- This topic has 16 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I read recently that Persian Lancer took the 1966 Cesarewitch at the age of 8 following a winless streak going back 5 years. This did include a total of 3½ years off the track.
I’m wondering if anyone knows of a horse that exceeds, or even approaches, Persian Lancer’s 5 years between victories. I hope there aren’t so many that I can’t see the wood for the trees.
Just curious.
Alan King’s Valdez didn’t win again after January 2014 until November 2019. So that’s five years and ten months, of which three years and four months were spent on the easy list after a fall at Chepstow (he was going to hack up that day- I backed him).
Another long duration one that occurs to me, though not quite as long as Valdez:
Cadogan – won 18/11/2006 over hurdles at Punchestown, next won 3/3/2012 over fences at Navan. This included approximately four years off the track.
If we are including point-to-points:
Harry Hastings – won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham on 12/3/1985, next won a point at Bogside on 18/4/1992. This included approximately six years off the track.
This isn’t quite in keeping with the original question, but I can’t imagine there are many horses who have had a longer gap between wins of the same race than Earthmover (1998 and 2004 Cheltenham Foxhunters’).
Some impressive training performances there. Getting these horses back to winning form after such long absences is astonishing.
I think point-to-points can be included.
I can’t think of a similar achievement to that of Earthmover but there’s something nagging the back of my mind on that.
Aurelius was brought up recently in a different context but the horse is also worth a mention here.
The 1961 St Leger winner took the Hardwicke Stakes in June 1962 before being packed off to stud. Lacking the desired functionality for an efficient stallion, Aurelius came back into training for a hurdles campaign. He ran well in a couple of good races including a second in the 1967 Champion Hurdle. His career came to an end in 1968 after two wins over fences.
I have no record of Aurelius actually winning a hurdle race but I’m prepared to be wrong. If he didn’t then there’s a gap between his win of June 1962 and sometime in 1968 in the range 5 years & 6 months to 6 years & 6 months.
Seasider, I remember you mentioning Aurelius. What an amazing career.
Another one along similar lines to Earthmover is Willie Wumpkins who won at the Cheltenham Festival in 1973, and then did not have his next Festival victory until 1979. This was in different races though. As I’m sure you will know, he then had three successive victories in the Coral Golden Hurdle from 1979-81.
Although that gap of over seven years for Harry Hastings is extremely long, I suspect longer will exist, especially seeing as well over a decade is possible in theory.
Marlingford,
Willie Wumpkins was out of action from spring 1973 to autumn 1977 following a heart problem.
His career statistics are 7 from 65. With 4 Festival wins to his credit I’m now wondering where and when the horse won other than at Cheltenham. There’s at least a 4½ year interval between victories and it could be more depending on where the other 3 fit in.
Another highly meritorious and very canny training performance.
@Seasider- Willie Wumpkins’ other British wins came at Southwell in April 1977 and Stratford the following February.
He won the Aldsworth (now Ballymore) Novice Hurdle in 1973 and is recorded as having run five times (placed twice) in Chasers & Hurdlers 1975/76.
As that was the first annual in Timeform’s C&H series, I cannot find anything before that but Timeform say he won seven of his sixty-five races, so we are still missing one. I’d assume it was a novice event in Ireland before his Aldsworth success.
That info on the period Willie Wumpkins was out of action doesn’t match what’s reported in the early editions of Chasers and Hurdlers in my library.
According to Timeform, he ran five times in season 1975/76 and sixteen times in season 1976/77. He won once in that period, a handicap at Southwell in April 1977. The following year he won a handicap at Stratford in February – and in that annual (1977/78) he’s described as inconsistent and has a Timeform squiggle.
Which disappears in the 1978/79 annual after he won his first Coral final!
Nice simultaneous posts there.
My source is an interview given by Jim Wilson to the Daily Mail(!) in 2007:
“He was my mother-in-law’s (Jane Pilkington) horse and won four times at the Festival. Her nephew (Irish trainer Adrian Maxwell) bought him as a young horse for £1,800 and he won at Cheltenham as a five-year-old.
“Then he had a heart problem. When he came back at the age of nine, I rode him at Cheltenham and we got murdered everywhere. I told my mother-in-law that we should train him for that race next year, and he won it three times on the run.”
Thanks for the correct information. It pays to double-check.
I’ve just learned our
Alan Potts has got his
own library – green envy
Row upon row of racy novels
I am not jealous as I have
about twenty collectible
Sherlock Holmes.
NEVER READ THEM
but a rainy day
Who Knows?
and suddenly
when I have read them
I will be able to detect
Why on God’s earth
ALAN has his own library?French steeplechaser Parika had an unbeaten run that lasted over five years, from 21 April 1994 until finally beaten on his third start since on 27 October 1999, going unraced from July 1994 to October 1998 and then again to October 1999.
Sometimes this forum makes me feel old; I remember W Wumpkins novice hurdle win; 16/1 I think.
An honourable mention for Gardefort who also had a gap of over five years between wins, both over fences (18/2/2017 – 21/4/2022).
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.