Arthur Budgett-Thanks For The Memory.

Ron, please post to "Articles."



The death on Tuesday evening of past trainer Arthur Budgett will for many evoke memories of his two Derby winners, Morston and Blakeney- and of his top miler, Derring Do.
For me however, it recalls an incident when a friend and I met up on our holidays in Blackpool.
Both of us were sixteen years old and had previously spent many happy holidays there as young children- when our parents installed us in some cheap boarding house close to Central Railway Station. Memories abound of breakfast with one egg, one rasher of bacon, one tomato, and watered down milk! Tiny rooms with worn out carpets and signs in the front window that advertised “Vacancies” or “No Vacancies”- or sometimes “Hot Running Water!”
As young kids, we didn’t care. All we wanted to do was paddle in the sea; ride the donkeys; play in the sand; and catch a tram to Bispham to go on the motor boats at Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Now, at sixteen, things were different.
Both of us were mad on horse racing, although we did spend most days in an arcade, playing the slot machines- mostly the horse racing machine where six coloured metal horses ‘jerked’ along a slot. If your horse won, your penny returned threepence. If you backed it for a place, you doubled your money. At one point, the game jammed and the blue number five horse won every time. Frantically we rammed as many pennies as we could into the ‘five slots’ before the race started, and ended up winning about a pound each- before the man came to fix the machine.
Needless to say, we gave it all back!
The day before we were due to go home, we decided to go along the Golden Mile, that interminable stretch of arcades, stalls, amusements, and fortune tellers.
That Gypsy Rosalie, she was red hot! Guess your age for sixpence.
I watched her guess the age of twenty people- by asking them to smile.
She was wrong once! Whether she did it ‘from the teeth’ or ‘wrinkles around the mouth’ I’ll never know.
My friend John suggested we go and see “The Two Headed Monster”- about the only thing we’d never viewed on the Golden Mile.
The large board outside claimed it was “A million years old and discovered in the Amazon.”
We paid our sixpence and trundled in. What did we find?
The biggest con in history! A dirty great big black, papier mache figure in a glass case!
We asked for our money back. The man forcibly told us to f-ck off.
Outside, I turned to my friend John and said.....
“Daylight robbery that place. In fact, the whole Golden Mile’s the same.”
The day after, we bought a Daily Express to look at the horses on the bus home.
It was the July Cup at Newmarket and Lester Piggott was riding the odds-on favourite, Matatina, for his father-in-law, Sam Armstrong.
Lower down the field, Scobie Breasley was riding Daylight Robbery for Arthur Budgett, priced at 100/8.
“John” I said to my friend. “ Daylight Robbery, it can’t lose. It has to be!”
On arriving home, we jumped off the bus and ran up the street to the bookies, ready to put a shilling on Scobie’s horse.
Alas, we were too late! As we entered, the voice boomed out over the loudspeaker..
“ Photo finish at Newmarket between Matatina and Daylight Robbery. Betting on the photo...nine to one on, Matatina.”
The favourite backers cheered, but it took twenty minutes for the result to come.
John and I winced and cursed- we KNEW the result before the race!
I’ll bet Arthur Budgett will smile if he looks down from above and reads this story.
Happy retirement, Arthur. Thanks for the memory.

 

Ahhh Tam, you old charmer you! A very nice story which has opened a window to places and times, the likes of which I can only imagine. Well done mate.

 

Great trainer and great owner/breeder. To have trained his own Windmill Girl to come so close to winning the Oaks, and then to breed from her two Derby winners takes some doing. His words to Eddie Hide in the paddock at Epsom were 'don't give him a hard race'. Because i liked Windmill Girl's offspring so much (she also bred a another decent colt in Alderney (by Alcide)) I backed him and there was a whole pile of faces staring at me as I shouted 'come on my son' in the television room at Uni. Sadly he never ran again.

Arthur's son carried on the breeding operation and they had a good filly in Shoot a Line. But it all soon petered out.

 

I did not know he had died - very sad. For my money Budgett's training of two home-bred Derby winners was the finest flat racing achievement in the second half of the last century.

 

Surprised there wasn't more on this thread and on Arthur's achievements. He really was a top trainer and to achieve what he did without spending a fortune was quite something. He maintained that Morston was the best horse he trained and an exceptional colt.
A couple of horses not mentioned:-
Huntercombe who won the Middle Park, July Cup and Nunthorpe and took over the top sprinting mantle from Song
Random Shot, who won the Ascot Gold Cup after the disqualification of Rock Roi and also surprisingly won the Chester Cup
Crisp and Even just off the top middle distance colt
Petty Officer a tough handicapper
Prominent an even tougher handicapper/group horse (ran 65 times!!!)
Dominion, his last good horse by his beloved Derring Do and a just off top class miler