THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — the Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain great stories from her home village of FINDON, West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday tales about real people...... in fact, a potted history of the village.   The topics today, are history tomorrow.

CANARDEAU HAD A LITTLE LAMB.....

featuring TOMMY WINTERS OF NEPCOTE

Copyright Valerie Martin 2011

Click to enlarge

I was in my front garden one day at the beginning of August 2011 when Lesley Winters drove passed and stopped.  She called out and said ....

"Valerie......Put 'Tommy Winters and Pathé News' into Google and you'll see a video of Tommy on the Gallops".    This I did.

When I first moved to Nepcote in 1993, the late Tommy Winters lived a few doors away from me.    He worked at the Downs Stables and our paths often crossed and we always exchanged a cheery word.

Captain Ryan Price original owned the Downs Stables and his name was a household word in the National Hunt world.   At one point he discovered a new interest and decided to dabble during the summer months in flat racing.    Initially his attempts to break into the world of the flat took a nose dive.   He was away from Findon with his jumpers in Newton Abbot in the West Country..... and decided to run a horse closer to home at nearby Brighton at the same time.   He drove back and much to his chagrin was informed by the Clerk of the Scales in no uncertain terms that he had no flat trainer's licence to run.   This took the wind out of the Captain's sails, but not for long.    He proceeded to gain  a flat licence and his charges did equally as well as his jumpers.    So much for the Clerk of the Scales at Brighton.   In 1955, the Captain had nineteen horses in the Winners' Enclosure totally £5,876.

So....let's return to Tommy Winters who was employed at the Downs Stables — cut and paste this into your browser ...

www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=789

......and see him at work with trainer, Captain Ryan Price's dark bay racehorse, Canardeau.    The date is April 1958.   You'll see Tommy being helped onto the horse and riding him away.   Nothing strange in that.   Except that there is an 11-year old sheep named Galway in tow.   The sheep is led by Paul, then aged 15.

Tommy is then seen as four racehorses and their jockeys race over the Findon Gallops.    At the end of the gallop, Canardeau and Galway meet up and return to the comfort of their stable....together.    

EXPLANATION:   Canardeau had a woolly companion to calm him down and it works.    Captain Ryan Price discovered that the sheep's influence and presence in the stable prevented his highly strung horse from getting so excitable.     This horse was owned by George Varnavas, the proprietor of the Elysée Restaurant in Percy Street, a haunt of many racehorse owners and trainers.   Canardeau won hurdles for him and then raced over the flat for a total of nine seasons and was in the winners' enclosure a total of nineteen occasions.   You can now understand why the Captain was keen to keep his charge happy when he was in line to be a prolific winner.

If YOU remember Canardeau the sheep in Findon do let me know.    I think I have heard somewhere that he even accompanied Canardeau to the race course to keep him on the straight and narrow and in the correct frame of mind to win his races.

Continue if you would like to read about a jockey who rode Captain Ryan Price's Findon horses, Paul Kelleway (1940-2001).

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon and nearby..... and sometimes beyond.