Is this horse Nijinsky?

W

Westgate 16

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Feb 14, 2014
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Hi all..
Can anyone help me with the details of this photograph please? I have extensively trawled the net and keep coming back to the horse's identity as being that of Nijinsky. To me the marking on the brow is inconclusive as well as the non showing of white socks?? Somebody suggested the horse to be Ribocco, but I don't think that's right. Also, Lester appears to be wearing Royal Colours?? How about the track? I can't place that either! I'm totally confused.
Any suggestions?
Thanks..
 

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Njinsky had three white socks. Those are the Moller colours and the horse is Teenoso.
 
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No, he wore a noseband in that and was No. 9.

Piggot only rode him from the Derby onwards:

Derby at Epsom - where he was No. 25. Could there be a 5 obscured in the photo? Doesn't look like Epsom to me but I'm not sure how the stands looked there in the early 80s.

Irish Derby at the Curragh - doesn't look like it and he wouldn't have been No. 2.

Great Voltigeur at York - here he might have been No. 2 (joint top-weight with Solford). To my eye, he looks more like he's cantering to the start than actually racing (or being pulled up after the post) which wouldn't make sense for York since in 1983, long before the loop was completed, he would need to be going the other way to get to the start.

As a 4yo:

John Porter at Newbury - again may well have been No. 2 (joint top-weight with Khairpour and Yawa). Also makes sense if he's cantering past the stand on the way to the start, or being pulled up post race. Does that look like '80s Newbury to anyone?

Ormonde at Chester - nope - Eddery filled in for suspended Piggott.

GP de Saint-Cloud - wouldn't have been No. 2. No idea otherwise.

King George at Ascot - not, for the reasons above.

So I'd guess Newbury, York, Chester in that order :)

Someone on here is bound to know for sure?
 
I think it is Newbury and the John Porter though I did go to Newbury in the early 1980s it was not that day.

I could have got the year M Lolshan ran wrong . As I remember I have a very vague feeling that M Lolshan was No1 and had a Group 1 penalty too .

Teenoso ran some great races but was unlucky too - got a stress fracture at York in the Voltigeur but for which i suspect he won have run off with the Leger and went wrong the FRiday before the Arc when he would have had his favoured soft ground although of course he won the KG on very fast ground .
 
Here's a colour shot of Teenoso from Derby Day. Its definitely him - markings, colours, age of Piggott, all fits:

Horse_Teenoso-big.jpg
 
It is Newbury probably although M Lolshan is wrong :

Reason is (1) Until the 1990s I think race numbers were given at the four day stage - so No 2 would have quite easily have been No1 now

(2) He had a Group 1 penalty so he would have been at top of field .

(3) Only other possibility is York for the Voltigeur if they galloped past the stand and than turned round in the Voltigeur.That could be the County Stand at York behind him and the Ebor stand has of course been built since then and that rather dilapidated stand could be the old York grandstand.
 
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granger said:
Proper anorak thread this
Click to expand...

You ain't seen nothing yet. Pope John Paul II visited York in 1982 and said mass at the racecourse. Here's a shot of him with stands in the background. It doesn't look like it matches the Teenoso shot, but it could be too far up the straight and anyway his head is in the way :)

Pope-John-Paul-II-greeted-at-York-Racecourse_large.jpg
 
Gareth Flynn said:
You ain't seen nothing yet. Pope John Paul II visited York in 1982 and said mass at the racecourse. Here's a shot of him with stands in the background. It doesn't look like it matches the Teenoso shot, but it could be too far up the straight and anyway his head is in the way :)

Pope-John-Paul-II-greeted-at-York-Racecourse_large.jpg
Click to expand...

Caption competition !

"Bless you my son for putting the Vatican Bank's funds on Ardross in the Yorkshire Cup "
 
Wow! Great response to this thread. Thanks for all the detective work everybody..
It certainly does look like Teenoso and the colours match Mollers Racing for sure.
I tried finding some old pics of Newbury circa 1984, but came up short. Can't find anything on York or Chester of that period either which seem convincing.

The reason I put it out there is because I bought a signed copy of this picture as a gift for my uncle and wanted to provide him with all the details.

So I'm going with Teenoso at Newbury coming in 3rd for the 1984 John Porter Stakes.

Thanks once again for all your help on this :)
 
Gareth Flynn said:
No, he wore a noseband in that and was No. 9.

Piggot only rode him from the Derby onwards:

Derby at Epsom - where he was No. 25. Could there be a 5 obscured in the photo? Doesn't look like Epsom to me but I'm not sure how the stands looked there in the early 80s.

Irish Derby at the Curragh - doesn't look like it and he wouldn't have been No. 2.

Great Voltigeur at York - here he might have been No. 2 (joint top-weight with Solford). To my eye, he looks more like he's cantering to the start than actually racing (or being pulled up after the post) which wouldn't make sense for York since in 1983, long before the loop was completed, he would need to be going the other way to get to the start.

As a 4yo:

John Porter at Newbury - again may well have been No. 2 (joint top-weight with Khairpour and Yawa). Also makes sense if he's cantering past the stand on the way to the start, or being pulled up post race. Does that look like '80s Newbury to anyone?

Ormonde at Chester - nope - Eddery filled in for suspended Piggott.

GP de Saint-Cloud - wouldn't have been No. 2. No idea otherwise.

King George at Ascot - not, for the reasons above.

So I'd guess Newbury, York, Chester in that order :)

Someone on here is bound to know for sure?
Click to expand...

Different class!
 
Hello again..

Just an update on the Nijinsky thread..
I found this image (on an old postcard auction, ebay) of York Racecourse. If you look at the main stand farthest away in the picture, it looks remarkably like the one in my photo. If this is so, then I suggest the race is the Great Voltigeur Stakes of August 1983.
 

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Westgate 16 said:
Hello again..

Just an update on the Nijinsky thread..
I found this image (on an old postcard auction, ebay) of York Racecourse. If you look at the main stand farthest away in the picture, it looks remarkably like the one in my photo. If this is so, then I suggest the race is the Great Voltigeur Stakes of August 1983.
Click to expand...
NONONONONONONONONONO.

Hope this helps.
 
Bingo! Great find. Here's a higher-res copy to verify. From the mesh fencing all the way up to the pattern of the glass/perspex on the side of the upper tier and the hanging baskets.

1000x1000.jpg


So that's that sorted.

Now, about the race depicted in that postcard...
 
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