Dermot’s a racing cert
QUESTION Irish Who is the first horse trainer to have had more than 100 winners in a year? THE trainer who achieved this notable ‘first’ was Dermot Weld, one of the most successful of all Irish horse trainers.
Indeed, he holds the record for the most winners trained in Ireland, 2,578, set in August, 2000.
Dermot Weld was born in 1948; his father Charlie was also a successful horse trainer.
The young Dermot qualified as a vet, before becoming an accomplished amateur jockey.
He took over his father’s famous yard in 1972.
His fantastic run of racing successes began at the start of the 1980s and to date, he has had more than 3,000 winners.
Married with two children, his stables are at Rosewell House at the Curragh, right in the heart of Ireland’ s horse racing industry.
The yard is right beside the famed Curragh racecourse.
In Ireland, he has won every prize going, for instance winning the Irish St Leger on six occasions.
In Britain, he won two of the biggest classic races, the Epsom Oaks in 1981 and the 2,000 Guineas in 2003.
Horses trained by him have also come in first in other noted British races, such as the Ascot Gold Cup, in 2010, but he has never won at Aintree.
Outside these islands, races in such places as Australia, France, Hong Kong and Italy have also been successful for him, while in steeplechase/hurdling, he’s won such races as the Punchestown Gold Cup (1980) and the Irish Grand National (1988).
While he’s mainly a trainer of Flat horses, he has also done consistently well in National Hunt races over the years.
He’ s had big race winners on four continents, making him not just one of the best trainers in Ireland, but one of the best in the world.
Very few of the world’s top horse races have eluded him, apart from the Aintree Grand National and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
The latter race was won on three occasions by Vincent O’ Brien (1958, 1977 and 1978), Seamus McGrath in 1969 and John Oxx in 2000 and 2009.
Among the many horses that have had great significance for him have been Blue Wind, Committed, Grey Swallow, Go and Go, Media Puzzle, Vinnie Roe and Vintage Crop.
Dermot Weld has also been named Ireland’s champion trainer on 21 occasions.
His favourite racecourse in Ireland is Galway and Paddy Power, the bookmakers noted for their jokey advertising, tried unsuccessfully to change the name of the Galway Racachieve es to the Dermot Weld Retirement Fund Races. Dermot Weld’s best racecourse for atmosphere is Flemington, near Melbourne in Australia. It hosts the Melbourne Cup, Australia’ s richest horse race.
In 2009, Dermot Weld wrote a book entitled Vintage Crop: against all odds. Vintage Crop became the first overseas horse to win the Melbourne Cup, in 1993.
With such an incredible array of winners under his belt, it’ s hardly surprising that Dermot Weld was the first to notch up more than 100 winners a year.
John O’Connor, by email. QUESTION term Where does the ‘botched’, as in botched job, come from? THE word ‘botch’ and the term ‘botched job’ are thought to be derived from the word ‘bodge’ and term ‘bodging’ used in the furniture manufacturing industry. The two words look very similar and the two terms have very similar meanings.
A ‘bodger’ was a person that lived and worked in the woods, making components for furniture (typically chair legs) from the timber of freshly felled trees, while the wood was still green. They turned chair legs using a ‘bodging lathe’, also known as a ‘pole lathe’, as a foot operated pole was used to drive the spindle of the lathe via a rope, this mechanism being very similar to the method used to drive old-fashioned treadle sewing machines.
Though the bodgers had the ability to manufacture the chair legs to the correct shape, size and desired degree of surface smoothness, it was often preferred for them to just ‘rough-out’ the chair legs so that they were the approximate shape (but oversize) and had a rough finish.
These would then be completed to the desired shape, size and surface finish within the factory, mainly to better uniformity of size and shape required for mass production.
So the meaning of a ‘botched (or bodged) job’ is one that is generally rough, ready, not fully complete and therefore undesirable. And the person responsible for such work is often referred to as a ‘botcher’ or more likely a ‘bodger’.
David Marks, Orpington, Kent. QUESTION wall A plaque on the of an old warehouse in Hackney Wick, East London, says one of the first plastics was invented there. What was that plastic like? FURTHER to earlier answers, the first manufacturers of plastics were the Chinese more than 2000 years BC. Known as urushi, it was produced from the sap of lacquer trees, mainly the Rhus Verniciflua. The prepared lacquer cures or hardens by polymerisation and is as resistant to abrasion, water and chemicals as modern plastics. Excavation has shown the material was used to preserve wood piles used in house construction, for household utensils, jewellery and decorative panels.
Urushi, known in Europe from the 17th century as Oriental Lacquer, was used mainly as a surface coating on wood but was also carved to produce boxes, bowls and decorative objects.
Japan, Burma and other southeast Asian countries where lacquer trees grew also produced lacquer ware (Urushi/plastic). The sap from the lacquer trees, being akin to poison ivy, is not user friendly. Skin contact with liquid Urushi and fumes during manufacture caused external and internal dermatitis and frequently death, but what a finish.
Reg Dudman, Fine Art Restorer, Hereford. QUESTION Dylan Apart from Bob which other artists have taken their names from literature? ANTHONY Burgess’s cult book A Clockwork Orange is a favourite of musicians with a few of them turning to it for inspiration. Eighties favourites Heaven 17 took their name from a fictional band mentioned in the story. The Killers took their name too from a fictional band, but that was in a video by New Order rather than a book. The band Moloko too were inspired by Burgess. Moloko is a Nasdat word that translates to ‘milk’. The drink, commonly laced with a variety of different drugs, is popular among teenagers in the story. Campag Velocet too borrowed from Burgess. In the flim version of Clockwork Orange, the word ‘vellocet’ appears written on the wall of the milkbar in the film’s opening. The term refers to a brand of milk laced with opiates.
Tony Doyle, Cork.