2013 Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle

[JohnC]

THE FRED WINTER JUVENILE HANDICAP HURDLE
Class 1, Grade 3, £75,000 Total Prize Fund. Cheltenham, 4.40pm, Wednesday, March 13, 2013, two miles and half a furlong. For juvenile four-year-olds only. Penalties: after February 24, 2012, a winner of a hurdle race 5lb. No penalty to increase a horse’s weight above 11st 10lb. Entries closed February 19 (63 entries), entries released February 21, weights revealed February 27. Six-day confirmation stage March 7, final declaration stage 10.00am, March 12. Form figures supplied by Weatherbys and are correct up and including the racing of Sunday, February 24, 2013. May not include some overseas form. The top-weight Blood Cotil is rated 144.

Form Horse Age/Wt Owner Trainer
34-114 BLOOD COTIL (FR) 4-11-10 Susannah Ricci Willie Mullins IRE
3122 STOCKTONS WING (IRE) 4-11-06 J P McManus Charles O'Brien IRE
3-211232 VASCO DU RONCERAY (FR) 4-11-06 Simon Munir & Isaac Souede Nicky Henderson
2F1 FATCATINTHEHAT 4-11-05 Susannah Ricci Willie Mullins IRE
113 RUACANA 4-11-05 Bloomfields John Ferguson
2-U1 DJAKADAM (FR) 4-11-04 Susannah Ricci Willie Mullins IRE
21-121 SAMETEGAL (FR) 4-11-04 John and Barbara Cotton Paul Nicholls
211 ONLY ORSENFOOLSIES 4-11-03 This Time Next Year Partnership Micky Hammond
1-30433 MEGALYPOS (FR) 4-11-03 Simon Munir & Isaac Souede Nicky Henderson
312220 CAID DU BERLAIS (FR) 4-11-03 Donlon, MacDonald, C Barber & P Nicholls Paul Nicholls
551- VICONTE DU NOYER (FR) 4-11-02 Ann & Alan Potts Partnership Willie Mullins IRE
1(0)116 CHRIS PEA GREEN 4-11-02 C Green & Galloping On The South Downs Gary Moore
1123 FISHER 4-11-02 David Barker Gordon Elliott IRE
112 DOGORA (FR) 4-11-02 Susannah Ricci Willie Mullins IRE
211 PISTOL (IRE) 4-11-01 Clark, Devlin, Knox & Wells & Monroe Philip Hobbs
4113 L'UNIQUE (FR) 4-11-01 Denis Barry Alan King
2r1 BORDONI (USA) 4-11-00 Bloomfields John Ferguson
P01 KALMANN (FR) 4-10-13 Susannah Ricci Willie Mullins IRE
6112 HILALI (IRE) 4-10-13 J P McManus Gary Brown
211 TOTALIZE 4-10-11 D Gilbert, M Lawrence, A Bruce Brian Ellison
U1314 SOUTH SOUTH WEST (IRE) 4-10-11 W J Souths Racing Club Patrick Flynn IRE
4141 COUNSEL (IRE) 4-10-10 Tim Leslie Donald McCain
331 SAPHIR DU RHEU (FR) 4-10-10 The Stewart Family Paul Nicholls
0241 PTIT ZIG (FR) 4-10-10 Chris Giles, Potensis Limited & Webb Paul Nicholls
--------------------------------------------
Cut off before withdrawls
212 COCKNEY SPARROW 4-10-09 Mr & Mrs Paul Gaffney John Quinn
1152 MCVICAR 4-10-09 Bob & Pauline Scott Alan King
2125 HANDAZAN (IRE) 4-10-08 McNeill Family Alan King
522 ZAMDY MAN 4-10-08 Muhammad Nadeem Khan Venetia Williams
2-0U ANOTHER SENSATION (FR) 4-10-08 J P McManus Jonjo O'Neill
125 FLAXEN FLARE (IRE) 4-10-07 Mrs Pat Sloan Gordon Elliott IRE
663 MILORD (GER) 4-10-06 Kim Bailey Racing Partnership VII Kim Bailey
331 HABESH (IRE) 4-10-06 T Singleton/Christopher & C Murphy Eugene O'Sullivan IRE
234 THREE KINGDOMS (IRE) 4-10-06 Bloomfields John Ferguson
-------phil smith estimated cut off or slightly below

