GRAHAM HOLLAND There have been a few nights when everything clicked into place. There was our last meeting flapping at Glastonbury when we had six winners. We had eight winners on the opening night at Poole, and six at the following meeting. There was also a night at Shelbourne when we had seven winners and two seconds, one of whom should have won. I didn’t think we would make it out of the stadium alive.
MARK WALLIS I joined my father’s business in 1986 in Luton and we started going to Rye House on Wednesday’s and Saturdays. My dad brought a little grader trained by Dukey Elliot and later decided to buy something better class. Dukey was good friends with Ernie Gaskin snr and asked him if he could look out for a decent dog for my dad. A couple of weeks later he had two young dogs and my dad decided on one called Another Mixture, he turned out to be a superb dog winning opens all over the place, Rye House, Harringay, Wembley, Peterborough, Walthamstow and a few others as well. He perhaps wasn’t the very top class but was a win machine, we decided to go for the Ipswich Derby and he was installed 10/1 ante post favourite.
I had £100 on him (a big bet in those days) but he just scraped through in the heats. But without winning the second round and semi final he qualified for the final. He was 10/1 to win the final so I had another £100 on him. Dukey said he had him spot on and he was right, he came out the boxes like a rocket and drew clear winning by over eight lengths.
It was an awesome night and the staff at Ipswich afterwards made it so special. The £2k I won was like a fortune at the time. Just as incredible, the other dog we could have brought from Ernie was none other than Lissadel Tiger who went on to win the Scurry Gold Cup at Catford.
Pilot Alert with Julie McCombe – pic Steve Nash
PAT ROSNEY Within six months of Talktothehand winning the Oaks (our 5th highlight), we had the favourite in the 2002 English Derby Final, Pilot Alert. He finished fifth in the final won by Allen Gift and the overall memory was one of relief when it was all over.
Pilot Alert was almost 40 kilos in weight and a big beautiful brave dog who gave every ounce that was in him. Unfortunately, by the time he got to the final, we nursing three of his four legs.
He was never lame, but was coming off sore after every race due to his size and he spent as much time being checked over by our vet Kevin Reeves as he did in the kennel. In the final, he sprained a hock on the only sound leg he had left.
Pilot Alert was three years old when we got him and bred by Pat Dalton. I once said to Pat that I would have loved to have had the dog at two years old. Pat, typically honestly, replied, ‘if he had been sound, you would never have seen him’.
Aldo (Pilot Alert) was one of the nicest dogs we ever had here, a big favourite and one we will never forget. He went on to enjoy a long and happy retirement with one of his three owners, Stuart Mason.
