Who was the first National Hunt jockey to ride 1,000 winners?

The first National Hunt jockey to ride 1,000 winners was the late Stanley ‘Stan’ Mellor, who died aged 83 in August, 2020. Known for his guile as much as his strength and style, Mellor won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship three years running in 1959/60, 1960/61 and 1961/62. Indeed, he may have won more jockeys’ titles, but for serious facial injuries sustained in a fall from Eastern Harvest in the augural running of the Schweppes Gold Trophy at Aintree in 1963.

In any event, Mellor rode Chorus, trained by Harry Thomson Jones, to victory at Nottingham in 1971 to beat the previous record for winners on British soil, 923, set by Fred Winter. He reached the landmark of 1,000 winners on Ouzo, also trained by Jones, at Nottingham later that year and, at the time of his retirement, at the end of the 1971/72 season, had racked up a career total of 1,035 winners in Britain.

In a typical example of brains over brawn, Mellor guided 25/1 chance Stalbridge Colonist to a half-length victory over the legendary Arkle – who was, in fairness, conceding 35lb – in the Hennessy Gold Cup in 1966. Biding his time, Mellor drove Stalbridge Colonist, who was blessed with a potent turn of foot, into the final fence and took a narrow lead on the run-in, giving Arkle little time to respond.

 

Which is the smallest fence on the Grand National Course?

According to the Rules of Racing, with the exception of the Water Jump, which is jumped just once during the Grand National, all the fences on the National Course must be a minimum of 4’6″ high, measured on the take-off side. In fact, just three fences conform to the official minimum height, but one or two of them have still proved troublesome.

Historically, the first fence has claimed numerous victims, not because of its height, but because runners tend to approach it at a rate of knots. Indeed, in 2013, the starting position of the Grand National was moved closer to the first fence – thereby reducing the advertised distance by half a furlong – in an attempt to prevent runners building up a head of steam on their approach.

The seventh (and twenty-third) fence is, without question, the most famous of the smaller fences on the Grand National Course. It bears the name of ‘Foinavon’, who went on to win the 1967 Grand National at odds of 100/1 after avoiding a melee at the fence on the second circuit. Of course, the Foinavon fence does immediately follow the formidable Becher’s Brook, so can catch out the unwary,

By contrast, fourteenth (and thirtieth, and final) fence is probably the most innocuous of all the smaller fences on the National Course. Billy Barton did famously fall at the final fence in the 1928 Grand National to leave another 100/1 outsider, Tipperary Tim, to finish alone but, on the whole, final fence fallers are something of a rarity.

Who invented the Weight-For-Age scale?

Who invented the Weight-For-Age scale? As the name suggests, the Weight-For-Age (WFA) scale is a sliding scale of weight allowances that younger horses receive from older, mature horses over different distances at various stages throughout the season. As the season progresses, younger horses, especially three-year-olds, mature physically and are better able to compete with their elders, so the weight allowance decreases every two weeks until the end of the year.

The WFA scale has been revised several times in its history, but is essentially the same as it has always been. It was invented, or at least formalised, by Admiral Henry John Rous, who served in the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic War in the early nineteenth century, but became senior steward of the Jockey Club in 1838. It was in that capacity that he published ‘The Laws and Practices of Horse Racing’ in 1850 and devised the WFA scale in 1851. Rous was was appointed official Jockey Club handicapper in 1855, earning the derogatory title of ‘Dictator of the Turf’. He is, however, commemorated by the Listed Rous Stakes, which is run over five furlongs at Ascot each October.

Is the Cheltenham Gold Cup actually made of gold?

The simple answer is yes, it is. The original Cheltenham Gold Cup, created by Blanckensee & Sons of Birmingham for the inaugural running of the race in 1924, was returned to Cheltenham Racecourse in 2018. Originally presented to Major Humphrey Wyndham, owner of the first winner, Red Splash, the trophy dropped out of sight for decades, but had reportedly been in private ownership, in a bank vault, since the Seventies.

Ian Renton, Regional Director of the Jockey Club, which owns Cheltenham Racecourse, welcomed the return of the trophy, saying, ‘To bring the first ever Cheltenham Gold Cup trophy back to its rightful home and to use as the perpetual trophy really demonstrates the rich history and heritage of the race.’

The original Cheltenham Gold Cup was mounted on a plinth bearing the names of all the previous winners of the race and has been presented, as a perennial trophy, to the winning owner since 2019. Indeed, that was the first time the Cheltenham Gold Cup had changed since 1972. The Cheltenham Gold Cup, itself, consists of 23 ounces, or 644 grams, of nine carat gold – worth nearly £30,000 at current prices – and is coated with 18 carat gold to create a rich, lustrous sheen.

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