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Ubedizzy

I wouldn't dispute any of that - Piggott was always quick to give up once he was beaten, especially later in his career, and I could see that on the day as he eased down.

Didn't hurt the form that Salieri won the Mill Reef next time out, though.

Willie Carson said a few things about Gorytus - I recall him saying he was a proper Firm ground horse and that even Good ground was no good to him.

I saw him again in the 2,000 Guineas and the International Stakes at York - for me, he just didn't turn out to be as good as was once hoped.
 
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Salieri was a very good horse but 7f stretched him as when turned over by Annie Edge at Doncaster.
 
Perhaps it's unworkable but I'd prefer a world where every name was unique and couldn't be used again.

For sure, same name but different suffix for different jurisdictions. but I liked the old Roman numerals if names wanted to be replicated - I saw a Bunker Hill III run in a Point once in the 70s, for example.
 
I was at York in 1982 when Gorytus hammered Salieri by seven in the Acomb.

I was stood on the rail away from the crowd not far off the furlong marker - I can still see it in my mind's eye now.

Anyway, local legendary independent bookmaker Jack Ferens in Hull was offering 14/1 for the 2,000 Guineas and 33/1 for The Derby and, given the time, I took both.

I then saw him destroy Proclaim by five in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster and had backed him at 8/11 to more then recover all the ante-post stakes.

I was on very good terms with myself until....THAT Dewhurst.

Richard Baerlein went to his grave swearing Gorytus was got at that day - he was certainly never the same again.

To add insult to injury, some other beast got given the same name a few years ago.
I would be amazed if he wasn't doped that day.The First horse I ever wanted to back ante post.
 
I would be amazed if he wasn't doped that day.The First horse I ever wanted to back ante post.
My father was a Guardian reader so it was the paper in our house and Baerlein (who I later met when working there - right character) was full of stories about the colt making a colossal and unnatural excretion in the paddock beforehand, laxatives for elephants and the whole thing being shades of Ribofilio, who was before my time: "The dopers got him, I'm afraid" was what Baerlein said in print IIRC.

Gorytus was certainly never the same horse again afterwards.
 
Wasn't Milford the Royal runner in the 1979 Derby?

And Town And Country definitely won the big 1m2f Handicap on St Leger Day in 1978 - "cos 15yo me was there!" 😂

Namesakes both running tomorrow - it's a disgrace, I may write to my MP about it.

(Obviously not).
 
My father was a Guardian reader so it was the paper in our house and Baerlein (who I later met when working there - right character) was full of stories about the colt making a colossal and unnatural excretion in the paddock beforehand, laxatives for elephants and the whole thing being shades of Ribofilio, who was before my time: "The dopers got him, I'm afraid" was what Baerlein said in print IIRC.

Gorytus was certainly never the same horse again afterwards.
Baerlein definitely wrote for the Weekender in the late 80's -excellent journalist.
 
I found Baerlein endlessly fascinating in my youth.

As everyone knows, The Guardian is a liberal, centre-left newspaper, but I'd speculate Baerlein was an unreconstructed right-wing libertarian, with often hilarious consequences.

On the day he famously wrote: "Now is the time to bet like men" the Monday after the Sandown Park Classic Trial (which he had been instrumental in getting The Guardian to sponsor) when ten-length winner Shergar was still 8/1 for The Derby, his column was on a right-hand page.

On the left-hand facing page was feminist Polly Toynbee's Women's Column. 😂

With my help, sat in a room at the Hunter's Lodge in Lavant in the 1980s, my father actually wrote an irreverent letter about Baerlein to The Guardian once (this was before I worked there) after I'd pointed Baerlein out to him at Glorious Goodwood.

Good sport that Baerlein was, he reproduced the letter in full in one of his columns and answered it.

They definitely don't make racing journalists like Baerlein any more - he always said exactly what he thought and tbh he makes today's shower look like the gravy train lightweights they mostly are.
 
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Newspaper readership used to be very high in Ireland, especially on Sundays, when big stalls were set up outside the churches to catch the crowds coming out of Mass. Like many another, my father used to get a spread of Sunday papers - Sunday Independent, Sunday Press, Sunday Times and Observer. When we got home the papers would be divided up and we each tried to grab the bit that interested us most.

Richard Baerlein in the Observer would be my first port of call, even if I was too young in those days to be betting like a man.

I remember him one year in the 1970s bewailing the prize money lost to GB stables when Irish trained horses won seven races at Cheltenham, which he thought was very serious. He attributed the Irish successes to the very soft conditions that prevailed that year, because the Irish horses were used to running on bogs. Like all of us, he was capable of coming out with rubbish sometimes but he was always interesting.
 
