Mainly for old knackers, see if you can drum up the answers. May I wish all members a very merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and kind wishes for the future. I know the quiz will test some and demand a bit of research. I hope you like it. Kind regards, John. 1. In the olden days, coaches and horses used to ride across the sands as the shortest route to the headland near this racecourse. Many perished, misjudging the ferocious high tide-likewise the cockle pickers in more recent times. The crowds flock here on Whit Saturday and Monday- originally the only two days racing each year. Which racecourse am I? 2. We went to school together and later holidayed regularly in France. My friend won a famous steeplechase in France and became a famous trainer, but I am the only jockey to have won both the Lincoln Handicap and the Grand National. Who are we? 3. I’m the smallest horse ever to win the Grand National- and the last entire. My jockey was the youngest to ever win the race, and he won two more Nationals in that same year. Who am I? 4. I finished first in two Classics but won neither. My owner’s family was hated- all caused by an iceberg. Who am I? 5. My mother won the Northumberland Plate, My dad won the Derby before me, My jockey suffered a cruel fate, Undefeated, I’m remembered every May on the Dee. Who am I? 6 . I competed and ‘bloomed’ at the top level for six years , winning fifteen big races. My dad won Europe’s top race and I was inducted into the American Horse Racing Hall Of Fame. Who am I? 7. I won seven on the reel as a novice hurdler. My rider was the man who lost his bet with his fellow Irish jockey in the 1964 Cheltenham Gold Cup. The following season I won the Champion Hurdle at big price – my trainer having won the race three years before. Who am I? 8. My brother married the daughter of a famous jockey known as the ‘head waiter.’ Their daughter married another famous jockey. I married the daughter of another famous jockey. Who am I? 9. I began my three year old campaign by carrying 6st 7lbs in the Lincolnshire Handicap- but lost by a head. I ran a total of twelve times that same season, winning six Stakes Races. I bruised my foot before the Epsom Derby ; was left at the start and could only finish fourth. My dad won the Derby and my mum was a full sister to that answer in question 5 above. I am held in the hand by royalty. Who am I? 10. I am in the town where the Romans kept dairy herds two thousand years ago. I have a stiff uphill finish , right handed within the walled course. I border the old Kingdom of Wessex and lie on the old Roman road. Which racecourse am I?
Hi Stick, Reebok, and Joe .Well done, your answers are correct, apart from Number 6 which isn't Ormonde.
7. Kirriemuir for your pal Fulke I can only think that 4 has a link to the Titanic that was owned by the Morgan family...........
Hi Bustino. All your answers correct. Stick, I'd actually given you that one, although you had said the wrong number. That leaves only 4 and 7 to answer.
Well done , Stick and Bustino. Stick, I think you’ll find that the Titanic was owned by the Ismay family who owned the White Star Line. Bustino, Merry Christmas to you and your family, and to you also, Stick. On a personal note, numbers 1 and 7 are quite close to my heart- for different reasons: Cartmel. I went there several times in my younger days, and I think it still has the longest run in from the last. The first time I went, I had a shilling each way on a local horse, Sannat Queen, which finished second of 7 runners at 100/7. The bookie said “win only” and wouldn’t pay me. I was 10 years old and my father did nothing about it. I still hate that bookie! The sands I refer to in my question belong to Morecambe Bay and, if you are ever in that area, you should go and watch the tide come in. In 1967, not long after Foinavon won his infamous National, my best friend took me to watch the tide come in not far from his home at Heysham. It really is an unbelievable and quite daunting experience.Even when the tide is out, you can walk in the wrong place and die in the quicksand. At high tide, the speed and swirl of that water is incredible. Kirriemuir. After winning seven off the reel, he failed in his bid to win the Champion Hurdle as a four year old. The following season, he really laboured in winning his prep. race at Wincanton and was allowed to start at 50/1 for his repeat bid. That Champion Hurdle produced the best finish in my lifetime.... Fluke Walwyn’s other runner, Exhibit A, jumped like a stag- as he had done when winning impressively at Sandown previously- and jumped the last marginally in front. As they landed, his stablemate, Kirriemuir, surged past him but was challenged ferociously by Spartan General and Terry Biddlecombe - and Peter Cazalet’s Worcran. In a four way finish, Kirriemuir held on grimly from Spartan General, with Worcran third and Exhibit A fourth.
Craganour would appear to be No. 4 – judged to have been beaten a head in the 1913 2000 Guineas; then disqualified after crossing the line first at Epsom in the Suffragette Derby. I cheated and looked this up: his owner Charles Ismay was son of the founder of the White Star Line most famously associated with the Titanic. I see that in the time it took me to get round to posting, Tamerlo has already congratulated you and stick on answering them all! Well done. Merry Christmas all.
Thanks for the quiz John (I couldn't answer a single one of them but then again: before my time) I wish you a Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy 2020
Hi Reebok, Oddy, and QuarterMoon. A very merry krimbo to you all. Oddy, as for being “before your time,” I used to wonder whether you were a night worker on the Kurfurstenstrasse - until someone told me you were the main attraction in Berlin’ s Tiergarten!. So I know you can’t be that young! Anyway, happy New Year to you all as well. A good old fashioned joke to finish.. Two of David Attenborough’ s cameramen were filming lions in the Kalahari Desert. As they closed in to get better shots, one of the lions turned, roared, and then charged at them. Quick as a flash, the main cameraman whipped off his shoes and put on a new pair of Nike trainers. “ They won’t help you outrun that lion,” scoffed his colleague. “ I don’t need to do that,” came the reply. “ All I need to do is outrun YOU !
