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Name one hurdler who failed to go on to achieve greatness through either injury or death.
My vote would go to Carobee. The King’s Ride gelding remains the best prospect I’ve ever seen (I started watching racing in 1980)- he hacked up in the Chepstow mud (slaughtering Mighty Mogul and Valfinet, amongst others) and then had the pace to slam classy ex-Flat performers like Halkopous (received 8lbs) and Flown on good ground at Aintree. Trainer David Nicholson, writing in his auto-biography, opined that Carobee was without doubt potentially the best horse he had ever trained.
It’s a real pity that he never ran again after that Aintree victory.
The one that springs to mind personally is Darlan, would have went close in last years Champion Hurdle had tragedy not struck. It’s sad when any horse gets put down due to injury but it’s especially unfortunate when it’s one that has so much potential.
I would agree with the original poster. Looked a bit special from that first Warwick bumper with loads of subsequent winners in behind.
He wasn’t as good but I will throw in Boardroom Shuffle who I think won the same Chepstow race.
Valiramix was cantering all over the Champion Hurdle field in 2002 before he sadly got injured and had to be put down. Tony McCoy said in his autobiography that he could have gone on to be an outstanding hurdler.
I’ve always thought Montelado would have won a Champion Hurdle had he avoided injury. He was a spectacular winner of the 1993 Supreme Novice Hurdle.
More recently Spirit Son had a lot of potential looking back at his novice form.
Definitely Valiramix. He would have eaten Hors La Loi as impressively as Istabraq ever did.
Gloria Victis!! If you go back further, its easy to forget about poor Ten Plus with all the joy surrounding Desert Orchid.
SHL
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