by David Owen
Football League chairmen turn down live television proposal – Liverpool Daily Post, 4 April 1967.
Tophams 1960 profits £2,000 up – minutes of Tophams Ltd board meetings, volume XII.
Estimated 50 million television viewers etc. – The Times, 5 April 1967.
Ray Lakeland and the BBC’s ‘roving eye’ camera – face-to-face interview with author.
The Lincolnshire Handicap was moved from Lincoln to Doncaster in 1965 when Lincoln racecourse was closed.
Nicolaus Silver’s engine-oil – Ossie Dale’s Grand National Scrapbook, Reg Green, Marlborough, 1992, page 34.
‘Lord Derby in the middle …’ – face-to-face interview with Ray Lakeland, former BBC outside broadcast producer.
‘A seat of the pants guy’ – ibid.
Sidney Spofforth – Liverpool Daily Post, 8 April 1967.
Cyril Watkins in his office – details sourced from his wife Iris’s niece, Lyn Shelton, and nephew, Paul Nixon.
Three Dons’s temper and good looks – face-to-face interview with Colin Hemsley, former head lad.
Frank Reynolds’s personalised number-plate – Coventry Evening Telegraph, 5 September 1968.
Snow in the Cotswolds – face-to-face interview with Colin Hemsley, former head lad.
Southport Turkish baths – Winner’s Disclosure, Terry Biddlecombe with Pat Lucas, Stanley Paul, 1982, pages 35–6.
John Buckingham’s landlady – Daily Express, 30 March 1968.
The scene at the Adelphi – ‘Disaster at a Thorny Barricade’, Whitney Tower, Sports Illustrated, 17 April 1967.
Tim Durant’s past and cancer operation – A-Z of the Grand National, John Cottrell and Marcus Armytage, Highdown, 2008, pages 145–6.
Ladbrokes telegram – The Times, 8 April 1967.
Charles Benson’s Horse by Horse Guide – Daily Express, 8 April 1967.
Chapter 16
Information on train arrivals sourced from Phil Prosser and other railway enthusiasts.
Multicoloured trouser suits – Liverpool Daily Post, 10 April 1967.
John Buckingham, ‘I never have lunch …’ – Daily Express, 30 March 1968.
John Pinfold – face-to-face interview with author.
14 shillings – 70p.
Michael Daley – email correspondence with author.
‘Officers’ special’ train – email correspondence with railway enthusiasts Stuart Daniels and Phil Prosser. The last ‘officers’ special’ ran in 1976.
Graham Goode first live commentary – telephone interview with author.
Three Dons’s unusual whip – face-to-face interview with Colin Hemsley, the Kemptons’ head lad.
Three Dons takes lead approaching the last – Worcester Evening News, 8 April 1967.
Buckingham collecting autographs – Daily Express, 30 March 1968.
Richard Pitman, ‘One buttock on the bench’ – face-to-face interview with author. Pitman would twice finish as Grand National runner-up: in 1969 on Steel Bridge and in 1973 on Crisp.
Buckingham, ‘All sitting down …’ – Daily Express, 30 March 1968.
Pitman always went to church – face-to-face interview with author.
John Lawrence’s glucose and orange quarters – Good Horses Make Good Jockeys, Richard Pitman, Pelham Books, 1976, page 126.
Biddlecombe, ‘I have never seen so many …’ – Winner’s Disclosure, Terry Biddlecombe with Pat Lucas, Stanley Paul, 1982, page 36.
Time to weigh out: in any one of the previous 16 years, Michael Scudamore would have been in that line of jockeys. Instead, five months after a freak fall at Wolverhampton that left him with chest and facial injuries serious enough to end his career, he had been booked to do a radio commentary on the National for the BBC World Service and found himself ‘in the tiniest room with the tiniest television.’
‘Johnny, what’s this you’re riding?’ – a recording of Michael O’Hehir’s account of this incident can be listened to at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kA_FmPuXz4
Mullingar – Kieran O’Donnell, letter to author.
George Pottinger – he meant, of course, that he fished at the mountain in Sutherland after which the horse was named, though it is more normally written Foinaven nowadays. Details of the story came from a telephone interview with Piers Pottinger.
Michael Walters – telephone interview with author.
Eric Brown – telephone interview with author.
Cyril Watkins’s bets – Evening Post, 8 April 1967 and Sunday Express, 9 April 1967.
