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John Francome
John Francome (born 13 December 1952) is a retired seven-time British Champion jump jockey. He was previously a racing trainer and broadcaster with Channel 4, and is an author. Racing career Francome first rode a pony called Black Beauty at the age of six. His first riding successes came as a showjumper, and was a member of the team that won the European Junior Show Jumping Championship for Great Britain. Francome's father secured a meeting with trainer Fred Winter and he became an apprentice in October 1969. His first race ride came at Worcester in December 1970, a race he won riding Multigrey trained by Godfrey Burr. In February 1971, Francome rode his first of 575 winners for trainer Winter on Osceola at Towcester. Osbaldeston was an early success story for the Francome/Winter partnership, notching up 17 victories. Francome won his first British Champion Jump Jockey title in the 1975/76 season. The same year he secured his first Grade 1 victory in the Sun Alliance C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swindon
Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swindon lies on the M4 corridor, 84 miles (135 km) to the west of London and 36 miles (57 km) to the east of Bristol. The Cotswolds lie just to the town's north and the North Wessex Downs to its south. Recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Suindune'', the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1843 transformed it from a small market town of 2,500 into a thriving railway hub that would become one of the largest Swindon Works, railway engineering complexes in the world at its peak. This brought with it pioneering amenities such as the UK's first lending library and a 'cradle-to-grave' healthcare centre that was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. Swindon's railway heritage can be primarily seen today with the grade 2 listed Railway Villag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King George VI Chase
The King George VI Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of about 3 miles (4,828 metres), and during its running there are eighteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year on 26 December, and features as part of the course's Christmas Festival. The event was first run in February 1937, and it was named in honour of the new British monarch, King George VI. It was only run twice before World War II, during which Kempton Park was closed for racing and used as a prisoner-of-war camp. The two pre-war runnings were each contested by four horses. The winner of the first, Southern Hero, remains the race's oldest ever winner. After the war the racecourse re-opened, and the event returned in 1947 on a new date – Boxing Day. The King George VI Chase is now the second mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Oaksey
John Geoffrey Tristram Lawrence, 4th Baron Trevethin and 2nd Baron Oaksey (21 March 1929 – 5 September 2012) was a British aristocrat, horse racing journalist, television commentator and former amateur jockey. He was twice British Champion Amateur Jump Jockey, before becoming a celebrated journalist and recognisable racing personality both on television and through his charitable work for the Injured Jockeys Fund, which he helped establish. He has been described as "quite possibly the outstanding racing figure of modern times, touching so many via his compelling writing, broadcasting, race-riding and tireless fund-raising". Early life He was the son of the noted jurist Geoffrey Lawrence, 1st Baron Oaksey, and his wife Marjorie, daughter of Commander Charles Robinson, RN. He preferred to be called Oaksey, although Trevethin is the longer-established title. In his broadcasting career, he was initially known as John Lawrence before adopting the name John Oaksey when he s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Channel 4 Racing
''Channel 4 Racing'' is the name given to the horse racing coverage on the British television stations Channel 4 and More4. History The first transmission of racing on the channel was on 22 March 1984 from Doncaster, as it took over midweek coverage that had previously been on ITV. On 5 October 1985, the week after '' World of Sport'' ended, Channel 4 took over ITV's Saturday afternoon coverage. From the beginning of 1986, however, the amount of racing covered, especially on Saturday afternoons, was substantially reduced with coverage focussing on Newmarket, Epsom, Doncaster, York, Sandown Park, Kempton alongside visits to Ayr for the Scottish Grand National and Ayr Gold Cup meetings and Newcastle for the Eider Chase, Northumberland Plate and Fighting Fifth Hurdle. Race meetings dropped would be the small/medium tracks that were covered by World Of Sport Warwick, Nottingham, Market Rasen, Ripon, Beverley, Towcester, Stratford, Catterick, Fakenham, Fontwell, Sedgefie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sun Alliance Chase
