Generous

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Generous Owned by Prince Fahd Salman, in whose distinctive dark green silks he raced, and trained by Paul Cole at Whatcombe Estate, on the Berkshire Downs, Generous is best remembered for winning the Derby at Epsom in 1991. However, the son of Caerleon won six of his eleven races between 1990 and 1991 and over £1.1 million in total prize money; he was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 139, placing him co-fourteenth on the all-time list, alongside Arrogate, Pappa Fourway and Reference Point.

Generous won three of his six starts as a juvenile, like someone with beginners luck on usa casino online, most notably when springing a 50/1 surprise in the Group One Dewhurst Stakes, over seven furlongs, at Newmarket in October, 1990. After an interrupted preparation, due to a self-inflicted overreach injury, Generous reappeared in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, without a preparatory race. Sent off at 11/1 joint-fourth choice in the betting market, Generous was outpaced just after halfway, but stayed on well in the closing stages to finish fourth, a respectful eight-and-a-half lengths behind the winner, Mystiko.

Generous was immediately stepped up to a mile-and-a-half, in the Derby at Epsom, and his regular partner Richard Quinn was replaced, at the insistence of Fahd Salman, by Alan Munro. At Epsom, Generous showed vastly improved form, demonstrating the old adage ‘fourth in the Guineas, first in the Derby’ by spreadeagling the field, which again included Mystiko, to win by five lengths and seven lengths at odds of 9/1.

Less than a month later, Generous headed to the Curragh for the Irish Derby, in which he made short work of the Prix du Jockey Club-winner Suave Dancer, taking the lead a mile from home and running on well to win by three lengths, with the confidence of someone winning big on real money online poker. Consequently, back on home soil, for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot a month later, he was sent off at odds-on for his first attempt against his elders. He justified favouritism with consummate ease, quickening clear in the closing stages to beat the dual Group One-winning four-year-old Sanglamore by a record seven lengths. Generous’ racing career ended on a low note, when pulling too hard for his own good and finishing well beaten in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, but his earlier exploits made him British Horse of the Year for 1991.

All-Weather Racing

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All-Weather Racing Nowadays, so-called all-weather racing – that is, horse racing on synthetic surfaces – is an everyday occurrence in Britain. However, younger more online geered readers clambering to play best online slots, may not realise that just over three decades ago racecourses such as Kempton, Lingfield, Newcastle, Southwell, and Wolverhampton raced exclusively on turf and Chelmsford City did not even exist.

All-weather racing in Britain was first mooted following the very cold, snowy winter of 1984/85, which led to the abandonment of dozens of National Hunt fixtures. However, it was not until four or five years later that first Lingfield, and then Southwell, were granted permission to install synthetic surfaces. Lingfield opted for Equitrack – graded sand particles encapsulated in a mixture of oil and polymers – on the inside of the existing turf track, while Southwell opted for Fibresand – a deeper, slower surface, composed of sand particles and polypropylene fibres – on the outside.

Lingfield staged its first all-weather fixture on October 30, 1989 and was followed by Southwell, just nine days later. Four years later, in 1993, Wolverhampton went a stage further by completely replacing its turf course with Fibresand. Two years later still, in 1995, Dunstall Park was also the venue for the first Listed race run on a synthetic surface in Britain, the Wulfrun Stakes.

The twenty-first century brought many changes to the all-weather landscape, much in the same way that kiwicasinos casino online changed the casino landscape. In 2001, Lingfield switched to Polytrack – a more advanced, wax-coated mixture of sand, recycled synthetic fibres and recycled rubber – and, in 2004, Wolverhampton followed suit. The first Pattern race run on the all-weather, the Group Three Silver Trophy Stakes, was staged at Lingfield in the summer of 2005. The following spring, Kempton joined the all-weather roster and would be joined, albeit briefly, by the ill-fated Great Leighs – which would be resurrected, as Chelmsford City, seven years later – in 2008.

The inaugural All-Weather Championships, culminating in All-Weather Championships Finals Day, worth £1 million in prize money, at Lingfield on Good Friday commenced in October, 2013, and continues to go from strength to strength. In 2014, Wolverhampton switched again, to Tapeta – effectively an advanced, more forgiving version of Polytrack – and, in 2016, Newcastle also hosted its first fixture on a new Tapeta track.

Vaguely Noble

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Vaguely Noble Vaguely Noble has the distinction of being the joint-third highest rated horse – alongside Brigadier Gerard, and inferior to only Frankel and Sea-Bird – to race on the Flat in the post-war era, according to Timeform. Bred, and originally owned, by Major Lionel Brook Holliday, but subsequently inherited by his son, Lionel Brook Jnr., Vaguely Noble was trained privately, by Walter Wharton in Newmarket, in the early part of his career.

Vaguely Noble raced four times as a juvenile, winning twice. His most notable success as a two-year-old came in the Observer Gold Cup – now the Vertem Futurity Trophy – at Doncaster, where he sluiced through the mud to win by seven lengths. However, at the end of his two-year-old campaign he was sold for an eye-watering 136,000 guineas – at the time, a world record for any thoroughbred at auction – to American owners Nelson Bunker Hunt and Wilma Franklyn.

After a brief spell in Ireland with Paddy ‘Darkie’ Prendergast, Vaguely Noble was transferred to Chantilly-based trainer Etienne Pollet. During his three-year-old campaign in France, Vaguely Noble won four of his five starts. He won the Group Three Prix de Guiche, over 1,800 metres, at Chantilly, before stepping up in distance to win the Group Three Prix du Lys at Longchamp and the Group Two Grand Prix de Chantilly, both over 2,400 metres.

However, the best was yet to come from the Vienna colt; sent off favourite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, Vaguely Noble raced prominently throughout, took the lead with a quarter-of-a-mile to run and galloped on resolutely to beat the Derby winner, Sir Ivor, by three lengths. In so doing, he became a third winner of the Longchamp showpiece for Etienne Pollet, after La Sorellina in 1953 and Sea Bird in 1965. All told, Vaguely Noble won six of his nine races, never finished outside the first three and earned just over £287,000 in total prize money.