Mac Bennellick watching in his office – Havering Recorder, 14 April 1967.
Scene in Cyril’s Tilehurst pet-shop – email correspondence with Lyn Shelton, Iris Watkin’s niece, and interview with Paul Nixon, Iris’s nephew.
Bennellick’s future daughter-in-law – email correspondence with Chris Compton, widow of Bennellick’s son Colin.
The Flat race that preceded the National – the Hylton Handicap Stakes.
False start and 16-minute delay – Evening News & Star, 8 April 1967.
Raymond Guest – A better-known horse of Guest’s, L’Escargot, would win the Grand National in 1975, beating Red Rum in the process.
Marie Christine Ridgway/Chay Blyth – telephone interview with Marie Christine Ridgway, also Sporting Life, 10 April 1967.
Chay Blyth in 1971 achieved even greater fame after sailing non-stop westwards around the world.
Clifford Booth’s attempt to bet on Foinavon – face-to-face interview with author.
Ten bob – 50p
Chapter 17
Brough Scott – writer and former jockey; face-to-face interview with author.
David Nicholson, ‘I have never had …’ – Liverpool Daily Post, 8 April 1967.
John Buckingham, the preliminaries ‘seemed to take ages …’ – Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, page 20.
Richard Pitman, ‘So heavily showered with dust …’ – Good Horses Make Good Jockeys, Richard Pitman, Pelham Books, 1976, page 43.
Bob-a-Job was ridden by Chris Young rather than the unfortunate Dave Patrick (see Chapter 12).
Paul Irby, ‘I bloody nearly fell off.’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Bassnet’s fall – The Bloodstock Breeders’ Annual Review – National Hunt Season 1966/67, page 111.
David Nicholson, who died in 2006, came third in the jockeys’ championship in 1964/65 and was twice champion jump-racing trainer in the mid-1990s. The Grand National eluded him in both guises, however.
The embankment – this was built from rubble and debris left from Aintree’s wartime occupation and first used in 1952. It allows a view of the first three Grand National fences.
Peter Jones – telephone interview with author. Jones, who rode Bassnet over the National fences in the 1966 Topham Trophy, finishing second, remembers that Becher’s ‘frightened the life out of’ the horse. ‘He hardly left the ground at the next,’ he says.
Andy Turnell, ‘I was fine …’ – face-to-face interview with author. Turnell said he had taken a middle-to-outer line because his father, the trainer Bob Turnell, who also rode in several Nationals, “got cross with you if you went up the inner.’
Mrs Charles Turriff – face-to-face interview with author. (The former Mrs Turriff now goes by the name of Georgina Galt.)
Taught to race-ride by Fred Winter – Winter’s first Grand National winner as a jockey – Sundew (1957) – was trained on a farm at Henley-in-Arden owned by Mrs Turriff’s mother.
1964 Scottish Grand National – A Horse Called Freddie, Vian Smith, Stanley Paul, 1967, page 51.
1964 was a banner year for Walwyn, who had already captured the Aintree Grand National with Team Spirit. The Times reported after the Scottish race that the Lambourn trainer’s horses ‘have now won £66,959 compared with the earlier record of £40,950 by H.R. Price.’ Walwyn’s haul was achieved in spite of Mill House’s Cheltenham Gold Cup defeat by Arkle.
Armitage Shanks
– the British bathroom fixtures company.
Popham Down foaled on the Marlborough Downs – Georgina Galt believes the foal was actually born on Popham Down. I have no reason to doubt this, but have been unable to trace anywhere with this name in the vicinity of these downs.
Willie Robinson, Mildmay was Popham Down’s ‘type of race’ – telephone interview with author.
Kirriemuir – winner of the 1965 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
Larbawn – twice winner of the Whitbread Gold Cup.
Josh Gifford, ‘Macer suited certain horses …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Macer Gifford was champion amateur jockey in 1964/65.
Chapter 18
Tim Brookshaw’s horrifying fall – Winner’s Disclosure, Terry Biddlecombe with Pat Lucas, Stanley Paul, 1982, page 79.
Pat Taaffe on Brookshaw – My Life and Arkle’s, Pat Taaffe, Stanley Paul, 1972, page 35.
John Buckingham, Brookshaw ‘absolutely fearless’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Brookshaw, ‘How now brown cow?’ – Winner’s Disclosure, Terry Biddlecombe with Pat Lucas, Stanley Paul, 1982, page 84.
