Queen Mother’s favourite champion jockey turned trainer turns the ‘Valley of the Racehorse’ that is Lambourn alive with the sound of music and viral videos during COVID-19
Racehorse trainer Jamie Osborne’s website includes the amusing disclaimer: “Jamie is always keen to hear from new clients but please do not contact us if you are a bad loser, slow payer or looking for gambling information.” Now, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, he’s taken his humour online and it has gone viral.
When he came to realise that “part of [his] job isn’t there” because of the lockdown, Lambourn Valley, Berkshire based Osborne – whom describes himself as an “overrated jockey, underrated trainer [and] Spielberg wannabe” to his nigh on 40,000 followers on Twitter – began filming amusing skits with his staff and posting them to his social media accounts.
Amongst the “daft and unorthodox things” Osborne and his staff have filmed thus far are Riverdance style Irish dancing in the yard and jockeys singing Clean Bandit’s Rather Be and Randy Newman’s You’ve Got a Friend in Me to the horses and of this morale boosting exercise, speaking to The Telegraphon Saturday, he remarked:
“It’s been a good exercise in keeping up yard spirit. Even if we didn’t put them out on Twitter and just shared them around among ourselves. They see it, a few more wanted to be in them, and now everyone enjoys making them.”
“I have 30 staff turn up every day and the rewards that they normally get are not there, so the making of films… has created a lot of fun and also shows what great riders they are.”
We urge our readers to join the ranks of the 50,000 people viewing these uplifting videos each day. As Osborne himself previously told Horse Racing Planet: “[They’re perfect for people who] want to have a laugh… I am sure none of us expected to live through a scenario like this. Everybody has their own set of worries but if we can lighten the load in a small way then it’s kind of worthwhile.”
A promoter of “causes many of us now take for granted,” Catford born campaigner and humanist activist Barbara Smoker believed in surviving “on her wits” and “making an extra bit on the horses.” She once “embark[ed] on a crusade around the neighbourhood, telling all the kids that there was no Santa Claus… [so that she could prove to them] they were being made fools of, and I was only saving them from this indignity” and amongst her many other pronouncements was to announce that “an eternity in heaven – that would be hell.” Pro-alphabet reformist Smoker also claimed to have manufactured the first ‘Make Love, Not War’ badges and in 2013 gave the following advice in The Oldie: “Don’t always be obedient. Obedience is overrated. You’ve got to work out your morality for yourself, not do everything you’re told. Obedience can be more of a vice than a virtue.” Amongst her written works were My Godforsaken Life and Good God! A String of Verses to Tie Up the Deity.
Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick – who collapsed and died on stage at a UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech
“Alternative energy pioneer” Dean Warwick (1944 – 2006) believed 9/11 was a “farce.” This controversial crackpot claimed he had been trained in the military to bring down the Twin Towers using satellite waves in the mid-1960s and that he also categorically knew exactly who JFK’s murderer was.
Whilst “going on and on and on” at Probe International’s paranormal conference in Blackpool, Lancashire on 7th October 2006 about these matters and “children having their skin eaten whilst they were still alive in the New Forest” and about how he knew who the “real” killers of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were also, Warwick supposedly announced: “Bear with me for a moment.” He then “leaned with his left elbow on a nearby table with his right arm across his body, and then fell flat on his face. Shortly afterwards he was pronounced dead.” Fellow conspiracy cranks (including David Icke) later claimed: “This was an Intelligence agency ‘hit’ using an ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) weapon,” but this was never ultimately proven true.
Warwick had, for about twenty years, lived in the heart of the national hunt racecourse town of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Here, along with his actress wife Jean, he occupied in a Gothic church and now that building, North Trinity Church is once again for sale.
After Dean Warwick collapsed on stage in Blackpool, Lancashire on 7th October 2006, one fellow conspiracy theorist present observed: “When Dean collapsed on the floor a woman witnessed a man with dark hair slip out of the hall. She followed this man who then proceeded to walk down the stairs whistling merrily to himself, get into a car and make a phone call. He was then seen laughing down the phone to whoever he was speaking to. Who walks out of a hall whistling happily to themselves and then starts laughing down the phone after a man has just collapsed and stopped breathing on stage?”Bulgarian businessman Kirk Kirchev paid £80,000 for North Trinity Church, Kelso in November 2018 and intended to use £35,000 of his mother’s savings to restore the building.
