Occasionally, I am truly thrilled by racing and the camaraderie that can be shared by so many. It happened today and gave me a real sense of pride in our sport. If you flick back through The Topham, you suddenly see James Bowen upside down and destined for catastrophe. Luckily, Callum Pritchard, at the gallop, comes alongside and hoicks Bowen back into the plate, before continuing on. Good man. A Sportsman.
I noticed in the RP today that it was Charlie Mortimer’s birthday. Charlie was a great friend and house sharer with my chum, Joe Gibbs, who ended up starting Scotland’s biggest Festival, Belladrum. Back then, I would guess around 1978 or ‘79, Joe and a trio of other “interesting” characters, briefly ran an antiques shop in the Kings Road whilst Charlie was just down the road in The Furniture Cave.
Charlie became famous for being the recipient of the Dear Lupin letters, written by his father Roger, a Coldstreamer, POW and proper chap and published by Charlie about six or eight years ago. Roger worked at Raceform for several years and was then Fairway at The Sunday Times, where he was succeeded by Brough Scott. He worked with Woodrow Wyatt as the Tote’s PR and as a racing reporter on BBC R2. He wrote, with the late great Howard Wright, The Encyclopedia of Flat Racing in 1971 and 1986.
Charlie makes Heinz 57 look like a brand that hasn’t really discovered the concept of variety.
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