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Cheers AP, I thought it would have something to do with race conditions changing and that looks pretty obvious in hindsight!
On further searching for Bill O’Gorman, I didn’t realise he was Newmarket’s youngest licensed trainer at the age of just 21 in 1969 and he actually got his Flat jockeys licence some years later, which certainly seems the wrong way round!
Just to add to his list of well-known 2yo sprinters – Brondesbury in 1982, Superpower in 1988 and Macs Imp in 1990 were all multiple race winners and at a higher level than Provideo and Timeless Times. O’Gorman also trained the 33-1 1983 King’s Stand winner Sayf El Arab who was then a 3yo.
Mike
Mike,
Just to add, I did also see Timeless Times when he won at Salisbury, which was probably his best piece of form, as he beat a Guy Harwood colt called Polish Patriot. That one went on to win the Cork and Orrery and the July Cup as a 3-y-old.
AP
Number 5
LATALOMNE (1997-2005) Brian Ellison
There’s something absolutely comic about the way Vinnie Keane throws himself theatrically to the ground and beats the turf as his mount Latalomne capsizes when leading 2 out in the 2003 Champion Chase. However, he could be forgiven the amateur dramatics as this was an exact re-enactment of the same pair’s demise 12 months earlier. It was desperate luck.
Latalomne made a winning racecourse debut at the age of three in a Nottingham maiden for Ed Dunlop, but by the time he joined Brian Ellison as a 5yo he had only raced half a dozen times, albeit in decent company. He looked a promising recruit to jumps on his very first outing, a 6l novice hurdle win over Turgeonev in February 2000 but was still being highly-tried on the flat, running in the Lincoln and the Royal Hunt Cup that year.
Going chasing in 2001, Latalomne ran up a sequence in novices before finding the Tingle Creek too hot, meaning he went off 14-1 for his first tilt at the Champion Chase the following spring. He seemed to have the winner Flagship Uberalles cooked when falling two out, but who knows? It was certainly the best form he’d shown over fences to date.
Well-beaten at Aintree soon after, Latalomne seemed to have lost his form altogether when trailing in miles behind Edredon Bleu in the Haldon Gold Cup in November. Following a couple of pre-Christmas outings over hurdles he unsurprisingly went off at 25-1 for the 2003 Champion Chase and was certainly going well enough when buckling at the same fence as the previous year. The winner Moscow Flyer was also travelling well at that stage however, and it should be noted that Martin Pipe’s Seebald was still upsides when falling independently at the same fence.
Latalomne was something of a mystery. He never showed anything like the top-class form he displayed in those Champion Chase runs, including being well beaten in other races at that course. He returned to a mix of runs over flat, hurdles and chases until his retirement in 2005, being trained briefly by Martin Pipe and then Noel Wilson, for whom he turned up at 25-1 in a ladies amateur race at Redcar!
Latalomne makes my (Alternative) Top Ten list because racing’s such a bummer at times. No sport holds itself hostage to both luck and varied opinions so much. It’s it’s frankly impossible to tell whether Latalomne would have won one, two or none of those Champion Chases, although on both occasions he would surely have been mighty close. However, both races are up on YouTube so why don’t you decide..? (And look out for Vinnie in the background!)
Mike
Really enjoying these, Mike; plenty of old favourites being brought back to life through your excellent posts.
As a side note, I really wish Cheltenham moved the second last fence on the Old Course back to where it was in Latalomne’s day. Often used to be the pivotal point in races; I remember David Nicholson’s good mare Shamana tipping up there in the Arkle just as I looked about to collect at 14-1 in 1992.
Number 4
CASPIAN PRINCE (2011-2021) Tony Carroll, Dean Ivory, Roger Fell, Tony Coyle, Michael Appleby
There’s certain horses that you’d follow off a cliff but none has put me through the financial wringer quite as much as Caspian Prince. And yet it started so well…
The succinct greyhound racing comment “qk aw, made all” had already been applied to Caspian Prince more than once as he took his place in Epsom’s Derby Day Dash in 2016. It was a race he’d won in 2014, that victory kicking off a sustained period of improvement over the next two seasons. No race looked more appropriate for him and he duly obliged by the narrowest of margins carrying a chunk of the Betlarge millions. I had firmly placed him in my imaginary notebook to follow up on any return to Epsom’s rapid, down-dale 5f.
