On Novemter 6, by riding Portefeuille to victory in the College Handicap at Windsor, Gordon Richards reached the 200 mark in his winning total for the season. In so doing he promised to beat every year except that of 1933, when he rode 259 winners, and although Reuter suggested the possibility of his beating his best, the feat seems to be incredibly difficult, for flat racing comes to an end at the end of this month and it would be very surprising if Richards rode 60 winners within the three weeks now left to him. However that may be, he has outstripped his great predecessor Fred Archer in compiling the highest number of winners in a single season, but he has still a long way to go before he can pass the total of 2,46 winners recorded by Archer during his career in the saddle. The figures are exceedingly interesting, for Archer's total of 46 was compiled between the years 1871-1886. Gordon Richards in the 15 years irogy1921-1936 rode 2011 winnel Thus he cannot possibly beat Archer's record for 15 consecutive years. It should be remembered, however, that in 1926, when Richards' total was only five, he was out of the saddle for most of the season owing to illness, By riding his 200th winner of the season last Week he reached a total of 2211, so at that point he was still 535 short of Archer's grand total. In four seasons now Richards has passed the 200 mark. Archer passed that mark no less than eight times between 1876 and 1885 inclusive, the two years during that period when he fell short being 1879, with 197, and 1880 with 120. The detailed records of the two men may be of interest:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.