  nerve, but the damage kept him in hospital for four days and  has limited his left hand ever since. Undeterred, Lewis was in the saddle seven days later and rode a horse for Noel Murless at Brighton 11 days after Newmarket, to win.
“Examination of Lewis’s ride on Mill Reef at Epsom and he pair’s subsequent stellar progress in the Eclipse, the King George and Arc still leaves you full of admiration. But study how the little man from Wales got to the Derby winner’s circle and you can only shake your head in astonishment.


Examination of Lewis’s ride on Mill Reef at Epsom and the pair’s subsequent stellar progress in the Eclipse, the King George and Arc still leaves you full of admiration. But study how the little man from Wales got to the British Derby winner’s circle and you can only shake your head in astonishment.

 
“Lewis was born 80 years ago on December 21 in the small town of Talgarth on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. He was the sixth of 13 children . In the war years four older siblings were in the services and in 1945 the remaining family moved to Shepherd’s Bush, where his father had work as a painter and decorator, and Lewis and his remaining brother’s scoured  the bomb sites for odd bits of furniture to make scooters and karts.

 
“There was absolutely no connection with racing but on Derby day 1950 the tiny Welsh boy an two other kids got a bus from Shepherd’s Bush to Malden to link with another to Epsom Downs.

“There was a queue 50 yards long. “ he remembers, “so I said lets go on to the next stop, but that also had a long queue so we finished up walking six miles to get to the racetrack, and just when we reached the stand the race was off. I couldn’t see a thing [at 14 he was not five foot and scarcely four stone], and this big feller picked me up and put me on his shoulders. Rae Johnstone on the French horse Galcador beat Harry Carr a neck on the favourite Prince Simon. We walked back into Epsom and got on a train.”

 
“Something must have stuck in the little mite’s memory because eight months later he had an idea. Lewis was in his first job as a pageboy at the Waldorf Hotel and was hating it. “I came home and told my mum and dad the famous jump jockey Tim Molony had been in the hotel and he’d told me that with my size I ought to go to Epsom to be an apprentice.


“I’d made this up but they’d heard of a Tim Molony and wrote off to Victor Smyth, who said that he was full but his cousin  Ron Smyth would take me. “!

 
“It was certainly different from the Waldorf. “I’d seen Welsh ponies but had not sat on a horse, “ says Lewis.

 
“At Ron’s I didn’t get on the pony until April, nor a racehorse until August and that was only on the roads. I had a month’s trial and then five years apprenticeship; ten shillings a week the first year, £1 for the second then up to £3 a week when you finished your time.

 
“In those days you got nothing if you rode for your guv’nor and if you  rode for anyone else he got 50 per cent. It might sound tough but it was fine by me.

 
“Apart from the horses Lewis excelled at two qualities easily instilled into small boys in large families in chapel-filled wartime Wales-scrapping and singing. Once he reached the 4st 9lb minimum weight the young Lewis went on to win 15 stable lads’ boxing  cups and his rendering of Bless This House was renowned  enough to have him shipped up to London for a special performance one Christmas.

.






TIMELINE: SIMON DOW:

THIRTY ACRE BARN  SHEPHERDS' WALK  EPSOM DOWNS
2015 -
 

JMC: A TRUE CHRISTMAS STORY OF LOVE AND HOPE

SIMON DOW has moved his 24-string a mile and a half from Clear Height Stable, adjacent to the racecourse, down Langley Vale to the more peaceful environs of historic Thirty Acre Barn, leading off Shepherds Walk, just down the bridle path from Ermyn Lodge”, where Old Man Sutcliffe trained his racehorses. We used to call him Old Man Sutcliffe so as we didn’t get muddled up with the racehorses trained by Young Man Sutcliffe.

 
“Make no mistake : this was a major decision for Dow, who yearns to revitalise his training career after a quarter of a century at Ron Smyth’s old yard, literally across the road from the Epsom grandstand. Fortunately, the transition to the former base of Epsom legend Staff Ingham and Geoff Lewis, and more recently Roger Teal, seems to have been quite painless. “We had two horseboxes going back and forth and we rode a few here, so it was quite a complex task for a little team like ours’ reports the trainer, an immensely popular figure in Epsom. All the horses were moved in about four hours, which was a tribute to all the people who helped us.”

 

“Neither the office nor Doe himself have moved in yet, but at least the horses – and the trainers greyhound Billy – seem content enough. “They’re relaxed and comfy, “ “reports Dow a youthful 54. “It does take the edgy ones a while to get used to new surroundings – the ones who get stressed think they’re at the races and waiting to run but  now they’re getting used to the noises and sounds. It’s got a nice sort of calm aura.. “

 

“We are chatting in front of a row of spacious black and white boxes lit by ornamental lamps: even on a drab, misty grey morning, it is a scene richly redolent of Epsom’s post-war heyday. One hopes, for the sake of Dow’s staff, that the ghost of that legendry martinet Staff Ingham - about as far from the personable Dow as may be imagined - is an infrequent visitor.


“If this place is haunted, It’ll be him for sure,” grins Dow  “There is so much history here that you can almost feel it  as you walk around the place. You can almost feel the souls of the individuals and the horses who used to inhabit the boxes. It’s unusual. When I was 16 and working for Mick Haynes at Tattenham Corner, Geoff Lewis had just retired from riding and started here. It’s amazing that I’m here myself now.

“We’ve got 24 boxes available, which is all I want,” adds the trainer, who is renting the yard from owners John and Rebecca Morton. These ones are lovely big boxes and they’re south- facing so they get the sun first thing in the morning. Geoff used to have his fillies here. Clear Heights was a purpose- built quadrangle , a very functional yard. Horses were looking at each other but here they’re looking out, Mine think they’ve gone from living in the Scrubs to Putney!”

