Sunday 6 January 2013

SACRED SUNDAY JANUARY 6th RACING POST 2013. RP LEGENDS OF THE TURF MARTIN PIPE INTERVIEW PETER THOMAS






RACING POST SUNDAY JANUARY 6th 2013
WEEK MONDAY DECEMBER 31st to SUNDAY JANUARY 6th 2013



PREVIEW TODAY'S CARDS
 
 
 
Please use this join-up for today's Racing Review Results and News
 
 
 
DAVID ASHFORTH'S SATURDAY MUSINGS FROM A RETIRED RACING ENTHUSIAST
 
"Resolutions, olds acquaintances and an early candidate for horse of the year.
 
Photograph of Home Run with the four young jockeys who have ridden him to victory in the past month (from left): Kieron Edgar, Michael Heard, Frank Hayes and SamWelton."
 
 
"THERE are sheets of graph paper, stuck together, on the wall. They display my New Year's resolution. The vertical axis shows my weight and the horizontal  axis shows the date, starting on January 1 (Cheltenham not abandoned yet)
 
"There's a straight line , descending, from my starting weight (14 3lb) to my finishing weight (12st 7lb). It may not seem much of a difference, but it's four bricks.  It's a protest diet, an act of rebellion against one of the nuisances of hormone  therapy - more fat and weight, less muscle. I intend to emerge with weight down and muscle up  and I am hoping that, if I tell you, it will make me too embarrased to give up.
 
"Being a jockey is an extreme form of dieting but it's a bit late for that and I find that if you give up everything you like, .......
 



EQUUS ZONE
David’s Saturday Musings, New Year Resolutions, looking forward, planning his racing interests for 2013. David says “Last year I thoroughly enjoyed watching Graham Lee’s and Lucy Alexander’s progress. I think what they achieved was terrific and they both did it through exceptional ability and skill allied to professional dedication and application. So there’s them to look forward to.”
EQUUS ZONE
The professional career life and times of
GRAHAM LEE
Grand National-winning jockey Graham Lee will switch to Flat racing.
8:28PM BST 03 Jul 2012
“A conversation that took place between former Irish champion Mick Kinane and Grand National-winning jockey Graham Lee at Liverpool earlier this year has been instrumental in making an amazing career change in the weighing room also one of the most successful.
 
 
EQUUS ZONE
The professional career life and times of
LUCY ALEXANDER
History-making  jockey Lucy Alexander insists attitudes towards females
 in the sport are changing.
IN a sport dominated by men for so long, Fife jump jockey Lucy Alexander is beginning to break down barriers after riding 30 winners.
 

Cheltenham Festival 2012

Lucy Alexander stays ice cool as her first Cheltenham ride looms

Record-breaking Scot has ridden 26 winners over jumps and 21-year-old now rides at the upcoming Festival
"Lucy Alexander, the Fife-based jockey, has been booked to ride several horses at the Cheltenham Festival. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

 

"Lucy Alexander, the first Scotswoman to become a professional jumps jockey, returned to raucous approval here on Saturday after yet another success aboard Red Tanber, the horse who is expected to become her first ride at the Cheltenham Festival. Already a record-breaker, the 21-year-old Alexander is promising to carve a successful career for herself in one of the last jobs that is almost always done by men.


"She's one of the best up-and-coming jockeys I've seen in a long time," said Bruce Mactaggart, Red Tanber's trainer. "There's a lot of people out there riding that are either good jockeys or good horsemen and she's both. She's very focused, very professional and, with a little bit of luck, she will make it, no problems."
 

Friday 14 December 2012
               
Lucy Alexander – leading lady jockey



LUCY Alexander remains bemused by the interest she has generated since becoming Scotland's first female professional jumps jockey.

By Hilary Mactaggart

The record-breaking 21-year-old is endearingly bashful about her remarkable rise to the top ranks of a male-dominated career.

Fife-based Alexander appears uncomfortable with the countless compliments her achievements have attracted, preferring instead to concentrate on her riding, and let the horses do the talking.

Her meteoric rise has seen her ride 38 winners last season, including 11 for Barry Murtagh, five for Bruce Mactaggart, five for Ferdy Murphy, and four for her Dad.



 
David goes on later:
 “THEN there’s the rather curious list of trainers and jockey’s whose runners and mounts I always look out for and get pleasure from watching. Then there are the horses. There’s already been one outstanding one this year I refer, of course, to
Home Run, who won his fifth handicap hurdle in a row on January 1 at Musselburgh.
 
“Once German, now English, Home Run has been very well placed by David Pipe (possibly with owner Martin Pipe acting as compulsory consultant)
 
“Having won at Exeter on December 7, off a rating of 89, Home Run then won at Taunton, Wincanton and Taunton again before travelling 400 miles, to Edinburgh, to defy (maybe ‘laughing in the face of’ would be better)  a 14lb penalty , bringing him to 114.
 
“Five wins in 26 days is special and so is the horse. Home Run isn’t a great horse but horses don’t have to be to engage our interest.  He looks wonderfully bonny and willing and there are four young jockeys who must have a soft spot for him because Home Run is a good ride for inexperienced riders, a fact tellingly exploited by the Pipes.
 
“When Samuel Welton won on him on December 7 it was Welton’s first success since his first one, in February. He claimed 8lb, and claimed 10lb when winning again on Home Run , on  December 26.
 
“In the meantime, Home Run had given Kieron Edgar also claiming 10lb, his first win over hurdles and his fourth in all under rules. On December 30 it was the turn of young point-to –point rider Michael Heard, claiming 7lb for his first win under rules. Two day’s later Home Run gave Francis Hayes , claiming 10lb, his third winner over jumps. Well done everyone, especially Home Run. PS. Memo on Chepstow . A big screen is for always, not just for today.”


Equus Zone


J Margaret Clarke Turfcall Comment
A BRILLIANT achievement by TEAM PIPE and Lead Horse HOME RUN.
 
THE DEFINITION OF A LEAD HORSE IN CONTEXT HERE

There are several ways that a "Lead Horse" can be used to advantage, to ensure a reliable manouver or reliable manouvers. 
A Lead Horse is used within the Equus Zone to lead a trainers’ team of horses out at exercise
every day, a Lead Horse is considered to be reliable and trustworthy, easy and quiet to ride both on the track and off the track.  A Lead Horse who knows and understands what is required of him, and goes about his work quietly and safely even when in the company of many, many other horses all around him, to distract his attention.
 
A Lead Horse can be used within the Equus Zone in a race, to help set the pace, to advantage another horse competing in the same race. It has been known on occasions that a Lead Horse has actually managed to win a race himself, to beat the horse he is giving a lead too.
 
 HOME RUN in this context here within the Equus Zone is used as a Lead Horse to give young apprentices confidence when riding and competing in an actual race for the first few times.

A lovely Classic true story, a pleasure to read.



 



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