Recorded as having changed hands in August 2014 for the sum of £45,000, the 6,877 square foot building was again sold in November 2018 for about £80,000 to a Bulgarian businessman named Kirk Kirchev. Of his purchase, in December 2019 talking to Borders TV, the camping tent manufacturer turned face mask retailer remarked:
“I saw the church online and thought this is amazing… It was very cheap, nobody wanted to touch it, the windows were boarded up… When I got in, it was dark, scary with pigeons circling in the main hall, but I could see that it had the soul, the spirit, the sort of magic, that, that bought me.”
“I’ve done 90% of the work I needed, I’ve made it usable. It’s still retaining its derelict and magical look… People think I’m crazy: It’s a given, but I think this place needs someone crazy to take it on because otherwise it will simply fall apart.”
“[When it’s finished” I hope it’ll be a great venue and the focal point of the town. It has a lot of potential as a gathering place for people. I am kind of surprised why people don’t see this because it’s right in the middle of town, it’s got car parks all around, it’s great for a venue and all it needs is a little bit. I think people like the character and all it needs is to be made safe and legal and certified and all that.”
Standing on a site extending to 0.4 acres, Mr Kirchev plainly has decided not to proceed further with his project to find another use for this former religious building. North Trinity Church is now on the market for £130,000 through agents Ballantynes and could be used for residential or commercial purposes. No doubt, however, local residents very much hope another Dean Warwick type doesn’t turn up with yet another conspiracy theory; that, indeed, would be even worse than the shameful local councillors who proposed pulling down this beautiful Category B listed building last November.
The Names & Numbers – North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom
April 2020 – For sale for £130,000 ($163,000, €150,000 or درهم597,000) through agents Ballantynes.
November 2018 – Sold to Bulgarian born Kirk Kirchev for £80,000 ($100,000, €92,000 or درهم367,000).
December 2017 – Offered for sale as a “development opportunity” for £75,000 ($94,000, €86,000 or درهم344,000) by Edwin Thompson.
August 2014 – Sold for £45,000 ($56,000, €52,000 or درهم207,000).
2011 – A community organisation, The Future Kelso Group, attempted to convert the church into a community hub. These plans did not come to fruition.
2006 onwards – The building “fell into disrepair” after the death of the New Zealand-born conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick during a UFO conference in Blackpool on 7th October 2006 aged 62. The building had been home to him and his actress wife, Jean, for “over 20 years.”
1885 – 1886 – Built to the designs of architect John Starforth for use as the Kelso United Presbyterian Church on the site of a previous church that was built in 1788. Prominent features are said to “include a four-stage angle buttressed tower over the gable porch to the southern end of the building; lanceted belfry; gabled transepts: and decorative detailing to ridge tiles to main roof. The tower is flanked by two-storey circular stair towers with slated conical roofs, each with side entrances.”
Described in The Telegraph’sobituary of him as a “publisher, wit and author,” Michael Russell is best known for writing the spoof memoirs of J. R. Hartley – the charming mythical old man of Yellow Pages advert fame in the 1980s. Bournemouth born, Oxford educated and a father of three, Russell loved horse racing and fishing and was known for his “extremely shrewd judgement as to which books would sell in shops.” His one-man company produced over 500 books by the time of his death and amongst titles that were hits were Richard Spitzy’s How We Squandered the Reich – a book that described Hitler as being “like a cross between a head waiter and a chimney sweep.”
Matthew Steeples remembers the motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss, “the greatest driver never to have won the world championship”
Mille Miglia-winning Sir Stirling Moss, whose death at the age of 90 was announced this morning, remarkably survived falling down the lift shaft of his Mayfair home in 2010. He also kept road traffic policemen in punchlines with the infamous and much quoted: “Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss?”
Resilient and witty to the end, Sir Stirling himself famously came out with quips such as: “If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?” and “There are two things no man will admit he cannot do well: drive and make love.” When he got banned from driving in 1960, he took it with good spirit and reportedly even bravely allowed the late, great Marisa Masters – a lady certainly not known for her driving skills – to ferry him around. She often recounted how she “taught him about speed” as she motored round with him and a bottle of sambuca (to keep her going).
Sir Stirling hit “third time lucky” in marrying the loveliest of ladies, Susie Paine, in 1980 and together they had a son, Elliot. Even after taking ill with a serious chest infection in 2016 and subsequently retiring from public life, he remained jovial and as this British sporting legend motors off into the sky, I join those saluting this king of the fast lane.
