NEWS ARCHIVE


Jawani (right) bowed out this week.

  FAREWELL TO AN OLD FRIEND 

The excellent ‘Racing Post’ runs a little feature from time to time interrogating various racing ‘big noises’ about various preferences in their lives. Each is asked their favourite horse. Our trainer’s favourite (by a nose, of course, as there are many) is HERR TRIGGER. He has reached the hoary old age of 17 and is still going strong, ridden out most days by the trainer’s doting daughter. He has recently taken on the added role of sugar daddy accompanying TORVER out into the paddock in the afternoons. He is the first foal of our first ever winner, FOUR-LEGGED FRIEND. She shone for us in our first season winning a Listed contest at the July meeting. She was quite a naughty girl, mind you, and refused to enter the stalls on her first outing! Trigger was equally mischievous and spent many a happy moment escaping his handler and running loose round the yard. His courage was probably his most endearing trait. It took him a while to hit the winning trail but once there he was a trooper for us. His 46 starts yielded 8 wins and 14 places, netting £43886 in prize money. All this was achieved despite breaking 2 legs and having twice to be treated for a severe arrhythmic heartbeat.

Text Box: The excellent ‘Racing Post’ runs a little feature from time to time interrogating various racing ‘big noises’ about various preferences in their lives. Each is asked their favourite horse. Our trainer’s favourite (by a nose, of course, as there are many) is HERR TRIGGER. He has reached the hoary old age of 17 and is still going strong, ridden out most days by the trainer’s doting daughter. He has recently taken on the added role of sugar daddy accompanying TORVER out into the paddock in the afternoons. He is the first foal of our first ever winner, FOUR-LEGGED FRIEND. She shone for us in our first season winning a Listed contest at the July meeting. She was quite a naughty girl, mind you, and refused to enter the stalls on her first outing! Trigger was equally mischievous and spent many a happy moment escaping his handler and running loose round the yard. His courage was probably his most endearing trait. It took him a while to hit the winning trail but once there he was a trooper for us. His 46 starts yielded 8 wins and 14 places, netting £43886 in prize money. All this was achieved despite breaking 2 legs and having twice to be treated for a severe arrhythmic heartbeat.

The excellent ‘Racing Post’ runs a little feature from time to time interrogating various racing ‘big noises’ about various preferences in their lives. Each is asked their favourite horse. Our trainer’s favourite (by a nose, of course, as there are many) is HERR TRIGGER. He has reached the hoary old age of 17 and is still going strong, ridden out most days by the trainer’s doting daughter. He has recently taken on the added role of sugar daddy accompanying TORVER out into the paddock in the afternoons. He is the first foal of our first ever winner, FOUR-LEGGED FRIEND. She shone for us in our first season winning a Listed contest at the July meeting. She was quite a naughty girl, mind you, and refused to enter the stalls on her first outing! Trigger was equally mischievous and spent many a happy moment escaping his handler and running loose round the yard. His courage was probably his most endearing trait. It took him a while to hit the winning trail but once there he was a trooper for us. His 46 starts yielded 8 wins and 14 places, netting £43886 in prize money. All this was achieved despite breaking 2 legs and having twice to be treated for a severe arrhythmic heartbeat.

Text Box: The excellent ‘Racing Post’ runs a little feature from time to time interrogating various racing ‘big noises’ about various preferences in their lives. Each is asked their favourite horse. Our trainer’s favourite (by a nose, of course, as there are many) is HERR TRIGGER. He has reached the hoary old age of 17 and is still going strong, ridden out most days by the trainer’s doting daughter. He has recently taken on the added role of sugar daddy accompanying TORVER out into the paddock in the afternoons. He is the first foal of our first ever winner, FOUR-LEGGED FRIEND. She shone for us in our first season winning a Listed contest at the July meeting. She was quite a naughty girl, mind you, and refused to enter the stalls on her first outing! Trigger was equally mischievous and spent many a happy moment escaping his handler and running loose round the yard. His courage was probably his most endearing trait. It took him a while to hit the winning trail but once there he was a trooper for us. His 46 starts yielded 8 wins and 14 places, netting £43886 in prize money. All this was achieved despite breaking 2 legs and having twice to be treated for a severe arrhythmic heartbeat.

 

Sunday 25th January:

This week one of our old soldiers faded away. JAWANI having reached the very respectable age of 21, decided he had had enough. On a fine sunny morning, at the end of his shift in the paddock with his old mate Merseyside Man, he lay down and slipped away to pastures new.                                                                                         

The sadness felt by all those connected with him is more to do with the nostalgia of the great memories he gave us during his years of racing.  Certainly, we would not have wished to see him suffer in his old age. With us since he was a yearling, he only really came into his own as a four year old, until then only hinting at his true potential. Campaigned initially on the flat he chalked up successes at Lingfield on the all weather and Pontefract plus a hatful of placed performances. He was a true stayer who put his all into every race and we learned not to go to the well too often with him. It also became clear that he preferred his own bed and would travel as far as you wanted on the day as long as he could come home afterwards.

Big, athletic and imbued with stamina it was only a matter of time before the idea of hurdling was mooted. From his first schooling session it was obvious that he was a natural and so he went on to provide us with some irreplaceable days out. The trainer was left at home as the horse never won when he saddled him. However, he did ride him regularly at home and cherry picked his races to perfection. Firm ground was a requisite, 3 miles a must, big weight in a small field always helped and, of course, not too far from home. And thus the old boy, always looking magnificent with his customary sheepskin noseband, notched his first win at Doncaster along with 3 victories at Ludlow, one at Uttoxeter (see him on our dining room wall, Dunwoody up) and one at Southwell.

It was his way to jump his opponents into submission but his win at Southwell bucked the trend. Ridden that day by Tony Carroll who had schooled him at home but had missed out on the glory, he made an uncharacteristic jumping error, lost his pitch and seemingly his confidence. Coming down the straight he looked beaten until galvanised by his pilot to hit the line in a photo finish. The result took forever to be announced. Owners rushed to tv screens for confirmation, even banged heads against weighing room walls in frustration! Why the panic? Jawani had won and the jockey promptly retired!

He was a horse who loved racing. Put him into his racecourse stable and he was straight down for a roll and a grunt and a groan as he arose and shook himself down. What a cantankerous old so and so he was too. Saddling was a battle. He had to be faced inwards or he would just take off; particularly hazardous at Pontefract where the saddling boxes teeter on the side of a 1:2 hill. However, it was his gritty resolve that brought him success and also saw him through a bout of colitis that few horses survive. He raced one more time after that illness and then retired to become the hardest pulling hack in town! His final public appearance was 3 years ago when he and Herr Trigger negotiated 20 miles of Newmarket Heath in the Macmillan Cancer charity ride. After that we left him and Merseyside Man up to their own devices.

We have many years and many memories to look back on and for that we are, you grumpy old man, most appreciative!