Like all of us, he was capable of coming out with rubbish sometimes but he was always interesting.
I think that absolutely nails it tbh, inasmuch as I completely agree.

Both in print and in person, I frequently found Baerlein absurd and I often disagreed with him.

But one thing he never was was boring.

Massively opinionated, got away with it too, because The Guardian/Observer knew he had something of a cult following in racing and let him get away with writing all sorts, and when Baerlein was right, he was right big time.

He more or less told The Guardian readership to have "the lot" on Shergar at 8/1, he'd probably have scoffed at "Gamble Aware," maybe quoting Damon Runyon that all life is a gamble and the odds are 6/5, and there were plenty of Guardian-reading campus lecturers and students throughout Britain who supplemented their salaries and grants by following this bizarre, but successful, throwback of a man they'd stumbled across on the racing pages.
 
I found Baerlein endlessly fascinating in my youth.

As everyone knows, The Guardian is a liberal, centre-left newspaper, but I'd speculate Baerlein was an unreconstructed right-wing libertarian, with often hilarious consequences.

On the day he famously wrote: "Now is the time to bet like men" the Monday after the Sandown Park Classic Trial (which he had been instrumental in getting The Guardian to sponsor) when ten-length winner Shergar was still 8/1 for The Derby, his column was on a right-hand page.

On the left-hand facing page was feminist Polly Toynbee's Women's Column. 😂

With my help, sat in a room at the Hunter's Lodge in Lavant in the 1980s, my father actually wrote an irreverent letter about Baerlein to The Guardian once (this was before I worked there) after I'd pointed Baerlein out to him at Glorious Goodwood.

Good sport that Baerlein was, he reproduced the letter in full in one of his columns and answered it.

They definitely don't make racing journalists like Baerlein any more - he always said exactly what he thought and tbh he makes today's shower look like the gravy train lightweights they mostly are.
I was on course the day Shergar won the Sandown Classic trial and funnily enough I remember the day because if my memory serves me right I backed a filly of Henry Candy's that day that was making its debut at 16/1.
I think it's name was Wind and Wuthering.
 
If you don't mind me saying, you were very nearly 💯% right.

In fact, the only detail you got wrong was that Wind And Wuthering was a colt.

He went on to win the Dewhurst and the only time I ever saw him in the flesh he was narrowly beaten by Zino in the 1982 2,000 Guineas, my first ever trip to Newmarket as a student.

I really envy you - I was 18 and at home watching on TV - I didn't get a real flavour of the day until I was lucky enough to get some details off Harry Heymer, The Guardian's Racing Editor about six years later.

Shergar was 10/1 for The Derby straight after hammering Kirtling, and Baerlein no doubt piled in.

As for Harry, who once described himself as being as "tight as a cow's **** in autumn" (a phrase many of us found a bit disturbing frankly 😂) with money, he wandered over from The Guardian's sponsors box to Graeme Sharp, the Hills rep, and asked for a price to his more modest stake.

"As it's you, Harry, I'll lay you a nice bit of 12s over the odds," Sharpe apparently replied.

But the shameless Harry responded: "You can do better than that...." and actually squeezed 14/1 out of him - what a nerve! 😂

True story.
 
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If you don't mind me saying, you were very nearly 💯% right.

In fact, the only detail you got wrong was that Wind And Wuthering was a colt.

He went on to win the Dewhurst and the only time I ever saw him in the flesh he was narrowly beaten by Zino in the 1982 2,000 Guineas, my first ever trip to Newmarket as a student.

I really envy you - I was 18 and at home watching on TV - I didn't get a real flavour of the day until I was lucky enough to get some details off Harry Heymer, The Guardian's Racing Editor about six years later.

Shergar was 10/1 straight after hammering Kirtling, and Baerlein no doubt piled in.

As for Harry, who once described himself as being as "tight as a cow's **** in autumn" (a phrase many of us found a bit disturbing frankly 😂) with money, he wandered over from The Guardian's sponsors box to Graeme Sharp, the Hills rep, and asked for a price to his more modest stake.

"As it's you, Harry, I'll lay you a nice bit of 12s over the odds," Sharpe apparently replied.

But the shameless Harry responded: "you can do better than that" and actually squeezed 14/1 out of him - what a nerve! 😂

True story.
I used to follow Henry Candy's horses at the time usually ridden by the late Philip Waldron.
I once asked for his autograph York once as an excuse to see if his mount had a chance of winning.
Good Luck I said to which he replied I won't need it it's home and hosed!!!
The horse bolted up!!!


!!!!!!!
 
IIRC I saw Philip Waldron win the then Benson & Hedged Gold Cup (International Stakes nowadays) at York on Master Willie in 1980 on a card on which High Line sired four of the winners.
 


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