- This topic has 6 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 4 months ago by
.
- Posts
Hatoof, winner of the 1992 1000 Guineas for Criquette Head and ridden by Walter Swinburne is due to celebrate her 36th birthday on 26 January.
The Racing Post has this article, but is paywall. (Though I somehow managed to read it through a “Hatoof racehorse” Safari Google News search to the link without being blocked)
Lovely story – to think she pretty much stays out all year round with only extreme weather seemingly encouraging her to seek some shelter and the fact that she is not shod speaks volumes to her constitution.
For those who don’t have access:
Visitors on the Kentucky Horse Country tours can sometimes have a pleasant surprise when the shuttle stops by Gainsborough Farm.
Among the paddocks is an authentic living legend, one whom even more knowledgeable racing fans would be forgiven for assuming was no longer around at Darley’s retirement home.
January 26 will mark 36 years since the birth of Hatoof. Not only is she easily the most venerable resident of the 1,500-acre estate, and almost certainly owns the same status among living European Classic winners, she might very well also be one of the oldest horses in the world.
Hatoof is Gainsborough-bred from the time it was owned by the late Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum and it is where she returned at the end of a glittering career, having finished second to Tikkanen in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Described by her trainer, Criquette Head, as a mare who could “have her own ideas”, that is exactly how she has remained.
“She lives out 24/7,” explains Gainsborough manager Danny Mulvihill.
“She’s in a smaller paddock area and comes in on the rare occasion when the weather gets crazy bad, a little like at the start of this month with the ice storm we had, she spent a couple of nights inside then.
“But she’s not a fan of being inside, she much prefers to be outside. She’s fed outside, hayed outside, and she’s a big part for any of the visitors coming to the farm, they’re always thrilled to see her.
“Through the spring, summer and autumn we’re open Thursday through Sunday, and she’s a big hit with all the tours.”
Hatoof easily precedes Mulvihill at Gainsborough. She was the first foal of Cadeaux D’Amie, who was Group-placed for Head and Maktoum, by Irish River.
When Hatoof won on her juvenile debut at Longchamp in early September 1991, the trainer told her watching owner that she would win the Guineas for him.
That following spring, after Walter Swinburn blamed himself for a narrow loss in the Prix Imprudence, she did exactly that, holding off the unbeaten and fast-finishing Marling by a head.
Hatoof would finish third in that year’s Prix du Moulin, won the Prix de l’Opera and later the Champion Stakes and Beverly D, earning more than £1 million and locking horns with some others who are now figures that feel as if from deep yesteryear, such as Grand Lodge, User Friendly, Ezzoud and Arcangues.
Mulvihill says: “There aren’t many mares who get to retire from racing having done what she did, winning at two, three, four and five. Earning that kind of money in those days was pretty significant.
“I’ve been over here with Godolphin for the last 12 years, but we’ve got guys here that were part of the original Gainsborough operation, they’ve been here for 30-plus years and they’ve kind of been there along with her every day. So she’s a massively important piece of the farm for them.”
He laughs: “They’re getting a little fewer and far between, as you can imagine. The clock doesn’t stop for any of us!”
Mulvihill tries to be careful when he explains a little more about Hatoof’s current residential arrangements, but there is no way to exactly be too diplomatic about her obvious longevity.
She is currently living with Calla Lily, a three-time winner and dam of Del Mar Listed scorer Crittenden.
“Calla Lily is 22 herself,” says Mulvihill.
“This is Hatoof’s fourth paddock buddy. She tends to keep outliving every buddy that gets put with her . . . you get a look from some of these other mares you put with her that says, ‘What have I done!’
“For a mare of her age, and that stands to how she is, she has still probably got one of the best sets of feet on the farm. She’s been barefoot all her life since she’s been back on the farm, and it’s one of the things that just stands to her.
“She’s just a low-maintenance, easy-going, hard knocking mare.”
An example to provide some context as to Hatoof’s advanced age arrived recently, as it was only this month that Guinness World Records announced that the title of the world’s oldest officially recorded horse had been vacated by Echoquette, a purebred Arabian mare living in Texas. She was also 36 and had been born on May 8, 1988.
It is likely there will be older animals whose owners have not notified the registrar, and Horse & Hound magazine was aware of a pony in the United Kingdom aged 45 last year. A representative from the record-keeping authority told the Racing Post that it did not currently have a new holder but “would welcome any applications”.
“Hatoof is the oldest horse I’ve been around,” says Mulvihill.
“I think the oldest before her that I’ve had on the farm was maybe 31 and she’s been gone a few years. It’s very rare for thoroughbreds to get up into those ages.”
Nothing is taken for granted with the grande dame, considering she would be at least a centenarian in human years by now.
Mulvihill continues: “She’s just turned 36, so she’s like any of us that get up in those kind of ages; she’s a little light to look at, but when you’d discover she was 36 years old you’d say, ‘Well she has every right to be’.
“She’s got a good look in her eye, she’s happy to be there and, as long as that’s the case, she’ll stay there.”
Gainsborough moved into the fold of Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley after his brother’s death and it is one of two nurseries for mares in Kentucky, along with Stonerside. Horses with any affiliation to either farm tend to return home upon retirement from racing.
“We’ll have close to 120 foals this year between the two farms and there are 150 broodmares,” says Mulvihill.
“Of the real old girls [seven-time Grade 1 winner], Ashado is still here with us, she’s 24, as is Away, the dam of [Kentucky Derby runner-up] Eight Belles, and there are some other very good mares like Game Face.
“We still had [Oaks and Irish Derby history-maker] Balanchine out there until a few years ago when she left us.
“She was a great mare, she was one of the first for Sheikh Mohammed in that group that was trained in Dubai, and a first Classic winner for Godolphin.”
Similar to Balanchine, Hatoof never produced anything close to her own ability, with Mighty Isis, third in a Listed race at Deauville, proving the best. Another daughter, Bochinche, was the dam of a Japanese Grade 2 winner.
For Darley, which has always shown a laudable commitment to its aftercare programme, that does not affect her status.
“Because she’s in a paddock, she gets special attention by the guys there,” says Mulvihill. “A girl called Jessica looks after her every day and treats her like one of her own little kids.
“What was really cool last year was Jake Swinburn, who is a nephew of Walter’s, was on the Godolphin Flying Start course.
“He got to meet her and sent some pictures back home. That’s what amazes me, when people like that come in and they realise all of a sudden, ’Wow, she’s still there’, or something crops up and there’s a link. It’s a small world.”
Makes me feel old what a story 36 years young
The more I know the less I understand.
Pleased to see that the Post has removed the paywall. Racing needs positive stories like this to reach as many as possible.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.