GLORIOUS DAYS FOR PUR MAGIC

Paul Jacobs looks to Goodwood and beyond for some summer joy

- Paul Jacobs

The eighth month of the year is all about sunshine, kids off school swarming the landscape and tremendous racing festivals.

One of those we may not get to experience, one I don't like seeing, except it makes the roads less busy at rush hour time, and the third is a joy to behold.

By the time this column reaches you the first big event, Glorious Goodwood, will have been done and dusted, but the Stewards Cup is still worth a few choice words.

My first memory of this great event was actually seeing it live when in the early 80s I would go with a few friends for the whole festival and more often than not lose the savings from the previous 11 months. We didn't have the funds to drive to this wonderful track and had to climb up Trundle Hill each day in the blazing sun. By the time we reached the top our heads and bodies would be scrambled, enough of an excuse to engineer a painful loss.

My biggest win there was on a horse called Swinging Rebel when he landed the final handicap, I think, on day four over seven furlongs. It was my last throw of the dice and a £10 win bet was daring in those days. The old boy scraped home by a head and a short head and all was well with the world.

As far as the Stewards Cup was concerned, it was 1982 which will forever be in my memory. Soba, ridden by Dandy Nicholls, had been carrying all before her in handicaps up north and was a strong favourite to add this prestigious prize to her ever expanding winning CV. But she went down to the start bucking and squealing after which she drifted in the betting. Add to that she was drawn low, standside in those days, and many left her side to play with the likes of Bracadale, Touch Boy, Sparkling Boy and others. However, she bombed out of the gates and never saw another rival, to the amazement of the crowd, and it wouldn't be long before she then made her mark in Group company.