An item I missed in the sports press, but spotted due to my subscription to the Lichfield Blog, was the recent death of Greville Starkey at the age of 70. Starkey was Lichfield-born, one of the top flat racing jockeys of his time and, as the Telegraph obituary notes here, one of those sportsmen who will be remembered as much for one high-profile failure as a lifetime of success. I’m sure there are a few examples – Terry Fenwick springs to mind ( for his dismal attempt to stop Diego Maradona in the ’86 World Cup quarter-final ).I had a short-lived interest in racing in the seventies, brought about by visits with my grandparents to meetings at York, Ripon and Thirsk, and remember the Starkey / Guy Harwood partnership as a main player in racing in a time of Eddery, Piggott, Carson, Hern, O’Brien etc.
To win 1,989 races and be remembered for one that didn’t is a sad memorial.
No comments:
Post a Comment