Get yer head in the door there with Pat and give us all the inside info although you're already doing that recently Well done with the bet btw.
Good man! I spent many a happy summer in blackwater village, parents had a mobile home there.some of the local lads didnt take to us dubs though lol.A few of my mates are thinking of maybe starting a syndicate, might have a word with Stick and get some advice about the do's and d'onts!
I would be about 20 minutes from Blackwater ste. The beach areas are always popular with the Dubs alrite, Courtown, Kilmuckridge and Blackwater being 3 of the main hot spots in the summer. I'm sure you've ate many a strawberry then too ste , our claim to fame.. saying that, I had half a punnet myself this evening too
Kilmore is nice. Can't go wrong with the fish and chips down there, I'd make regular jaunts there for the fish especially. I've never fished properly, just a very poor attempt as a boy which didn't give me enthusiasm to carry on. I wouldn't mind casting out to catch my own dinner though, my patience levels do not permit that sadly.
This used to be a good week with a 2 day meet (or was it three) at Newbury followed by a a couple of days at Newmarket. Hern used to bring his good 2yos out at Newbury and other trainers did the same. There was the Newbury Summer Cup and maidens that Classic winners won. Now it's a one day country meeting with a pile of handicaps. A certain military gentleman (at a price of 100-7) made his debut at Newbury in a listed 5f event this week and the next day no-one took the hint and the stable won a 6f maiden with an 8-1 shot. Agree with you entirely, though ran a different race this time. This filly is a half-sister to Thomas Hobson who found his way back in 2013 when it was good to soft or softer and I think she needs that. But she's got to temper this headstrong attitude which I'm afraid is a characteristic of the whole family. Get her to settle and put her over 10f.
Yes, I remember May/June 1970 - what a couple of months they were, and if we'd only realised what we were watching. Nijinsky's 2000 and Derby, the arrival of the Brigadier (I think the race you mention was called the Berkshire Stakes - not a prestige race, but always well-contested: sign of the times, if you google Berkshire Stakes now, you get directed into a forest of Warren Buffett investment opportunities). And the debut of Mill Reef in May at Salisbury: Lester was riding an Engelhardt horse called Fireside Chat (some Roosevelt reference, I imagine) which started about 1-5 and Mill Reef walked past him laughing and whistling. Oddly enough, for all the praise Joe Mercer got during his association with BG, I could never take to him as a jockey. This might be partly due to his getting boxed in at Newbury one day in a four-horse race on a horse called something like Big Nicholas, which I seriously needed to win. There might be room for a thesis here, on how legendary horses are so often ridden by journeyman jockeys; Joe and the Brig, Geoff Lewis and Mill Reef, Arkle and Pat Taaffe (don't get me started!), Frankel and Tom Queally. Maybe it's the racing gods' way of granting immortality to ordinary men, by linking them to greatness in other species ?
No I'm a fully paid up Mercer man. I thought he was a marvelous jockey. I agree about Lewis, but then Noel Murless signed him up. I don't think Cecil would have snapped up Mercer if he was ordinary. It was in their first two seasons together that Cecil's metronomic scoring started. Every jockey makes a bad mistake. My view of Mercer's biggest mistake was his riding of Bustino in the Derby. He should have won that Derby but had him too far back. Ridiculous ride. Yes I remember Mill Reef's debut. Fireside Chat was trained by Johnson-Houghton (I think) and was rated the next Pegasus. Then along comes this horse little bigger than a pony and slams him. Humble Duty and Lupe weren't bad either. No poor classic winners that year!
