Memories .... One Man

crazyhorse

crazyhorse

At the Start
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Well, its ten years ago since One Man gave us (?) - me for sure- the best days racing (and I wasn´t even there!) ever; as well as -sure enough- three weeks later the worst.
This is on Sprotinglife.co.uk today and just thought its well worth a trip down memory lane:

"Brian Harding took the chance ride of a lifetime on One Man with both hands to win in the 1998 Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Luck was definitely on his side at Cheltenham that season. Sidelined with a fractured skull for a year, the northern-based jockey had only been back less than three months.

And he only got the ride as One Man's regular partner Tony Dobbin had been injured in fall 24 hours earlier.

"I was very, very lucky. Dobbs got a fall the day before and he broke his wrist or thumb or something," said Harding.

"I was lucky that the old man (Gordon Richards) put me up on him. And because of One Man's previous Cheltenham record when he didn't get home in the Gold Cup there was no real pressure really.

"It was a great day and everything went to plan in the race. I set off in front and Ask Tom came with us but we were going a fair gallop.

"The old man had told me to try to give him a breather at the top of the hill. We jumped the ditch and then when we turned down hill he was away. It was great to be in that position."

One Man stormed up the hill to land the two-mile championship by four lengths from Or Royal, representing the all-powerful team of owner David Johnson, trainer Martin Pipe and jockey Tony McCoy.

It was a performance that earned Harding the 'Lesters' award for the best jump ride of the season.

"I'd only come back riding the December before after a year off with a fractured my skull. It was a great way to get back and fantastic of Mr Richards to put me up on a horse like him," he went on.

"I'd never ridden him in a race before but obviously I'd sat on him a lot at home.

"It was great but when it happens it's a bit of a blur. It's over that quick you probably don't appreciate it so much. You'd like to do it all over again, just to go back and take everything in.

"I think I just had the one Festival ride before that in the County Hurdle. It was a first winner at the Festival and my only one.

"I was also on him at Aintree when he got killed. He gave me the best day's racing I'll ever have and probably the worst day's racing as well."

Harding knows his chance is likely never to come again, but he clings to the hope that the fairytale might just happen one more time.

"I don't know about this year. If I do something I might just be making up the numbers, but you never know," he added.

(The commentator really had it when he shouted "Brian Hardings biggest day!")


I still have a photo of a very young and grey One Man in my office; some horses just stick with you forever, don´t they?
 
Yup, I loved that horse too, something about grey horses that can jump I suppose.
I had him backed at 9/2 that day also.
 
One more quote about One Man, from Timeform all the same, in their last Essay about him:

" [...] A more telling summary is that in those last two races it is very hard to imagine this sport experiencing anthing better or anthing worse."

Rather sentimental I thought, esp. for Timeform.
 
Thank you for sharing this Crazy, a truly great horse who deserves to be remembered.

His own family have only just been able to remember him as the grief at losing him was so strong that for years they could not bear to think about him. Time may heal all, but I doubt it.

A wonderful tribute to him from Brian Harding.

I had long followed jump racing and loved it. One Man was so Pegasus like that many of us made the mistake of thinking of him as an immortal. I knew horses died but somehow it was not real to me - yet. After One Man they were all real. I took his death so hard that I tried to give up jump racing. I retreated to the safer confines of the flat following the stayers whose bravery seemed to echo that of jump heroes and heroines.

But two horses called to me across the codes and I could not ignore their next bids at Cheltenham, so I went back. Istabraq and See More Business. It was a good year for me!

As they say, and as you know, the rest is history because Persian Punch became our best friend and we settled into bliss thinking he was safe. He gave us the best days on the flat - and the worst day.

In remembering One Man I always think of that photo of him and Gordon Richards high on the hills with Greystoke castle like behind them. They were some team. When One Man died Gordon was very ill, but everyone knows that the death of his most loved of all of his horses was the final straw and he gave up.

Maybe someone can put the photo up because I do not know how?

One of my friends once had the pleasure of chatting to the Queen Mother about her own personal favourites and she counted One Man in the same breath as Desert Orchid.
 
Here are a couple pics of the Great One Man .....

oneman5.jpg


man.jpg


He was a super horse , and still missed by lots of people im sure .... :(
 
Lord... ten years, and the thought of the horse can still make me well up like it was yesterday.

I also walked away from NH racing for some years after he was killed. I didn't see the race, thank God, as I was off on a weekend away in Bath with my ex, but I heard the news on the radio and spent the entire evening in tears.

For a very long time I couldn't bear to watch racing, but it crept back and now I watch again, albeit through my hands a lot of the time, and nowhere near as much as I did before.
 
I was in an "all day meeting" in London about a series of books the day One Man died, and grousing as I had the tv on in the next room [where I slept], and kept trying to duck out to watch a race or two while the others waffled on... I was well p'off to be called for opinions the moment the race was about to go off.... well relieved later that I'd missed the fatal fall. We'll never forget him.

I was there the day Persian Punch died, it happened right in front of me. One of the worst days I can remember, certainly the worst on a racecourse. Just as his last win at Newmarket was one of the very best - - - some of them do indeed get under the skin
 
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