The Kenilworth Chess Club Derby - Runners and Riders

Well, better late than never is all I can say. Two years ago, we had the inaugural/final running of the KCC Grand National (won by Ben ahead of Matt and Tony) and I did threaten everyone that this would be followed by the KCC Derby. But I forgot. Until now!

The real Derby is set for 16.30 next Saturday (June 5th) at Epsom, but our event will be run entirely in my imagination at some unspecified time between now and who knows when! The format is the same as for the Grand National. Every KCC member is represented by a real horse (not necessarily still alive and kicking!) that participated in flat races, with their quality ranging from the truly abysmal to superstars. Its the luck of the draw which type you share a name or connection with.

There are a couple of non-runners compared to the 2019 KCC Grand National, but we also have some extra starters, and so a field of 31 (2 more than the 2019 race) will line up in their quest to win the Blue Riband of the turf.

	Horse	Rider
1	Lithuanian	Algis Toleikis
2	Sabbatical	Andrew Paterson
3	Baruch Abba	Andy Baruch
4	Teacher	Andy Ward
5	Graff	Ben Graff
6	Glorious Artist	Bernard Charnley
7	Bernardini	Bernard Rogers
8	Billy The Kid	Billy Fellowes
9	The Flying Dutchman	Bruce Holland
10	Restless Carl	Carl Pickering
11	Solicitor	Chris Aldridge
12	Ed de Gas	Ed Goodwin
13	Ambling	John Ambler
14	In the Pink	Joshua Pink
15	Jude	Jude Shearsby
16	Allez France	Lionel Riou-Durand
17	Mark of Esteem	Mark Page
18	Mighty Matt	Matt Smiglarski
19	Correspondent	Mike Donnelly
20	Doctor Devious	Nick Mottram
21	Noah's Dream	Noah Seymour
22	Randy Paul	Paul Lam
23	Tap on Wood	Phil Wood
24	Hot Rod	Rod Webb
25	Winker Watson	Roy Watson
26	Chorister Choir	Solomon Hayes
27	Payne Relief	Steve Payne
28	The Stuart Line	Stuart Blaiklock
29	King's Theatre	Tony King
30	Cape Vincent	Vincent Xia
31	Mighty Morris	Will Morris

I regret to report several instances of poor sportsmanship already, with three horses disqualified pre-race. Solomon wanted to be represented by the great Sadler's Wells (winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas and 14 times champion sire in Britain & Ireland), but this has been disallowed as he hasn't actually moved to Wells yet. Unlucky! Joshua has also been in conflict with the judge (me) demanding that Rail Link (winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe) should represent him, but as he has been in lockdown for over a year and not commuting between Kenilworth and Manchester to play for us, I've had to rule him out as well. Again, unlucky! That accursed pandemic just hasn't been kind to some people. And finally, Stuart's wish to be represented by Mr Bojangles was also disallowed on the grounds that this is a race for horses, not Labradoodles or similar. I like to think the post-race drugs test would have spotted he was a dog, anyway.

The jockeys have been legged up; the horses are at the start; and the crowd (Sid and Doris Bonkers) is in a frenzy of excitement. May the best horse/man win! (To be continued.)