104 KNIGHT OF PLEASURE 4-10-05 The Knights Of Pleasure Gary Moore
513 ANGELOT DU BERLAIS (FR) 4-10-05 Chris Stedman Dr Richard Newland
1102 HALOGEN 4-10-05 Elite Racing Club Donald McCain
143 DOVILS DATE 4-10-05 Smith & Wright Tim Vaughan
222 IBSEN (IRE) 4-10-04 Mrs John Murphy John Murphy IRE
21134 TIDAL WAY (IRE) 4-10-04 Harold Peachey & Saddleworth Players Charlie Longsdon
242 SASH OF HONOUR (IRE) 4-10-04 R H D Smith Tim Vaughan
142 KING OF DUDES 4-10-04 Masterson Holdings Limited Alan King
224 SKY KHAN 4-10-03 The Unique Partnership Noel Quinlan
332(1)2 DOCS LEGACY (IRE) 4-10-03 D Bardsley Richard Fahey
5454 ONE FINE DAY (IRE) 4-10-02 John Harrington Jessica Harrington IRE
01434 CAPTAIN CARDINGTON (IRE) 4-10-02 Tapestry Partnership Sheena West
33416(1) FOSTER'S ROAD 4-10-02 Dave and Gill Hedley Mick Channon
221 DEEPSAND (IRE) 4-10-01 Trevor Hemmings Tim Easterby
2607 PACELLI ROAD (IRE) 4-10-01 J P McManus Dermot Weld IRE
022 HALLMARK STAR 4-10-00 The County Set (Two) Lucinda Russell
413 HARTSIDE (GER) 4-10-00 Gigginstown House Stud Noel Meade IRE
42U14 WHIPCRACKAWAY (IRE) 4-10-00 Peter Hedger Peter Hedger
313(4)(6)F DOLLAR BILL 4-10-00 Mrs C L Kyle Nick Gifford
153 CALCULATED RISK 4-9-13 Terry Warner John Quinn
1316(2) JUNO THE MUFFINMAN (IRE) 4-9-13 Andrew Black & Owen Promotions Limited Tim Vaughan
6245 FAANAN ALDAAR (IRE) 4-9-13 Joseph Fitzpatrick Philip Rothwell IRE
33F2 ROC D'APSIS (FR) 4-9-12 Muhammad Nadeem Khan Tom George
142U MR LANDO 4-9-11 Gary Attwood Tony Carroll
653 LONE FOOT LADDIE (IRE) 4-9-11 Dr John Wilson Lucinda Russell
43142 ASTEROID BELT (IRE) 4-9-10 Straightline Construction Ltd Tim Vaughan
F205 KING ARTHUR (GER) 4-9-04 The Neardown VI Charlie Mann
43F2P DONT TAKE ME ALIVE 4-9-01 Tim Bostwick Charlie Longsdon
F44U ARTE DEL CALCIO 4-8-10 K F Coleman Tony Carroll
24 AAZIF (IRE) 4 NQ Askew Dick Hernon Reynard Donald McCain
63 entries,
16 Irish-trained
167 (substitute).


--------------------------

First one to watch ...

LAST SHADOW (Trained by Jonjo O’Neill)

Cost £210,000 to be bought out of the Willie Muir stable so wants to be pretty good and, while beaten on his hurdling debut at Doncaster last week behind Calculated Risk, there was no hiding the potential he showed as he was nursed home by AP McCoy.

Last Shadow never threatened in fourth place but edged closer up the home straight from off the pace. On this showing it may be handicaps before he can really flourish and it will be interesting to see if there is an attempt to qualify him for the juvenile handicap hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

[Statto]

Few notes
2012 field OR 125-136 winner 127
2011 Field OR 112 -133 winner 115
2010 field OR 123 -135 winner 127
2009 121 -145 winner 125
2008 122 - 135 winner 133
2007 119-132 winner 130
2006 117. -132 winner 124
2005 111 - 127 winner 124

[johnno]

John Quinn horse


Cockney Sparrow, a former Peter Chapple-Hyam Flat-racer with two wins on the level, cost 35,000gns at the same Newmarket Sales where Hidden Justice was recruited.