David Mould injury-record – face-to-face interview with author.
Terry Biddlecombe, ‘I broke 47 bones …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Taaffe injury-record – My Life and Arkle’s, Pat Taaffe, Stanley Paul, 1972, page 32.
Barry Brogan injury-record – The Barry Brogan Story – In His Own Words, Barry Brogan, Arthur Barker, 1981, page 125.
Buckingham’s injury-record – included in an interview published in the Gus Dalrymple Column on 8 April 1972.
Buckingham’s journey back from Wetherby – Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, page 51.
Paddy Farrell’s fall – The Times, 23 March 1964.
Ron Atkins, ‘It was like the Battle of the Somme …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Brough Scott ambulance ride etc. – face-to-face interview with author.
Duke of Albuquerque’s 107 Aintree fractures – A-Z of the Grand National, John Cottrell and Marcus Armytage, Highdown, 2008, page 18.
One Grand National fatality – ibid., page 163 and pages 551–2.
Michael Scudamore, ‘A boy called Ivor Beckinsale …’ etc. – telephone interview with author.
Stan Mellor’s head ‘swollen like a football’ – Winner’s Disclosure, Terry Biddle-combe with Pat Lucas, Stanley Paul, 1982, page 68.
Pat Buckley – email correspondence with author.
Jeremy Speid-Soote, ‘Being a jockey …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Pat Taaffe, ‘We will fall …’ – My Life and Arkle’s, Pat Taaffe, Stanley Paul, 1972, page 32.
Stan Mellor, ‘You don’t lie …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Atkins was made Safety Officer for the Jockeys’ Association towards the end of the decade.
Buckingham, ‘I took a pull …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Queen’s representative at Ascot – this role included deciding ultimately who would be granted admittance to the Royal Enclosure (Daily Telegraph, 23 April 2005).
April Rose had jumped more than 200 Aintree fences without falling – A Horse Called Freddie, Vian Smith, Stanley Paul, 1967, page 129.
Piers Bengough, ‘The most economical action …’ – Go Down to the Beaten, Chris Pitt, Racing Post Books, 2011, page 70.
John Edwards – telephone interview with author.
Shand Kydd’s loan of Rolls-Royce to Richard Pitman – Good Horses Make Good Jockeys, Richard Pitman, Pelham Books, 1976, page 32. Jenny Pitman would go on to become the first woman to train a Grand National winner – Corbiere in 1983.
Bill Shand Kydd’s broken collarbone – telephone interview with author.
Richard Pitman, ‘I remembered too late’ – ibid., page 44.
Enid Chanelle – telephone interview with Kara McCulloch, Miss Chanelle’s granddaughter. In later years, Miss Chanelle’s attentions would switch to the performing arts. She became president of a company that acquired a string of theatres around southern England including the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End. By a quirk of history, this was the very venue where, in the early 1920s, Mirabel Topham had made her last stage appearances.
Vulcano tipped to win – Irish Independent, 8 April 1967.
Vulcano at the third fence – face-to-face interview with his jockey, Jeremy Speid-Soote.
RSPCA report – minutes of Tophams Ltd board meetings, volume XIII.
Shand Kydd, Dorimont ‘a lovely old thing’.
Chapter 19
Johnny Lehane’s death – the Western Times & Gazette, 12 September 1969 and 14 November 1969.
Terry Biddlecombe, Lehane ‘the happiest little jockey …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Coroner’s remarks – the Western Times & Gazette, 14 November 1969.
1962 Grand National – Lehane’s mount Mr What had won the race in 1958 and finished third in 1959. The first three home in 1962 were all aged 12, leading the race to be dubbed, ‘the success of the veterans’.
False teeth/holiday in Majorca – Winner’s Disclosure, Terry Biddlecombe with Pat Lucas, Stanley Paul, 1982, pages 57 and 76. Biddlecombe writes that he is ‘not quite sure’ how Lehane came by the name of ‘Tumper’, but thinks it was through his habit of ‘addressing everyone and everything with the word “tumping”’.
Richard Pitman, ‘[Lehane] delighted in buying drinks …’ – Good Horses Make Good Jockeys, Richard Pitman, Pelham Books, 1976, page 20.
Tim Norman, ‘If it wasn’t for Johnny Lehane …’ – telephone interview with author.
