FAREWELL TO IVOR, ONE OF THE BEST

Simon Nott spends a weekend at Cheltenham

This is my first article in this magazine since on-course bookmaker Ivor Perry passed away aged 85. Before I start relating the Cheltenham action, which Ivor would have loved, I’d like to pay tribute to him. I never actually worked for Ivor himself, but did for the Ivor Perry firm run by his daughter Wendy and son-inlaw Jo for the best part of a decade.

They took me on in 2001 and I worked for them until I joined TurfTV in 2008. Ivor had retired just before I started but was a regular fixture around the joint and parade ring thereafter. He was an excellent judge of the latter, he once backed a two-year-old at Newbury purely on what he saw, at 200/1. It won – just a tenner but enough to ruin bookie Steve Bell’s day.

I don’t know anyone who had a bad word to say about Ivor. He was a farmer first and foremost so no pitch at Royal Ascot or Glorious Goodwood because that would have been haymaking time. He was also an owner, many of his horses prefixed ‘Ivor’.

He was one of the first with Martin Pipe but probably most successful with David Elsworth who will tell you many an ‘Ivor’ story if prompted. One of those was at Cheltenham when he walked up to Jack Bevan’s joint and asked the price of a horse. It was 11/4 everywhere, Ivor asked Paul on the joint if he could do a little better. Paul replied that as it was him he could have 3/1. Ivor replied “Thank you my lad, I’ll have £1,000 - £300” and with that he spun on his heel, no doubt grinning from ear to ear. Ivor’s family say he led a wonderful life which he surely did, but he’ll be missed and remembered fondly by the betting ring community and beyond, one of life’s genuinely nice characters. RIP Ivor Perry.

Friday December 13