Vale Cliff Rimmer, RIP

Plenty to talk about, including the ever-changing plans for our runners.  And less parochial issues from the wider racing world.  But that can all wait because I received some bad news this morning from Cliff Rimmer's daughter Shirley, the news that her father, a great friend to me and to all connected with this stable, passed away this morning.  If you come into this house or into one or other of the rooms in the yard, you'll have plenty of opportunities to appreciate the memory of Cliff because he's in many photographs on the walls, always at the head of a horse in a winner's enclosure, always working, always professional, always happy.  With Largesse.  With Il Principe.  With Jack Dawson.  With Brief Goodbye.  With the late and much-loved Joe McCarthy.  With any number of good people.

Cliff took many horses to the races for me over the years, on top of doing plenty of work in the stable, including, remarkably, riding out.  And all that was on top of being a wonderful friend.  Cliff came to me thanks to the late Ken Atterton, travelling head lad in this yard for Hugh Collingridge for many years.  Ken mentioned to me that his friend Cliff had time on his hands and could turn those hands to pretty much anything; and the upshot was that he did turn them to pretty much everything here, over a period of many years.

Cliff had come to Newmarket from Liverpool in the late '40s to be apprenticed to Claude Halsey, who trained in one of the stables down the Fordham Road.  The late Alfie Westwood joined the same stable as an apprentice the following year.  After Cliff had finished his apprenticeship and done his National Service, he went home to Liverpool and married Florrie.  I think that times were tough in Liverpool in those days, and there wasn't much work.  Cliff worked as a cabin-steward on ocean-going liners for a few years, which wasn't ideal as he had a young family and it meant that he was away for long periods at a time.  But it was work, and it kept them going.

One time the liner was sailing either to or from Sydney, and an Aussie on board had horses with Tommy Smith.  When Cliff told the man that he was an ex-racing lad and that he hoped his young son (Mark) would go into the game, the man told him to send him to Sydney when he was old enough, and TJ would turn him into a jockey.  This didn't happen, of course, because in the late '60s Cliff's friend Ronnie Brown sent word up to Liverpool that there was a vacancy with a house in Sam Armstrong's stable, so Cliff returned to Newmarket with Florrie and their four young children (Lynn, Mark, Shirley and Gary).

Cliff was in and out of racing over the years.  At one time he worked for Gerry Blum, and I think that Gerry had all the children doing jobs in the yard too.  For a time he worked for the builder Ken Taylor (Taylor's of Soham), owner of several horses in this yard with Hugh Collingridge.  He helped to build the block of new stables here that are on one's left as one comes up the yard.  Mark, of course, served his apprenticeship with Gavin Pritchard-Gordon, rode a Cesarewitch winner when he was an apprentice (on Sir Michael in 1979, for Geoff Huffer) and later rode a Lincoln winner for Hugh (Cuvee Charlie in 1988) but did his most successful riding in Germany, where he was stable jockey for Bruno Schutz for many years.

With Cliff first came to me, he was just doing the occasional odd job and taking the odd horse to the races.  And soon he was doing more.  And more.  And more.  He was very fond of a horse called Further Future, whom he had led up when Mark rode him at Newmarket.  Word reached me indirectly that Cliff would love to ride him out one day.  So that happened.  And he rode him the next day.  And the next ...  And then I found out that he would love to have a ride on Il Principe too.  So he rode him.  And he rode him again.  And then ...

And all the while, the smile on his face was getting bigger, the particular reason for which became clear one day when Cliff remarked with his trademark mischievous grin that Ben Hanbury would rub his eyes if and when he saw him on the Heath.  Why?  "Because until last month I hadn't sat on a horse for eight years.  I had to stop because Ben said I was too old!".  I think Cliff carried on riding out until the age of about 75.  I have many happy memories of us riding out together.  Probably the happiest, though, are of our trips to the races, in particular to Scotland, often accompanied by Colin Casey (another great friend to us, who himself sadly is very unwell at present).

Walk around this house and you'll see Cliff in winner's enclosures all around Scotland, and England too.  At Hamilton he would always settle down for the evening with the (then) head groundsman Alex Ferguson.  At Musselburgh Mrs Ferguson ran the canteen and arranged the B&B accomodation for visiting staff.  Cliff, the late Tom Townsend (who would be taking horses for Stuart Williams) and the late Tommy Cuthbert (who would be there as farrier, and occasionally as trainer too) were the special ones, staying in "Mrs Fergie's" house.  You would struggle to find four better people together under the one roof.

The final few years of Cliff's life were tough.  Florrie was very infirm towards the end, and caring for her became his raison d'etre.  Not that you'd have known it from hearing Cliff talk about her, but they were an absolutely devoted couple.  She died in the spring of last year, and that hit Cliff for six.  They had been married for something like 60 years.  On the day of her funeral he told me that he was totally lost without her, and just couldn't cope.  I thought and hoped that he would bounce back, but he didn't.  He hasn't been well physically or mentally, and it's been tough for him and tough for his family.  He's better now, and he's rejoined Florrie.  But it's still a very, very, very sad day.  Farewell, my kind friend.  Rest in peace.  And thank you, for everything.

PS - I hope that the racecourse photographers concerned will not mind their photographs being used to honour Cliff.