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Towcester return ?

Went there a long time ago, enjoyed the day despite the icey sleet/rain blown by the wind
 
Danny said:
Ditto I got my car stuck in the Mud after racing but enjoyed the day.
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Was very much a hazard in the car park.

I have two favourite memories of the track. Our Sam Shorrock won a 6 horse race at 66/1 to applause from the bookies and, on the theme of getting stuck, after a different race there my car was pushed from the mud by 2 Grand National winning jockeys in Graham Thorner and Charlie Fenwick. Graham was my trainer at the time and Charlie is a good friend of his.
 
Quixall Crossett said:
Can I be the first person to remind everyone that Towcester is uphill all the way round.
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LOVE this.

I've walked the course and can confirm it's true!

It was a sunny summer non racing day when I did it and it was glorious.

There is (or was then) a rabbit warren at the bottom of the hill and they were all out munching grass and lazing around like the excellent, bone idle, floppy-eared, furry little gits rabbits are!

I've got great Towcester memories, a track I became instantly fascinated by when it occasionally featured in the ITV7.

Like the time I went there to watch my posh uni friend William Nott ride a horse called Swinging Light in a Hunters' Chase.

William drove me and two equally-posh female uni students he was evidently friends with and, though I couldn't absolutely swear to it, I think one of them might have been Andrea Leadsom.

I recall them asking me after he'd gone off to the changing room if I was betting on "Will's horse," I said: "It's got two hopes, Bob Hope and no hope, I'm backing the favourite Rockin Berry."

They followed me in, it hosed up at 7/4 and, when William got back to us after pulling up, he was somewhat pissed off to find them both still in raptures about having backed the winner on my say so.

You see, I was a complete See You Next Tuesday even from an early age - that's why I'm so good at it, years of practice.

If I'd been William, I'd have left me at the track.

Anyway, I also helped my Dad's friend Bill Arrowsmith with his pitch on the inside there a couple of times and once got him to stand a 5/4 fav that had won round Huntingdon at 2m and imo wasn't going to stay 2m5f round Towcester in a horse box (it finished second but got hammered by a 33/1 shot called TWIN OAKS, so dodged a bullet there) and it was just a cracking place.

And I haven't even mentioned THOSE GATES.

Bring back Towcester horse racing - you know it makes sense.
 
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Nice to read some happy memories of the course from some people on here.
Now here is the other side of this wonderful game :(:mad:

I had watched a horse win a race at Worcester one day only for it to be disqualified because the jockey (Rodi Greene) had weighed in light. I hadnt had a bet in the race but it obviously stuck with me. Next time out it was far too short for me to back so i left it and it finished tailed off. But next time out at Towcester it was in a bang average race and it opened 33's. It had been backed at Worcester when it won (then DQ'd) and i took the chance that a recovery mission was in order. So i dived in along with a couple of mates. And it was backed down to around 14's if i remember rightly.
I'll cut this story short. Even 30 years later i can still feel the pain.
Absolutely bolting up, well clear and in no danger at all coming to the last. The commentator probably said "The only danger is in front of him".

And you all know what happened next. And if you dont, i'm not telling you ! :mad:
 
Quixall Crossett said:
Nice to read some happy memories of the course from some people on here.
Now here is the other side of this wonderful game :(:mad:

I had watched a horse win a race at Worcester one day only for it to be disqualified because the jockey (Rodi Greene) had weighed in light. I hadnt had a bet in the race but it obviously stuck with me. Next time out it was far too short for me to back so i left it and it finished tailed off. But next time out at Towcester it was in a bang average race and it opened 33's. It had been backed at Worcester when it won (then DQ'd) and i took the chance that a recovery mission was in order. So i dived in along with a couple of mates. And it was backed down to around 14's if i remember rightly.
I'll cut this story short. Even 30 years later i can still feel the pain.
Absolutely bolting up, well clear and in no danger at all coming to the last. The commentator probably said "The only danger is in front of him".

And you all know what happened next. And if you dont, i'm not telling you ! :mad:
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Pipe horse?
 
I will admit to acting (very) selfishly whenever Towcester was on back in my working days. When we were dishing up the "who does which meeting" for the following day, i always made sure that i did Towcester. It was the number one track for knowing which horses would act round there and those which wouldnt, and more importantly, which ones would stay and which ones wouldnt.
There were many occasions when i/we were getting after one and the hod would be full long before the race was due off. :)

Happy days......................but sadly long gone.
 
My one and only time to visit Towcester was almost 19 years ago, in November 2006. I was there to see the debut of the first horse I ever had a share in.

I was recruited to the syndicate through this forum, by the late and much missed Brian Hartigan, or Lord H as he was known in these parts. Others to join from here were former members Rory Delargy and Shadow Leader.

The horse in question was a point winner from Ireland that was going into training with Henrietta Knight, who was flying in those days. I had been to the open day at the stable, which was great fun, and went a second time on a day when our horse was a non-runner (a typical enough occurrence with her horses, I was to realise). I was amazed at the beautiful gallops and schooling areas and the 12th century Norman church in the grounds. The ducks splashing around in a pond in the middle of the yard added great life to the place. The night before our second visit Terry had come downstairs and given chase to a fox with his shotgun before realising he was starkers.

Anyway, I made a third trip to England, for the last Saturday in November 2006. It was Hennessy day at Newbury, and several of the stable stars were running there. But our boy, Bally Conn, was going to Towcester instead, for a bumper. It was touch and go whether the meeting would go ahead, there was standing water on the track in the back straight at the bottom of the vertiginous hill.

After a final mid-morning inspection the meeting went ahead, even though further rain arrived. The other forumites were at Newbury but I headed for Towcester. Terry looked after our little group there and gave us no encouragement to back our boy, saying it was impossible to know how he would cope.

Bally Conn was 3/1 favourite. That was probably by default, but he showed a lot of guts to overhaul the front runner inside the final furlong in what must have been one of the slowest races ever run, even at Towcester.

Naturally we were all elated, but Terry seemed a little worried. He had been trying to keep a lid on expectations but now his task was hopeless. I went home after that and studied bumper form forwards and backwards in an effort to assess what our horse had achieved. That study later stood to me and I still enjoy bumpers more than many other kinds of races.

Bally Conn’s next run was at Huntingdon on what is Boxing Day to some of us and St Stephen’s Day to others. The chosen race was a 3m1f maiden hurdle. He was beaten out of sight, by more than 40 lengths. His next two runs were similar, and he then went PPP in his three runs after that.

At that point he was sold on to Martin Hill’s yard for small money. I suppose we felt grateful to get anything at all for him. But Bally Conn then proceeded to win four out of his next seven races. I met Martin Hill at the races one day and asked him what had brought about the transformation. He told me that they had found a problem in his back that they had been able to fix. His form went downhill again after his good spell, but they had a nice time with him overall.

Ah well. Perhaps it should have, but this experience never put me off having a go with other horses. The buzz of winning that race at Towcester was something I could never have anticipated, even after already following racing at that stage for more than thirty years. The whole episode was a blast, including making some good friendships.
 
Grey said:
My one and only time to visit Towcester was almost 19 years ago, in November 2006. I was there to see the debut of the first horse I ever had a share in.

I was recruited to the syndicate through this forum, by the late and much missed Brian Hartigan, or Lord H as he was known in these parts. Others to join from here were former members Rory Delargy and Shadow Leader.

The horse in question was a point winner from Ireland that was going into training with Henrietta Knight, who was flying in those days. I had been to the open day at the stable, which was great fun, and went a second time on a day when our horse was a non-runner (a typical enough occurrence with her horses, I was to realise). I was amazed at the beautiful gallops and schooling areas and the 12th century Norman church in the grounds. The ducks splashing around in a pond in the middle of the yard added great life to the place. The night before our second visit Terry had come downstairs and given chase to a fox with his shotgun before realising he was starkers.

Anyway, I made a third trip to England, for the last Saturday in November 2006. It was Hennessy day at Newbury, and several of the stable stars were running there. But our boy, Bally Conn, was going to Towcester instead, for a bumper. It was touch and go whether the meeting would go ahead, there was standing water on the track in the back straight at the bottom of the vertiginous hill.

After a final mid-morning inspection the meeting went ahead, even though further rain arrived. The other forumites were at Newbury but I headed for Towcester. Terry looked after our little group there and gave us no encouragement to back our boy, saying it was impossible to know how he would cope.

Bally Conn was 3/1 favourite. That was probably by default, but he showed a lot of guts to overhaul the front runner inside the final furlong in what must have been one of the slowest races ever run, even at Towcester.

Naturally we were all elated, but Terry seemed a little worried. He had been trying to keep a lid on expectations but now his task was hopeless. I went home after that and studied bumper form forwards and backwards in an effort to assess what our horse had achieved. That study later stood to me and I still enjoy bumpers more than many other kinds of races.

Bally Conn’s next run was at Huntingdon on what is Boxing Day to some of us and St Stephen’s Day to others. The chosen race was a 3m1f maiden hurdle. He was beaten out of sight, by more than 40 lengths. His next two runs were similar, and he then went PPP in his three runs after that.

At that point he was sold on to Martin Hill’s yard for small money. I suppose we felt grateful to get anything at all for him. But Bally Conn then proceeded to win four out of his next seven races. I met Martin Hill at the races one day and asked him what had brought about the transformation. He told me that they had found a problem in his back that they had been able to fix. His form went downhill again after his good spell, but they had a nice time with him overall.

Ah well. Perhaps it should have, but this experience never put me off having a go with other horses. The buzz of winning that race at Towcester was something I could never have anticipated, even after already following racing at that stage for more than thirty years. The whole episode was a blast, including making some good friendships.
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Great stuff Grey.

I remember the horse and for a specific reason. There was a young lady who worked for another betting company who i had spoken to a few times and i'm certain she had a share in it as well.
No names on this forum but her initials were DH.
 
More the Shakespearean sense, Eddie.

Your incredible memory is correct that Denman won that day, but it was the Berkshire Novice Chase that he won, by 12 lengths at odds of 2/11.
 
I loved Towcester, even when the stables were miles away and you could box up - when they built the new ones I was in heaven.
Mind you, having had Happy fall and wind himself at the second last because of his dic*head of a jockey, I can confirm it’s just as uphill to run from the finish down to the second last as it is to walk back up….
 

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