Terry Biddlecombe, Lehane ‘When he had money …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Pitman, ‘He had friends …’ – Good Horses Make Good Jockeys, Richard Pitman, Pelham Books, 1976, page 20.
Bobby Beasley sees Lehane giving novice chaser ‘a fair old hiding’ – Second Start, Bobby Beasley, W.H. Allen, 1976, page 161. Beasley reveals in the book that it was on the night of his mount Nicolaus Silver’s 1961 Grand National victory that he ‘got tight’ for the first time in his life.
Biddlecombe, Lehane ‘took life seriously …’ – Winner’s Disclosure, Terry Biddlecombe with Pat Lucas, Stanley Paul, 1982, page 84.
The last relatively locally trained Grand National winner had been Cheshire-based Russian Hero in 1949. He never won another race.
Penvulgo’s fatal injury – Sporting Life, 30 March 1968.
Nobby Howard, ‘I nearly fell …’ – telephone interview with author.
John Cook later won the 1971 Grand National on Specify.
David Crossley Cooke watching the rest of the race on horseback – telephone interview with author.
John Buckingham, ‘When you get halfway over …’ – Daily Express, 30 March 1968.
Chapter 20
Because the Grand National consists of nearly two full laps of a 16-fence course, the first fence is also the 17th, while the last is also the 14th. The water-jump is cleared once only, as the 16th fence. The ‘one after Becher’s’ is the 7th fence on the first circuit and the 23rd on the second.
Dick Francis, ‘Innocuous and simple …’ – Sunday Express, 9 April 1967.
Francis, ‘An understandable slayer …’ – ibid.
Fred Rimell – later a very successful trainer who saddled four Grand National winners. His representatives in the 1967 race were The Fossa and Princeful.
Bruce Hobbs and Battleship – description of incident with Rimell draws on both Second Start, Bobby Beasley, W.H. Allen, 1976, page 45 and A-Z of the Grand National, John Cottrell and Marcus Armytage, Highdown, 2008.
Battleship was also one of the very rare blinkered Grand National winners.
22 casualties – figures supplied by Mick Mutlow, Grand National specialist.
‘At number seven fence …’ – The Times, 15 February 1955.
The League Against Cruel Sport not satisfied – The Times, 16 February 1955.
Views of jockeys Bryan Marshall and George Slack – ibid.
RSPCA recommends removal of seventh fence … – The Times, 22 March 1957.
In the 1970s, the ‘one after Becher’s’ came close to claiming at least two highclass victims. In 1971, Jim Dreaper was nearly knocked off Black Secret there in a collision with another horse (Go Down to the Beaten, Chris Pitt, Racing Post Books, 2011, page 151). Black Secret finished a narrowly beaten second. Four years later, Tommy Carberry found himself up around his mount L’Escargot’s ears after the gelding surprisingly clouted the fence hard (Kings for a Day, Reg Green, Mainstream, 2002, page 121). The pair went on to win the race from the great Red Rum by 15 lengths.
Terry Biddlecombe, ‘A trick fence …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Biddlecombe, ‘That’s a bastard …’ – Horse and Hound, 15 April 1967.
Chapter 21
John Lawrence, ‘One of the finest …’ – Horse and Hound, 15 April 1967.
Anglo slams into another horse – ‘Disaster at a Thorny Barricade’, Whitney Tower, Sports Illustrated, 17 April 1967.
Tim Norman – telephone interview with author.
Stolen jewellery – The Times, 10 April 1967.
Johnny Lehane’s ‘super ride’ – Sunday Express, 9 April 1967.
Paul Irby, ‘The Canal Turn …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Paddy Broderick, ‘A loose horse …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
John Buckingham, ‘Going past the stands …’ – face-to-face interview with author, Financial Times, 5 April 2003.
John Leech, ‘I remember …’ – Go Down to the Beaten, Chris Pitt, Racing Post Books, 2011 page 126. Also telephone interview with author.
Nick Gaselee, ‘I had gone to the middle …’ – telephone interview with author.
Stan Mellor, ‘He used to get …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
‘It was like a battlefield …’ – writers and publications responsible for these metaphors included: the Evening News and Star, John Lawrence in the Sunday Telegraph and, later, Horse and Hound, Dick Francis (Sunday Express), Peter Wilson (Daily Mirror) and Tom Forrest (Sunday Express).