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Has passed away aged 25yrs
From racing post
The hugely popular Harchibald, who is remembered most for his part in the thrilling 2005 Champion Hurdle, has died at the age of 25.
Trained by Noel Meade for the majority of his career, he won 14 of his 48 starts, finishing second on a further 11 occasions.
He claimed five Grade 1 hurdles over two miles, including two Fighting Fifths, two Christmas Hurdles at Kempton and a top-level contest at Tipperary.
But the 2005 Champion Hurdle, where he went down by a neck to Hardy Eustace after travelling supremely well into the closing stages, will always be remembered as one of his most memorable outings.
VF x
Those fields he faced and beat as a first season hurdler huge .
Good to see like Native Upmanship , a long retirement .He was a character I was counting my money as he cruised up to Hardy Eustace in the Champion Hurdle
The more I know the less I understand.
Although it’s only 15 years since Harchibald was running, and Champion Hurdles were contested between Irish horses and Nicky Henderson sounds familiar ?) the races seemed very different, as they all had huge fields and less predictable results. In Harchibald’s final appearance in 2009 the field contained the winners of SEVEN Champion Hurdles (six different horses) which would have been seven different horses if Harchibald had beaten Hardy Eustace in 2005 rather than being beaten so narrowly. (The horses involved were Hardy Eustace 2004 and 2005, Brave Inca 2006, Sublimity 2007, Katchit 2008, Punjabi 2009 and Binocular 2010) These were exciting races, with Harchibald providing some superlative performances without managing to win the prize he deserved. I’m sure he would have had a good long retirement, though.
“He was a character I was counting my money as he cruised up to Hardy Eustace in the Champion Hurdle”
Same here Refuse To Bend. As betting goes, races like this really sting. The pent up elation to the sudden feeling of total deflation 😳
That Champion Hurdle was excruciating viewing, the horse looked to be absolutely cruising and then just went yeah..nope. They must have been gutted. RIP to the old monkey.
Harchibald was a tough old horse , only have to look at his form and his dabble with chasing late on . I always thought of horses who loom up find not a lot as ungenuine , but actually are some more genuine in that they don’t need whip or pushing and simply give their all just by jockey squeezing up a bit . Relkeel in that kind mode maybe.
Of course plenty just chuck it in , but not this kind of horse I think .
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