Leger Legends Race 2011
LEGER LEGENDS RACE - DIARY OF JULIE KRONE'S VISIT (by Mary-Ann Sandercock)
I'd always had a dream that we could get Julie Krone to ride in the Leger Legends race - she's my racing hero and at the beginning of the year, via a friend who track-rides at Santa Anita, I got Julie's facebook address and speculatively messaged her. Some time later she replied indicating she would be very interested to hear more so fellow Committee member Dale Gibson duly contacted her with the race details - and the rest, as they say, is history.....
Monday 5 September
Julie, her husband Jay Hovdey and daughter Lorelei, together with PJ (who wishes to become a jockey and is being mentored by Julie), and her father Scott, arrived early morning and were collected by Dawn Goodfellow from Manchester Airport. They settled into a cottage kindly provided for the week by NRC's next door neighbour, The Mount Pleasant Hotel, but just a couple of hours later came up to the College.
It was immediately obvious that Julie was in her comfort zone at NRC - despite a long overnight flight she had incredible energy and was just delighted to have horses around her.
Peter Bond from nearby Peugeot dealership Evans Halshaw arrived at NRC shortly after and kindly handed Julie the keys to a Peugeot 5008 for use during their stay in Yorkshire, (which provided them with the opportunity to visit some of Yorkshire's attractions at their leisure later in the week). Welcome to Yorkshire also very kindly provided VIP passes to Yorkshire's finest attractions, as well as rail tickets to London to take up an invitation to visit parliament on Friday - Julie and her family were extremely grateful for these generous gestures.
Training Manager Malc Bygrave then gave Julie a quick tour of the facilities at NRC, but Julie got 'stuck' in the racehorse simulator room where she and PJ worked out on the simulators for a good 30 minutes +, demonstrating that she was extremely fit!
Julie chatted with several of the students as she toured round the College, and whilst they had been informed of her visit, it was clear at that point that they didn't realise the significance of her visit.
Tuesday 6 September
Julie was up early and rode out two lots at Paul Dixon's Retford yard - she was keen to blow away the cobwebs and ride out before the race - this was captured by the Retford Times photographer who was at the yard. Following this she did a quick telephone interview with Marcus Armytage of the Daily Telegraph and then returned to the College where At The Races and BBC Look North were ready to interview and film her.
She was filmed riding on the gallops with the students - who had googled her the previous evening and were now well aware of her amazing achievements - they were very excited. She popped a horse out of the stalls a couple of times and then spent some time on the simulators giving the students a coaching session - what a fantastic opportunity for them and something they won't forget in a hurry. Julie was brilliant signing autographs for the students, it was clear she really enjoyed sharing her experience and knowledge with them and they were pretty buzzed up.
She then did several more telephone calls with the press and a live BBC Radio 2 interview on the drivetime programme. It was rather a press frenzy all day - fantastic for racing, the Leger Legends and indeed for the Northern Racing College.
That evening Tim Adams, Chairman of the Committee, and other guests, including fellow Leger Legends jockeys Gay Kelleway and Thierry Gillet, met up for dinner at the Mount Pleasant Hotel. Some great stories were regaled, (how the press would have loved to have been 'flies on the wall'!). But as the race loomed the next day it was an early night for all, with promises to party hard the following night - whatever the result!!
Wednesday 7 September
The day dawned to torrential rain - nightmare.
NRC staff were helping with the final touches in the marquee up at the racecourse and by 10am had put all the brochures out on the tables and set up the silent auction display. Thankfully the rain eased off at about 10.30am, when Julie arrived at the course - she must have brought the sunshine with her.
I took her over to the weighing room and sorted out a valet for her, she quickly hopped on the weighing room scales - 7 st 1lb fully clothed! Luckily Dale had fore-warned the racecourse that extra lead may be needed.
A quick telephone interview with BBC Radio Sheffield in the weighing room and then she was off to walk the course with legendary trainer Michael Dickinson, who had arrived with a very hi-tec going stick.
I left them to it and joined the Leger Legends guests back in the marquee - the champagne reception was in full swing and many of the other jockeys were in there mingling. I quickly caught up with Joe Mercer, Edward Hide, John Reid, Ray Cochrane, Luke Harvey and Kevin Darley.
I was seated with Julie and family as well as Dale and Julie Gibson, Thierry Gillet and his interpretor Liz Price and Adrian McGlynn of Weatherbys who had generously designed and produced the Leger Legends brochure. It was a very jolly lunch followed by Mike Cattermole and John Francome hosting the main auction - an entertaining double act and John squeezed a fantastic amount of money from the guests. At one point they had Julie standing on a chair displaying the racing memorabilia she had donated to the auction - this lot made £1600.
Immediately after the auction the Leger Legends jockeys made their way to the weighing room to get changed. I arrived in the weighing room just after the race before the Leger Legends Race (having taken ex St Leger winning jockeys Lester Piggott, Joe Mercer, Edward Hide and Willie Carson across to the Parade Ring to take part in the pre-race photocall). At that point the jockeys were weighing out and the atmosphere in there was buzzing. I saw several leading jockeys asking Julie for her autograph.
I also rounded up St Leger winning jockeys who were riding at Doncaster that day - Frankie Dettori, William Buick and Ted Durcan - together with Leger Legend jockeys John Reid and George Duffield (also St Leger winning jockeys), to take part in a photocall before the main Leger Legends parade.
It all went smoothly - and Dale had done a good job in getting the Leger Legends organised to do the parade as I'd just got the St Leger jockeys to the Parade Ring and all the Leger Legends jockeys followed.
I filed them into the Parade Ring and across to the winner's podium in racecard order as Graham Orange introduced them to the racegoing crowd. There were so many press and photographers in the Parade Ring for this that I actually couldn't see the podium at all from the entrance!
All the senior jockeys had come down to the entrance to watch the parade, so I also filed them into the Parade Ring - it was quite a line-up, something that racegoers would rarely see.
The jockeys mounted and all got to the start in one piece.
As they broke from the stalls the field split into two groups with Julie on the standside, having been drawn 1. Riding the favourite Invincible Hero she looked to be on the best horse but theoretically had the worst draw given the earlier downpour. However, she had done her homework walking the course and she picked her way to the best ground, easing over to the centre of the track so the field grouped into one in the final couple of furlongs.
A furlong and a half out Charlie Swan, the 2010 Leger Legends winner, and George Duffield looked the dangers, but Julie shook up Invincible Hero, gave him a couple of backhanders and he took off in the final furlong to win by a convincing 3 1/4 lengths. A very popular win - the crowd and the press were extremely excited.
Julie joine
d Invincible Hero's owners and trainer Declan Carroll on the winners podium to receive mementos from the sponsors Clipper Logistics and Lester Piggott. Julie had ridden in a similar race at Belmont three years earlier but this was the first time her six year old daughter Lorelei had seen her mother win a race and as she excitedly joined Julie on the podium it was very emotional.
Much celebrating took place, firstly with the winning connections as they reviewed the race and then back with all the Leger Legends jockeys in the marquee, where they did post-race interviews with Mike Cattermole.
The place was electric and the Leger Legends guests had such a treat in the company of all these iconic and popular ex-jockeys.
Rumour has it that the celebrating continued into the early hours back in the Mount Pleasant Hotel that evening.
A fairytale ending to the week I got to meet my racing hero.
Mary-Ann
