With many O/T threads currently circulating, I thought I’d start one of my own, which may be of more interest to the majority, to while away the time until we go again, this time in the EFL.

Although this first offering is about horse racing, please feel free to include any sporting anecdotes.

On 4th June 1923, 22-year-old Frank Hayes, riding Sweet Kiss, a 20-1 outsider, won a steeplechase by a head at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, New York. Frank had never won a race before, as he was not a jockey but a horse trainer and stableman by profession. And he'd never win a race again, as when the owner, Miss A Frayling, and race officials came to congratulate him shortly after the race, still astride the horse, they discovered that he was dead! Hayes had died in the latter part of the race, and his body remained in the saddle when Sweet Kiss crossed the finishing line, making him the first, and so far only, jockey known to have won a race after death. Sweet Kiss never raced again and was nicknamed "Sweet Kiss of Death" for the rest of her life.