Sir Frank Worrell Centenary Update

Yes, indeed. Sir Frank Worrell was born on 1st August 1924. This is topical, at a stretch, because there is no record of him ever having trouble with his shoes, but our notable runner of the last couple of weeks, VILLEURBANNE, most definitely has done so. His comeback was after a year off, and he had almost as long sidelined before the appearance that preceded that. A slightly earlier comeback was planned but in his last piece of serious work, he ripped off a shoe. That was fixed and healed and for race two, during his final piece of work, he ripped of a shoe again. The third time, he also managed to lose a shoe two days before the race, but did a lot less damage and it did not prevent him going to Windsor. Obviously expectations were slightly reduced but Villeurbanne ran excellently to be fifth, threatening all along the home straight and just being caught out in the last half a furlong by lack of a tune up run. We are looking forward to his next effort, and nobody (without exception) is allowed to say the words “last serious gallop,” or variations on that theme, within Villeurbanne’s earshot.

One more note – due to filling up quite quickly, we have added extra slots to the National Racehorse Week open day on September 14th. There is racing at Lingfield immediately afterwards, and last year the course kindly provided free entry to those attending both. Hopefully similar will be possible this time around.