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  1. Home
  2. Druid's Lodge
  3. Memories
  4. The. End. Of. A. Great. Racing. Stable

The. End. Of. A. Great. Racing. Stable

A Memory of Druid's Lodge.

I. First. Went. To. Druids. In. 1957. On. A. 6. WK. Trial. Basis, I. Was. 14. ,loved. It. And. Went. Back. After. Xmas. Full. Time. A. Previous. Memory. On. This. Website. Mentioned. 2. Horses, gold. Nugget. And. Paul. Douglas, I. Did. Both. These. Horses. After. There. Previous. Lad. Called. Dido. Left. Druids. The. Yard. Suffered. A. Double. Whammy. That. Year. First. The. Governor. Mr. Cannon. Got. Throat. Cancer,, and. This. Disrupted. The. Training. For. A. While. Worse. Was. To. Come. The. Owner. Of. The. Whole. Estate. Mr. Jack. Holding. Died. At. A. Race. Meeting, and. It. Meant. The. Lot. Had. To. Be. Sold. Off. To. Pay. Death. Duties. The. Man. That. Bought. It. All. Was. Not. A. Racing. Man. And. We. Were. All. Made.
Redundant.. And. The. Horses. Moved. To. Other. Yards, and. The. Lads. Left. One. By. One. The. Worst. Thing. For. Me. Was. Leading. The. Old. Lead. Horse. Called. Ray. In. To. The. Paddock. To. Be. Put. Down. By. The. Vet. This. Was. Very. Traumatic. For. A. 15. Year. Old . at. The. End. Of. The. Year. I. Went. To. Willy. Smyth.s. yard. At. Arundel. With. Another. Lad. From. Druids. Lodge. If. Druids. Had. Stayed. Open, I. Would. Have. Stayed. For. Many. Years, I. Loved. It. That. Much. And. So. Came. The. End. Of. One of. The. Greatest. Yards. In. The. History. Of. The. Sport.

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Added 22 June 2016

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Comments & Feedback

Hi Colin, this is Dido the person who’s horses you took over back in the years. I well remember Paul Douglas a chestnut, and Golden Nugget a very hard puller. The old horse Ray was a wonderful horse and so gentle with a novice jockey. Do you remember old Trigger, more of a barrel than a pony. Such a shame that over 2 years due to the deaths, the end was brought to an establishment which had been going for many
years.
By Dickie Dido on Sat Jul 13th 2019, at 2:28 pm
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I understand that Druids Lodge had a copy of every main race course on its land so that horses could practise...... Also I understood it was started by City gents to beat the bookies and make money ! In the early days, horses that were racing were boxed up and drawn to Salisbury station from where they went by train to race meetings. Jockeys/lads slept above the stables and were locked in at night so that none could tell anyone what was going on. It lies on the A360 and should anyone venture down there, it was so rare that the lads rushed to look out of the gates in excitement,,
By jsingleton21 on Sun Apr 19th 2020, at 3:59 pm
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