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1955 Grand National
The 1955 Grand National was the 109th renewal of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 26 March 1955. Thirty horses ran in the race, which was won by 100/9 shot Quare Times, who was ridden by jockey Pat Taaffe and trained by Vincent O'Brien. This was O'Brien's third consecutive Grand National win. Early Mist, the previous year's winner and another O'Brien-trained mount, was the favourite. In attendance at Aintree were The Queen Mother (who owned M'as Tu Vu who was also running in the race), and her daughters Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. Several fences had been reduced in severity following an outcry over four equine fatalities in the previous year's National. The heavy going meant the 16th fence (the Water Jump) was omitted – the first time in Grand National history that not all 30 fences were jumped. Finishing order Non-finishers The Grand National : the history of the Aintree spectacular, by Stewar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap steeplechase over an official distance of about 4 miles and 2½ furlongs (), with horses jumping 30 fences over two laps.''British Racing and Racecourses'' () by Marion Rose Halpenny – Page 167 It is the most valuable jump race in Europe, with a prize fund of £1 million in 2017. An event that is prominent in British culture, the race is popular amongst many people who do not normally watch or bet on horse racing at other times of the year. The course over which the race is run features much larger fences than those found on conventional National Hunt tracks. Many of these fences, particularly Becher's Brook, The Chair and the Canal Turn, have become famous in their own right and, combined with the distance of the event, create what h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stone (Imperial Mass)
The stone or stone weight (abbreviation: st.) is an English and imperial unit of mass equal to 14 pounds (6.35 kg). The stone continues in customary use in the United Kingdom for body weight. England and other Germanic-speaking countries of northern Europe formerly used various standardised "stones" for trade, with their values ranging from about 5 to 40 local pounds (roughly 3 to 15 kg) depending on the location and objects weighed. With the advent of metrication, Europe's various "stones" were superseded by or adapted to the kilogram from the mid-19th century on. Antiquity The name "stone" derives from the use of stones for weights, a practice that dates back into antiquity. The Biblical law against the carrying of "diverse weights, a large and a small" is more literally translated as "you shall not carry a stone and a stone (), a large and a small". There was no standardised "stone" in the ancient Jewish world, but in Roman times stone weights were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1955 In English Sport
Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first Nuclear marine propulsion, nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18–January 20, 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan). * January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons. * January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England. * January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941. * January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Taiwan, Formosa from the People's Republic of China. February * February ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1955 In Horse Racing
Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first Nuclear marine propulsion, nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18–January 20, 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan). * January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons. * January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England. * January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941. * January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Taiwan, Formosa from the People's Republic of China. February * February ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Freeman (jockey)
Arthur Freeman (7 January 1926 - 1988) was an English jockey who is most well known for winning the 1958 Grand National riding Mr. What. He also won the 1958 King George VI Chase riding Lochroe, the 1960 Triumph Hurdle riding Turpial and the 1958 and 1959 Broadway Novices' Chase riding Just Awake and Mac Joy respectively. He was The Queen Mother's jockey. He rode M'as Tu Vu in the 1955 and 1956 Grant National but did not finish either. In 1960, he fell during a race at Plumpton and suffered a fractured skull. He was in a coma for three days and the injury ended his jockey career and so he became a trainer out of Newmarket. Freeman once owned future Grand National winner Specify. In his later years he suffered with depression, gambling and alcohol problems which contributed to the break up of his marriage, estrangement from his sons and bankruptcy. He died in 1988. He is the father of Conservative MP George Freeman. Major wins Great Britain *Grand National ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Winter
Frederick Thomas Winter, (20 September 1926 – 5 April 2004) was a British National Hunt racing racehorse jockey and trainer. He was British jump racing Champion Jockey four times and British jump racing Champion Trainer eight times. He is the only person to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Grand National as both jockey and trainer. Winter won the Grand National four times, as a jockey in 1957 (Sundew) and 1962 (Kilmore), and as a trainer in 1965 (Jay Trump) and 1966 (Anglo). His most famous victory as a jockey was on Mandarin in the 1962 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil. His victory despite his illness, a broken bit and Mandarin breaking down in the last half-mile was voted the greatest ride ever in a 2006 Racing Post poll. The race was listed in The Guardian as one of the greatest races ever. As a jockey he rode a then-record 923 National Hunt winners before his retirement in 1964. Honours He was appointed CBE in the 1963 Birthday Honours. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Francis
