RIP Sir Henry

A statement on the stable's official website reads "Warren Place Stables confirms that the funeral of Sir Henry Cecil will take place on Monday, June 24 at St Agnes Church in Newmarket. This will be a private funeral for family members only. At a later date, there will be a service to celebrate Sir Henry's life. The details of this will be outlined after the funeral."
 
Thanks gus for reminding me of that week in 1979. I always felt it was with Mercer that the consistency really clicked in. People talk about trainers being able to place horses but in 77-80 he had some astonishing runs with horses. He must have had the absolute measure of most of his horses. When you are an owner that's what you want. How he got some (ordinary) horses to win 4 races on the trot I'll never know. ......genius.
A very sad time for racing, it has lost one of its great characters and one of its blessed sons.
 
From RP

SIR HENRY CECIL'S Warren Place stable will have its first runners since the death of the ten-time champion trainer when five horses run on Thursday under the name of his widow Lady Jane as part of a programme mapped out by the late trainer.
Even up to his death on Tuesday from stomach cancer, Cecil was said to be making entries and drawing up plans for his string, which his staff are determined to follow through with runners at Leopardstown, Newbury, Nottingham and Yarmouth.
Lady Cecil has been granted a temporary licence by the BHA which could stay in place at least until the end of the season and among her first runners are Tickled Pink, the Abernant Stakes winner who contests the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes in Ireland, and Morpheus, Frankel's half-brother who runs in a maiden at Nottingham.
"Jane and the whole team at Warren Place are determined to keep the flag flyi ng," said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Khalid Abdullah who owns Morpheus. "All of what's happening now is entirely the result of Henry's work and planning, so from that point of view this is as he would have wished.
"Henry always had a pretty good opinion of Morpheus. We've just taken longer than we would have liked to get him through the hoop. It looks a good option. The horse is in good form and has done well, just taken a bit of time to get up to the standard required."
Phaenomena and Rajaratna will run at Newbury, while Songbird goes at Yarmouth.
 
Tickled Pink is over in Leopardstown today also, although the owner admits it was against Henry's wishes!

Fantastic to read all the good words said about him.
 
gus, just for completeness I looked up the other runners. the losers were Golden River at Newmarket and Cartridge and Masked Marvel at Newbury.
Lyphard's Wish (won 1 more race: Dante)
Chalet (won 2 more races)
Welsh Chanter (won 1 more race: Britannia Stks)
One in a Million (won 2 more races)
Golden River (won 3 races)
War Legend (won 4 more races)
Masked Marvel (won 1 race)
Cartridge (won 2 races)
Kris (won 6 more races)
Volcanic (won 2 more races)

I was at Newbury that Saturday: what a week. The first 10 runners of the season and they win near on 30 races! That season Cecil had about 120 horses in training, a third of which didn't run and 56 (what a strike rate) of the horses that did win won 128 races (what consistency), so that he was Champion Trainer despite Hern winning the Derby etc etc with Troy.
 
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Was a fitting tribute to a great man.Very classy , Lord Grimthorpe did a wonderful speech as did Henry's son Jake. Lady Jane afterwards , happy to thank strangers (like myself) for attending. A very fitting send-off.
Tom Queally was sitting 2 rows in front of me, with some bad gashes down his face and shades on covering what looked like a nasty shiner - has he had a fall over the weekend ?
 
Tom Queally was sitting 2 rows in front of me, with some bad gashes down his face and shades on covering what looked like a nasty shiner - has he had a fall over the weekend ?
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I fear Ardross may have finally caught up with him
 
Guv1612 said:
Was a fitting tribute to a great man.Very classy , Lord Grimthorpe did a wonderful speech as did Henry's son Jake. Lady Jane afterwards , happy to thank strangers (like myself) for attending. A very fitting send-off.
Tom Queally was sitting 2 rows in front of me, with some bad gashes down his face and shades on covering what looked like a nasty shiner - has he had a fall over the weekend ?
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Then you were two rows behind me. Mr.Queally clipped heels riding work, I believe.
 
Mike Marshall, assistant to Lady Cecil at Warren Place, has handed in his notice.
 
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One wonders whether this is as a result of a change of mind by Lady Cecil re staying on as going from assistant at Warren Place to Ismail Mohammed is hardly a forward step .
 
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