UK Horse Racing Tips

Born in Enfield, Greater London in 1952, Terry Ramsden rose to prominence in the early Eighties. He amassed a multi-million pound fortune by speculating on the Japanese stock market and gambling heavily, particularly on horse racing. With his trademark shoulder-length hair and shiny suits, Ramsden was every inch the archetypal self-made Essex man of the Thatcherite era and made no secret of his wealth.

In 1985, Ramsden reportedly won £2 million on the filly Katies, whom he had bought for £500,000 immediately before her victory, at 20/1, in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh. By 1987, the annual turnover of Glen International, an Edinburgh-based company that Ramsden had purchased three years earlier, had increased to a satggering £3.5 billion. While he wasn’t a casino goer, there’s no doubting that he had the equivalent of a high roller mentality of the likes you might find on OnlineCasinoSnoop.com . He had a go hard or go home outlook.

Events did later take a turn for the worse for this larger than life character. With eventual  reported gambling losses of £58 million between 1985 and 1988, Ramsden suffered a further setback when so-called ‘Black Monday, on October 19, 1987, rocked global financial markets and wiped hundreds of millions of pounds of the value of his securities. Glen International collapsed, with debts of £98 million, and Ramsden fled to the United States to escape his creditors, only to be arrested, and jailed, in Los Angeles in 1991 at the request of the Serious Fraud Office. Within a month of his return to Britain, in February, 1992, Ramsden was declared bankrupt, with total debts of nearly £100 million, including over £21 million owed to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

The following year, he admitted ‘recklessly inducing fresh investment’ in Glen International and received a two-year suspended sentence and, in 1998, was convicted of attempting to conceal £300,000 from his creditors and sentenced to twenty-one months’ imprisonment, of which he served ten. Ramsden was released from prison, to very little fanfare, in 1999 and, although cleared by the Jockey Club to attend racecourses and own racehorses again in 2003, he will be remembered as the man who won, and lost, £150 million in his heyday. Better to have such a wild tale to tell than live life in the slow lane though!

The 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup was, arguably, the most competitive renewal of what is often referred to as the ‘Blue Riband’ event of British steeplechasing for many years, before or since. The field was by no means the largest ever assembled, but the thirteen runners included Kauto Star, winner in 2007 and 2009, Denman, winner in 2008, the defending champion Imperial Commander and Long Run, a comfortable, 12-length winner of the rearranged King George VI Chase at Kempton on his previous start.

Despite attempting to become the first six-year-old to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup since Mill House, in 1963, Long Run was promoted to 7/2 favourite, ahead of Imperial Commander at 4/1, Kauto Star at 5/1 and Denman at 8/1, with the other nine runners available at 9/1 and upwards. On the prevailing good going, confirmed front-runner Midnight Chase took the field along, but was headed by Kauto Star soon after halfway and, thereafter, the contest developed into a three-horse race between the market leaders, with the exception of Imperial Commander. Nigel Twiston-Davies’ ten-year-old weakened soon after a mistake at the fourth-last fence and was tailed off when pulled up lame, and in distress, before the final fence.

Meanwhile, Kauto Star and Denman duelled all the way up the home straight, but were joined at the second-last fence by Long Run who, despite jumping less than fluently on more than one occasion, had maintained a prominent position throughout the second circuit. Approaching the final fence, it soon became clear that the writing was on the wall for the ‘old guard’ and, on the run-in, Long Run drew clear to win, convincingly by 7 lengths. Denman stayed on gamely to finish second, with Kauto Star fading to finish third, a further 4 lengths away. Winning jockey Sam Waley-Cohen became the first amateur rider since Jim Wilson, thirty years earlier, to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

In the wild, the horse is a prey animal, whose survival strategy is based on a fear response, a.k.a. ‘fight or flight’. As such, horses are blessed with keen hearing and a 275º field of vision, which allows them to see everything bar two ‘blind spots’, one directly in front and one directly behind. Remarkably acute senses may be essential to survival in the wild but, on the racecourse, can distract horses and prevent them from running to the best of their ability. To prevent, or at least minimise, such distractions, trainers often employ different types of headgear to help horses focus on the task in hand.

