The Past in the Future
For old codgers like me, there is a satisfying sense of nostalgia when someone you either know, or that have a name you are familiar with from past years, win a race after a long time away from the victory dais.
Happily, there seems to have been a run of these occurrences lately, with names like Bruce Graham, Murray Alfeld and Peter Holmes (and probably others I haven’t recalled without trolling through results) producing winning horses. While it is obviously wonderful, not to mention essential, to see young people coming through and enjoying their well-deserved successes, it is also great to see people who have, in various ways and for decades, been stalwarts of our Industry proving that old often heard saying that ‘once trotting is in your blood, it’s there for good,’ or words to that effect, and making comebacks.
For any young aspiring trainer or driver, many of these ‘old timers’ (hopefully I’ll be forgiven for using that term) are fountains of knowledge, and it’s great that they are still involved and turning up at the races. As we all know, there are many and varied theories involved in training horses, and I’m sure that mixing and chatting with them can only be of huge benefit to youngsters eager to learn their trade.
Pete Cook