Equestrian T
he evocative photograph of a mud- splattered Desert Orchid winning the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup is one of the most famous in horseracing. On saturated ground,
which almost led to jump racing’s most celebrated prize being abandoned, the great grey known to all as ‘Dessie’ cleared the last fence before setting off in pursuit of Yahoo, who appeared destined to become the ultimate party-pooper. Sir Peter O’Sullevan's spine-tingling
commentary captured the mood perfectly; “There’s a tremendous cheer from the crowd as Desert Orchid is going to win it ... Dessie’s done it.” The jockey that famous day was Simon
Sherwood, who comes from a strong equestrian background. His father bred, trained and rode horses at point to point meetings, and his success led to both Simon and his older brother Oliver taking up the saddle and becoming successful riders themselves. However, Oliver found himself drawn
towards training, leaving Simon to become a professional jockey. Simon rode for just eight seasons, yet amassed a total of 350 winners. In that time, he was fortunate to be given the chance to ride one of the most iconic horses in British racing. A jockey needs luck in racing and Simon’s
was certainly in on Boxing Day 1986, when David Elsworth’s stable jockey, Colin Brown, was given the choice of two runners to ride in the King George at Kempton. Colin picked the second favourite, Combs Ditch, leaving
Simon to ride the other - Desert Orchid! The rest is history; Simon went on to ride
to victory in that race and managed to keep his partnership with Desert Orchid for a total of nine wins out of ten. They were beaten only once together, when Dessie uncharacteristically fell at Aintree. He retired on the spur of the moment
after riding a winner for his brother at Haydock in May 1989, admitting at the time that; “a little bell had been ringing in my mind saying enough is enough.” On his retirement from the saddle, Simon
took out a trainer’s licence and claimed a major success when winning the Triumph Hurdle in 1992 with Duke of Monmouth. Simon has also trained a number of Sir Alex Ferguson’s horses. However, after several years training
horses, Simon fancied a change and took the opportunity to become Clerk of the Course at Ludlow Racecourse. His vast experience in the horseracing industry certainly stands him in good stead, as one of the main roles is to provide a well prepared course that is safe and consistent for both horse and rider. I caught up with Simon, who was out
walking the course with the aim of declaring the going for the last race meeting of the season. It is the job of the Clerk to declare the state of the going of the track prior to and during the racing event, so that trainers can decide if they want to run their horses. Most Clerks will have their own trusted
going stick, usually made of wood, which they use to probe the ground to get a ‘feel’ for its condition. The going can have a huge
impact on the performance of a horse - other than the animal’s fitness and wellbeing, it is one of the most important factors in how the horse performs on race days. However, an electronic version, the Turftrax GoingStick, is now used to officially declare the going. The system is supported 365 days a year and TurfTrax will contact the racecourse at the 6 day entry stage, 48 hours, 24 hours and on the day of the race to update the going report and distribute to trainers as necessary.
The main driving factor that dictates the
state of the going is generally the makeup of the soil profile. Free draining soils will tend to be good to firm, whereas courses with heavy clay soils with little or no drainage will, particularly during the winter months, likely be good to soft or even heavy going. Ludlow Racecourse is renowned for being
a course that remains in the good to soft going category during the majority of the racing season. This is because it is free draining, due to having a gravelly sub base on most parts of the course. However, this often means some areas can be prone to drying out quickly, requiring the need to water with boom sprayers, which can often be time consuming to set up. However, they can usually get the whole course watered in two days. Racing at Ludlow is becoming more popular; the combination of a rural setting, great prize money and, more importantly, the ability to produce a consistent and safe racing surface, has helped increase the
the Grandstand provides an ‘olde worlde’ feel
PC JUNE/JULY 2015 I 117
The Edwardian facade of
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