He has been a professional footballer, an FA Cup-winning manager and the King of the Jungle over the storied course of the past 60 years, but as Harry Redknapp talked about the Jukebox Man, his King George VI Chase contender, at Ben Pauling’s stable last week, he was the East End kid whose nan was a bookie’s runner and would be astonished to see where life and luck have taken her grandson.
“She wouldn’t believe it,” Redknapp says, suddenly back in Poplar in the 1950s. “It’s a far cry from the East End of London, [when she was] getting slung in the back of a police van every other day for collecting the bets.
“People forget there were no betting shops,betting was totally illegal,so the only way you could have a bet was through an illegal bookmaker. Cyril the paperboy, he wasn’t a boy, he was about 70, but everyone still called him the paperboy. He was the bookmaker, my nan would take the bets and Cyril would take them and pay out the next day.
“Three tuppenny doubles and a tuppenny treble,that was the standard bet,and the only way you got the results was sitting round the radio at six o’clock at night. Thay’d call the results out and she’d scribble them down so she knew who’d won and who’d lost.”
There is a distinct sense that Redknapp still can’t quite believe it himself. He is not a celebrity racehorse owner, dabbling in the game until something else takes their fancy. He is a racehorse owner who happens to be a celebrity, a lifelong fan who has done the hard yards in ownership for the past 40 years, swallowed the disappointments and bounced back for more.
He now has a horse that is good enough to line up for one of the most famou
Harry Redknapp’s The Jukebox Man Aims for King George VI Chase Glory
Harry Redknapp, the former football manager, is hoping for a Boxing Day triumph with his horse, The Jukebox Man, in the prestigious King George VI Chase at Kempton park. The race is considered a major test for chasers, and Redknapp is optimistic about his contender’s chances, despite not being the favorite.
Redknapp recently visited trainer Ben Pauling’s yard in the west country with his wife, Sandra, to check on The Jukebox Man’s preparation. He described the anticipation as similar to the final moments of a close football match. “I don’t know how I’d have felt if Shakem Up’Arry hadn’t won the day before.It was like being two up going into extra time, the fourth official’s put up three minutes and suddenly, bang, bang, the dream’s gone,” he said. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/dec/23/harry-redknapp-the-jukebox-man-king-george-vi-chase
The Redknapps have become accustomed to Harry’s passion for horse racing, though Sandra admits he sometimes keeps his purchases under wraps. “I think sometimes he doesn’t tell me [when he buys another horse]. I’ll say,’when did you buy that one,then?’ and he’ll say ‘oooh,ages ago…,'” she revealed. The couple reportedly has a long list of horses, making a triumphant runner like The Jukebox Man all the more rewarding. Sandra will be at Kempton on Friday to watch the race, a rare outing for her.
Redknapp acknowledges The Jukebox Man isn’t the favorite, but believes he has a realistic chance. He likened the King George VI Chase to the Champions League in football, stating, “You look at the teams that are still in it and you think, my God, but you still think you’ve got a chance and you’re dreaming that you could go all the way and win it.” He added that if the horse continues to improve as Pauling believes,he has “a real chance.”
The King George VI Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase open to horses aged four years or older. It is run over a distance of 3 miles (4,800 metres) and is one of the most meaningful races in the British jumps calendar. https://www.britishhorseracing.com/racecards/kempton-park/26-dec-2024/1530/king-george-vi-chase/