To me, one of the most memorable part of the BOOK was the way Velvet’s brother kept a bottle of his spit. I don’t remwember why.
I don’t think that made it into the movie.
Yuck, I don’t remember that but I haven’t read the book as an adult either. I think I will read it again now.
A Teaser
Apology for length.
This is the chapter where Velvet visits The Old Gentleman’s stable.
If you can read this & not want more 🤷
“Five,” said the old gentleman. “These are my little horses. I like little ones too,”
He opened the gate of the first loose box and a slender chestnut turned slowly towards him. It had a fine, artistic head, like horses which snort in ancient battles in Greece.
“Shake hands. Sir Pericles,” said the old gentleman, and the little chestnut bent its knee and lifted a slender foreleg a few inches from the ground.
“But I’ve no sugar,” said the old gentleman. “You
must do your tricks for love today.”
He closed the door of the loose box.
In the next box was a grey mare.
“She was a polo pony" he said, “belonged to my
son." He still wore his hat, black waistcoat, and shirtsleeves. He looked at the gardener’s boy. “I need not have bothered you," he said. “Of course the grooms are up." But the gardener’s boy, not getting a direct order, followed them gently in the shadow of the stables.
The grey mare had the snowy grey coat of the brink of age. All the blue and dapple had gone out of her, and her eyes burnt black and kind in her white face.
When she had sniffed the old gentleman she turned her back on him. She did not care for stable-talk.
In the next loose box was a small pony, slim and
strong, like a miniature horse. He had a sour, suspicious pony face. There were two more loose boxes to come and after that a gap in the stables. Far down the corridor between the boxes Velvet could see where the big horses stood. Hunters and carriage horses and cart horses.
The gardener’s boy never stirred. The old gentleman seemed suddenly tired and still.
He moved and pulled a piece of paper from the pocket of his waistcoat. “Get me a chair," he said very loud.
But before the boy could move a groom came running swiftly with a stable chair.
The old gentleman sat down and wrote. Then he
looked up.
“What’s your name?" he said and looked at Velvet.
“Velvet Brown," said Velvet.
“Velvet Brown," he said and tapped his pencil on
his blue cheek. Then wrote it down. “Sign at the bottom, boy," he said to the gardener’s boy, and the boy knelt
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I think that was the movie that used Aberali and Kathy Kusner, even though Aberali was a grey.
Yes, I think it was memorable BECAUSE it was yuck.
I thought they used her and Aberali in “The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit”?
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You are right, I am getting the movies confused.
Yes, that’s correct – she was such a wonderful, soft rider and Aberali was an incredible horse!
well, how difficult would it be to get a piebald horse in the 40s that could jump like that chestnut did.
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She is my all time favorite jumper rider ever! Aberali was amazing, loved him and Untouchable especially.
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She was incredible, as were her horses 
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I wondered about that (in terms of finding a Pinto horse with enough blood and athletic ability to do that job back then; I think there are way more in the present day) - also was wondering whether and why a Pinto was able to run in the Grand National – no “TB requirement” as in most racing and steeplechasing? Or is there one?
Of course all of this is no doubt answered in the book - which I have yet to read! 
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well, as a ‘children’s’ book, one has to suspend belief. Racing the Black, and in subsequence books racing and winnng the Triple crown… yeah, my 10 year old self didn’t question it but now… 
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LOL, yes! 
Oh, @Larksmom, he won the handicap triple crown, not the one for 3yo.
The Handicap Triple Crown [1] or New York Handicap Triple are the names used to refer to three American handicap races for older Thoroughbred racehorses run by the New York Racing Association at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The three races are (in order):
- Metropolitan Handicap
- Suburban Handicap
- Brooklyn Handicap (now the Brooklyn Invitational Stakes)
Since 2008, the Brooklyn Handicap and Metropolitan Handicap have both been run on Belmont Stakes day, making it impossible for a horse to win all 3 races.
Four horses have won the Handicap Triple Crown:
- Whisk Broom II (1913)[2]
- Tom Fool (1953)
- Kelso (1961)[3]
- Fit to Fight (1984)
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I’ll be one of the dissenters -
National Velvet was my all-time favorite movie as a kid. If you asked me then what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would tell you that I wanted to be a jump jockey in Ireland.
When I read the original National Velvet later in life, I was disappointed and didn’t like it nearly as much as the movie!
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but still, Arabians do not run in those races. I haven’t read them in over 50 years, and probably had no idea there was a difference.
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It IS addressed in the book"National Velvet", There was some kind of “semi-open” book for jump racing .
According to Wikipedia
“The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England, near to Liverpool.”
“National Hunt horses are often bred for jumping, while others are former flat horses but they do not have to be Thoroughbreds: many French-bred jumpers are Selle Français or AQPS. Many horses begin their racing careers in amateur point-to-pointing where they compete over steeplechase races of three miles (4.8 km).”
According to https://www.britannica.com/sports/Grand-National-British-horse-race
“The winners frequently have cold blood (e.g., the heavier draught breeds) mixed with Thoroughbred ancestry, although pure Thoroughbreds have won the Grand National on occasion.”
According to https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/can-only-thoroughbreds-race-under-jockey-club-rules-and-why.793748/
“To be able to race in the Derby or the Grand National the horse needs to be at least 7/8 tb. The coloureds were bred specifically for colour and were totally useless as racehorses but yes they bred them through with enough TB blood to race.”
"A horse does
NOT
have to be a TB to race either on the flat or over fences in GB or Ire, in any race from the Derby to the Grand National (there have been numerous winners of the GN that were not TBs, the most recent being Mon Mome in 2008).
The requirement to race is that the horse be registered in either
i) the GSB (which is for TBs), or one of it’s sister studbooks world wide that is a member of the ISBC.
ii) Weatherbys’ NON-THOROUGHBRED REGISTER.
iii) The AQPS register.
Obviously both ii) and iii) are
NOT
Thoroughbreds."
GSB (General Stud Book) is the original stud book for Thoroughbreds
AQPS is a French registry, which stads for “Autre QuePur Sang” (other than pure blood) in Frnech. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Chaser , “Autre Que Pur-Sang or AQPS, is a French breed of racehorse bred specifically for its jumping ability in steeplechase and cross-country racing.” They require at least 87.5% (7/8) .TB blood (but not 100%)
I am not sure about the details of “Weatherbys’ NON-THOROUGHBRED REGISTER”, but that is probably how The Pie was allowed to run.
One of my fav books in the BS series was the one about the Standardbred. Was it Blood Bay Colt maybe?
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Yes. And Henry was so biased against the “tail-sitters” until he came to help Alec and saw what heart that colt had.
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