A kind of hush

There's a kind of hush all over the world tonight. Yes, it is the sound of two lovers in love, but it is more particularly the sound of mass shock at the announcement of Richard Sims' betrothal. Anything's possible, and so Dickie's finally gone and done it. Mind you, as I have today helpfully pointed out to him, getting engaged is the easy part; it's marriage that's the problem (an opinion which Emma is doubtless only too ready to confirm). No, joking aside, Ellie (seen with Richard earlier this year, in company with Michael Tidmarsh and Richard's brother Robert/Hector) now wears Richard's ring on her finger and doubtless she'll be rejoicing under the name of Mrs Richard Sims before too long. And I'm sure that all their many friends, myself very much included, wish them true joy on the occasion of this happy announcement.

Dickie has, of course, always been destined to be wed to a sheila of Greek extraction, as all those fortunate enough to witness his appearance on Blind Date eighteen years or so ago will recall. We were, though, then expecting Mrs Richard Sims to carry the name of Vaiya, for that was the lucky winner of a weekend in Richard's company on Daydream Island up on the Barrier Reef on that occasion. As these three photographs from the show show, Dickie was naturally every bit as much of a charmer then as he is now, hence the number of broken female hearts which will be the inevitable consequence of the news of his engagement. Dickie was, of course, rather a svelter version back in the Blind Date era than he is now (as the more recent photograph at the top of the chapter confirms - whereas strangely Hector's torso hasn't changed shape at all during the same period, even if, inexplicably, his head has) but a couple of decades of steroids have naturally bulked him out a bit - not that they haven't had their benefits to offset that disadvantage, because they have helped him to become a prize-winning squash player. Anyway, Richard's happy news should ensure that the Grand Opening of Doxa Lodge, scheduled for Sunday 27th December, should be a truly mighty occasion. He knocked down a wombat in his large vehicle the other month and its corpse is scheduled to be roast on a spit that day, so there'll be plenty of food - so if anyone reading this happens to find himself or herself in Keysborough on the Sunday after Christmas, do head along to the Doxa Lodgefest: Richard, for all his eccentricities (which in fact aren't quite as bad as I sometimes paint them to be), is a most generous and welcoming host, so I'm sure that anyone turning up saying that he or she had read about the party on the Beverley House Stables website would be made welcome with a plateful of rancid wombat and a beaker of lemon squash.

I trust that Dickie and Ellie's party will take place in more clement weather than we've been having, because I suspect that we'll wake up to a good covering of snow in the morning (in fact I've just looked out of the window and we have one already). Today's actually been signficantly more pleasant than yesterday, the snow flurries notwithstanding, but it was already both freezing and snowing by the time I finished feeding this evening, so we ought to wake to very wintry conditions tomorrow. What better way of shrugging off the winter blues than having a little chuckle at Dickie's expense? And what better way than of enjoying a good story? I, as luck would have it, chanced upon an interesting tale on Racenet today. Jack Denham, as we know, sadly died last week. He was a great trainer, and won the premiership in Sydney in the year I was in Australia, when Mick Dittman was his regular jockey and their best horse was the lovely filly Triscay, and when he ended the season narrowly ahead of Victor Thompson, who was the trainer in Crown Lodge at the time. More recently he trained the horse whom I regard as the best horse to have raced in Australia in the 20 years I have been following racing there: the mighty Might And Power, winner of the Caulfield Cup/Melbourne Cup double in 1996 and of the Cox Plate in 1997 (and the meeting of whom, pictured with Emma, in Living Legends was a real thrill for me). Denham, happily, remained a successful trainer to the end, having sent out Metal Bender to win this year's Rosehill Guineas. Anyway, he trained his first Group One winner 54 years ago, in 1955. (That, obviously, is not strictly true because the system of Group classifications was only introduced in Australia in the 1980/'81 season - but we'll refer to earlier Group One races as those which were given Group One status on the introduction of the Pattern). Anyway, I read today a great tale about his first 'Group One' triumph, the victory of Persian Lyric in the 1955 Doomben Cup, and I'm sure that some readers might also find it interesting. Apparently Tommy Smith's brother Dick had had a bit bet on the double of the T. J. Smith-trained Apple Bay to win the Doomben 10,000 and Persian Lyric to win the Doomben Cup. Apple Bay duly won the 10,000, with Persian Lyric running an eye-catchingly promising fourth, making him look a good thing for the big race the following Saturday. Anyway, after the race Denham caused consternation by telling the reporters that he was planning not to run in the Cup. Imagine Dick Smith's reaction to that! Of course, the plan hatched by Denham and Persian Lyric's owner Arthur Murrell was to get Dick Smith to pay them to run their horse in the Doomben Cup - and Mr Murrell got Dick Smith to back his horse to win FORTY THOUSAND POUNDS on his behalf in exchange for agreeing to run. (And run they did, with Persian Lyric duly winning the Doomben Cup by seven lengths). Forty thousand pounds in 1955 - and so one can only speculate how big Dick Smith's double bet was! To give you an idea of how much money was worth in those days, the prize money in 1955 for the Melbourne Cup, Australia's richest race, was 15,500 pounds, with the winner collecting 11,000 pounds. That really was the era when the bolder players were racing for the gambling money and the prize money was just an extra to pay for the drinks. You've really got to admire the old school trainers such as Jack Denham and T. J. Smith who grew up thriving in that era because that level of betting really would separate the men from the boys - I don't know how I'd have handled it!