A creditable runner-up on her hurdling bow at Aintree, the daughter of Cockney Rebel had little to beat at Doncaster and was sent off the 1-3 favourite, but she could hardly have scored with more authority, making all the running under Costello and cruising home by a wide margin.

“She ran a great race at Aintree but had never encountered heavy ground before,” recalled Quinn. “She has come on for that run. We bought her with mares’ races in mind, but she’ll also be entered in the Triumph.”

One more outing will also earn her a rating for the Fred Winter Novices’ Hurdle, a handicap.

[johnno]

And this one


For Two (FR)
4-y-o (23Apr09 gr g)
Act One *(11.3f) — Forcat (FR) (Bering *(10.1f))
Trainer Paul Nicholls
Owner Andrea & Graham Wylie
Breeder Scea Haras Du Ma & Jean-Pierre-Joseph

RACE RECORDPEDIGREEMY NOTESPHOTOS
Jumps placings 1-22
LIFETIME RECORD STARTS WINS 2NDS 3RDS WINNINGS EARNINGS BEST TS BEST RPR OR†
Hurdle 3 1 2 0 £22,000 £24,671 55 117 129
Rules Races 3 1 2 0 £22,000 £24,671 — — —
FORMWINSMY RATINGSSTATISTICSENTRIESRELATIVESSALESQUOTES
* DATE RACE CONDITIONS WGT RACE OUTCOME JOCKEY OR TS RPR
05Jan13 * San 17Hy C44yH 5K 11-5 2/7 (2¼L Knight Of Pleasure 10-9) 1/3F Daryl Jacob — * *
28Oct12 * Ain 17Sft C43yH 3K 11-5 2/7 (3¾L Handazan 11-0) 2/1J Daryl Jacob — * *
18Mar12 * Aut 15VSft 3yH 22K 10-3 1/11 (1¾L Abakahn 10-3) 15/1 Alain De Chitray — * *

[JohnC]

Handazan 128 now ?


Handazan (IRE)
4-y-o (03Feb09 b g)
Nayef (USA) *(10.8f) — Handaza (IRE) (Be My Guest (USA) *(10.1f))
Trainer Alan King
Owner McNeill Family
Breeder His Highness The Aga Khan's Studs S C

[cheltenham]

About the man it remembers

FRED WINTER*was perhaps the greatest talent the world of steeplechasing has ever produced. There was hardly a race of any significance in the jumps calendar that he had not won as either jockey or trainer, often as both.

In his riding days he won two Grand Nationals, on Sundew*and Kilmore, two Cheltenham Gold Cups, on Saffron Tartan and Mandarin, and three Champion Hurdles, on Clair Soleil, Fare Time and Eborneezer.

And the tone of his training career was set in his very first season when he sent out the American horse Jay Trump to win the Grand National in 1965.

The following year there was a second National with Anglo. In 1978 Midnight Court gave him victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and he won three Champion Hurdles in four years, with Bula (twice) and Lanzarote.

Those results were just the top layer of the cream. To list all of Winter's major successes would fill many pages, but he was more than just a marvellously successful trainer and jockey - he was also a marvellously successful man.

During nearly 50 years in racing, Fred Winter's principles and his reputation were never of anything other than the highest order; his determination to succeed was matched by his devotion to integrity, and there can never have been anyone who begrudged Winter one iota of his success.

Like many success stories in racing, this one has its nadirs as well as its moments of glory. Like the moment when, having broken three vertebrae*in a fall at Wye on only his 11th ride over jumps, he felt inclined to abandon the whole idea; and like the fall at Newton Abbot, on the first day of the season after he had been champion for the first time, that kept him out of action for 12 months. And ultimately, there was the tragic manner in which his training career came to an end.

Kipling's words about triumph and disaster have been used many times in countless obituaries. They probably applied better to some than to others, but in the case of Fred Winter they are totally appropriate.

Frederick Thomas Winter, born in Andover, Hampshire, on September 20, 1926, was bred to be a jockey. His father, also named Fred, was a successful jockey, winning the 1911 Oaks on Cherimoya, before training successfully in Kent and then in Newmarket.

