The Great, The Very Good and the downright Terrible - Cheltenham Review 2023

Hi, Bustino. A belated happy Easter to you.
As I remember, the Grand National and FA Cup Semi-Finals tended to be on the same Saturday in the first week of April.
I remember going to Villa Park to watch Burnley play Fulham and luckily get a draw - and they announced Kilmore as the Grand National winner at half time.

 

I do remember that as I backed it. Fred Winter riding if I remember correctly. I believe he fell in his last run before that GN

 

Ron, now I know you’re older than me.
I was only 14 when Kilmore won the National, so you must have been an inveterate gambler at an early age.

 

And to you too Tamerlo.
What a side Burnley was then. When I saw Fulham I thought you were going to say you were at Craven Cottage, watched the match, listened to the National on a transistor radio and saw the Boat Race. Which you could do there as the river side stand was open to the river.
Although Johnny Haynes was the glamour boy at Fulham, at that time, I always thought Eddie Lowe was their best player.
In 1966 I was (for some reason) certain Anglo would win the National so my Dad put 1/- EW on him for me. And he did win.

 

No, it was the year Burnley played Spurs in the final of 1962- and played well below their best to lose 3-1.
Behind the scenes, some angry Burnley supporters vented their fury at Harry Potts for playing Gordon Harris on the left wing in that final (and he was useless)- instead of Trevor Meredith who had starred in previous rounds.
In that semi final against Fulham, although Burnley won the replay, Fulham tore us apart at Villa Park.
Fulham had one simple tactic- give the ball to Graham Leggat on the right wing. Leggat gave Burnley’s full back, Alex Elder, a torrid time and continuously put great crosses over for big centre forward, Maurice Cooke, to attack.
After Leggat scored and Connelly equalised for us, Cooke headed against the bar twice and how we survived that match I’ll never know.
Despite stars Haynes and McILroy playing, Leggat was easily the man of the match.

 

Indeed I was. I had several winners during the 50s and 60s (much easier then) so yes, I am definitely older than you . You must remember Team Spirit. What a game little horse that was. My worst moment was when I had picked out ESB, Royal Tan and Sundew for my dad, brother and future and brother-in law and the bets were written out. They went to watch Wycombe play but I stayed to watch the National. In my wisdom I looked at the race again after they had left and decided to scrap those bets and put it all on Devon Loch (our neighbour was a bookies runner). You can imagine how I felt, knowing that they would be coming home thinking they had the winner

 

Yes, I particularly remember Team Spirit, Ron.
I think his win was about his fourth attempt- a small horse that stayed but I never fancied him.
Most winners nowadays are having their first try in the race.

 

I’ve had a couple of Owners Group horses and they are a great introduction to ownership, but I quickly became bored as never got a pass, despite applying for races at very unglamorous venues. I’ve now graduated to a syndicate where I own 5%.
The best feature of Owners group was the stable tours that were part of the package. I went to Henderson’s yard and it was very good. Some Owners group members have shares in many horses, I spoke to people with 10 plus horses.

PS, my horse, Howzat Hiris runs in the first at Newcastle on Saturday. Cheek pieces and riding from the front have transformed her and we are hopeful of another win.