Richard Stanley Francis (31 October 1920 – 14 February 2010) was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre on horse racing in England. After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. He came to further prominence in 1956 as jockey to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, riding her horse Devon Loch which fell when close to winning the Grand National. Francis retired from the turf and became a journalist and novelist. Many of his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world, with some of the criminals being outwardly respectable figures. The stories are narrated by the main character, often a jockey, but sometimes a trainer, an owner, a bookie, or someone in a different profession, peripherally linked to racing. This person always faces great obstacles, often including physical injury. More than forty of these novels became international best-s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Dick (jockey)
David Victor Dick (8 March 1924 – 15 February 2001) was a British jockey who competed at the Grand National from 1951 to 1965, winning the race in 1956 on E.S.B. He was the only jockey ever to win both races of the Lincoln-Grand National Spring Double and he holds the record, nine times, for the number of clear rounds on a notoriously difficult Aintree course. (The Aintree Clear Rounds Award, given for any jockey completing more than five clear rounds, was not instituted until 1986.) Dick was born in Ashampstead, Berkshire, the son of Glasgow-born jocky and racehorse trainer David Purvis Dick (1896-1989) and his wife Alice Isabel Ivall. He died in Reading, aged 76.''England & Wales, Death Index: 1984-2005'' In 1969, Dick married Caroline Lockhart, with whom he had one son and one daughter, the Olympic bronze medalist, Daisy Dick Katherine Mary "Daisy" Dick (born 29 March 1972, in Oxford) is a British three-day eventing rider. With her horse Spring Along, she won the bronze m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Scudamore
Michael Scudamore (17 July 1932 – 7 July 2014) was an English National Hunt racing jockey in the 1950s and 1960s. He rode in 16 consecutive Grand Nationals, with one win on Oxo (horse), Oxo in 1959. He also rode Linwell, the winner of the 1957 Gold Cup. His riding career ended in 1966, due to serious injuries from a fall on a chance ride on Snakestone at Wolverhampton Racecourse, Wolverhampton where he sustained multiple fractures, a collapsed lung and over 90% vision loss in one eye. Scudamore then continued as a trainer. He was the father of Peter Scudamore and the grandfather of Tom Scudamore. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Scudamore, Michael 1932 births 2014 deaths English jockeys British racehorse trainers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starting Price
In horse racing, the starting price (SP) is the odds prevailing on a particular horse in the on-course fixed-odds betting market at the time a race begins. The method by which SPs are set for each runner varies in different countries but is generally by consensus of an appointed panel on the basis of their observations of the fluctuation in prices at the racetrack. This is done as follows: For each horse the odds offered by the bookmakers are ordered into a list from longest to shortest. This list is then divided into halves and the SP is the shortest odds available in the half containing the longest odds. Thus the SP or a longer price will have been offered by at least half the bookmakers in the sample. ''Note'': This method is slightly different from the method of calculating the median. The principal function of a starting price is to determine returns on those winning bets where fixed odds have not been taken at the time the bet was struck. Typically, on the day of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. Various definitions have been used; the most common today is the international avoirdupois pound, which is legally defined as exactly , and which is divided into 16 avoirdupois ounces. The international standard symbol for the avoirdupois pound is lb; an alternative symbol is lbm (for most pound definitions), # ( chiefly in the U.S.), and or ″̶ (specifically for the apothecaries' pound). The unit is descended from the Roman (hence the abbreviation "lb"). The English word ''pound'' is cognate with, among others, German , Dutch , and Swedish . These units are historic and are no longer used (replaced by the metric system). Usage of the unqualified term ''pound'' reflects the historical conflation of mass and weight. This accounts for the modern distinguishing terms ''pound-mass'' and '' pound-force''. Etymology The word 'pound' and its cognates ultim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jockey
A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual who rode horses in racing. They must be light, typically around a weight of 100-120 lb., and physically fit. They are typically self-employed and are paid a small fee from the horse trainer and a percentage of the horse's winnings. Jockeys are mainly male, though there are some well-known female jockeys too. The job has a very high risk of debilitating or life-threatening injuries. Etymology The word is by origin a diminutive of ''jock'', the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name ''John'', which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare ''Jack'', ''Dick''), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's ''Richard III''. v. 3, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