Blow to British racing as Sheikh Fahad places his Longholes operation in Newmarket, Suffolk up for sale for £6 million to spend more time in California
Billed as a place for “preparing champions” and run by a “dedicated team” focused on pre-training and rehabilitation, Longholes was founded by the Accrington born “playboy” textile heir and racehorse breeder Sir George Bullough (1870 – 1939) in the 1920s and bought by Sheikh Fahad in 2013.
Sheikh Fahad Bin Abdullah Al Thani chats with David Redvers in 2016.Sheikh Fahad wiht his brothers Sheikh Hamad, Sheikh Suhiam and Sheikh Khalifa.Sheikh Fahad and his wife Sheikha Melissa with the late Roaring Lion.Sheikh Fahad won the Corinthian Challege at Leopardstown on the Gordon Elliott trained Brutal in October 2017.
Comprising of 217 acres of paddocks, schooling grounds and a 6-furlong gallop, the “renowned Newmarket stud farm” – which is 16 miles from Cambridge and 70 miles from London – includes not only 88 boxes, but also what has been described as a state-of-the-art “feel good factor” spa with hydro and water treadmill facilities amongst other things. There is a stud manager’s house, a guest cottage, a pair of staff bungalows and a pair of workers’ log cabins also.
“Sheikh Fahad purchased Longholes in 2013 with a view to turning the attractive and historic stud farm into a state-of-the-art pre-training and rehabilitation establishment servicing the requirements of his own Qatar Racing and also the wider training centre of Newmarket. Seven years later and Longholes boasts an incredible array of modern facilities, an outstanding team of committed and highly trained professional staff and a client list that boasts many of the most recognised names in horse racing, eventing and show jumping.”
“Sheikh Fahad is proud of what has been achieved at Longholes but a change in his own personal circumstances means that the farm’s exciting future now needs to be in another’s hands.”
Speaking to Nick Luck of Racing TV in April 2019, Sheikh Fahad remarked:
“We love horses, we’ve grown up with horses, me and my brothers. The idea was always to build something for the future, hopefully the long-term future, for generations to come. I’d like to see my kids grow up into a dynasty of breeding operations, of racing operations that they can take on from there.”
“I watched I think, my early memories… I watched Channel 4 Racing, I think the Cheltenham Festival. It was very different to racing back home. We only had one racetrack and it was flat racing and they go round in the circle. My dad was the leading Arab racehorse owner in the country, so he won everything. It seemed like it was that easy to do and I started watching racing here and I saw all the different racecourses and National Hunt. And we don’t have National Hunt back home, so I was very curious about the whole industry. I wanted to learn as much as possible from every angle of it.”
“I think the quality of racing, as you watch racing around the world, the biggest quality of racing is in England and Ireland in terms of top-class racing… It is good for the breed, it shows the best horses to breed onwards. The classics in Britain always prove to be the best source of that.”
Of the flaws of British racing in general and perhaps hinting at a move to spending more time participating in American racing, the Sheikh continued:
“It needs to up its game. It needs to find ways to attract more people into the sport. At the moment we are very grateful for the Sheikh Mohammeds in the business… Without Sheikh Mohammed [Bin Rashid Al Maktoum], this year would have been a disaster for a lot of people. The thing is that British racing needs to find more ways to attract quality. I think quality is very important.”
“If you look at, for instance, Japanese racing, they have got a two-tier system. They have the JRA and the NRA. The JRA is the elite class of racehorses and horse racing and I think if you don’t break your maiden as a three year-old, then I think, that horse is not allowed to run in the JRA anymore. They have to go down to the NRA. Why can’t that some way be explored in British racing? We can’t be racing, I think you’re asking people to race for two grand or three grand… whilst in Australia they have Saturday races with a minimum of a hundred grand a race. And in America, maidens are worth a hundred grand. And in California, I’ve got horses, and it seems ridiculous that, if you are taking a business point of view of racing and you open your books, that it would be ridiculous to have horses [in Britain] in comparison to there. The only reason we’re racing here is for the quality and prestige that we have at the moment, but you can’t rest on that. You have to change.”
Later, in September 2019, the Sheikh’s Californian trainer, Simon Callaghan, told TheRacing Post:
“Sheikh Fahad is upping his interest in racing in America. He’s spending more time in California, so he wants to go after some of these high-end colts and go down the road of the Derby, we hope… I think his Californian wife has something to do with it.”
