Whispering Death - nickname for former West Indian test cricketer Michael Holding.

A keen racing man, Holding has a home near Newmarket and is a regular early morning gallops watcher on the Heath.

Lexington. US race horse and leading sire in North America 16 times during the 19th C and his success in part led to the introduction of the Jersey Act 1913. This prevented the registartion of many American bred horses in the British General Stud Book on the grounds there were doubts they were pure bred.

During the US Civil War horses were forcibly conscripted into the army and it is said Lexington was hidden to save him from such as fate.

Yes No Wait Sorry - very poor maiden trained by Oliver Sherwood in 1991, owned by the Atrabates cricket club.

Zebra Crossing....South African horse once trained by Nicky Henderson.

ABC Guide

Buona Notte.....Classy NH horse trained by Bob Turnell and usually ridden by the very stylish late Johnny Haine.

Crump Neville. 1950/60s NH trainer who won 3 Nationals, 5 Scottish Nationals and a 3 Whitbread Gold Cups and was champion NH trainer twice. Based in Yorkshire he was quite a character and typically blunt, as two tales about him illustrate.

When asked directions from his base at Middleham to nearby Leyburn by a group of Japanese tourists legend has it he told them: "You found your f**king way to Pearl Harbour. You can find your own f**king way to Leyburn."

When asked if a certain elderly member of the aristocracy would make a suitable racecourse steward he replied "Oh, he'd be perfect. He's deaf, he's blind and he knows f***k all about racing."

Dragon Dancer - beaten a short head in the 2006 Derby but failed to improve on that effort and had to wait over a year for his one and only win in a Listed race at Windsor.

ESB...National winner

Well I don't know about stud book registration but the French use non-thoroughbreds to produce some of their hurdlers/chasers. I think The Fellow was one such horse.

Freebooter.

Gold - there are approximately 10 ounces of gold in the Cheltenham Gold Cup giving it a value of about £8,500.

The Fellow has a traceable thorougbred pedigree but a number of French bred horses had American bloodlines and were therefore also considered not to be pure bred because the pedigree couldn't be fully traced. Funnily enough the Jersey Act was subsequently amended after two French horses with American bloodlines won two of the classics in 1948 and the stigma on such bloodlines was removed.

One of those horses Babu was subsequently bought by the highly successful American breeder John Wesley Hanes who was also responsible for the opening of the New York racetrack the Aqueduct.

Isle of Man - there have been at least two racecourses on the island, one at Peel and another at Douglas.

The Belle Vue track at Douglas closed in 1931 following a decision by the Tynewald to outlaw betting because much of the racing was apparently bent.

I just Google searched The Fellow and he was indeed an AQPS horse; translated into English it means "other than pure blood". Whether this was because he had American blood in his pedigree I don't know, though it would seem that by the time The Fellow was born, the stigma you refer to had been overcome. AQPS horses are classed as a breed with their own stud records and are crossed with thoroughbreds to produce eventers, show jumpers and even for use in the hunting field and racing, rather like the Irish draught horses.

Johann.

Kicked on

Interesting stuff. French bred AQPS afaik were from crossing thorougbreds with local French mares in the late 19th C to breed steeplechasers. The process is quite similar to how throughbreds came about in England by crossing imported Middle Eastern sires with English mares. These days AQPS horses are now I believe considered to be about 80% pure bred.

The amendment to the Jersy Act was that for a horse to be admitted to the General Stud Book it must be able to prove satisfactorily it has some eight or nine crosses pure blood, to trace back for at least a century, and to show such performances of its immediate family on the Turf as to warrant the belief in the purity of its blood.

As the Fellow was a gelding it hardly matters.

Lomond who recorded the slowest ever recorded time for a 2,000 Guineas winner in 1983.

As the Fellow was a gelding it hardly matters.

Nobody told him

Since we're into French.............

Mon Fetiche lol

Newcastle - diary entries of one Thomas Smales for June 1731.

June 12 - To Newcastle Races. Very Drunk.

June 13 - Sunday. At Newcastle. Drinking Day and Night.

June 14 - Won the Plate. Drinking Day and Night.

June 15 - To Durham, so to Aldbrough. Drinking all Night.

June 16 - So home very drunk.

June 17 - At home very ill.

June 18 - At home. Extremely ill. Note: In this Journey spent £15 17s 6d.

Bet this is the guy:

http://www.willtranscriptions.co.uk/...homas_s304.htm

The Osteopath.

.....and to J Mc

Mon Mome is one of them thar danged half-breeds.

Perrett, Mark....Well bred for the racing game and one time decent jockey who married Amanda Harwood. Rode for her dad and a fair amount for Stan Mellor.

Quickened clear

Robson Robert. Early 19th C trainer who holds the record for training the most winners of the 1,000 Guineas(9), the Oaks (13) and the Derby( 7).

Soba - sprinter trained by David Chapman in the early 1980s.

Perhaps unfortunate to be racing at the same time as Habibti (the highest rated sprint filly in the post-war era) finishing second to her in no fewer than 4 Group 1 sprints in 1983.

The Thinker (gold cup winner in the 80's for Arthur Stephenson)