In Memoriam (Racing People)

Sandy Barclay.
He was the wonder kid of 1968, stable jockey to Noel Murless and won all around him on Royal Palace and Connaught.( Before my time but I read all about it in my formative racing years)
Went to France in early 1970s,( it must have been a combination of crippling tax rates in UK and centralised high prizemoney in France ;Tony Murray followed him) back to North Of England,( remember him finishing fourth on Dakota at a huge price in 1976 King George and Queen Elizabeth when it was annually the race of the season).
He even came to ride in Ireland one year, I have his autograph somewhere, before his last big payday on Annie Edge at Doncaster in mid 1980s.
Was a work rider later but on his day his light shone as bright as any.
Rest In Peace.
Rest In Peace
 
edgt said:
Sandy Barclay.
He was the wonder kid of 1968, stable jockey to Noel Murless and won all around him on Royal Palace and Connaught.( Before my time but I read all about it in my formative racing years)
Went to France in early 1970s,( it must have been a combination of crippling tax rates in UK and centralised high prizemoney in France ;Tony Murray followed him) back to North Of England,( remember him finishing fourth on Dakota at a huge price in 1976 King George and Queen Elizabeth when it was annually the race of the season).
He even came to ride in Ireland one year, I have his autograph somewhere, before his last big payday on Annie Edge at Doncaster in mid 1980s.
Was a work rider later but on his day his light shone as bright as any.
Rest In Peace.
Rest In Peace
Click to expand...

A sad loss. He was sacked by Noel Murless and that's the reason he went to France. Apparently had become unreliable and then when he lost on a certainty at Ascot for Lord Howard de Walden, Parmelia, Murless sacked him on the spot. Lewis rode Lorenzaccio for Murless in the Champion Stakes to beat Nijinsky, then became his stable jocked. Barclay was a man of great talent but must have had his demons.
 
I remember a newspaper advert for Toyota featuring Tom Foley and Danoli , the tag line was that Tom wanted his transport to be as reliable and hard working as his horse.
Must say I had a share in a few Ladas in my time.

A client told me that Tom Foley had a huge role in breaking in Solerina for the Bowe family; can anyone confirm this please ?
 
Last edited:
I wonder if Hamdan's and Khalid Abdullah's deaths along with Sheikh Mo's reputational difficulties is flat racing/breeding sitting close to a precipital downgrade in investment. Worrying.
 
Welsh jockey Granville Davies, rider of Grey Dolphin and Yangtze Kiang has passed away from cancer.
 
Trainer Brian Forsey has passed away on Thursday following a short battle with cancer. He was based just up the road from me and rode as as a jockey before taking out a training licence.

I rode out there for a while and you couldn’t meet a nicer man who was so incredibly dedicated to his horses. I had no idea he wasn’t well and my sympathies are with his family.
 
Eddie O'Connell owner of Un De Sceaux.
Born near Buttevant Eddie went into the transport business and settled near Glanmire .
Always had a few in training and sponsored the Hilly Way Chase in Cork.
Alzheimer's Disease was the culprit so the family used the racing scarves in the blue and orange for him to recognise family when racing.
WPM rated Un De Sceaux's Punchestown Festival win ridden by Patrick as one of his Punchestown highlights; it was also one of mine.
I still cannot say why UDS was not in my all time top ten, he had all the right qualities in spades.
Rest In Peace.
 
jinnyj said:
Jockey Tyrone Williams has apparently passed away.
Click to expand...

Hearing of any death is difficult enough but somehow when it's before their time it's all the harder. I couldn't tell you what age he was but it doesn't matter. I remember when he was an apprentice coming through the ranks so I suppose I still think of him as a kid.

(A couple of large glasses of rich red and a few cans of Guinness this evening are maybe making me more melancholy than usual but this news has touched me when usually I wouldn't let it.)
 
Joe Mercer R.I.P.
Joe was one of the turf stalwarts , his career ran nearly forty years.
Associated with Brigadier Gerard, Bustino, Kris, Le Moss and a host of others but never won a Derby.
Gave wonderful interviews to ATR and such recently.
One class man.
 
A great jockey, who never rang up for a ride. When Frenchie Nicholson died his son David was interviewed and they talked about all the wonderful jockeys his father had produced. They showed films of Eddery and Swinburn and David agreed they were fine jockeys but said Mercer was the best jockey he'd seen.
 
Last edited:
ITV had an interview with him recently - not sure if the ATR one so apologies if it was - where said Frankel wouldn't have got near Mill Reef. Bless, he said he had had a wonderful life. He, along with Piggott and Carson, the jockeys of my early memories, Loved Mill Reef, can still see the news clip of him in his cast and remembering how amazing it was they saved him and him having to put up with that.
 
G-G said:
ITV had an interview with him recently - not sure if the ATR one so apologies if it was - where said Frankel wouldn't have got near Mill Reef. Bless, he said he had had a wonderful life. He, along with Piggott and Carson, the jockeys of my early memories, Loved Mill Reef, can still see the news clip of him in his cast and remembering how amazing it was they saved him and him having to put up with that.
Click to expand...

“Ian Balding only realised that something out of the ordinary was in his midst the first time he invited Mill Reef to have a proper gallop.

The small but compact American-bred colt, who stood 15.2 hands, had proved a model pupil as a yearling and in all his early work but the trainer was in no rush to see how big his engine was.

This was effectively day one at school and his instruction to John Hallum, Mill Reef’s work rider, was to merely get upsides his lead horse and then “just let him go a stride faster”.

Everything went perfectly to plan to plan, apart from the part where Mill Reef moved alongside his companion and then breezed about 20 lengths clear.

“John, I told you to just go a stride faster,” the exasperated trainer said as horse and rider walked back towards him. “Guvnor, I promise you, that’s all I was doing,” Hallum replied.”
 
Back
Top