THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

COVERTCOAT

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002

I have heard many adjectives describe many racehorses.  Dangerous, proud, arrogant or perhaps even lunatic in behaviour.  When not out exercising, the thoroughbreds of Findon spend their time confined to stables.  The sheer boredom of looking over the stable door is a way of life for them and they grow used to it.   The colts are noticeably more playful than fillies.  Racehorses have one favourite pastime — that of eating.   Some like running, others enjoy jumping — as do those in Findon.  Last but not least — there are the winners.

Training racehorses has been going on for years in Findon, not because of tangibles like cash and handsome thoroughbreds but because of the hope and optimism which are the main attributes of everyone in the village connected in the sport of Kings.

The jump season in Findon brings with it the Grand National which everyone has heard of — even if they know next to nothing of the colour and atmosphere of the racing game.

Covertcoat had large ears and a bold eye and was owned by Sir Charles G. Assheton Smith.  He came down the ramp of his horse boxes in 1913 and looked around.   His ears were pricked.  The excitement in him mounted.   He knew exactly where  he was as he walked off with his lad towards the stables at the racecourse.

Covertcoat's coat was gleaming, his muscles showed hard and smooth and he was just about ready to jump for his life. There was not a spare gap to squeeze into between the race crowd lining the rails on that big day.  The air buzzed with the bellowing of news vendors, heather-pushing fortune-telling gypsies and of course the cockney ticket touts.   The bookmakers prepared for business in earnest, opening their satchels, counting their gains on the previous race, wiping their boards, smoothing the large pages in their field-books and conducting banter among themselves.

Finally, the field pranced and pricked their ears and strained at their bits.  The starter climbed on his rostrum — miraculously all the entries were all facing the correct way and they stood still for him for a brief moment in time.  The jockeys let out an inch of reign and the ground shuddered beneath their hooves as they set off at a tremendous pace towards the first jump. 

The result that day was that Findon had another National winner, in fact, two in a row.

After Covertcoat's victory in the Grand National in 1913 he travelled back to Worthing Station and Jerry M, the 1912 winner, was taken to meet him and escort him home with a laurel wreath around his shoulders.

I wonder what Findon was like in those good ole days?   Readers were able to read in the Worthing Gazette back in June 1913 an indignant letter from a amusing maiden lady about "masculine bathers" on the nearby Worthing seafront ....

Whatever next!

The next week, readers learned that it was proposed to erect a canvas barrier at one of the public seafront bathing stations to solve the embarrassment of the goings on down on the shore to the public.   Those were the days!

John Goodwin in London has forwarded me these letters written at the time of Covertcoat's win.   They give some idea of what was happening at the Findon stables when the lads heard of the Grand National triumph —

The above was probably written by Lilian Lousia Bridger (Ida's younger sister).

I understand that Covertcoat also ran in the Grand National the following year, 1914 but I think he only came in seventh. 

When Jerry M and Covertcoat died, their hooves were made into souvenir ink-stands and pen rests and placed in the great front room of Downs House, together with the trophies which they had won.

In November 2000, a collector of racing memorabilia in London, John Goodwin, e-mailed me to say he had acquired two albums concerning the days of Jerry M and Covertcoat in the village.  (John is very interested in the Findon racing scene and has been to Josh Gifford's Open Day in recent years).  The volumes in his possession were in a very bad condition when he found them but have since been rebound.

The first album concerned Covercoat's Grand National victory and included photographs of the celebrations when the horse was led through the village after the race.  In all there are a total of twelve photographs including a couple of the village children enjoying a party.  The remainder of the book is made up of letters and telegrams of congratulations to Bob Gore, including letters from local Findon inhabitants.

The second book is entitled "Racing Memories RG" and has a few photographs, picture postcards and newspaper clippings relating to the horses from 1909 - 1911.

It appears that the scrapbooks were not made up at the time of the big Grand National wins.  The photographs and clippings appear to have been kept for some twenty years, until the 1930s, and then assembled.

The second book, it is thought, was compiled by Robert Gore's sister-in-law.  All of the pages are still intact and in good condition except, unfortunately, a telegram from Jerry M to Covercoat, congratulating him on his big win that day back in 1913.

John has just recently acquired a further collection of letters which include one or two written by Bob Gore.  It always surprises me how this memorabilia has survived over the decades.  One of Bob's letters was written in late 1911 when corresponding to a racing journalist and not wanting his own name credited in the information divulged for a newspaper article.  

Another of the same date gave Bob's opinion of the best horses in his stable in 1911.

A further letter dated 1923 is regarding his reminiscences for a newspaper article. 

All of the letters came from the estate of a journalist called Coaten who died in the late 1930's.  John was told they had been stored away in a cardboard box and forgotten about until his relatives decided to get rid of them recently. In all there were about 150 letters in the collection relating to horseracing dating from between 1910 and 1930 — mainly from trainers and owners.

Covercoat started an odds on favourite for the Conyngham Cup at Punchestown races in April 1916 but had the misfortune to fall and break his back.   Since the death of Sir Charles Asheton Smith (for whom he had won the Grand National), he had been the property of Eric Platt, whose colours he was carrying at Punchestown.

In May 2002 I heard from Judy Hinde in Singapore who had evidence of further memorabilia from Findon's past racing days — 

Judy says that if she winds the watch it still works for a short time but she has been too frightened to wind it fully.   She I did have a jeweller look it over when she lived in Zimbabwe....he said it required a small amount of work to have it back in full working order....but she never pursued this as she had some concerns about having the watch leave her hands. 

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.