1986

THE death of Sir Gordon Richards on Monday has robbed the racing world of its finest ambassador.

Champion jockey an unprecedented 26 times, he retired from training at the end of 1970 after 50 years devoted to the sport. His sudden death at the age of 82 was a shock because, throughout his retirement, he had remained fit and active.

Gordon Richards was born in 1904, one of eight surviving children of a coalminer in Shropshire, and his first playful attempts at riding were on the pit ponies at the local mine. He wanted to go to grammar school, but just failed the exam, and so began his working life at the age of 13 in a warehouse. Bored with the life, and very small and stocky, he wrote off for a job in a local racing stable, but did not receive a reply.

Later, he answered an advertisement in the local paper, travelled south to Swindon, and started a life that was to change the shape of racing as an apprentice to Martin Hartigan. He had his first ride in public in 1920, rode his first winner the following March, and was champion jockey for the first time in 1925 with 118 winners.

Loyalty

His total of 14 classic winners might seem a modest one, but Gordon rode in an age when loyalty was paramount. No doubt he could have switched to more fancied horses in the classics, but he preferred to ride the ones owned by those who paid retainers.

The Derby remained Gordon’s bogey until 1953, when his knighthood was announced shortly before the race. Sir Gordon was to partner Pinza in his 28th attempt and, for once, everything worked according to plan.

Small, stocky and short in the leg, he was immensely strong and powerful and ate well, but could still ride at a relatively light weight. He was a master of jumping off quicker than the rest from the rise of the tapes, an art that has passed with the advent of stalls, and none could match his famous finishing flourishes which seemed to snatch photo verdicts with uncanny precision.

Rare gift

A kind man, he was always sparing with the whip, and preferred to encourage rather than punish the horses he rode. He did not try to win cleverly, was not in danger of being caught napping, and he had that rare gift of making horses run for him.

Sir Gordon rode in a pronounced upright style, with an unusually long length of rein which would have caused lesser riders all sorts of problems. He was a horseman as well as a jockey, and no one during the golden era in which he rode quite matched his unique blend of balance, strength and sheer will to win every time.

In short, Sir Gordon was quite deservedly a legend. He was the punter’s best friend for more than a quarter of a century. In or out of the saddle, he was a champion.

Dreaper double completed by promising Woods

1961

THE Kilsallaghan trainer, Tom Dreaper, brought off an excellent double at Thurles on Thursday, with Kerforo in the three-mile steeplechase for the Molony Cup, and Last Link in the Southern Novices’ Steeplechase.

As few as four runners lined up for the Cup race, but it provided its share of thrills and spills, and only two completed the course, Kerforo beating Rathluirc by 10 lengths. Brown Knight started slight odds-on favourite, but he had to be pulled up after only three fences, having burst a blood vessel.

Then there was little between the other three until Nic Atkins fell at the sixth last. At the next, Kerforo took a clear lead and, at the post, had extended her advantage. Nic Atkins was remounted but, after refusing the fourth last several times, was pulled up.

Paddy Woods

Liam McLoughlin rode Kerforo, and another good, young rider from Dreaper’s stable, Paddy Woods, had the mount on Last Link, a full-sister to Fortria, in the Southern Novices’ Steeplechase. Mr A Craigie’s mare won in good style from the favourite, Ballyrichard.

Height O’Fashion, nicely handled by that competent young rider, T.F.Lacy, supplemented a recent Clonmel success by justifying 4/1 favouritism in the Winter Handicap Hurdle.

[Incredibly, all three winning mares named above went on to make a name for themselves. Last Link was partnered by Paddy Woods to victory in the 1963 Irish Grand National, one of her six career victories, and she was runner-up in the Thyestes Chase.

At stud, Last Link had seven foals, four of which were winners. Her second produce was The Godfather (Sicilian Prince), and he went one better than his dam and landed the 1974 Thyestes Chase for Jim Dreaper and Sean Barker, racing for Eileen, Countess of Mountcharles. Better was to come when Last Link’s final offspring, Last Suspect (Above Suspicion), win the Grand National at Aintree in 1985 for Anne, Duchess of Westminster.

Last Link won the Irish Grand National a year after Kerforo won the race for Tom Dreaper and Liam McLoughlin. That mare won seven times, including the Thyestes Chase and the Leopardstown Chase, and her first foal at stud was Vulforo (Vulgan), winner of the 1973 Power Gold Cup for Charlie Haughey, Jim Dreaper and Sean Barker.

Height O’Fashion was twice runner-up in the Irish Grand National, won the Guinness Handicap Chase at Punchestown twice (ridden by Bobby Coonan and Tom Lacy), added the Irish Cesarewitch and the Troytown Chase, and was second in the Thyestes Chase and the Galway Plate]

Dunaden wins by a nose in Cup thriller

2011

THE French tricolour will fly for another year over Flemington as the tightest finish in the 151-year history of the A$6.2 million Melbourne Cup swept away thoughts of Viewed and Bauer in 2008. Dunaden downed Red Cadeaux in a thriller.

It took several long minutes for Dunaden’s number three to be posted into the frame, as a look of boyish delight swept across the face of trainer Mikel Delzangles, following the roar from 105,979 people on the course who had supported Dunaden into second favourite.

From a plan hatched following Dunaden’s win in the Group 3 Prix de Barbeville in April, Delzangles was quick to acknowledge the influence of his former employer, Alain de Royer-Dupré, and Americain. “He made us realise it was possible to win it,” said the trainer.

For Ed Dunlop and his owners the wait, and the result, must have been excruciating. Red Cadeaux and Dunaden had gone toe to toe over the final 100 metres, with Red Cadeaux hitting the front before Dunaden fought back. Paper thin was the margin, if any, though officially it was a nose.

“When it took so long, and everyone said it’s a dead-heat, and Sheikh Fahad [Al Thani, owner of Dunaden] was biting his fingernails, I just said to him ‘you’ve won’. That’s racing; there has to be a winner and a loser,” said Dunlop.

“We’re very proud. It’s easy to say we are unhappy, but we’re not. It was a great ride by my guy [Michael Rodd], and we just got done on the line.”

Late replacement

Having flown in from Japan just 24 hours before the race, winning rider Christophe Lemaire was a late replacement for Craig Williams who was suspended on Bendigo Cup day. Having not ridden at Flemington before, Lemaire’s acclimatisation was impressive. “There are no words for this,” said Lemaire afterwards.

He added: “I want to thank everyone for the emotion and the passion they have. It is my first time in Australia but I love Flemington.” Delzangles said: “The welcome here is so amazing, and the racing is so great. The enthusiasm of the people is so good. I wish we had half of that in our country.”

[A son of Nicobar (Indian Ridge), Dunaden sold as a foal at Arqana for just €1,500. He won 10 races and more than £5 million in prize money, adding the Group 1 Caulfield Cup and the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase to his tally of top-level successes. He was also Group 1-placed in France and England.

Dunaden died in 2019 and at stud sired a single stakes winner, Ranch Hand, who won the Listed Jockey Club Rose Bowl Stakes at Newmarket last year, and was runner-up this year in the Group 3 Henry II Stakes at Sandown]