I was sad to read that Alan Bailey died last week at the age of 86.
Although I had not seen Alan for a few years, we became friends when he trained a marefreen for our raceclub called Timelee.
She debuted in a 6F girl on Thirsk and was expected to need the experience, but to our big surprise, they fought against Gamely to win through a head under Allan Mackay, not supported on 14/1.
It was the holiday of Augustus and we had the club members in the lakes for racing the weekend in Cartmel and that Friday evening, after I was in Thirsk to see the marine round, I had the shame to walk into the restaurant to see the meeting of disadvantaged owners.
Alan showed up later and saved the show to deliver a stand-up routine that would have been well received by the notorious demanding customers of the Glasgow-Rijk, gag after gag with anecdotes from his days as a senior work driver for Peter Walwyn.
He was a natural and in no time the club members had eaten out of his hand, with the missed chance of Thirsk lost in the midst of the Gales or Laching.
But that apart, before he settled as a trainer, Alan was known as one of the best workers in the industry. It was an open secret that he marked the map of bookmaker John Banks with information about Peter Walwyn’s two -year -olds. Walwyn was twice champion trainer, in
1974 and 1975, the broadcasting of humble duty to win the 1000 Guineas, Polygamy to win the Oaks and Mighty Grundy to win the 1975 derby.
Although I was associated with those great names, Alan told me that the best horse he was ever lunch time … “The only horse sent a tingling over my back.”
He said: “You couldn’t judge the pace on him. If you were on the back in a piece of work, you would go upstairs and six lengths would be clear in a few steps.” He won the Dewurst in 1972, but he turned out to have a bad heart and did not train.
Despite his association with those big names, the horse for whom he had the greatest preference was hopeful, who died in a freak accident at the age of 14.
“I sobbed like a baby,” he told me. “I came into the house for breakfast minutes after he was put down. He broke a leg on the gallops of shaving. I drove him every day. I went in his box and said …” Your old bastard hoppy “… His ears that you hoped was a hopefully winter and come back covered with cow manure and mud.
“We had voters in those days and one day he took it away from me and I went over tit. I could swear that he laughed when I looked at him. That horse could talk anything but talk.”
Bailey left the room, tears wells and returned with a smart fallen hoof with a plaque with the name Hopevol.
“The owner Mrs. Williams has given me that. Even the money they pay for those yearlings would not be enough to buy that from me.”
A great man once said: “You might forget what someone did, you can forget what someone said, but you will never forget how they made you feel.”
Thank you Alan. Wherever you are now, they will laugh a lot along the way.
Day for now
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