Easy Peasy
There are rogues in every sport and horse racing is of course no exception. Join us for this series of posts dedicated to the wacky world of racing scams, coups and other acts of equine skullduggery!
1 – D Four Dave – “Owner Douglas Taylor executed a massive gamble netting the best part of €200,000
2 – Flockton Grey – Flockton Grey at 10-1 lands bets into the hundreds of thousands, but is all as it seems
3 – Gay Future – Operation Crock of Gold bags a 10-1 winner, but will the sneaky plan behind the win be rumbled
4 – Oyster Maid – The notorious betting scandal at Tenby Racecourse AKA ‘the biggest betting coup ever in history of the turf’
5 – Yellow Sam – One of the most famous betting coups in British and Irish horse racing history
What a crazy thing to do.
“Justin Bergman, 24, appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court on Thursday where his laywer entered guilty pleas to charges of unlawfully disrupting a meeting in a public place and committing criminal nuisance by doing an unlawful act knowing that act would endanger the public after he walked into a race on January 30, 2021.“
The King George VI Chase has been synonymous with Boxing Day at Kempton Park since 1947 but so, too, in recent years has been the name of Paul Nicholls. All told, the reigning champion trainer has won the festive showpiece a record twelve times, including the last three renewals in a row. His two most recent winners, Clan Des Obeaux (2018, 2019) and Frodon (2020) dominate the ante-post market for the 2021 renewal and, at combined odds of around 11/8, at the best prices currently available, it would take a brave man to suggest that the Ditcheat maestro won’t be adding to his winning tally this year.
Of course, Nicholls’ record in the King George VI Chase is thanks in no small part to the exploits of Kauto Star, who won five of the six renewals between 2006 and 2011 and bled from the nose when finishing a well-held third behind Long Run in 2010. Arguably the best steeplechaser since the legendary Arkle, Kauto Star was variously described as ‘most impressive’, ‘magnificent’ and ‘awesome’ in the usually dispassionate in-running comments for three of his victories at Kempton.
However, Nicholls’ story does not start and end with Kauto Star. Long before he became the force majeure he is today, in 1997, Nicholls saddled See More Business to win his first King George VI Chase. See More Business was pulled up, when favourite, in 1998 but, fresh from victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, returned to Kempton in 1999 to win the race again. Likewise, the ‘once in a lifetime’ Kauto Star was followed, two seasons later, by another dual winner, Silviniaco Conti (2013, 2014). Nicholls has made no secret that winning a fifth Cheltenham Gold Cup is his main ambition but, in the meantime, he’ll be doing his best to win an unprecedented thirteeth King George.