 
“Dow’s relocation brought an immediate dividend: on his first day saddling runners from his new base, one of his horses was beaten a short head; two days later, long term servant Forceful Appeal got him off the mark at Lingfield. However, and with no disrespect intended to the horses who have kept the ship afloat for the last decade or so, Dow is passionate about upgrading his operation. A pivotal factor behind the move is his passionate desire to get back to where he was in the 1990’s, when stable star Young Ern won a couple of Grade 3s. “It’s too long since Young Ern “ he admits. “But wasn’t I lucky to have him? I had him too soon – he got beat a short head in a Group 1 giving 5lb to Cherokee Rose, who went on to win the Haydock Sprint Cup, and I thought it was a bad day!”
 

“In some respects, Dow has learned the hard way as his numbers dwindled to single  figures not so long ago. “It’s been a rollercoaster but if you do something for 30 years

There are going to be great times and terrible time, “ he reflects.

 “We had some very lean years. If you’re only training ordinary horses you do lose a bit of enthusiasm. There’s not much incentive to get up … when you’re training nine or ten winners a year you’re running just to stand still. You’ve got to come to work feeling you can touch the bottom financially. A couple of stupid things happen and before you know it, your financially crippled. “


“Instead of contemplating his navel , Dow decides to take positive action. “I’m taking a risk but I want to raise the bar,” says a trainer brimful of zest for the new challenge. “I’ve always thought I’d probably die in harness but I don’t want to train Class 5 and 6 horses exclusively to try to win £1,500 at the weekend. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the job – I love it – but there’s almost no point in doing that at this point of my life.

“I have to achieve at a higher standard like those glory years in the 1990’s when we had a number of decent horses. “

“And this is a man with a plan. Dow’s long-term ambition is to run a boutique-style operation of higher grade horses.  “We’ve got people who are invested with us and the idea is to produce a better quality animal, ” he says. “I know it sounds corny, like the X Factor, but you need clients who want to come on the same journey with you, It’s like playing snakes and ladders – there are times when the ladder collapses and your back down the bottom again but you’ve got to build the blocks and keep climbing up.

 
“The way to draw people in is to win races and we’ve got three or four nice yearlings to look forward to and a bit of depth among the older horses, “ he adds. “The question for us is whether we can continue what we’ve done on the all-weather for the last few years; you go into the wilderness for three months and come the autumn you start to recover.”
 
“Hence the move across town. It’s a choice as opposed to being forced,”  he says. “I could have stayed on at Clear Heights and who knows what would have been the  “ says Dowoutcome? But I’m not sure there’s sense in staying in the same place if you want another go. “In some ways it’s a massive wrench to leave a place with so many happy memories but Ron and his ]wife] Mary passed away and I was getting to the stage I was nearly married to the place. I thought if I don’t move now, I never will. ”
 

“As such, it is not so much “escape to the country “  as “Location, Location, Location”: only the distant drone of the M25 suggests we are in the shadow of the capital as we look down the property’s showpiece circular downhill gallop. “Staff Ingham had this put in to replicate the decline to Tattenham Corner,” says Dow; that’s probably why Ingham’s juvenile runners at Epsom were the stuff of bookies’ nightmares.
   
“This will be more appropriate place to train young horses further away from the frenetic urbanisation of Epsom, “ he adds, before outlining his plans to transform the yard, including a designated owners’ room and a cafĂ©-style area for breakfast and morning coffee. “I can really see a patio just here for owners and visitors,” he says. “In the spring and summer I can see this is going to be a lovely place for people to come and see their horses. We’re part of the leisure industry, though we’re offering an unusual form of leisure recreation through racehorse ownership. I want to give my clients what they want out of horseracing via a personalised service.

 

“This is a structured plan, “ he adds. “We’ve come out of the woodwork and it’s a question of seeing how far we can get. It’s a very exciting time of my life and I have to drive this, because it’s my passion. If you’d said to me when I was 18,  in 2015 you’ll be training at Thirty Acre Barn and would’ve trainer 600-odd winners and met all these amazing people, then I’d have said what a life that would’ve been. But now I feel unfulfilled and there’s a lot more I want to achieve.

 

“But it doesn’t matter if you’re the best football manager in the world, if your team keeps hitting the crossbar you’ll get sacked. You’ve got to have the right ammo but there used to be regular Epsom runners in good races and there’s no reason why it can’t happen again. Watch this space. “

 

“I’ve got more energy than I’ve had in years,” he adds – and this remember, is coming from a school boy athletics champion who was once the youngest trainer in Britain. “I feel very optimistic,” he says. “If you make sweeping statements, you can end up looking silly, but we’ll give it our best shot and the people around me are committed.

 

“Mind you, it wouldn’t be Dow if he didn’t offer a self-deprecating sub-clause. “We’re trying to do something different, something better, “ he says. But the minute you start thinking everything’s good, that’s when the wheels drop off. I’ll probably never train another winner!”

 

“Or maybe he will. On Wednesday, the day after my visit, Dow saddles Hombre Rojo to win the opener at Lingfield, beating two-year-olds-trained by John Gosden and Godolphin, among others. Wonder if that’s the kind of thing he’s talking about?


 
 
 TIMELINE:

MIDDLE EAST MALE WAR CRIMES  

All these Horrific Male Murderers'  need  Gelding.

YOUR LIFETIME JOURNEY :

JMC: HOW ARE WE BRINGING UP OUR CHILDREN?


Parents guide their young ones from birth,  ongoing throughout their school day prep, career direction, before launching them into the cruel hardship of life in the real world in 2015. 


When did your parents give you your true life back after guiding you through your school - career direction days? 


Do you own your own journey throughout your own lifetime?
Or are you someone else's slave? 

Join - up 

ONE MOMENT IN TIME