GEORGE HOY BOOTH, CARLISLE & 'CONDITIONS WERE BETWEEN A RODEO AND A DONKEY DERBY.

As part of my subscription to The Racing Post, I receive newsletters in the form of e-mails penned by many of the Post's staff of writers. The other day it was the Post's Newmarket correspondent David Milnes who provided an interesting look at Godolphin Stables, historically known as Stanley House Stables when owned by Lord Derby and now home to Saeed Bin Suroor. The part of the e-mail though that lit-up what remains of my brain cells was the surprising fact that before he became a household name George Formby was once an apprentice jockey and worked for several years at Stanley House Stables. So perked was my interest, I actually undertook a small amount of research to see if I could uncover more about George Hoy Booth, jockey.

Formby's father was a successful music hall performer and owned many racehorses. According to a biopic of Formby, and I take on trust the authenticity of the article, George Formby or George Hoy Booth as he was known when a licenced apprentice jockey, holds the record for the youngest person to ride under rules in British racing history when he rode his father's horse, Eliza, in an Apprentice Plate at Lingfield Park, aged 10. He failed to win a race, neither in Britain or Ireland where he went to live during the First World War, as did his father's racehorses, though he did once ride in Lord Derby's colours and twice finished second on his father's horse, Philander.

I believe that everyone involved in horse racing should be given the opportunity to be successful, and this includes our racecourses. This is why I am delighted that on the abandonment of Haydock's two-fixture, the main day has been switched to Carlisle, a far more interesting racecourse than one-dimensional Haydock could ever be. Whereas Haydock is flat, Carlisle has the longest incline to the finishing post in Britain. A race is never over at Carlisle until the very last strides of a race.

Carlisle is home to the country's oldest race, the Carlisle Bell, and is unique in staging the only all-female riders meeting, which is its most popular meeting in their calendar. Hint, hint, wink, wink! From the grandstand the viewer can see both Carlisle Castle and Carlisle Cathedral and though the ground can often be soft in winter, during the summer it provides good racing ground. The steeplechase course is particularly liked by southern trainers and many top-class jumpers have started their careers at the course. It is a course where it pays to follow the old adage of 'horses for courses' and that applies especially to jockeys at Carlisle.

I am particularly looking forward to I.T.V. racing today simply because Carlisle has its first real day in the spotlight and am relieved that the F.A. Cup Final is tomorrow afternoon and not today. (That's the women's Cup Final - yes, I prefer the beautiful game played by beautiful people. I am odd like that)

Given that the sport continues to find ways to embarrass itself, either by being unable to start a horse race or by holes suddenly appearing on the racing surface, I thought it interesting to read that as far back as the early 1960's racing at Epsom was described as something between a 'rodeo and a donkey Derby' and no one in authority seemed to want to address the impoverish state of the ground. Even back then Epsom was concerned that fewer people were attending race-meetingstha in the near past. To address falling attendance, whilst ignoring the occasional falling horse and jockey, a new paddock was installed and a pedestrian tunnel built under the course at the east end of the Roseberry Stand. The tunnel was eighty-yards long and twenty-feet deep and topped with earth and turf. Underneath the sods the tunnel was considered a boon and a blessing by all, only immediately after its completion the weather became extremely inclement and the turf did not knit together to anyone's satisfaction and Kempton Park was put on alert to step in and take over the Spring meeting. There was also even talk of Epsom having to find another venue to stage the Derby. The clerk of the course spent £144, a good deal of money in the 1960's, on powdered seaweed in an attempt to keep the course damp, so as not to dry out too quickly once the rain turned to spring sunshine and experimented with foundry sand on the crossing points.

I only report the above - the facts taken from David Hunn's book 'Epsom Racecourse' - to remind readers that it has never been a bouquet of roses for those whose task in life is to manage a racecourse that forms part of a huge public right of way. Only in Britain could we stage a premier classic on a racecourse that can be fairly described as a rollercoaster and on land that is surrounded by a popular local leisure park, with Derby Day an historic venue for a travelling community that lives outside the nornal rules of social conformity. But that is the beauty and fascination of the place, isn't it?  Iconic, eccentric and once mesmerising.