He turned up for the Dash again in 2017, but he’d been finding life harder in handicaps and was running off a higher mark (107) than the previous year. Added to that, he’d pulled the supposedly coffin-box draw of 1 of 19. I shrewdly left well alone as he obliged at 25-1. A couple of weeks later, he ran well to finish 4th in the Scottish Sprint Hcap at 16-1 when carrying my money and then landed a Group Two at the Curragh at 10-1 without it. The pattern had been firmly established.
In 2018 he was back for The Dash again and no way was he going unbacked this time; he weakened into 13th place. Again he went for the Scottish Sprint as his next race and as he was patently out of form I left him alone, only to watch him positively bolt up at 16-1. I backed him to win The Dash again in 2019 (he didn’t), punted him a couple more times that year (lost) and finally in an act of desperation backed him at 90-1 to win a Group One sprint at The Curragh (he lost, but actually ran really well). By 2020, I’d given up on randomly backing him, which was particularly dense, as he won another four races, including back-to-back Gosforth Park Cup wins at 28-1 and 12-1.
To be truthful, I always really enjoyed watching Caspian Prince race no matter that he gave me several head-in-hands moments. We all love front runners, but there’s something particularly thrilling about ‘bang out, make all’ horses, especially in decent-quality sprint races. He was tremendously game, uncomplicated and a high quality performer – his last win this summer was off a mark of 100 as a 12yo. I was delighted to see him retire in one piece.
However, there is a financial saying that the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent and Caspian Prince demonstrated to me that that can very much apply in racing too.
Mike
All those trainers, but only one owner throughout! Tony Carroll buys the horse for a ridiculously cheap 20,000 euros at an Araqana sale in France, wins about £200k in prize money with it in 18 months and ends up having the horse removed from his yard.
Number 3
CATS EYES (1983-1988) Martin Pipe
When Make A Stand blitzed past the post in the 1997 Champion Hurdle, it was simply another reminder of Martin Pipe’s ability to wring huge improvement out of seemingly modest horses. But by that time we’d all seen similar stories a number of times before from Mr Pipe.
Even at a paltry 1000gns, Cats Eyes looked an expensive 4yo in 1983 as he showed no form whatsoever in juvenile hurdles when trained by Ian Campbell. However, he did manage to win a novices seller at Exeter the following year and moved to Pipe’s yard following a 3400gns purchase.
Cats Eyes was to win five more races that season culminating in victory under 11-10 in the novices handicap Final at Aintree three weeks after running seventh in the Supreme Novices at Cheltenham. Both runs represented an extraordinary level of improvement. In 1985/86, he only ran a handful of times, including a fine second in the Irish Sweeps Hurdle, trying to give 5lbs to Bonalma.
Now comfortable at longer distances, Cats Eyes gave several excellent performances the following season, notably winning the Spa Hurdle from Riva Rose and finishing third behind Aonoch at Ascot amongst a slew of consistent performances. Despite not looking a natural jumper, Pipe had decided that Cats Eyes could have a future over fences and the following year, he mapped out a campaign that resulted in a four wins as a novice, and ended with a superb second to Golden Minstrel in the Kim Muir at Cheltenham. Sadly, that was to be it for Cats Eyes as he never saw a racecourse again, his so-promising chasing career never getting the chance to evolve.
Martin Pipe was the inventive pioneer who truly revolutionised jumps training, adding a much-needed level of professionalism to the game and never being afraid to to run his horses frequently and place them to their best advantage. Many, many horses had their careers improved by him and any of them could have replaced Cats Eyes on this list.
But there’s something extra-special about Cats Eyes – he really was of seemingly no ability early on, yet he went from pulling-up in low-grade juvenile hurdles to performing in high-quality races over both obstacles at all the big meetings. He was the ultimate in rags-to-riches tales. We all love one of those and nobody was better at providing such alchemy than Martin Pipe.
Mike
Excellent stuff, I love all the little details that come out of these posts. For example I’d forgotten all about Ian Campbell – he landed the odd touch now and again didn’t he with Ross riding. Was that his brother or his son?
Salut A Toi – The Campbells were brothers. Don’t know if either are still involved with racing, although I saw an article on-line saying that Ian was a trainer for the Classic Gold ownership scam many years ago & was subsequently fined, not that it seems he was heavily involved.
Mike
Number 2
SERGEANT CECIL (2001-2008) Rod Millman
Sergeant Cecil’s journey from extremely ordinary two- and three-year-old to Group One winner at the age of seven is eyecatching enough, but it’s his extraordinary 2005 season that will be long-remembered as he pulled off one of the most astonishing feats of all time.