Agents Windsor Clive seek £6 million ($7.5 million, €6.8 million or درهم27.4 million) for Longholes and offer it as a whole or in two lots. For the firm, George Windsor Clive remarked: “We’re still bringing Longholes to the market in these strange times [in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic] so that buyers can react quickly once restrictions are lifted.”
For now, the other European racing operations of the Sheikh and his brothers and their Qatar Racing Ltd. company – which includes a presence at the David Redvers owned Tweenhills Farm in Gloucestershire and their own Spring Lodge stud farm in County Limerick – remain unaffected.
Co-founder of Calvin Klein Inc. puts his 740 acre equestrian estate just an hour from New York up for sale for £81 million; about 65 stake winners and several horses that have competed at the Kentucky Derby have been produced there
“Murdered grocer’s son from the Bronx” Barry K. Schwartz and his childhood friend Calvin Klein co-founded the now world-famous fashion brand Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968 and sold it for £589 million in 2003.
Barry K. Schwartz with Calvin Klein.Barry K. and Sheryl Schwartz.
Aside from spending his ever-growing fortune on horses – one of which he named ‘Degenerate Jon’ (after his son) and another ‘Killer Diller’ (after his friend the media mogul Barry Diller) – Schwartz and his wife, Sheryl, purchased 673 acres of land to the north of New York City in Westchester County in 1979 for the back then far from insubstantial sum then of £2.6 million.
There, not that far from Belmont Park racetrack in the small residential hamlet of Granite Springs, after adding yet more land to take their “equestrian estate” to a grand total of 18 deeded parcels on 740 contiguous acres, the couple created a world-class equestrian establishment that they filled with thoroughbred racehorses. Facilities at ‘Stonewall Farm’ – as it is now known – have evolved to include a turf racetrack, riding trails, a 40-stall yearling barn, two 24-stall broodmare barns, round pens and 4board fenced paddocks and pastures with run-in sheds.
A year after cashing in alongside Klein, stamp collector Schwartz’s new home was completed on the property. It features 24,000 square foot of accommodation, 8 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. There is a 2,200-bottle wine cellar, a pub, a two-storey library “that would delight any reader” and living spaces that “invites elegant entertaining, whether intimate or on a grand scale,” according to selling agents Christie’s International Real Estate.
Elsewhere in the grounds, there are 8 staff residences (to house the 30 employees that currently maintain the estate), a guest house and a caretaker’s house. Formal gardens, designed by Edmund D. Hollander in geometric French and Japanese styles, adjoin the house and there is a 60-foot long swimming pool within a 4,000 square foot pavilion also.
Stonewall Farm is situated just one hour from Manhattan, but now that Mr and Mrs Schwartz are spending more time at another of their homes in Santa Barbara, California, they have decided to sell. Of it, realtor Kathleen Coumou told The Journal News:
“It’s on one of the largest pieces of property that one can purchase in the county. It was so convenient for [the Schwartzes] to be on this farm, with all its privacy, and still be close to New York… [It’s] magnificently laid out, with a southern-looking main house and behind it, it’s like you’re in Kentucky. You see the pastures with the horses and lots of woodlands. It’s quite spread out – it feels like you’re somewhere else, not in Westchester County… You have gorgeous views – hills and ponds and horses and paddocks, and different levels of rolling hills… You certainly can’t see anybody else around.”
“[Stonewall Farm will be sold to] a billionaire, who could come from anywhere.”
The Names & Numbers – Stonewall Farm, Mahopac Avenue, Granite Springs, Westchester County, New York, NY 10527, United States of America
April 2020 – For sale for £80.7 million ($100 million, €92.1 million or درهم368 million) through Christie’s International Real Estate. Of why, they chose this sum, realtor Kathleen Coumou told The Journal News: “We did a very thorough appraisal of the property – the land and all of the buildings – and came up with a price of $110 million, and then we decided to round it down to $100 million.”
1999 to 2004 – Construction of main house, a “colonial-style manor” with a “white clapboard facade and a slate roof repurposed from the Yale Divinity School,” was completed to the designs of the New York architect Rebecca Rasmussen with an interior by the London based interior designer Kelly Hoppen.
2003 – Calvin Klein and Barry K. Schwartz sell their company to Philips-Van Heusen (now known as PVH Corp.) for £589 million ($730 million, €672 million or درهم2.7 billion).