The best horses sent out by Fred Winter snr included Medway, Miletus and Showdown, and after his death in 1965 the stable was taken over by his younger son John, who had been prevented by illness from following his elder brother into the saddle.

His mother was sister-in-law to two top jockeys - Morny Wing, who rode a record number of Classic winners in Ireland, and Billy Smith, who won the 1914 Grand National on Sunloch.

With such a background it was almost inevitable that Fred Winter jnr would ride from his earliest years. He began in horse shows and gymkhanas and at the age of 13, shortly before World War II, he dead-heated for first prize in a jumping class at the Royal Horse Show at Richmond.

In November 1939 he was allowed a day away from school to have his first ride in a race at Newbury, on Tam o'Shanter, trained by his father for whom young Fred had regularly been riding out.

His first winner was the same horse at Salisbury the following May, and later in 1940 his father decided it would be better for his indentures to be transferred to a larger stable.

Winter's period in Newmarket with Henri Jelliss produced only two wins from 80 rides, and by 1942 his weight had risen to 8st 7lb. A move back to his father's stable (now in Kent) was not a success as the string was only small, and eventually he joined the Parachute Regiment.

In the winter of 1947-48 he was stationed in Palestine, with demobilisation*still some months away. However, his father agreed to let him ride some jumpers while Fred was on leave, and he went to Kempton for the Christmas meeting of 1947.

His second ride, on Carton in a handicap chase, was a winner, but just three rides later he saw and felt the other side of the coin. He dislocated his shoulder in a fall and was on the sidelines*for four weeks.

That first season ended with two winners and one fall from nine rides. It was hardly the most exciting start to the career of FT Winter, jump jockey, but something much less pleasant was waiting round the corner.

In his third ride of the following season, 1948-49, Winter broke three vertebrae when Tugboat*Minnie fell in a novices' hurdle at Wye.

In the long months of convalescence*he more than once thought of abandoning trying to be a jockey but, thanks largely to two men, he did not do so.

The first was George Archibald, who had been a friend during their schooldays and trained a mixed string, though predominantly Flat horses, in Newmarket. It was he who provided Winter with his first success after he resumed, aboard Dick The Gee at Plumpton in November 1949.

The other was Ryan Price, with whom Winter was to have such a long and happy association.

At the time, Price was training a small string of jumpers in the Sussex village of Lavant, not far from Findon (where he was to really make his name), and soon after the Plumpton victory aboard Dick The Gee he asked Winter to ride for him.

[cheltenham]

The partnership lasted until Winter retired from the saddle in the spring of 1964. It may be an exaggeration to say that there was never a cross word between them, but the success and duration of the combination suggests that such words must have been infrequent.

During his career, Ryan Price sailed close to the wind several times; he was warned off once and there were a number of skirmishes with authority.

However, Price had come up the tough way and, though no-one could justifiably claim that his reputation was blot-free, his judgement of men did not provoke many arguments. His comments about Fred Winter when the jockey retired pay eloquent tribute to the man:

"Very few people realise what a great character this person was. He raised the standard of National Hunt jockeyship higher than it ever has been, and I don't mean just by his riding, but by his conduct on and off the course."

The ultimate cynic*could accuse Price of being biased, and in view of the winners that Winter rode for him, you could not blame him if he was.

Though neither of his two Gold Cup triumphs were for Price, all his three Champion Hurdle*wins and one of his two Grand National victories were. That was the second, on Kilmore in 1962, but the list of his major victories for Price went much further than that.

Many of those races were over hurdles and, apart from the Champion Hurdle wins on Clair Soleil (1955), Fare Time (1959) and Eborneezer (1961), he also won the Triumph Hurdle on Cantab (1961) and the County Hurdle on Sky Pink (1962).

And, apart from their Grand National triumph with Kilmore, Winter and Price teamed up to take chases like the Mildmay of Flete (Slender, who dead-heated in 1951, and Sy Oui in 1953).

In the fourth season of their partnership, 1952-53, Winter was champion jockey for the first time with 121 wins, having been

runner-up to Tim Molony the previous year. The world seemed set fair but disaster was immediately round the corner.

Winter's first ride of 1953-54 was also his last. Cent Francs fell at the first fence in a Newton Abbot novices' chase and his jockey's left leg was fractured in many places. It was a year before he rode again.

