Delboy’s Trotters were up and running at Towcester Races last week on a day when the sporting bonds of football and horse-racing were tightly inter-linked.
One-time Cobblers chairman Derek Banks has been a sadly infrequent visitor to the county since leaving the club in 1989, but his decision to organise a hospital box for his old board of directors and friends at the Northants track last Thursday proved a spectacular hit.
Twelve months earlier, Banks had been a guest of regular Towcester sponsor Mick White and enjoyed the experience so much, he decided the venue was perfect to re-unite old buddies and swap stories with a backdrop of 65 National Hunt runners spread across seven races to entertain.
“I had to get out in a hurry back in 1989!” joked Banks who was joined in a party of 28 by the likes of the club’s division four 1986/87 title winning manager Graham Carr, his successor as chairman Dick Underwood, as well as Barry Stonhill, international fly-fisherman Bob Church, Martin Church, Grahame Wilson, Mark Deane and one-time secretary Dr John Evans from the old regime.
Ex-players Richard Hill and Warren Donald also joined the gig, along with the club’s former long serving physiotherapist Denis Casey.
“I have never seen anything like it. Everybody had a good time,” said Banks who promises to maintain his links through the county, not least via his participation in the Chronicle & Echo’s popular Naps Table in which he tips under the guise of... Delboy’s Trotters. His latest choice was the 3/1 winner Maggio on Saturday.
Reflecting on his tipping prowess, Banks said: “Unfortunately no winners at Towcester. I was looking at the long odds and also pulled up after the fourth!”
On his nap success he said: “Since all my horses seemed to be in retreat I decided to go with the Italian theme and backed Maggio, which looked very impressive.”
Horse racing is rarely considerate enough to follow carefully prepared scripts and the afternoon’s events re-iterated that point.
The Henry Daly-trained hurdler Upbeat Cobbler would have satisfied more than the script-writers in the Weatherbys Mares’ National Hunt Maiden Hurdle, but the 100/1 shot fell three flights from home when staying on just in behind the leading posse.
The contest was actually won by the Robin Dickin-trained Valrene which prompted this correspondent and ex-physio Casey to jump excitedly in the air. Casey’s pre-race statement: ‘In all the years I’ve known you Mark, you have never given me a winner,’ touched a raw nerve and this is one monkey now definitely removed from my back...
It was also a pity the Underwood-inspired charity bet of £50, lumped onto the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Spot The Ball, could only finish a length and a half second to Bishophill Jack in the 2m 6f handicap chase.
If anyone ever doubted the encyclopedic memory of Carr, now chief scout at Newcastle United, it was confirmed during the afternoon as he passed along the passageway which linked a line of busy hospitality boxes.
Wilf Dixon is something of a standing order personality on race-days at Towcester, but even the most ardent sporting observer would now struggle to put a name to the face of a veteran who worked with England 1966 World Cup hero Alan Ball during his career at Blackpool, Everton and Arsenal, in the latter case as assistant to Terry Neill when the Gunners won the FA Cup/League double in 1970/71.
Dixon is also President of the Army Football Association.
“I used to watch you play when you were with Aldershot!” said Carr to a nonplussed Dixon, for once at a loss for words.
Northants training neighbours Ben Case and Alex Hales saddled winners within 65 minutes of one another on Sunday afternoon although they had to make a three hour drive to achieve it.
After the Case-trained Brass Tax dead-heated with Alpine Breeze in the 2m 6 1/2f Victor Lucas Memorial Novices’ Handicap Chase under Daryl Jacob, the Hales winner by a clear cut 13 lengths was Farewellatmidnight in the 2m 4f Get Married At Market Rasen Handicap Chase with Peter Buchanan taking the riding honours.
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