Elite Hurdle

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The Elite Hurdle is a Grade 2 hurdle run over 1 mile, 7 furlongs and 50 yards at Wincanton in early November. Currently sponsored by Unibet, the race was inaugurated, on the Old Course at Cheltenham, in 1992 and was originally run over a distance of 2 miles and 87 yards. The inaugural running featured just four runners, but the winner, Morley Street, had won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival the previous year and the second, Granville Again, would do so the following year. No race was staged in 1993, but the Elite Hurdle was resurrected at Wincantion the following year, at which point it was shortened to its current yardage.

Reigning champion trainer Paul Nicholls has saddled eight winners of the Elite Hurdle – namely Azertyuiop (2001), Santenay (2002), Perouse (2004), Celestial Halo (2009 & 2011), Zarkandar (2012), Irving (2015) and Knappers Hill (2022) – and is the leading trainer in the history of the race. However, it is worth noting that all bar one of his winners, Knappers Hill, came during the period, between 1998 and 2017, when the Elite Hurdle was run as a limited handicap, rather than a weight-for-age conditions race. Evergreen 11-year-old Sceau Royal, trained by Alan King, has run in the last six renewals of the Elite Hurdle, winning three times, in 2016, 2020 and 2021, and is the most successful horse in the history of the race.

Other notable winners down the years include Well Chief (2003), who won the Arkle Challenge Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival in 2004 and finished second to Moscow Flyer in the Queen Mother Champion Chase the following season. As far as future winners of the Elite Hurdle are concerned, recent trends suggest that the horses to focus on are those officially rated 146 or higher, who have run at least six times over hurdles, and won at least three times, including at least once at Grade 1, Grade 2 or Grade 3 level.

Harry Findlay: Gambling For Life

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I’ve just began reading Harry Findlay: Gambling For Life, written by Neil Harman, published in 2017 by Sport Media.

I purchased the book a long time ago, started to read it, and put it back on the bookshelf. It has nothing to do with the quality of the book but it wasn’t the right time. I guess those words would be familiar to Mr. Findlay – The Man Who Won Millions And Spent Every Penny.

So far I have read the acknowledgments and introduction: The Alchemist.

I have about 350 pages to go.

I’ve never met Harry Findlay in person. I used to question whether I would want to be in his company. That sounds critical but it’s not meant to be. He’s very much an alpha male and extrovert whereas I am an introvert.

They say oil and water don’t mix.

My impression of Harry Findlay was formed from watching him on TV. He has always been larger than life but in a gambling world of opinions perhaps the person with the loudest voice gets their views heard first and last. Since the publication of his book follows a devastating loss and almost financial ruin I wonder what man he is today. Perhaps he is a little quieter. I hope he hasn’t changed at all. If there’s one thing I like about a gambler, it’s someone who is confident in their opinions and worth. Most punters really don’t have much to say and what they do say doesn’t often make any sense or have substance.

Perhaps I would enjoy the company of Mr Findlay. I may need meet him in an Indian restaurant to keep him quiet as he goes through his chicken vindaloo, although he may well talk with his mouth full.

After reading many professional gambler books I am looking forward to reading the full warts and all version of Harry Findlay.

As Terry Ramsden once said: ‘There’s been plenty of people who have gone through their money.’

Dave Nevison wrote: No Easy Money: A Gambler’s Diary.

I’m noticing a theme here. I say that tongue-in-cheek because every gambler has good and bad times.

Harry Findlay said he has been skint many times. And the best judge for a gambler worth his salt is one who comes back from the brink.

I’m looking forward to finding out more.

Who is George Duffield?

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Nowadays, George Duffield, who turned 76 on November 30, 2022, is assistant trainer to his second wife, Ann, at Sun Hill Farm, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, but is best remembered for his prolific 40 plus year riding career, which yielded 2,547 winners, including two Classic winners. Born in Stanley, near Wakefield, Duffield became apprenticed to Jack Waugh at Heath House Stables in Newmarket in 1962, aged 15, and rode his first winner, Syllable, trained by Waugh at Yarmouth on June 15, 1967.

After a brief, unsatisfactory spell as stable jockey to John Oxley at Hurworth House Stables, also in Newmarket, in the early seventies, Duffield returned to Heath House Stables in 1974 to become stable jockey to Sir Mark Prescott Bt, who had taken over the licence following the retirement of Jack Waugh four years earlier. Indeed, he would remain with Prescott for the next 30 years, until he formally announced his retirement in March, 2005, aged 58, having failed to recover from a shoulder injury. All told, Duffield rode a total of 506 winners for Prescott on British soil alone, including back-to-back victories in the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot on Alborada in 1998 amd 1999. Reflecting on their time together, Prescott said, ‘I still would not have any other jockey from the past 150 years ahead of him.’

Probably the best horse Duffield rode, though, was the filly User Friendly, bred and owned by Bill Gredley and trained by Clive Brittain, on whom he won six races in 1992. Those victories included the Oaks, Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and St. Leger and the daughter of Slip Anchor came within a whisker of justifying favouritism the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe when beaten a neck by Subotica. Duffield later confessed, ‘I’m not into bold statements, I never have been, but I made one then and told Bill Gredley she’d win the Leger.’