In Memoriam (Racing People)

He had a great feel for language and it's possibilities.
The year Beef Or Salmon beat Best Mate at Leopardstown he spoke of the jump jockey's tendency when driving to "go long at an amber light ".
Few writers have that ability to entertain.
 
Ah yes I do remember. She must have been from a second marriage. No wonder his drinking became more severe as how do you ever get over something like that?
 
Captain Con Power.
Father of Robbie (Sizing John etc) Con was a famous Irish show jumper in his day .
He took out a training licence in the mid 1980s for a while and some wild punts were had on his runners; 25/1 into 7/2 and such like.
I do not remember him training a winner but he schooled a lot of NH horses to get them jumping properly.
A nice , nice man who came to Kanturk for the Missunited Galway Hurdle celebrations and had a great chat with Jimmy Gordon that night.
May he Rest In Peace.
 
Some really veiled nastiness on here re Alistair Down. So he liked a drink? so what? You don't mean to tell me many people in life don't have an issue with it, especially in horse racing????

The guy was a genius wordsmith, why the digs about him vomiting at some sh%tty do or him liking a drink? I don't get why you just can't pay respect without this nonsense.

I tell you one thing about Alistair... he never had a picture took of himself sat on a dead horse laughing.
 
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Pathetic behaviour dissing down. Hands up anybody who never way overdrank in their younger years and made a twat of themselves regularly.Alcoholics tend to harm themselves and their families. Gifted folk tend to do this to extremes. Gazza,hurricane Higgins,George best,Richard Harris,Oliver Reed. The list is endless. I take folk as I see them and he was an incredibly gifted writer and without doubt the best racing pundit on TV in my lifetime( John francome just behind) and enriched my life. Let's keep the barbed comments for other sites as I enjoy it immensely.
 
Hey...none of my comments are barbed! I just stated facts that the guy had a drink issue and ultimately this is what led to his premature death. He was a genius as a writer and as one who dabbles in small time journalism, I had utter respect for him in that area. It is immensely sad that he had an addiction that controlled him or that he put his family through hell because of it. And had he not then we would have been treated to his presence on various racing channels for much longer.
 
I don’t mind if he was reading his own scripts, he was just a great wordsmith whether he spoke the words, or whether he wrote the words. He made racing what he was for me, for a good 25-30 years.
 
EC21 said:
Some really veiled nastiness on here re Alistair Down. So he liked a drink? so what? You don't mean to tell me many people in life don't have an issue with it, especially in horse racing????

The guy was a genius wordsmith, why the digs about him vomiting at some sh%tty do or him liking a drink? I don't get why you just can't pay respect without this nonsense.

I tell you one thing about Alistair... he never had a picture took of himself sat on a dead horse laughing.
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I presume you are referring to me -don't be shy -come out and say exactly what offended you.
 
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