Racehorse annual is full of essential knowledge
THE latest “Racehorses” annual runs to 1,216 closely-printed pages and half-a-million words. It contains individual Timeform commentaries (with the allimportant Timeform rating) for 11,687 horses, including every horse that ran on the Flat in Britain in 2019.
Some of the commentaries on the lesser lights in the A-Z run to just a few lines but the best of the performers are dealt with in extended, fully-illustrated essays that stretch for several pages.
The essays on the leading horses are packed with talking points and controversy that has made “Racehorses” a must-read, as well as being racing’s most authoritative historical record.
Chepstow’s Robert Stephens’ Bumble Bay, we are informed, “has breathing problems’’ and is “a modest maiden at best’’, while another Chepstow trainer Milton Bradley’s Burauq is “a poor handicapper”. Carp Kid, trained by Bridgend’s John Flint, is “a fairly useful handicapper who won at Chepstow in
May’’ and Bargoed’s Bernard Llewellyn’s Warrior Display “stays one-and-a-half miles and acts on polytrack and tapeta’.’
The careers of the top horses are lucidly recounted for posterity, while the comprehensiveness of “Racehorses” – the fact that it deals with all the horses, not just the best ones – makes it a magnificent reference work. Whatever your angle on racing, whether as a professional involved in the sport or as a serious punter, you will find “Racehorses” indispensable.
Racehorses of 2019 is published by Timeform at £79 (post free) and can be obtained from Timeform, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 1XF and also from timeform.com/shop.
BRIAN’S BLAST FROM THE PAST Under the heading ‘Dozen up for Philip’, this is what I reported in the Western Mail on March 23, 1988:
“Tenby farmer Philip Mathias rode his 12th winner of the season on Copperite at the Tivyside Hunt Steeplechases on Saturday.
“He easily landed a gamble on David James’ five-year-old in the maiden race which had been backed from 10-1 to 5-2.
“Mathias equalled the dozen wins his father Fred scored when he tied with Ted Greenway for the national title in 1956. Mathias, aged 25, who is enjoying his best season, was left in the lead when the luckless Dusty Bin, ridden by Peter Thomas, fell four fences from home.
“Mathias has retained his West Wales area riders’ championship title.
“Paul Hamer brought his season’s tally of wins to 11 with a double on Rogamaja, the rank outsider at 10-1 in a field of four, who took up the running approaching the penultimate fence to win by 10 lengths.
“One For Mammy, who was a length down at the last fence, got up on the running to beat the pacemaking First Attempt by half a length. Joanne Hawkins, a 24-yearold Newport company secretary, scored a shock win in the ladies’ open on Gwynne Phillips’ Frenchbred Le Champ Talot, who gave Mrs Hawkins her first win after riding 18 seconds.
“Vivian Hughes, aged 20, made all in the restricted on his brother’s eight-year-old Beget. The members’ race resulted in a walkover for Dunky Star, who was partnered by Peter Lewis.”
For the record, One For Mammy was trained by Peter Bowen, now a leading National Hunt trainer, and
Joanne Hawkins, now a steward at Chepstow Racecourse, was notching up her first winner in eight years.
Philip Mathias, who was one of the tallest riders in the sport, is the father of John Mathias, who is the only point-to-point rider in the country to ride all six winners at a point-to-point, which he achieved not only on one occasion but on two!
■ Please send your racing news and views to Brian Lee by emailing brianlee4@virginmedia.com or phoning 029 2073 6438.