JUST A SPOT OF RANDOMNESS.

​Question 1:  The Royal Jockey from 1947-1964 Harry Carr had his first ever ride at Redcar at the Whit Monday meeting in 1929. What didn’t have with him when he walked into the parade ring?
Question 2: What year was the Royal Meeting held in mid-July, with the King George & Queen Elisabeth Stakes run at the Saturday, the fifth day of the meeting?
Question 3: What extraordinary event happened to the St.Leger winner Alcide six weeks before the 1959 King George & Queen Elisabeth Stakes?
I am currently reading ‘Queen’s Jockey’, the autobiography of Harry Carr, and a jolly good read it is.
 
I am still reeling from the news that Alastair Down is no longer on the staff at the Racing Post and I am beginning to suspect a purge as Nick Godfrey has also recently left and I can’t remember the last Steve Dennis column?
 
I have always fancied being the focus of the Q & A section in Sunday’s Post, so as I shall never be asked:
The advice I would give my ten-year-old self is learn to ride, it will make the rest of your life so much easier.
My earliest racing memory is the opening credits to Grandstand and the black and white shots of Ascot and I believe a horse in the McDonald Buchanen colours coming to win its race.
No one has influenced me, hence the lowliness of my position in life.
What racing does best, though it fails to notice the fact, is that it brings every walk of life together from royalty through every social level. Also, us poor humans put on a pedestal another species. As I say, there are more statues of horses in this country than the people who owned, trained or rode them, except, of course, Her Majesty and Sir Winston.
The one thing I would change about racing would be to stop all this nonsense that is change for the sake of change.
My only ambition is to do good for racing. I owe it my life.
There is no outside of racing.
I wish I had half the genius of Alastair Down.
Films are generally too long for the length of my attention span. But I love ‘Harvey’ with James Stewart and ‘Sunshine on Leith’ because of the music.
Stopped buying music a long time ago. I love Katie Melua, so it might have been her last album.
I don’t really do happy. I’m not sure I have the gene for it.
Never meet your heroes as you soon discover they are just as human and fallible as yourself. But if I had to nominate someone I will go for Hayley Turner so I can kiss her feet and remind her of her honoured place in racing history.
There is not enough space or time to nominate one embarrassing moment as my life seems to have been one prat-fall after another.
When I die I want to have buried with me a copy of ‘Three Men In A Boat’, Pat Taaffe’s autobiography and a copy of The Racing Post, which is, perhaps, the item I treasure the most.
If I have a fault it is an inability to relax. When I have physiotherapy, they find it hard to believe that I am as relaxed as I can be. Again, I seem to be missing the relax gene.
I have been very bad at a whole lot of jobs but I doubt if I have had a bad job.
The funniest thing I have seen on a racecourse, though Alastair surprisingly didn’t see the funny side of it, was the ‘mad, bad, sad’ Grand National won by Red Marauder.
As someone who does not ride I admire every jockey, every member of every racing yard, every trainer and every single horse. I am as jealous as a green emerald of owners. To own a racehorse, how fabulous would that be?
My greatest fear is snakes. What is the point of them? Do they do anything worthwhile for the planet?
My brain has a nickname which unlike most nicknames is highly appropriate. ‘Stupid Brain’.
Social media is the invention of the devil and it will be the largest contributing factor in the destruction of civilisation.
My four ideal guests at a dinner party would be: Alastair Down, Ruby Walsh, Aidan O’Brien and – this fourth guest is trickier than it should be as I am a keen advocate of having the glass ceiling for female riders shattered for the good of the sport’s reputation for diversity. Because the aforementioned are all men I will not choose A.P. or Frankie Dettori or John Gosden and go for Bryony Frost as I reckon I can depend on her to keep the conversation lively leaving me to fill my face while fantasising on other matters.
The answer to Question 1 is whip, as apprentices in Harry Carr’s day where not allowed to carry whips in apprentice races.
Question 2, the answer is 1955. A strike of some sort was the reason. Perhaps running the King G and Queen E at the Royal meeting is not such a bad idea. Perhaps it should be considered.
And Question 3: Dopers wanting to stop Parthia mistook his stable and in the dead of night released Alcide. He was found at 3 in the morning munching grass on railway land next to the main Norwich to Newmarket road.