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ASK QUIXALL
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Geoffrey M Sanderson |
(1) Not long to go until the election now. Where do your political allegiances lie?
Having worked with Geoff for so long, it has to be the Official Monster Raving Loony
Party, for whom he is the shadow minister for 'Oss Racin'. (Check out the party
website and then shadow cabinet!!!).
(2) I've just been told that all racehorses have their own passports. Is this true, and if
so, what do you look like on your
passport photo?
Equine passports don't have a photo, but a sketch of identifying marks drawn
by a vet. Having looked at mine, I didn't know Salvador Dali had studied
animal medicine.
(3) Does Mr Caine ever give you a particular race or races to aim at during the season? I
think both you and Triona's Hope might enjoy the Becher Chase at Aintree, especially if
the ground is good.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Neigh lad, we've more bloody sense!!!
(4) You told us all a while back you're a Classic FM kinda horse. Who is your favourite
composer?
Freddy Mercury and Queen with: "It's a kind of Quixall". Classic track - bit
like Sedgefield really. (I'm now a teenage Rocker!!).
(5) What advice have you given your lovely nephew Kin about the sport?
Don't try too hard, little one, and you'll eventually be as famous as me.
(6) Imperial or metric - which is best?
Imperial. Preferably mint imperial. Or Polos.
(7) What is the meanest thing you have ever done to Geoff when he has ridden you out or
attended to you in your box?
The time I told him his poetry was rubbish.
Question: What is/are your favourite treat(s)? John M. (York).
Q. C. : Carrots are my favourites, but I like Polos as well!!
How do you correctly pronounce your name?
Q.C.: Quixall is pronounced as it is spelt, with equal stress on both syllables - Quix-all.
(Never Quix, Quixle, Quixy, just Quixall).
If there are two Caine runners in the same race, who leads the horses up in the parade ring? [from Jon in North Wales]
Q.C.: Geoff always leads me up if I am the only runner, or if there is another as well. (Except in the "Clash of the Titans" at Haydock Park. He was supposed to lead me, but a hiccup with the way the saddles came out of the weighing room meant that he ended up with Monaughty Man). Otherwise, Geoff and Joy decide between them who will do which horse. They then keep responsibility for that horse during and after the race.
Do you prefer right or left - handed tracks? [from Jon in North Wales]
Q.C.: I prefer left - handed tracks. I once got injured at Market Rasen (R-H) when another horse fell in front of me, and I have never forgotten. My friend Triona's Hope has the same preference.
Who is Mrs. Karen Woodhead?
Q.C.:She is the married daughter of Ted and Joy Caine, in whose name and colours the High Crossett horses run.
Is High Crossett Farm in Middlesbrough?
Q.C.:No, that is just the postal address.The farm is about twenty miles away. It is within the North York Moors National Park, at about 800 feet above sea-level, surrounded by heather moorland.
Does it get cold in Winter?
Q.C.:When the snow is deep, and the yard is too icy for the horses to walk out, Geoff's main job is to stop the polar bears chasing the penguins!
Where and when do you think the Derby should be run?
Q.C.:Sedgefield, on Boxing Day, over a trip of 3m 3f and steeple chase fences. The race should be limited to novice 15-y-o+ who have their own web-site.
What other sports do you like to watch on TV?
Q.C.:Formula 1 motor racing. That Rubens Barrichello drove in 123 Grands Prix before he won one in Germany this year, but the press never called him the worst driver in the world, did they?
What do you think should be done about the problem of loose horses at racecourses?
Q.C.:I draw my idea from Formula 1 racing, where in the event of an incident on the track, a pace car comes out, and the racers have to line up behind it, and follow it round until the danger is passed. I think, in the event of a loose horse, Geoff should trot out onto the track on a riding school pony, and we should all fall in behind and follow him, (No overtaking), until the loose horse is caught. (This also has the advantage that the horses who are a bit behind the leaders have a chance to catch up, making for a more interesting finish: ie I might be in it!).
What do you look forward to doing when you are sixteen?
Q.C.:
What is your favourite TV soap?
Q.C.: "Neigh"bours, of course!
Who is your favourite racehorse?
Q.C.: Quixall Crossett.
Who is your favourite commentator?
Q.C.: Geoff is. Every time we do some fast work together he does a race commentary in my ear as we are going along. He gets very excited. So far, we are unbeaten!!
What do you think should be done about the current situation in America, regarding the result of the Presidential election?
Q.C.: I think it should now go to a penalty shoot-out.
You get through a lot of jockeys. What do you keep doing to them all?
Ans: I teach them to race-ride, then they go and ride winners for some bugger else.
What happens to you High Crossett stablemates upon retirement? They can't all become broodmares!
Ans: I only care about what's going to happen to me when I retire. I'm the most important.
Which of your 98 runs to date has been your best or favourite, and why?
Ans: All of them. All great days out. I've made a lot of friends.
You and Monny used to be campaigned as hunter chasers. Does that mean you support hunting with hounds? [Say it ain't so, Quixall! - JG]
Ans: Yes, but only peasant farmers who haven't paid their tithes. Yoicks!!
Martin Pipe - genius or evil progenitor of method training? Discuss.
Ans: "It is rumoured that his horses don't like him."
Apart from the one obvious one, what ambitions do you still have to fulfil?
Ans: Commentate on a race between G. Goode, M. Cattermole, C. Balding, J. McCririck, A. Down, and (P. Scu, Scuda, ScumorX) R. Pitman.
Give us the punchline to your favourite joke. [Mine would be either "no tomatoes" or "dessicated elephant", but then I'm just a humourless Oldhammer - JG]
Ans: But Quixall pissed it anyway.
I've got a great idea for a moneyspinner - a tag team contest featuring Cattermole and Goode versus the Telford Two (Pygall and Turner), to take place in the muddiest field at High Crossett Farm. All money raised from gate receipts to go towards Viagra for the stallion and a strait-jacket for McCririck. What do you think to that?
Ans: See Q6. + Life imprisonment in a green field with nothing to do for the Telford Two.
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