26th March – On this day in 1966 'Drake's Drum', the racehorse Paul McCartney had given his father for his 62nd birthday in 1964, won the six-furlong Hylton Plate at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool at 20/1 odds!

Paul, his father Jim and brother Michael were all in attendance.

'Drake's Drum' was later retired to Paul's High Park Farm in Scotland.

Below: Ang, Paul and Jim at the races.

Below: The crowd of punters surge close as Drakes Drum and Jockey pass. DD is being led through the throng  by Ang McCartney and Paul. Mike McCartney (trendy scarf casually tossed around his neck) brings up the rear at the Rear near side of the horse! Jim must be at the podium!

From a Facebook page:

Dear Sir Paul

My friends have urged me to write this letter, which hopefully will make you laugh.

My name is Barbara Carr. I was 16 years old, living in Liverpool in the 1960's, and I now live in South Africa. Do you remember a Racehorse you owned called Drake's Drum?- trained by Colin Crossley in Cheshire? I took a horse over to Colin for him to see if it was ready to go into training. Colin put a jockey up on my horse and put me on Drake's Drum, he told me that the horse didn't like to run. There were 3 other guys and me; when it was time to go into the full gallop we were told that when we got to the marker to let the horses go into a full gallop. The other 3 horses took off, but your horse wouldn't go any faster and I was left behind with mud hitting me in the face. I looked at his ears and they were flat back, indicating defiance; I don't know why I did it, but I blew a very loud "raspberry" down his ear – well he took off like a bat out of hell and overtook the three in front and wouldn't stop, and I went right the way round again!!

No one could believe it! And I was too shy to tell them that I had blown a raspberry down his ear. Anyway, my horse wasn't ready to go into training so I took him home. Next week I was back and, once again, Colin put me up on Drake's Drum, and the same thing happened. When I arrived the next week, I found out that Colin had spoken to you and told you about this little girl who could make your horse run and, after I had finished my ride, he introduced me to you and you asked me how I had managed to get your horse to run? I was rendered completely speechless and was totally star struck, so could not speak coherently. You said that you wished I could ride Drake's Drum in the race. I left my horse there and was given a lift back to Liverpool. On the way there this man said that he wanted to stop off at his Factory. I walked into the Factory, that was a big shed with about 25 girls packing peanuts off a conveyor belt. I walked half way down and waited, the next minute all the girls stopped what they were doing and started screaming and running towards me. I looked behind me, there was no one there, and I thought that perhaps they were residents from the local loony bin! They knocked me to the floor and were pulling my legs and pinching me – I couldn't understand what was going on and thought I was going to die. The next minute the man who had given me a lift came back and shouted at them all to get back to work, which they did. He came over and helped me up from the floor – apparently I was as white as a sheet, he kept saying "I am so sorry", then said that he had told all the girls that I had just been riding Paul McCartney's horse and they were trying to get hairs from my trousers as souvenirs!!!

All the way to Liverpool he kept apologising, I was in shock and couldn't speak. It was only later that I realised that I should have told both you and Colin that I had blown a raspberry down the ear of the horse, but all I could see in my mind was seeing you all in the Parade ring, in all your finery, with the Trainer giving the Jockey his last minute instructions including a very loud raspberry.

I am now 69 years old and continue to ride and teach. I also teaching riding at the Gauteng Branch of the SA Riding for the Disabled Association, which is the same as the RDA in England, and provides therapeutic riding for physically and mentally challenged children and young adults, which is both amazing and highly rewarding.

When are you coming to South Africa?? – I would love to know what happened to Drake's Drum – did he carry on racing? because he could certainly run, but only when he wanted to!!

Unfortunately I do not have an email address, but if you do wish to respond, I can be contacted via the SA Riding for the Disabled email address which is [email protected]

Kind regards

Barbara Carr                                                                                                                                            

> Drake ' Drum won a race @ 10/1 . Paul's dad had £5 each way. A happy day for sure.

> DRAKES DRUM was a sprinter, trained by Colin Crossley, on the Wirral.

>Paul had to put out a plea to fans to NOT back the horse - simply because of the Beatles connection- in the Hylton Handicap over 6 furlongs - at LIVERPOOL on Grand National day 1966.

>Drake's Drum cost Paul £1,050 a little over £21,000 in 2019.

>Paul later said about his father, "My father likes a flutter - he is one of the world's greatest armchair punters."

>A Drake's Drum is actually a snare drum that Sir Francis Drake took with him when he circumnavigated the world.

>Aintree Racecourse is the home of The Grand National. Which was immortalised in the Elizabeth Taylor movie National Velvet.  Elizabeth broke her back after coming off a horse making this movie.

*The story clippings are from Paul McCartney by Phillip Norman

And for all you horsey people out there here.... is Drakes Drum pedigree: