What inspired you to follow Horse Racing?

I'd have to say genetic,,, family of drinking, smoking, gambling ne'er-do-wells ;)

I'm not immersed in it though, but do enjoy reading the words of those who are, unless they are talking about the Flat of course :D
 
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I refuse to take part in threads where original poster asks question of others but doesnt actually answer their own question first.
 
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I remember watching tingle creek I couldn't have been more than 5/6 and was fascinated by his jumping,even though I don't follow jump racing anymore and my dasd putting on 5p and 10p yanks on for me.My best mate was craig gough brother of professional steve gough who cleaned up during the 80s and 90s we used to spend some time riund hs office but were only 12/13 and more interested in listening to the clash and punk.Little did I know in 20 years time I'd be in cohersion with steve and living just down the road from me.I spent my early 20s putting bets on for him with his other brother howard,was a great time and could tell some great stories about these jocks but best to keeop them private on open forum:p
 
My dad, I suppose, and a winner the first time I had asked my dad to put a bet on for me (two bob on Gay Trip, 1970 National). It was the winning that had me hooked.

After that, I just loved the spectacle - jumps mainly - and pretty soon started reading about the history of racing. It's an easy sport to love.
 
Doran's Pride, Limestone Lad and Colm Murray RIP are my earliest memories

My Dad had little to no interest and no one around me did, so just picked it up myself
 
A mate of my dad's taught me to read form one Cheltenham when I was 11 or 12. Hooked from then on really.

Nagged my parents to take me racing throughout my early teens, which they did. First time I ever went I persuaded my dad to let me call a tipping line off teletext, and it gave me a horse called General Sir Peter which was running in the first race (it was at Warwick). It got loose and ran a circuit of the track beforehand but managed to dead heat for first. Think it was about 10-1.

My obsession with racing made me want to learn to ride, so I did. When all my mates were doing their work experience in offices I was riding out at Jackdaws Castle in the Duke's reign.


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Genes again.
My brother, (11) was home sick from school and had me at 9 place two bets for him in 1975 Cheltenham, Comedy Of Errors and Ten Up.
Both won for him but I caught the bug! My father was an encyclopedia on racing and breeding as were a few of his friends.
As I spent long days and nights in their company osmosis did the rest!
 
Mine was Desert Orchid. Watched him by chance, had absolutely no interest in racing, but waited for his following races. Thought he was a monster of a horse especially the VC battle with Panto Prince. Then followed Martin Pipe as I couldn't believe how his horses burned off so many others.
Took the plunge and drove to Taunton for a spring evening meeting, first race I saw live Aimee Jane, a Pipe horse screwed them into the ground. Addicted ever since.
dont bet on horses anymore unless I go to a meeting but still love watching. Only jumps though, no interest in the flat whatsoever.
 
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Always had some interest from a fairly early age but confined to the Derby and Grand National. Remember nagging my dad to put something on. Two I remember were Troy and Grundy.
Interest really took off when I went on as work trip to the 91 festival and backed Garrison Savannah to win the Gold Cup. That remained my biggest win for several years.
 
Watching the racing on a Saturday afternoon with my dad and taking his bet to the illegal bookies up the road [Laura she was called]. Remember skipping up the road shouting 'Laura, I've got the bet money' with a policeman standing close by who turned a blind eye to the whole thing [I'm a Brummie lass so it was real Peaky Blinders stuff]. Backing Team Spirit when he won the National. After a few years in the wilderness, Desert Orchid brought me back and I've been obsessed ever since.
 
Shift rotation gave me the week off for 1991 Cheltenham Festival, and despite not even knowing it was a horse-racing event, I was encouraged along to the pub on the Tuesday, by a colleage/mate who was big into his racing. A £2 each-way bet on Remittance Man in the Arkle (returned 85/40 Fav) was all it took to get the hook embedded deep in my cheek.

I dabbled with the Flat until about 1994, but gave it up thereafter for the ponce's game that it is. Jumps all the way ever since.
 
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Cheltenham Festival 1999. Was with all the football team in the local pub watching Istabraq winning his 2nd Champion hurdle.
Istabraq was the first horse in big Yankee bet that the team captain had done. At this stage I knew zero about racing and betting.
The bet was explained to me as: It's 11 bets at £50 + a £50 accum = £600 stake! At the time this was crazy money for any of us!
Anyway, we watched all his 4 races in the pub in a big group over the festival, and as he went 3/3 the cheering and ructions got louder and louder!
The first 3 horses were Istabraq, Barton & Madjadou. 3/3 up and was waiting on Le Coudray in the stayers hurdle for approx. £12k If I remember correctly.
For as long as I live, I'll never forget Anzum coming from the clouds to pip Le Coudray! The boys already had the Captain up on their shoulders celebrating..
Such an anti climax !!! But the highs and then lows of that week left me hooked forever !
 
Got involved in dog racing first aged 10/11 as a mates dad trained a few whippets. Used to go most Fridays and got the gambling bug after backing a few winners. This led to bunking off school aged 14+ for Ascot, Newbury etc.
Hooked on NH since persuading my dad to take me to most of the mid 80's King Georges. He just wanted to get away from the family, but I was sold after seeing Wayward Lad, Coombes Ditch, Borough Hill Lad, Dessie etc.
 
Not in the family at all (except that my dad knew ginger McCain well). And I have never had any appetite for gambling. But before the footie on sats in the princes head on Richmond green with a good bunch of mates gradually drawn into the mental challenge of it all. Perhaps biggest factor is that I was and am I probably the best place in the country to see live racing regularly. It's seeing it live and enjoying the whole atmosphere which did it for me and still does. Betting is just a sideline and without racing I don't and wouldn't bet on anything else
 
My great-aunt had horses with Ken Oliver and as a boy I would be packed off down to the borders to spend a week of my school holiday with her. She always took me on a visit to the yard, and I was mesmerised watching the horses schooling and cantering. Her best horse was the high-class handicap hurdler Billy Bow who she was immensely proud of. It broke her heart when he collapsed and died after winning the 1969 Ladbroke Hurdle carrying 12st 4lb, and she cut down her interests after that.

So it's my great-aunt I have to thank for my life-long interest in jump racing and the fact that I have caught the ownership bug, still searching for my own Billy Bow.
 
No one else in the family had any interest other than the Grand National and the Irish National. Aged six I remember watching Well to Do winning the 1972 National. I really got interested watching racing on Grandstand on Saturdays during the winter. L'Escargot, Crisp, Captain Christy, Bula, Night Nurse, Comedy of Errors, Monksfield, Brown Lad, Tied Cottage, Pendil, Lanzarote, Kiliney and Golden Cygnet were early heroes.

Early flat heroes were Roberto, Grundy, Bustino, The Minstrel, Alledged and Troy.

Although I do bet, betting has never been the biggest deal with me, it has always been more about the horses themselves.
 
Lester Piggott on The Minstrel...then Lester Piggot in general..best jockey ever..Ryan Moore is just an apprentice at side of him to put todays heroes in perspective..and Ryan is bloody good...hooked ever since

then came the great hurdlers of the 70's to cement it...we'll never see those days again
 
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Back in the day when I was single and young, I used to go to a race meeting most Saturday's .
Chepstow was a grade 1 jumps track and I loved Hereford and Worcester, driving through Malvern hills. Great days!

then when I saw Cheltenham for the first time and heard the "roar".......goosebumps now!
 
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I'm the same as a lot of you . I was always horse mad and none knew where I got it from .We didn't have horses in the family at all . My dad's family had a farm and a donkey called Blackjack who was the family pet but it was my dad who introduced me to racing . He took me to a point to point when I was about 7 and I just loved it . We used to bet pennies on the King George at xmas when I was a kid but my first proper bet was West Tip in the National . Had a major crush on Richard Dunwoody ever since :)
 
EC1 said:
Lester Piggott on The Minstrel...then Lester Piggot in general..best jockey ever..Ryan Moore is just an apprentice at side of him to put todays heroes in perspective..and Ryan is bloody good...hooked ever since

then came the great hurdlers of the 70's to cement it...we'll never see those days again
Click to expand...

Took a bit of persuasion though the Minstrel didn't he :cool:
I'd take the 'apprentice' over anyone past or present.
 
Solerina - you're back??!! (Or are you a new one?)

Mine hit with a bang after my first riding holiday, I was at a farm on Bodmin moor and was talking to one of their point to pointers called Winchester when david came out and introduced me to a 7 year old who was recovering from a wind operation. He opened the top door just enough for me to see the horse and the moment I came eye to eye with Midnight Madness will stay with me forever. Huge, black and with a jaggy stripe down his face - I thought I'd never seen anything so beautiful. I was allowed to brush him that year,
And the following year I was allowed to walk him down the road and back - a massive thing to a 13 year old!!!!

Him winning as much as he did was the icing on the cake, his owners helped me beyond compare (even to the point of warning me about one of the trainers I ended up working for (the best horse I looked after there has been mentioned above!) And everything in the racing world that has happened to me since is because of Lyn and David.
 
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My Dad loved it and every year we would, as a family, and anyone else who wanted to come, spend every day of the royal meeting at Ascot on the heath having picnics and a bet. One of my earliest memories if of being there aged about 4/5 on the shoulders of brother number 3 standing near the winning post watching as a grey flashed past at the head of the field. I also picked the grey horses to bet on . The man in front of us turned round and asked if that was such and such a horse. ( I can't remember the name ) . My brother told him and the man started shouting very excitedly 'I won, I won!' I immediately burst into tears saying 'that was my horse'. I believed that only one person could bet on one horse in each race, and my Dad would take FOREVER to make his selection ( I don't know why 'cos he always backed Piggott) and I wold be jumping up and down impatiently in front of him shouting for him to hurry up before any one else go to the bookmaker. I also believed that if I had bet on a horse and it won, we could go and ask 'the man' if we could take the horse home. My mum used to say we couldn't as where would he put him? We had a very large brick shed which used to be the air raid shelter in the war, I said he could go in there and we could cut the door in half so he could see us in the kitchen, and aside the large garden we had, we lived opposite a park and I said I could take him over there. I had it all figured out. My parents had not a lot of money so I never asked for horse riding lessons as just knew they were beyond our means but always loved horses because of my Dad, had my first riding lesson at 35, and bought my own racehorse 5 years ago. Great, great memories and it never rained. :)
 
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