I've no idea. If I could think of a connection I would say it was Tied Cottage and Master Smudge. Probably the most controversial disqualification. But I can't.
Afraid not. I started reading that article but bloody dog's upstairs barking like mad because I haven't gone to bed. I suppose it is 1.00 so I think I'll turn in. I'll have another go tomorrow. Sleep tight.
Congratulations on your 1,000 Experience Points Tam. Double celebration; I just got my 10,000. Can't bear the excitement. Now I am off to bed. Good night.
Solution: The reason some say Humpty had a great fall......he got a "push." "Endlessly gutted and gorged" ...synonym for those two words is "full"- take off the end = "ful" Answer = "Pushful." second horse..." Namesake's grip" ...is a "scissors grip" ....to cut off the balls of 'the stewards' ( just for effect in the riddle) Answer = "Scissors." NB. Scissors, owned by Anne Biddle and ridden by Liam Ward, won the 1963 Timeform Trophy, but was disqualified in favour of Pushful, owned by steward, Lionel Brook Holiday. A very controversial and bad decision, in my view. Apologies if it was too awkward.
I am pleased that Tamerlo has put us out of our misery as I would not have got it in a million years. I have never heard of scissors being called grips and I have never heard of the race incident in question. When I looked at the use of the Humpty Dumpty words, I made the mistake of noticing that “King’s horses” was missing and did not think cryptically enough! I suppose the sixties was “long ago” to those of us born then! FulkesFestival40, it should not be possible to mix up horses accidentally these days as all horses in training are micro-chipped and have passports so that they can be identified. I wonder how many times in the early history of racing gambles were successfully hatched involving substitution of one horse for another older one. It is not inconceivable that Maccabeus was not the only four year old to ‘win’ a Classic in the Victorian era. He was just the one that was found out.
" I remember writing an essay at school on the Suffragettes and I seem to recall reporting that Aboyeur went on to win by a sh hd at 100/1. " As someone who spent most of their O Level history lesons reading the Sporting life I absolutely love this comment - that's a proper sports fan that is!
Ron, I'd certainly think hard about posting another riddle, and I'd take your advice about 'making it easier' if I did. However, I was surprised that this riddle confounded everyone. I thought that 'my namesake's grip' would be the giveaway- anyone who looked up 'types of grip' in a thesaurus would find that there aren't that many, and that scissors grip/scissors hold is one of them. Yes, I accept that the first clue, 'push,' turned out to be too difficult- once you hadn't heard the popular joke that Humpty Dumpty was 'pushed.' Anyway, Ron, top marks for effort and tenacity!
In a bizarre aside to this thread - there was a newspaper tipster in the 60's called Riddle-me-ree (Daily Mail I think) who's selections were always printed in the form of a riddle