Blinkers

Blinkers consist of a cloth hood in which the eye openings are fitted with cowls, or cups, that limit the field of vision and encourage a horse to look forwards, rather than backwards or sideways. In addition to enjoying a wide, panoramic view, horses also have what is known as ‘monocular’ vision, which means that they can use each eye independently. Cutting off some, or all, vision to the rear forces horses that are otherwise reluctant to use their ‘binocular’ vision to do so and, hence, be less distracted or intimidated by what is going on around them. Some blinkers include a small hole or slit in the back or side of the cup, so that a horse can catch a glimpse of anything moving alongside or behind and respond accordingly.

Cheek Pieces

Unlike blinkers, hood and visors, which have had to be declared, overnight, by trainers for decades, cheekpieces, a.k.a. ‘French blinkers’, are a relatively recent development. Typically, they consist of two strips of sheepskin, or similar material, attached to the cheek pieces of the bridle. They work on the same principle as blinkers, but are less restrictive in terms of limiting the field of vision.

Visor

A visor is not dissimilar to blinkers, but may have only half-cups around the eyes and have a hole or slit cut in one or both of them, to permit a limited amount of peripheral and rear vision. A visor can sometimes be a useful alternative to blinkers on horses that have a tendency to start slowly.

Hood

A hood is a garment similar to blinkers, but includes ear covers rather than eye cowls, or cups, and does the same for hearing as blinkers do for vision. The purpose of a hood is to reduce extraneous noise, which can startle anxious or nervous horses.

Not without just cause is Steve Smith-Eccles’ autobiography entitled ‘Last of the Cavaliers’ but, while the former National Hunt jockey enjoyed and, to some extent, still enjoys, highlighting the hedonistic aspects of his life, he was, nonetheless, a highly accomplished horseman. He retired in 1994 after a 23-year career during which he rode 876 winners.

Smith-Eccles began his riding career with Newmarket trainer Harry Thomson ‘Tom’ Jones and, although he never rode as an amateur, was initially listed as ‘Mr. S. Smith-Eccles’ purely because of his double-barrelled surname. In any event, he rode his first winner, Ballysilly, in a novices’ hurdle at Market Rasen, early in the 1974/75 season, but it was his association with Jones’ stable star, Tingle Creek, that really brought him to the attention of the racing public. Deputising for stable jockey Ian Watkinson, Smith-Eccles won the Sandown Pattern Chase on his first ride on the spectacular steeplechaser in 1977, breaking the two-mile course record in the process, and won the same race on him again in 1978, breaking the course record again.

By that time, Smith-Eccles had already ridden the first of his eight winners at the Cheltenham Festival, Sweet Joe, trained by Jones, in the Sun Alliance Chase. It would be eight years before he rode another but, in 1985, he replaced the injured John Francome on See You Then, trained by Nicky Henderson, and steered the five-year-old to a comfortable, 7-length success. Two further victories, on First Bout, also trained by Henderson, in the Triumph Hurdle, and Kathies Lad, trained by Alan Jarvis, in the Grand Annual Chase, were enough to make Smith-Eccles leading jockey at the Festival that year.

John Francome retired from race riding in April, 1985, so Smith-Eccles retained the ride on the fragile, ill-tempered, but undeniably talented See You Then in the Champion Hurdle in 1986 and, again, won by 7 lengths. The following year, despite missing work and being distinctly ‘undercooked’, See You Then was still sent off 11/10 favourite to become the first horse since Persian War, in 1970, to win the Champion Hurdle three years running. Smith-Eccles had to work a little harder than in previous years but, while the aptly-named Flatterer briefly flattered to deceive on the run-in, See You Then never really looked like being beaten, eventually winning by 1½ lengths.