1979 – Barry K. and Sheryl Schwartz pay £2.6 million ($3.25 million, €3 million or درهم11.9 million) for 673 acres of land. Of buying it, Mr Schwartz later commented: “”It was the easiest negotiation of my life. The seller asked $3.5 million, I offered $3 million and we settled on $3.25 million.” The couple purchased further land shortly thereafter.
1968 – Calvin Klein (born 19th November 1942) co-founds Calvin Klein Inc. with his childhood friend Barry K. Schwartz (born 25th May 1942) with a loan of £8,100 ($10,000, €9,200 or درهم36,700).
Well-equipped 0.5-mile harness racing track in Yorkshire for sale for £1.5 million; it was the scene of an “ear biting incident” by a traveler in 2009
A dream property for harness racing enthusiasts has been put up for sale in Yorkshire. Its star feature is a 0.5-mile all-weather racetrack and it also comes with 26 acres of land, a spectator stand, a trackside club house with bar and catering facilities, 50 stables and a horse walker.
Created by former boxer Michael Welling with what he described as “very little or no help from the racing fraternity” and built-up over ten years from 2006, York Harness Raceway and the Camden Stud was closed in 2016. It had been a destination with harness racing enthusiasts and was also the setting of a well-thought of annual horse sale.
York Harness Raceway owner Michael Welling
A photograph of racing on the circuit
In 2009, a traveler turned harness racer named John Harrop was jailed for 4.5 years after biting off part of the ear of an official at the track whilst on steroids, but of it, in 2013, Welling more positively told The Yorkshire Post:
“This was where I fell in love with the sport. It is the first harness racing track I ever came to. I was intoxicated by the speed, the excitement and the atmosphere… It’s a speed thing in the same way as having a fast car and once you’re hooked you start setting aims.”
“I’m throwing everything into making the track the success it deserves to be. This place has my heart and soul and I am determined to make it work as a realistic business. When I first started racing in 1993 it was only a hobby for me but it has now taken over my time and I’m here 24/7. When I was a kid I was brought up with horses and carts so it’s really in my blood. This place holds so many happy memories and the people who come here are salt-of-the-earth families. I’m certain that if more people came to see what we offer they would be hooked in much the same way I was.”
Additional features at the property include an “almost brand new” 3 reception room, 5-bedroom detached house extending to 3,222 square foot and a large modern barn with a wash bay and tack room.
Agents Jackson-Stops seek offers over £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.3 million) for the property. An additional 75 acres of land is available by separate negotiation that is partly prone to flooding.
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Directed by Lee H. Katzin and produced by Jack N. Reedish, the 106-minute the 1971 fictional Indie film cost some £5.8 million ($7.6 million, €6.5 million or درهم27.9 million) to make but surprisingly took just £4.2 million ($5.5 million, €4.7 million or درهم20.2 million) at the North American box office.
The suit will be offered with no reserve with an estimate of £303,000 to £380,000 ($400,000 to $500,000, €344,000 to €430,000 or درهم1.5 million to درهم1.8 million).
Rising star female racing driver Jamie Chadwick puts ‘Bungling Bernie’ Ecclestone in his place and dismisses his ridiculous misogynist views
The first ever female and youngest ever winner of the British GT Championship Jamie Chadwick was interviewed in The Guardian last weekend.
Speaking to the paper’s Giles Richards, 19-year-old Chadwick criticized Bernie Ecclestone’s 2016 remarks at an advertising conference about female participation in F1 in London. At the time ‘Bungling Bernie’ remarked: “I don’t know whether a woman would physically be able to drive an F1 car quickly, and they wouldn’t be taken seriously.”
In response, Chadwick candidly stated: “[Ecclestone’s views are] not based on any fact. If I can prove him wrong that’s just added motivation… Everywhere I have gone everyone has respected that I am there to do a job. If I don’t do it I get the same bollocking a male driver would get and if I do I get the same praise.”
She added: “You don’t want a female to be there as a token effort. You have to have made it on merit. The worst thing that could happen would be if you put someone in who could not compete. It would make a mockery of those who are trying to achieve good things.”
Back in 2016, at the same conference, Ecclestone shared other views that were not exactly considered logical. He also bizarrely suggested that Vladimir Putin “should be running Europe” and expressed his support for Donald Trump to become 45th POTUS. In his dotage, one is left wondering if this little dwarf-like man has been spending too much time watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
