Blame bad weather and Mill Reef
The importance of racehorses
Only the Queen, Jesus Christ and racehorses have two birthdays each year.
My interest in horseracing
I had no interest in any kind of sport at school. I actually hated it because I was useless at it. In 1970 (just over a year after leaving school), I was on one of my then-regular holidays in Montrose when, uncharacteristically, it rained the whole time. So I was stuck indoors and ended up watching the horseracing on TV. My interest in the sport was sparked by two things.
- I got lucky with some small bets that I placed to sustain an interest, having braved the rain to get to the bookmakers and back again.
- I saw an amazing performance by a young horse called Mill Reef, little knowing just what an impact he would make in the years to come, first on the racecourse and later at stud.
After that, I was hooked on horseracing. I learned that I could enjoy sport as a spectator but although I have since taken an interest in a variety of spectator sports, horseracing remains my favorite.
If I were to discuss all or even a fraction of the horses I remember fondly, I would go on forever, but I mention some of them in my reviews of horseracing books and I expect future reviews to provide an opportunity to remember others. Suffice to say here that in the seventies I followed racing at all levels, so my memories from that decade include handicappers of varying ability, though mostly the better ones.
I followed horseracing most avidly in the seventies, when I often visited racecourses at weekends, some of them several times. I had an ambition to visit all of them at least once, but I wasn't in any hurry to do so. After all, I was still in my twenties and had plenty of time, but as things turned out, I still haven't visited them all. There are five racecourses unvisited by me and still in business including the relatively new one at Ffos Las. Another racecourse opened at Great Leighs but closed again due to financial problems before I could visit it, and is unlikely to re-open. I missed my chance to visit two other racecourses that closed in the late seventies, although I believe there have been attempts to re-open Lanark. Of the racecourses I have visited, Teesside Park is the only one that has closed so far. It was sold to property developers who built a shopping mall on the site. In July 2012, Hereford announced that it would close permanently. At the same time, Folkestone announced that it would close, but intends to re-open at a later date.
After I went freelance in the eighties, I didn't have much time to go racing as I often worked away from home and the weekends were usually taken up with basic functions, although I managed to visit some racecourses that I hadn't previously been to. Since then I have been out of work for most of the time, so apart from the period when I was working, I haven't had money to do all the things I'd like. Nevertheless, I moved to the Midlands to look for work and that allowed me to visit most of the racecourses I hadn't already visited, and I visited two more during my last job.
These days, as far as the actual racing itself goes, I only get excited about the big races and the trials that give clues to future big races, but I also like to follow the international scene, which is very different from how it was in the seventies. I follow the races on the radio or in a betting shop where they show races on TV. I also buy the occasional book on the subject. The betting shops don't get much business out of me; my last bet was on Sea the Stars in the 2009 Derby, and the one before was some years earlier.
When I am pensioned off, I will have more money to spend, but still not the kind of money I had when I was in a job. Still, I expect that I will spend some of that extra money on horseracing, though I doubt whether I'll attempt to visit all of the five racecourses currently operating that remain unvisited by me, as my priorities have changed so much since those days and none of the five are easy for me to get to by public transport from Leicester. The table below lists all British racecourses that have been in business at some time since 1971.
| Visited by me | ||
|---|---|---|
| Aintree | Ascot | Ayr |
| Bangor-on-Dee | Bath | Beverley |
| Brighton | Carlisle | Cartmel |
| Catterick Bridge | Cheltenham | Chepstow |
| Chester | Doncaster | Epsom Downs |
| Exeter | Goodwood | Hamilton Park |
| Haydock Park | Hereford | Hexham |
| Huntingdon | Kelso | Kempton Park |
| Leicester | Lingfield Park | Ludlow |
| Market Rasen | Musselburgh | Newbury |
| Newcastle | Newmarket | Newton Abbot |
| Nottingham | Perth | Plumpton |
| Pontefract | Redcar | Ripon |
| Salisbury | Sandown Park | Sedgefield |
| Southwell | Stratford-on-Avon | Taunton |
| Teesside Park | Thirsk | Towcester |
| Uttoxeter | Warwick | Wetherby |
| Wincanton | Windsor | Wolverhampton |
| Worcester | Yarmouth | York |
| Not visited by me but still in business | ||
| Fakenham | Ffos Las | Folkestone |
| Fontwell Park | Hamilton Park | |
| Not visited by me and too late now | ||
| Great Leighs | Lanark | Wye |
No comments:
Post a Comment