Horse Racing Guide

Any racecard, whether it be in printed form, as a self-contained booklet or in a daily newspaper, or online, typically includes a brief synopsis of the recent performances of each horse in each race, displayed as a series of ‘form figures’ immediately to the left of its name. Read from left to right, from the earliest to the latest, the figures indicate the finishing position of the horse in its last half a dozen, or possibly fewer, races; if the horse failed to finish, the figures include an abbreviation indicating the reason why.

Unremarkably, the numbers 1-9 indicate a finishing position between first and ninth, while the number 0 indicates a finishing position of tenth or worse. Beyond ninth place, the figures do not differentiate between lower-placed finishers so, if this information is important to you, for whatever reason, you will need to delve in the detailed formbook. It is also worth noting that the symbols ‘-‘ and ‘/’ are used as separators; the former indicates that figures to its left are from the previous season, while the latter indicates that figures to its left are from the season before last, or earlier.

As far a non-completions are concerned, these are obviously far more common in National Hunt racing than Flat racing. Probably the most common abbreviations in this sphere are ‘F’ for ‘Fell’, ‘U’ for ‘Unseated rider’ and ‘P’ for ‘Pulled up’. The first two are fairly self-explanatory, but a horse may be pulled up for a variety of reasons, usually because it is so far behind its rivals that it has no earthly chance of collecting any prize money. However, a horse may also be pulled up because something is physically amiss, or because of a tack problem, such as a slipping saddle, so further investigation may be necessary.

If a horse bypasses an obstacle, of its own volition, or because it was forced to do so by a rival, it is said to have ‘run out’ or been ‘carried out’, indicated by a letter ‘O’ or letter ‘C’ in its form figures. Other letters you may come across are ‘L’ for ‘Left at start’, ‘R’ for ‘Refused’ and ‘S’ for ‘Slipped up’, ‘D’ for ‘Disqualified’ and ‘V’ for ‘Void race’.

Bred and owned by Bjorn Nielsen and trained by John Gosden, in Newmarket, Stradivarius was officially retired to stud, as an eight-year-old, on September 26, 2021, having been slow to recover from a foot injury. All told, in his long, illustrious career, the son of Sea The Stars won 20 of his 35 races and just shy of £3.5 million in prize money, not including bonuses of £2 million awarded for winning the Weatherbys Hamilton (WH) Stayers’ Million two years running in 2018 and 2019.

As a four and five-year-old, Stradivarius was a force majeure in the staying division, running up a winning sequence of nine races, which only came to end when he was just pipped, by a nose, in the British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot in October, 2019. In fact, he would win the the final major long distance race of the British Flat season just once, in 2018, but his winning tally also included the Goodwood Cup four times, the Gold Cup at Ascot and the Lonsdale Cup three times and the Doncaster Cup twice. Unsurprisingly, he was named Cartier Champion Stayer in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Stradivarius ended his career on a slightly disappointing note, when just denied, by a neck, on his attempt to win the Goodwood Cup for the fifth time in July, 2022. Nevertheless, the epic duel he fought with the eventual winner, Kyprios, in the final two furlongs earned him a standing ovation. That performance came 2,120 days after he made his racecourse debut, in a maiden stakes race over an extended mile on October 5, 2016. He kept on at one pace to finish fifth, beaten 4½ lengths, on that occasion and it was a similar story when fourth behind his stable companion, Cracksman, at Newmarket a fortnight later. However, on November 7, 2016, Stradivarius made his one and only appearance on an all-weather surface, rallying to win by a head in a similar race at Newcastle.

The late Jeffrey Bernard, who died on September 4, 1997, aged 65, was an English journalist who is probably best remembered for his weekly column ‘Low Life’ in ‘The Spectator’, which he was commissioned to write by editor Alexander Chancellor in 1978. An inveterate, and largely unrepetant, alcoholic, gambler and womaniser for most of his adult life, Bernard was nonetheless a sharp, witty writer.

His exploits became the stuff of legend, not least because of the play ‘Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell’ by Keith Waterhouse, which opened at the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue in October, 1989, with Peter O’Toole in the title role. The title of the play refers to the notice that would appear in ‘The Spectator’ – on a blank page, or next to a cartoon – on the numerous occasions when Bernard was too drunk, or too ill, to write his column.

What, I hear you ask, does this have to do with horse racing? Well, on October 3, 1970, Bernard began writing what would become a hugely popular column in the ‘Sporting Life’, in which he shared his thoughts on his favourite topics, including women, drinking, gambling and eccentric Lambourn trainer Doug Marks, with whom he later owned a racehorse. Bernard later said of his column, ‘The punters identified with it because I took the piss out of racing people. They’re terribly self-important.’

His tenure as a ‘Life’ columnist lasted just a year, mainly due to his proclivity for drinking to excess – at least a bottle and a half of vodka every day – but, later in his career, in 1983, he was recruited by Alistair Down, on behalf of the ‘Sporting Life Weekender’, to do a similar job for the fledgling paper. In inimitable style, Bernard once wrote of the bookmaking fraternity, ‘The survival of bookmakers is a matter of deep concern to me and I spend sleepless nights worrying about them. I give them whatever I can, but I’m afraid it isn’t enough. You see, I love bookmakers. I love the way they shout and I love the way they smile when they see me coming.’

The late Lester Piggott, who died in Switzerland on May 29, 2022, aged 86, rode a total of 4,493 winners in Britain, including a record 30 Classic winners. However, the man affectionately known as ‘The Long Fellow’ does not hold the record for winners of the St. Leger. That distinction belongs to William ‘Bill’ Scott, who rode nine winners of the Doncaster Classic in the first half of the nineteenth century, although Piggott was arguably unlucky not to equal the record. In 1954, Piggott won the Derby on Never Say Die, trained by Joseph Lawson, but was subsequently suspended for six months for his riding of the same horse in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot. In his absence, Never Say Die won the St. Leger by a record 12 lengths under Charlie Smirke.

Notwithstanding the one that got away, Piggott rode eight winners of the St. Leger, namely St. Paddy (1960), Aurelius (1961), Ribocco (1967), Ribero (1968), Nijinsky (1970), Athens Wood (1971), Boucher (1972) and Commanche Run (1984). Of course, Nijinsky was the last horse to complete the British Triple Crown.

Perhaps the most memorable of the eight winners, though, was the last, Commanche Run, trained by Luca Cumani, in 1984. Piggott had replaced Cumani’s stable jockey, Darrel McHargue, who was suspended, on Commanche Run when winning the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood earlier in the season and, controversially, did so again, at the behest of owner Ivan Allen, in the St. Leger. Sent off 7/4 favourite in a field of eleven, Commanche Run took up the running plenty soon enough, with over half a mile to run, but stayed on bravely to win by a neck, therby giving Piggott the Classic winner he needed to beat the previous record, 27, set by Frank Buckle in 1827.