MEMBERS’ ENCLOSURE The Newsletter of the West Berkshire Racing Club www.westberksrc.org.uk at facebook.com/WestBerksRC Twitter @WestBerksRC Founded in 1982 Edition No. 266 Christmas 2014 / New Year 2015 Editor: Stewart Nash The Chairman and Committee of the West Berkshire Racing Club wish all members a very Happy Christmas and the very best for the New Year. CONTENTS WBRC Ten to Follow – NH Season 2014/15 2 Forthcoming events 3 ‘Racing’ on TV 5 Reports of recent events 6 Racing on Christmas Day 11 Lewes Remembered 12 Christmas Quiz 14 Kempton on World War I 15 A look at racing in Morbihan 16 Racing in Holland and Belgium 18 Point to pointing 21 Seven racecourses in seven days 23 Stamford Races 24 Booking forms 25 WELCOME We extend a warm welcome to James Bosley of Grove and Isabel Clifford-Kingshill of Burghclere and Jane de Salis of Kingsclere who have recently joined the Club. We hope they enjoy their membership and we look forward to meeting them at future events FORTHCOMING EVENTS The first event of the Club’s year will be a visit by coach to Richard Phillips stable and then onto the Cheltenham Trials Meeting on Saturday 24 January. To make this event viable we must receive the minimum number of required bookings by 12 January, so do check out the details on page 3 where you will also find details of other forthcoming events including our proposed Royal Ascot Picnic (read more on page 3). TEN TO FOLLOW – NATIONAL HUNT SEASON 2014 /15 Ann Peart has established a very healthy early lead in the National Hunt Season Ten To Follow as shown in the table of leading scores below. We are now entering a very busy time for jump racing with high profile meetings at Kempton Park and Leopardstown over the Christmas holiday and Cheltenham on New Year’s Day so there will be plenty of point scoring opportunities in the weeks ahead and the pack is closely bunched behind. The scores will be updated on the Club’s website early in the new year and then updated periodically. The scores will also be published in each newsletter. LEADING SCORES AS AT 14 DECEMBER 2014 Position Name Points 1 Ann Peart 240 2 John Taylor 175 3 Tina Mitchell 170 4= Jo King 165 4= Maurice Leach 165 4= Rosemary Leach 165 4= Rosemary Leach (2nd list) 165 4= Ann Peart 165 9= Roger Beveridge 155 9= Tina Mitchell (2nd list) 155 9= Ron Skipworth 155 12 John Taylor (2nd list) 150 13= John Nash 145 13= Ann Sawyer 145 13= Andrew Sawyer 145 16 Terry Knight 140 17 John Toner 135 18 Ann Peart (3rd list) 130 19 Alan Richard 125 20= Phyllis Carter 120 20= Phyllis Carter (2nd list) 120 20= Phyllis Carter (3rd list) 120 20= Tina Mitchell (3rd list) 120 20= Chris Nitsch 120 20= Alan Wellstead 120 POINTS SCORED BY LEADING HORSES Horse Pts. Horse Pts. Horse Pts Dodging Bullets 50 Black Hercules 30 Al Ferof 25 Silviniaco Conti 50 Hurricane Fly 30 Faugheen 25 The New One 35 Irving 30 USE OF SUBSTITUTES The following horses were noted as being out for the season before the competition started. In accordance with the rules where these horses were included in an entrants list(s) the substitute(s) have been used as replacements. 61 My Tent Or Yours 63 O’Faolains Boy 66 Quevega 96 Western Warhorse WBRC SPONSORED RACE The Club will once again be sponsoring the National Hunt Flat Race at the Newbury Meeting on 28 February 2015. Details of the race will be published in the next newsletter Page 2 FORTHCOMING EVENTS CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL TRIALS MEETING AND VISIT TO RICHARD PHILLIPS’ ADLESTROP STABLES BY COACH – Saturday 24 January – Depart from Newbury Racecourse 8.00 am (prompt). ADVANCE BOOKING ESSENTIAL – MEMBERS GUESTS WELCOME (subject to space) An annual visit to the Cheltenham Festival Trials meeting coupled with a local stable visit has proved a popular event in previous years. This year we are visiting Richard Phillips at his stables at Adlestrop near Moreton-in-Marsh. The cost of coach travel, stable visit driver’s gratuity and racecourse admission is £43 per person. Cheltenham Racecourse members who do not require racecourse tickets pay a reduced charge of £23. As we cannot afford to run this event below the minimum economical number of bookings and to enable the advance purchase of racecourse tickets bookings must be made by no later than 12 January using the form on page 25 of this newsletter. If we do not receive the minimum number required the entire event will be cancelled. In the event of racing being abandoned the stable visit will go ahead and no refund will be made for the cost