I do not have a biography of Fred Archer in my small racing library. It is an omission I shall have to put right. Anyway, returning to the pony steeplechase I mentioned a few days ago. Fred Archer's first winner was in a pony steeplechase at Bangor. He weighed 4st 11Ibs at the time. He won his first flat race at Chesterfield. At 17, he won his first jockeys' championship. He weighed 5st 7Ibs. He had his first-ever ride in the Newmarket Town Plate, quite possibly the most famous person ever to ride in the race.
When I awoke at midnight, it was raining heavily. When I awoke again (bathroom breaks, you understand) it was still raining heavily and blowing a hooly. When I started my day at a few minutes past 4 am, it was still raining, still blowing a hooly. At 6.31, as I write, it is only now blowing a hooly. On Friday, the south-west is due a visit from Storm Austen.
I am taking it for granted that some of you prayed for rain on Sunday as I asked, and though you may thank your God for the lovely, lovely rain that is going to ease ground conditions all over our green and pleasant land, could you ask him, with all due reverence, to direct Storm Austen away from Cheltenham racecourse as though the clerk of the course does not expect Austen to disrupt the racing on Friday, the sheer fact that John Pullen thought to offer a positive note, to me, a born cynic, suggests that disruption is more than a 50/50 possibility without divine intervention.
Surprisingly, given the west country is in for five or six days of substantial rainfall, both Exeter and Wincanton are not overly hopeful of their joint meetings going ahead in a few weeks, putting the Badger Beer in jeopardy, with alternative racecourses being considered for both meetings. Again, prayers needed from the religious and fingers crossed for the rest of us.
Chesterfield racecourse opened in 1774 and closed in 1877. I cannot give any details of where it was located or the configuration of the racecourse as Chris Pitt's wonderful book 'A Long Time Gone' only details closures from 1900. Yet as the location of Fred Archer's first win on the flat, Chesterfield holds great distinction in the history of flat racing. I would hope there is a blue plaque somewhere in the Chesterfield area as a memorial to one of the great men of British racing.
I raise the closure of Chesterfield racecourse for no better reason than to report here that France is to close twenty-four racecourses from thoroughbred racing in an effort to cut costs. When a racecourse is closed, it is gone forever. Though in this country the racecourse presently known as Chelmsford, though as Great Leighs when it first opened, is about to reopen for the third time, much displeasing a man who believes we have one too many all-weather racecourses in this country.
I doubt there is a French version of 'A Long Time Gone', though in years to come who can tell with the way society is turning at the moment. I have no great love of the big metropolitan racecourses in Paris, though Chantilly always reminds me of bawdy historical t.v. dramas, which is unsettling for a man of my age. I do though enjoy watching replays of racing in the French provinces on YouTube, a habit that started when Bryony Frost, as then, when she first relocated to France. Although you still see fallers in France, I much prefer the French-style hurdle, which is more akin to a baby steeplechase fence than the flights of hurdles which we have in Britain and Ireland. I only wish we could adopt the French hurdle as it would lead to less fatalities. At least I hope it would. It would be interesting to know the statistics on injurys and fatalities in French jumps racing. Also, I wish we had a racecourse in this country with the configuration and different type of obstacle at some of the racecourses in the provinces, a mixture of the usual combined with jumps on bends, combination of fences like the cheese-wedges at Cheltenham and even low walls.
In future, in the name of cost-cutting, there will no more mixed meetings in France, with racecourses having to be either uniquely flat or uniquely jumping. But if it helps these racecourse survive, then who can complain. Not even 1. When these racecourse close, they remain a long time gone. It is just sad that all around the world, it seems, horse raing is becoming ever more restricted.