Winter and Mandarin

I mentioned Mandarin in the DT earlier and it prompted me to go looking. I found an article from The Gaurdian, written after the death of Fred Winter, and replicate a piece of it below.

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Of all the many good horses Winter rode, the one with which his name will always be most closely and warmly associated was Peggy Hennessy's Mandarin. Twice, in 1962, he and Mandarin scored famous victories.

The first was in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Twelve years old and with his forelegs already "fired" after a breakdown, Mandarin had tried and failed in two Gold Cups before 1962 and, as Pat Taaffe on the Irish horse Fortria led Mandarin over the last, another brave defeat looked imminent. But this was the sort of situation to which Fred Winter brought unique qualities.

There was no great flourish - only a relentless punch and drive. The whip, though waved, was seldom used, and on a horse of Mandarin's spirit the result was almost irresistible; Winter and his mount came up the Cheltenham hill to win the race.

Then, three months later, on a steamy June afternoon in Paris, the same horse and jockey made sporting history in the Grand Steeplechase de Paris. This race is run at Auteuil, in the Bois de Boulogne, around a four-mile figure-of-eight. There are 30 fences, among them "Le Bullfinch" (a nine-foot-high hedge) and "La Riviere", the huge water jump. Very few of the fences look familiar to English chasers and, two years earlier, Mandarin had thrown away a winning chance by trying to stop at the white-painted post and rails.

Winter had wasted hard during his summer holiday to do 9st 10lbs on Beaver II, which he was to ride in the big four-year-old hurdle race later that same day. He was also suffering from a severe stomach-upset, and he arrived at Heathrow Airport for the flight to Paris feeling, and looking, very ill.

When it came to the race itself, at only the fourth fence the rubber-covered snaffle broke in Mandarin's mouth, leaving Winter without either brakes or steering. Fulke Walwyn's wife, Cath, later recalled: "Fred had no proper means of steering him in the right direction. It was a miracle he went round with the others."

To their great credit, the French jockeys took no advantage of their English rival's plight; one even swung in on Mandarin on the first bend, using the pressure of his horse to steer Winter's mount around the turn. And only once, four fences from home, did Mandarin threaten to go the wrong side of a marker. It was almost certainly there, as Winter wrenched him back, throwing all his weight to one side like a racing cyclist, that Mandarin broke down, faltering in his action and losing some four lengths. As they turned for home, they bored through the Bullfinch, miraculously landing upright. They then held Lumino's challenge by a head.

As Mandarin hobbled back, lame, he and his rider were the heroes of Paris. Winter himself could scarcely walk to the scales, and his fellow jockey Stan Mellor had to help him change to go out to ride in the next race on Beaver II - on whom he won in a driving finish.

National Hunt = tough horses, tough jockeys

 

Nice article reebs. Wasn't there a really famous article (in the Racing Post maybe??) written by John Oaksey on his victory in Paris? Seem to remember reading about that after Oaksey's untimely passing - that it was considered the finest piece of horse racing journalism ever penned.

 

Dex the Mandarin Chase is indeed run at Newbury between Christmas and New Year - on the same card as the Challow Hurdle. As the Newbury Racecourse is run by a bunch of money-grabbing twats there is no history of the race on their website. I remember Carruthers winning it, and also Rey Nacarado. Probably some more illustrious winners down the years but I can't find a roll of honour anywhere