Lester and The Malster

The Malster was trained by the late JBK Cooper,and his assistant at the time was the now late Paul Leslie who was a very good friend of mine who secured me the ride the very first time THE MALSTER ran,anyways old man Cooper told me to look after him in the race as he was still a bit heavy and he did not want him to have a hard ride,it was a spint race and we ran a credible forth.I remember getting off the horse in the 4th bx and told Cooper that he has something a little special.He went on to win a couple of races including theGold Cup.I was at the races the day Lester won on him and watched the race with keen interest,he got left around 12 lengths and the field went alittle slow early on and Lester just relaxes and stood up in those short stirrips and gradually made up ground on the field and when they entered the straight was right on top of the back runners and the rest was history,It was a masterfull ride and a education to every jock that that is how you do it when you get left on a horse and especially a heavy backed fav.To even suggest or think that this was a oner as someone on this site eluded too is so far off the mark.This was a very good stayer who beat nothing of note that day but the highlight of the day was the ride he was given by the master of all time amongst his peers

Graham V Wrote:

---

> The Malster was trained by the late JBK Cooper,and
> his assistant at the time was the now late Paul
> Leslie who was a very good friend of mine who
> secured me the ride the very first time THE
> MALSTER ran,anyways old man Cooper told me to look
> after him in the race as he was still a bit heavy
> and he did not want him to have a hard ride,it was
> a spint race and we ran a credible forth.I
> remember getting off the horse in the 4th bx and
> told Cooper that he has something a little
> special.He went on to win a couple of races
> including theGold Cup.I was at the races the day
> Lester won on him and watched the race with keen
> interest,he got left around 12 lengths and the
> field went alittle slow early on and Lester just
> relaxes and stood up in those short stirrips and
> gradually made up ground on the field and when
> they entered the straight was right on top of the
> back runners and the rest was history,It was a
> masterfull ride and a education to every jock that
> that is how you do it when you get left on a horse
> and especially a heavy backed fav.To even suggest
> or think that this was a oner as someone on this
> site eluded too is so far off the mark.This was a
> very good stayer who beat nothing of note that day
> but the highlight of the day was the ride he was
> given by the master of all time amongst his peers

Thanks for the update GrahamV...(tu) a lot of us post hearsay, so it's good to get it from the horses mouth....(tu)
I only listened to the race on radio, and it sure was exciting....(

Guys, read Duffields summary of the race carefully (remember he was commentating so would be concentrating on the leaders in the race and then calling from there) The Malster was 12 lengths behind the second to last horse when Duff picked him up - Lester had a conversation with the starter before jumping and believe me he was left not less than 20 lengths.

Colins that page you posted has many clues:

a)check the betting and changes - The Malster was backed to the exclusion of the field
b)He was a good stayer as agreed by everyone (and confirmed by winning the Gold Cup)-this race was a middle distance of 1800m and you would expect him to need everything to go his way.He was already a mature horse at this stage..
c) Common knowledge that a stayer needs a fast pace in a race short of his best !!!--- so here we have a horse losing many lengths and then "they went a little slow early on" according to Colin V .......Duffield describes it as "he allowed the horse to amble along until the 1200m mark where he had caught the last horse"........... imagine how slow the rest of the field were ambling then!
d) after The Malster had effectively cost himself any chance,strange that the entire field just let the horse make up the ground without effort?

The race was a nonsense in many ways but what the hell ...............it was emotional and has become legendary so lets leave it as a great story.

Agree entirely with you Rob - great story - at least I think that some of the younger racehorse fanatics out there now know the story.

I remember Young Rake winning the Challenge Cup (or whatever it was called then) also after being left behind many lengths at the gate?

Small point of order - wasn't its actual name The Maltster ?

Correct Garrick, you know your whiskeys or should I say whiskys

And I thought I was recalling two 'Ts' only because of my intake of the single malts.