Calling Magic

Magic,

I really am a big fan of your tipping and especially writing. I read your article about Earl of Surrey in the sportingpost and it goes without saying the article was supremely well written.

I do have one question though. The following is an excerpt from that article:
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Earl Of Surrey is a son of Century Stand (one of only two horses ever to beat Horse Chestnut) out of the unraced Gay Fandango mare Bush Chic. Bred by Sarahdane Stud, he was a multiple Stakes winner from 1200m to 2400m when trained by Lisa Harris in Zimbabwe before relocating south and in total he has won fourteen races from 24 starts. Just how much he has earned in stake money is anybody’s guess, given that he was racing in Zimbabwe during the era of hyper-inflation and trillion dollar bank notes, but it is plenty.
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I was under the impression that Horse Chestnut was only beaten once in his career, by another New Zealand bred sprinter called Clifton King?

I'm was trying to rack my brain bu I cannot for the life of me come up with the race where Century Stand beat HC? I think the Century was first raced with Alec Laird and then moved on to Gary Alexander for a spell.

Anyway I was just wondering if you could let me know.

In the same race as Clifton King - Horse Chestnut finished third. I remember the race well, it was at Newmarket and I tipped Century Stand to win....he finished 2nd, but at least he beat HC!

Thanks for the kind words.

Clever trivia I would have also said that the champ was also only beaten once...............

MAGIC has a magic memory....and brain(tu)

Dave, he was only beaten once - by two horses.< Semantics semantics - but 2nd beats 3rd whichever way you slice it.

Will be catching a few of the lads at the dinner table with this one -D

Thanks for putting me straight Magic, I never actually thought of it that way

But as you rightly pointed out, 1st beats 2nd, 2nd beats 3rd!

I remember that race very well. HC was backed right off the boards even though there were big concerns over the distance as well as him coming back from a bit of a spell.

I backed Clifton King that night as he was then stabled with our trainer at the time. Mind you not that the stable gave us any info, just liked ALL their horses