The Brown Advisory Novices' Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt chase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run on the Old Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 3 miles and half a furlong (3 miles and 110 yards, or 4,928 metres), and during its running there are twenty fences to be jumped. The race is for novice chasers, and it is scheduled to take place each year during the Cheltenham Festival in March. History The event was originally known as the Broadway Novices' Chase, and this became the race's registered title in 2021, but since the mid-1960s it has been run under various sponsored titles. From 1964 to 1973 it was sponsored by the Tote, and it was called the Totalisator Champion Novices' Chase. From 1974 to 2020 it was backed by the RSA Insurance Group, and its predecessors Sun Alliance (1974–1996) and Royal & SunAlliance (1997–2008). Since 2021 the race has been sponsored by Brown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European islands by area, largest European island, and the List of islands by area, ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west – these islands, along with over List of islands of the British Isles, 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, comprise the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a land bridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's List of islands by population, third-most-populous islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Francome Novices%27 Chase
The John Francome Novices' Chase is a Grade 2 National Hunt chase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Newbury, Berkshire, over a distance of about 2 miles and 4 furlongs (2 miles 3 furlongs and 187 yards, or 4,367 metres), and during its running there are sixteen fences to be jumped. The race is for novice chasers, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late November or early December. The race was originally run over 3 miles until it was reduced in distance from 1973. Prior to 1991 the event was known as the Hopeful Chase, but was then renamed as the Fulke Walwyn Novices' Chase, in memory of the racehorse trainer Fulke Walwyn. It attained Listed status in 2001, and it was promoted to Grade 2 level in 2004. The race was renamed the Berkshire Novices' Chase in 2006. From 2011 to 2016 the race was sponsored by Fuller's Brewery and run as the Fuller's London Pride Novices' Chase. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as or , although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution. ''The Times'' had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, ''The Sunday Times'' had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fontwell Park Racecourse
Fontwell Park Racecourse is a horse racing course located in the village of Fontwell in West Sussex, England, owned by ARC Racing. It features a unique figure of eight steeplechase course and a conventional oval Hurdling (horse race), hurdles course. Fontwell Park was founded by Alfred Day who trained racehorses at The Hermitage, by the Chichester to Arundel road, from 1887. Day returned the name Fontwell to common use after researching the history of the area, and by 1924 he had purchased enough land to open the racecourse. The hurdles track was a normal shape, but the steeplechase course was laid out in a figure of eight shape to use the space on the site. The first meeting took place on 21 May 1924. The grandstand and the weighing room were built with thatched roofs. The opening race was won by Gem, the 5/4 favourite Gem, ridden by jockey Fred Rees. At the course in October 1949, Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II) had her firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Mellor
Stanley Thomas Edward Mellor (10 April 1937 – 1 August 2020) was a National Hunt jockey and trainer who was the first jockey to ride 1,000 winners and Champion Jockey three years in a row from 1960 to 1962. Riding career Riding style Mellor was an intelligent jockey, rather than a physical one. He once bemoaned the effect this had on public perception of him: "If you win with strength people see it, and if you win with style people see it, but if you win with guile people don't see it." He rode at a weight of 8 st 10 lb, not much more than a modern flat jockey. Victory against Arkle Mellor was one of the few jockeys to experience beating Arkle, often regarded as the greatest steeplechaser of all time. His victory against Arkle came in the 1966 Hennessy Gold Cup on 25-1 outsider Stalbridge Colonist. Because of the handicapping system, Arkle was regularly forced to compete conceding huge amounts of weight to other horses, and his defeat is often attributed to that. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Scudamore
Peter Michael Scudamore MBE (born 29 June 1958), often known as 'Scu', is a trainer and former jockey in National Hunt racing. He was an eight-time Champion Jockey (including one title shared with John Francome), riding 1,678 winning horses in his career. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to National Hunt Racing in the 1990 Birthday Honours. Early life Scudamore was born in June 1958 to jockey Michael Scudamore and his wife Mary. Michael Scudamore won the 1959 Grand National on Oxo, when his son was still a baby. Scudamore remembers little about his father's career, except for the fall that ended it. He has, however, spoken of his father's toughness as a jockey and of wanting to live up to him. Racing career Scudamore's first competitive ride came in 1978, the start of a 15-year career which would see him break many jumps racing records. He benefited particularly from being a stable jockey for the record breaking trainer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