By this time, though, he was established at the top of the tree and getting going once more proved to be no problem.

Ryan Price was training plenty of winners; there was Halloween (trained by Bill Wightman),

on whom Winter had won Kempton's King George VI Chase*in 1952, as he did two years

later; and he was having plenty of rides for Fulke Walwyn.

He won three more jockeys' titles in the 1950s, in successive years from 1955-56, but his first total of 121 wins remained a record until Josh Gifford beat it by one, 14 years later.

Every season he rode, Fred Winter demonstrated more than once his special qualities in the saddle, but if anyone had to nominate just one race for which he will always be remembered, it would have to be Auteuil's Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris*(France's championship race for steeplechasers) on a boiling afternoon in June 1962.

He had ridden Mandarin to victory for Mme Peggy Hennessy and Fulke Walwyn in the Cheltenham Gold Cup that year, a success that owed everything to the determination of horse and jockey. However, by comparison with Auteuil, that effort was almost as nothing.

The rubber bit on Mandarin's bridle broke at the fourth of the 30 fences and for the rest of the four miles on the twisting, turning course with its very different fences, there were neither brakes nor steering.

Somehow the pair managed to take the correct course, by being able to follow a lead. Despite breaking down with three furlongs to go, Mandarin jumped the final fence in front and held on to win by a whisker.

Later that afternoon, Winter rode Beaver to win the Grande Course de Haies des Quatre Ans, the equivalent of the Triumph Hurdle, for Ryan Price and only then did he reveal that he had spent most of the previous night in agony from stomach convulsions brought on by serious wasting.

Later that year, he rode a winner over fences at Belmont Park, New York, and in 1963 he was appointed CBE*in the Queen's birthday honours*list. But by now his injuries were beginning to take their inevitable toll and he was looking to the future.

A visit to the Jockey Club/National Hunt Committee to ask about a job as a starter produced a firm refusal, and the counter-offer to be a judge did not appeal to him. So he decided, not with total enthusiasm, to set up as a trainer.

Fred Winter retired from the saddle in April 1964. By then he had ridden in 4,284 races in Britain, won 923 (a record until Stan Mellor beat it) and been placed in 1,026, covering more than 10,000 miles in the process.

He had fallen on 319 occasions and ridden six winners from 14 rides overseas.

He started training at Lambourn, in the Uplands yard he occupied until his retirement.

Remarkably, in his first season he trained Jay Trump, an American horse, to win the Grand National, and he even trained Jay Trump's amateur rider Tommy Smith as well!

There were moments when training the man was more difficult than training the horse, but it all came to a glorious climax at Liverpool when Smith and Jay Trump beat the favourite, Freddie, by three-quarters of a length.

As if that was not enough, 12 months later Winter was back in that quaintly antique winner's enclosure at Liverpool. This time it was with Anglo, who had originally come to his stable after Price had been warned off following Rosyth's second success in the Schweppes Gold Trophy.

With stable jockey Eddie Harty out of action for much of the season, Winter engaged Tim Norman to ride Anglo at Liverpool. The jockey survived a serious car crash two days before the National and on the afternoon that mattered Anglo and Norman beat Freddie by 20 lengths - at 50-1!

Two Grand National winners in his first two seasons as a trainer might have seemed like a hard act to follow. However hard it may have seemed, for Winter it was just part of a natural progression.

He was champion trainer for the first time in 1970-71 with the winners of 73 races and pounds 60,739, and held that title for all but one of the next seven seasons. In all he was champion a then record eight times.

This was the era of Champion Hurdles for Bula (1971-72) and Lanzarote (1974), of the Gold Cup for Midnight Court in 1978, of King George VI Chases for Pendil

(1972-73), of the Champion Chase with Crisp (1971) and of the Totalisator*Champion Novices' Chase at Cheltenham in 1973 with the brilliant but ill-fated Killiney.

And Crisp came agonisingly close to providing him with a third Grand National victory in 1973 when, after at one time being almost unassailably clear of all his rivals, the former Australian champion was caught close home and beaten three-quarters of a length by Red Rum in a then record time for the race.

