Durban July 1974

Is it true that a horse called Jamaican Music lost its jockey behind a building in this race, but came out the following year and won?

Not behind the Drill Hall but about 150m from start,looked like he clipped heels and catapulted Tommy Rattley from the saddle.EITHER WON THE FOLLOWING YEAR OR A YEAR LATER.

Won the follouing year with Bert Abocrombie up

Lost jockey in '74 and won in '76.

Spot on, Tipster.

Magiclips, I spoke to a few of the jockeys in the race, stipes and Ralph Rixon himself recently and they were all adamant that the fall in '74 was a genuine one. The conspiracy theory that he "jumped" I've gathered still persists though.

When ever ihear of that conspiracy theory i have to have a good chuckle. Do you know what it takes to jump off ahorse having 18 or so horses racing around and behind you.That only happens jn the movies or perhaps if the mafia are onto you

Had a jock that pulled my horse so badly had bootmarks on his ribs. Called the jock FERRODO. Still call him that to the day. Doesn't ride for me anymore though.

Tipster Wrote:

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> Magiclips, I spoke to a few of the jockeys in the
> race, stipes and Ralph Rixon himself recently and
> they were all adamant that the fall in '74 was a
> genuine one. The conspiracy theory that he
> "jumped" I've gathered still persists though.

I'm sure it does, Tipster, but then every event in history capable of breeding conspiracy theories does exactly that. Rattley would have had to be desperate or crazy to jump off the horse, especially as it happened so early in the race that there was still every reasonable chance that he would have been beaten on merit, assuming of course that he was aiming to be beaten!

If you are mad enough to rise your neck to stop a horse, wait until your horse is obviously travelling much better than everything else later in the race...or would that be too obvious?

I've always been happy to believe in my own mind that it was an accident, but conspiracy theories are always much more fun than bland reality, hey? Just look at all the baloney which has been said about the JFK assassination, for instance!!

Jockeys in the old days used to pull up horses so blatenly that going through the 200m mark the horses back teeth used to fall out.Today most horses are stopped in the stable.

JFK...I heard Bush snr, in alliance with Hendrick Verwoerd was behind that one for sure. Apparently Marcus Jooste and Chris van Niekerk financed it from their piggy banks.

No, BDB, it was a communist plot. Definitely. As was just about everything else in those days, according to some people.

Your local supermarket ran out of Marmite? It was the bloody commies. Your car wouldn't start in the morning. It was the bloody commies. Etc. etc.

Makes you wonder how they ever managed to lose the Cold War.