of coach travel. Refund of admission tickets will be in accordance with Cheltenham Racecourse’s published refund policy. ANNUAL TEAM QUIZ – 7.30 pm Tuesday, 10 February at Oaksey House, Lambourn. The 2015 renewal of our popular team quiz will take place on 10 February. We hope to field several West Berkshire Teams so if anyone wishes to take part please get in touch with Stewart Nash. The quiz is designed to have graduated questions and all teams will continue for all rounds. The quiz is being held at Oaksey House and we hope that there will be a good number of teams from the local racing community (AP McCoy was in a team last year!) as well as old established favourites returning. The proceeds from the evening will be donated to the Injured Jockeys Fund. Admission free - A cash bar will be in operation. CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL PREVIEW – WEDNESDAY, 4 MARCH – 8.00 pm at Newbury Racecourse March wouldn’t be March without our annual preview of the biggest jump race meeting of the year. We are still in the process of finalising our guest panel which will be announced on our website and in future newsletters as soon as possible. In the meantime make a note of the date and time in your diary. KINGSTON BLOUNT POINT TO POINT – Saturday, 7 March – First Race 1.00 pm The WBRC will again be amongst the sponsors for this meeting and a special discount car parking offer will appear in the next newsletter along with details of how to get there. As well as an exciting programme of seven races this meeting has in the last two years featured several horses that have gone onto win at the Hunter Chase evening at Cheltenham. With four races supported by National Series Sponsors in Bonhams, Subaru, Aga and Connolly’s Red Mills prospects are good for another great day. And remember Kingston Blount is also home of the point to point featured on Downton Abbey. Royal Ascot Picnic at Ascot Racecourse – Tuesday, 16 June – We are planning a Club picnic in the centre of the racecourse prior to the start of the first day’s racing at Royal Ascot which as always will commence with the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes – Terry Knight describes the proposed arrangements for the picnic on the next page. Page 3 Royal Ascot Picnic 2015 by Terry Knight We are proposing to have a club picnic on the first day of Royal Ascot 2015 – Tuesday, 16 June. This will be open to members and friends, but obviously something like this will require a fair bit of planning. I’ll try not to make it sound complicated, and perhaps the easiest way of explaining what we are proposing to do is to put it into paragraphs, so here goes: 1. Ascot are happy to provide us with badges for car park 8 at £25 per car. This car park is on the heath in the middle of the course, and the atmosphere here is said to be good for picnics and is also hopefully fairly near to the enclosures, depending on when we get there and where we manage to park up on the day. 2. If we are to go ahead with the picnic then we need at least 3 or 4 people to buy a car park badge in car park 8. Then those people can park their cars together and provide enough space for chairs, tables etc. Ascot allows plenty of space between the rows of cars for you to put up chairs, tables, gazebos and so forth. 3. If you want to join the picnic you can without parking your car in car park 8 (or indeed bring a car at all), but obviously we need enough car park spaces to occupy sufficient space to accommodate everyone who is likely to show up. 4. You don’t have to decide whether or not to attend the picnic now, but we do need enough people who are committed to buy car park badges now. If insufficient people are interested enough to buy a car park badge in car park 8 then we won’t proceed with the picnic. 5. The picnic will most likely be a case of bringing your own food and drink but we can decide the actual arrangements nearer the time once we confirm that we have sufficient interest to proceed. 6. Everyone can make their own arrangements for buying admission tickets to the racecourse enclosure of their choice. It is not really viable for the club to buy tickets and there is a relatively small discount for group bookings. Tuesday is usually the quietest day and sometimes you can obtain a decent discount on tickets nearer to the event. 7. The good thing about a picnic is that you can leave the table and chairs out when you go off to the enclosures and you can come back whenever you want to and start up the picnic again.