Oh to be in England now that the July Meeting is here
Some of my happiest racing memories are at the July Course. Great racing, surrounded by chums, staying with great friends. Kitchen suppers with Shepherds Pie, a tradition that was always served with very decent claret. The Turf Club tent on the far side of the course, which was bizarrely ill-attended thanks to school holidays and perhaps the presence of the Jockey Club rooms. It was rumoured to be entirely underwritten by Charles St George, of racing fame, and, sadly, he did not, in his will, insist that his munificence be carried on, so we no longer had a place to call our own there.
It was the home of small punts that paid big and bigger punts that paid huge. I remember with MBM winning the July Cup in 2002 with a Dandy Nicholls 1-2 (Continent 12/1 and Bahamian Pirate 16/1) and the forecasts with Habbershaws and on-course. They beat Sir Mark Prescott’s Danehurst, the favourite at 5/2, and Mark was kind enough to make a point of congratulating us on our punt. a proper racing man.
On being there, sans Madame but with a very pretty walker, who insisted we watch them go down, and I remember she suddenly mentioned that Dobbin was wearing a de Havilland overgrip with a Throggle snatchit ring binder, which suggested this horse had to be controlled but would win. Neither MBM nor I understood a bloody word, but there is surely written in the Great Book of Bill Hill the commandment that when a pretty girl talks knowledgeably at a racecourse and can read form, one is a mug not to listen. That horse won the Bunbury Cup at 11/1.
I hope my mates are all going to be there, and I hope the Claret flows and the Shepherds Pie is hot and the winners wearing throggle snatchits hose up at 10s or better.
You might remember I mentioned, post-Ascot,