After six unplaced runs at long odds for Seamus Mullins, Sergeant Cecil joined Rod Millman’s yard halfway through his 3yo season on a mark of 63. Millman wrought considerable improvement from him and a stack of consistent placed efforts resulted, for which he was duly punished by the handicapper, until he finally got his head in front, winning twice at Sandown in 2003.
Further improvement ensued, Sergeant Cecil continuing to run consistently and he started the 2005 campaign not obviously well treated off 94, before heading to the Northumberland Plate a couple of pounds lower. Having already been ridden by a number of high-class jockeys, Alan Munro had now become his regular pilot, a factor that Millman subsequently stated was key to the horse’s development.
Held up before coming with a smooth run to take it up inside the final furlong, Sergeant Cecil won with relative comfort ahead of the smart Tungsten Strike. In the Ebor two months later, it was a repeat performance off four pounds higher, then it seemed the handicapper had finallly caught up with him ahead of the Cesarewitch, asking him to run off 104 and shoulder 9-08st against 33 rivals. The same tactics were employed of course, there being something of an air of inevitability about Sergeant Cecil’s withering late run to nail King Revo late on. He had won the three great staying handicaps in the same season. It was a unique performance, unmatched before or since, yet his SPs in those races – 14-1, 11-1, 10-1 – showed that he was only reasonably fancied but nothing more.
Sergeant Cecil had now risen out the top of the handicap and moved to Group racing, landing a spectacular hattrick via the Lonsdale Cup, Doncaster Cup and Group One Prix du Cadran in 2006 and the Yorkshire Cup in 2017, by which time he had reached a career-high rating of 117. Finally, age seemed to catch up with him and he was correctly retired the following year after a few lacklustre performances.
What amazes me so much about Sergeant Cecil’s treble-winning year was that he’d already showed considerable improvement before then, and had seemed to find his niche as a very decent, consistent 90+ handicapper. That wouldn’t exactly strike me as being the profile of a horse about to pull off such a feat. One would perhaps look to a less-raced, more unexposed type.
For me, the Plate-Ebor-Cesarewitch treble is every bit as unlikely as winning three Grand Nationals or training the first five home in the Gold Cup. It remains an astonishing feat, one that tests not just stamina in the most competitive way, but also a horse’s very constitution. The sheer number of runners in these races, including many specifically laid out in an attempt to win them, make Segeant Cecil’s great 2005 season an absolute stand-out memory.
Mike
Sergeant Cecil is one of my favourites as well. I backed him when he won one of those Sandown handicaps in 2003. I always kept an eye on him after that and backed him when he won the Northumberland Plate.
I doubt that treble will ever be repeated. The Ebor is a very different race now.
St. Athans Lad who won 12 races at Fontwell including seven on the trot there, is a shocking omission.
St. Athans Lad who won 12 races at Fontwell including seven on the trot there, is a shocking omission.
Still one left, Ruby…
Mike
Mike,
Sergeant Cecil would also make top ten list from me – but it would be the ten horses I gave up on!
On the afternoon he won the Northumberland Plate, I was distracted by the fact that my recently acquired horse, Salute, was running in a £20k race at Windsor. So far as I can remember, I hadn’t even looked at the other meetings and it was only when I was watching the Plate on the big screen at Windsor that hearing the name Sergeant Cecil made me regret that lack of attention.
He’d become a horse to follow for me after he finished second in the Old Borough Cup at Haydock in early September, 2004. I’d backed him twice later that month (Doncaster, 2nd – Ascot, 3rd), and again at Newbury in May, 2005 – another second. I’d passed on a couple of runs at Epsom in 2005 because I was convinced the course wouldn’t suit him.
I did have the consolation of Salute winning forty minutes after the Plate was run, which banished all thoughts of the bet I might have made on an ordinary day. The only thing about the day that rankled was the fact that Sergeant Cecil beat 19 other runners and won £104k and got raised 4lbs by the handicapper, whereas Salute beat 7 other runners, won £12k and got put up 8lbs!
AP,
I presume from Salute’s form, you’d just purchased him? They were clearly handicapping the owner by then!
It was one of the more remarkable things about Sergeant Cecil, that he looked handicapped (to my eyes anyway) up to the ounce by the start of 2005. If such a treble was to be achieved, you’d think of some Prescott youngster that had run a couple of times over 10f and was in the Plate off 7st 10lbs. And yet he improved enough to win all three and even more the next season!
Of course, the Plate, Ebor, Ces treble looks nigh on impossible nowadays, with the Newcastle leg run on AW and the York race’s prize-money bump making it even more competitive.
Mike
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