Crisp, carrying 12st, was trying to give Red Rum 23lb that day. In Red Rum's four subsequent National ventures he never carried less than the 11st 8lb of his third triumph in 1977. That speaks volumes for Crisp's 1973 performance.

For a long time it seemed that he would never train a Gold Cup winner. Twice Pendil failed to justify odds-on favouritism - in 1973, when he was beaten a short head by The Dikler after looking uncatchable halfway up the run-in, and in 1974, when he was brought down by High Ken.

Bula ran third to Ten Up in 1975 in desperate conditions, but was well beaten the following year and suffered fatal injuries when falling in the Champion Chase in 1977. In the same year that Bula died, Lanzarote had sadly been put down after breaking a leg in the Gold Cup.

But in 1978 the fates relented, though not without one last twist. Heavy overnight snow forced the abandonment of the Gold Cup from its original date, but that was only postponing the moment and Midnight Court lived up to the script after the race had been reopened and run in April.

To an extent because jumping is a different, and better-endowed, game than it was when Winter started riding, his list of training successes seems even more illustrious than those in the saddle.

That list includes the Mackeson Gold Cup with Fifty Dollars More (1982) and Half Free (1984-85), the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup*with Brown Chamberlin (1983), the Massey-Ferguson/Kennedy Construction Gold Cup with Pendil (1973), Observe (1982) and Fifty Dollars More (1983), the Arkle Trophy with Soloning (1970) and Pendil (1972), and the Whitbread Gold Cup with Plundering (1986). The list could be extended considerably.

Not only did Winter excel as jockey and trainer, he also had the flair to pass on those qualities to many involved with him.

Richard Pitman was converted from a not very good 7lb claimer to a more than competent jockey, and John Francome, who arrived in the yard straight from the showjumping ring, left it as one of the finest riders over jumps many of us will ever see.

And among his assistant trainers were Nicky Henderson and Oliver Sherwood, both of whom were highly successful amateur riders - Sherwood was champion in 1979-80 - and both of whom have done extremely well as trainers.

[cheltenham]

Tragically, Fred Winter's brilliant training career was brought to a sudden end in August 1987. He suffered a stroke and fell down the stairs*at his home in Uplands. Winter was left paralysed down one side and unable to walk.

For the last few months of his training career, although he held the licence until the summer of 1988, the actual training was done by his assistant Charlie Brooks, with the help of long-time head groom Brian Delaney.

In those months, by far the most significant winner for the stable was Celtic Shot, who capped a season of remarkable improvement with victory in the 1988 Champion Hurdle. Brooks took over the licence from Winter at the end of that season.

Winter's speech was seriously impaired after his stroke, and he was confined to a wheelchair. After Uplands was sold, he moved to the nearby village of Eastbury, where he was looked after by his wife Diana and his family.

However, during his latter years Winter was still seen at various local events, such as open days, and even once a year went racing at Newbury. Francome, who saw his former boss once a week, was among the regular visitors to Winter's home.

In 1956 Fred Winter married Diana Pearson after a pursuing courtship that took well over three years. They had three daughters, of whom Joanna rode winners on the Flat and Denise was formerly married to Oliver Sherwood. The third daughter, Philippa, takes only a peripheral interest in racing.

It would be an exaggeration to say that everything Fred Winter touched turned to gold. He had more than his share of slings and arrows during a long and distinguished career, but neither when he was at the top of a peak nor in a slough of despond*did his style or attitude change.

He had the conspicuous ability to win and lose with grace. His total determination to do the best with everything, every horse and every person who came into his life was rewarded with results which few, if any, will equal.

If anyone in racing should ever be held up as an example of how to play the game, that man is Frederick Thomas Winter.

[Old Vic]

Thanks for that Cheltenham good read

Welcome to the board ...

We had our bit here http://www.fatjockey.com/cheltenham-...Fred-Winter-67

[mayo]

Fatcatinthehat : Ricci/Mullins juvenile rated 92 on flat


After race at Leopardstown Sat, 26th Jan, 2013 (1st)*I'm very pleased. It looked a fast race and there was no let up in the pace. He jumped fantastic and I couldn't ask for any better. He'll probably go for the Fred Winter and we'll see what sort of mark he gets. He'll get an entry in the Triumph, the Fred Winter and maybe the Supreme Novice as well. W P M