Geoff Wragg to retire

C

Cantoris

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Sorry to hear that Geoff Wragg is retiring. My dad and myself used to wait every year for Ascot and back a few of his horses like Rebecca Sharp etc etc at 33/1. Always a good man to deliver a shock and an excellent trainer in general. Was very reliant on a few owners though.
 
I remember my sister backing a horse of his at Newbury at 50/1 in a maiden the day Medicean won the Lockinge. The jammy so and so won a nice wad for that.

Swallow Flight, if my memory serves me.

He also did a decent job with Balisada, on whom I landed a nice touch back in the day.

What was the name of his Lockinge winner in the late 90's? I liked that horse.
 
Think you mean First Island, although I'm not convinced he won the Lockinge. Sussex after a fair priced win at Ascot IIRC (and if it's the same horse!)

Edit: And the Lockinge the year after....
 
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Teenoso was pretty decent I thought. The Derby was one thing, but winning a King George with him (beating Sadler's Wells no less) was an outstanding training/riding achievement (L Piggott probably deserves a mention I guess). Teenoso was Geoff Wragg's first Pattern winner, as he only took the licence at the age of 52 after spending half a lifetime as his father's assistant. Not a bad time to take over and hardly arranged because they thought Teenoso was a star ~ he was unplaced in three maidens at two and won a grand total of £262!
 
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An extremely good trainer especially at RA sad to see him retire but as already mentioned he was to dependent on a few owners always a bad business plan

think pentire might have won 2 kgs if m hills hadnt decided to to emulate f head (lyphard) in his first attempt
 
Totally concur with the above comment on Hills' ride in the '95 King George on Pentire - he went far too soon.

I am in the autumn of my life and I remember Harry Wragg as a trainer and was always a great follower of him and he trained some decent horses, my favourite of course was Pentire and also Teenoso, and I think Geoff did a superb job to get him back as a top class four year old.

I had the pleasure of meeting Geoff at Newbury back in the late '90s after a good friend of mine, who knew Geoff's late brother Peter, introduced me to him and while he was sheepish and shy, what he said, I listened intently and with great interest.

Another great favourite of mine was that great grey mare Cassandra Go and she is a typical example of Wragg improving a filly throughout her career and at three, she was a fairly progressive handicapper and by the end of her career, she was a Kings Stand winner and had chased home Mozart in the July Cup.

I guess we will never know how good Asian Heights could have been but for injury and would he have bustled up Galileo??? We can dream, but I doubt it.

Balisada, Rebecca Sharp, Pentire, Owington, Arcadian Heights, First Island, Swallow Flight, Island House, Marling, Rous, St Expedit, The Whistling Teal, Dragon Dancer and many more have all served him so well, but things had started to slip these past few seasons and I must say, though I will be sad to see 'G Wragg' disappear from our racecards, the time was probably right.

Thanks Geoff for the memories and have a long, happy retirement, you have certainly earned it. It also seems to be the end of the Mollers Racing which is sad too, but I couldn't bare to see their colours racing for another yard though as Wragg and Mollers go hand in hand.
 
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