The Front Runner: hurray for Fontwell and a century of racing

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It's another excellent week of racing at an enjoyable time of year for fans, with a couple of days at Killarney followed by the Dante meeting at York and then Lockinge day at Newbury on Saturday, not forgetting the Saval Beg at Leopardstown on Friday night. It's easy to miss the significance of other cards when there's so much happening but Fontwell deserves some recognition this week ahead of its Thursday night card, when they'll be celebrating 100 years of racing at the West Sussex track.

It looks as though the boat is being pushed out for the occasion, with a display of artefacts from the track's first century, music, dancing and a gala dinner. Showing appropriate respect for racing history, the organisers have arranged for the presence of some big-name jockeys who rode Fontwell and many other tracks in decades gone by, including David Mould, Bill Smith, Ron Atkins, Bob Champion, Graham Thorner, Richard Linley and Aly Branford.

Going through the gates once more might provoke a particular rush of memories for the 84-year-old Mould, who tells the Front Runner he hasn't been back since he quit the saddle almost half a century ago. "It was always a good track for me because my guv'nor was leading trainer there, year after year," he says, referring to Peter Cazalet. "He was the Queen Mum's trainer and we had lovely horses to deal with."

Near Sevenoaks, Cazalet's powerful yard was about 60 miles north-east of Fontwell and it would probably be a 90-minute journey, "but we'd call it a local track," Mould says. He soon gained an advantage over some weighing room rivals in his familiarity with the unusual figure-of-eight chase course.

"It was good for knowledge, you could save yourself acres. It was a track you could nick lengths everywhere, you could go from last to first in half a furlong if you knew the place.

"The fences were awkward because they were all in funny positions. I think they've changed a lot of them. They used to be downhills and uphills, it was a tricky little track."

Mould keeps up with the great game by watching on TV but he's been rarely spotted at the track for a long time, which will add to the sweetness of Thursday's trip. "It'll be nice because I'll see some old lads and there's quite a few going. I'm looking forward to it.

"I would think I'm the oldest jockey there is from the old days." He mentions some famed contemporaries who are no longer with us, Terry Biddlecombe, Josh Gifford, Johnny Haine, Bill Rees. 

"Me, I'm so lucky. I was born lucky. I'm in good health, I've got everything."

I ask him what he thinks of jump racing these days. "It's different, isn't it? It's hard to compare any generation." 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, our chat gravitates towards the recent Grand National. "Liverpool, I'd ride a good hurdler round there now. It's not a track to be feared, is it?

"The first time I went there was, I would think 1959 or 1960, and I was a wild kid. I walked around, thinking: 'Blinking hell, horses can't jump this!'"

Mould was at Aintree to see some of the sport's most famous legends being written, riding in the National won by Foinavon and also in the first two of Red Rum's. He was third in the 1968 race aboard Different Class, owned by Gregory Peck, who was there to cheer them. I mention these things so you've got something to ask about if you should find yourself next to Mould at the gala dinner on Thursday.

You might be aware that he holds the record for winners ridden in the silks of the late Queen Mother, 106 in total and doubtless quite a few at Fontwell. It was also at Fontwell that, in 1949, the then Princess Elizabeth celebrated her first winner as an owner, Monaveen. 

So there have been some big days there and plenty of star horses have trodden its turf. Cue Card hacked up on his debut there in 2010, so hopefully some of the Fontwell regulars were on him next time when he defied odds of 40-1 at the Cheltenham Festival.

When Baracouda was putting together a ten-race unbeaten run in 2001, Fontwell was the place he came closest to defeat, being hard driven to hold off Solo Mio by a neck in the National Spirit Hurdle. I can't find the footage but there seems to be some suggestion that the ungelded runner-up was reluctant to go past. He was switched back to the Flat after that and won the Sagaro next time.

From a punter's perspective, Fontwell is one of those places where, even if your fancy is trailing by 20 lengths, you never quite feel you're out of it. That downhill run gets some horses racing a long way from home and when they make the long, right-handed bend and turn back towards the grandstand, the enthusiasm can sometimes drain right out of them as they realise they're expected to run back up said hill. 

How many times have we seen races change, even on the short run-in, especially when it's soft ground? It won't be that on Thursday, but hopefully we'll still get plenty of drama to mark 100 years at one of our most distinctive and characterful tracks.

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.