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Sorry if this has been asked before but does anyone know whether there is still a race named after Mac Vidi?
Lingfield used to have the Mac Vidi Novices Chase. Ironically Mac Vidi was put down in September 1983 just 3 years after his Gold Cup heroics when aged 15 and on the same day as the race run in his honour.
I noticed someone posted on here years ago about the VHS video of his life story. I do possess that video although I haven’t dug it out of the loft for years.
The Mac Vidi Novice Chase was run at a Lingfield meeting on the last racing Friday before Xmas. But that meeting was no longer run after 1998, when the card was switched to Folkestone.
They continued with a Mac Vidi chase in 1999, but the following year, the Daily Mail took over sponsorship of the meeting and the novice chase name was changed to ‘Daily Mail Novice Chase in Memory of Lady Harmsworth Blunt’.
The last running at Lingfield was won by the very useful chaser Marlborough. And the sole running at Folkestone was rather fittingly won by a 12-y-old mare called Nethertara, who had a long career in the southern area, winner of 13 points. They included one win in a Mens Open when she was ridden by current trainer Chris Gordon. She went on after the Folkestone win to score in a handicap at Plumpton as a 13-y-old.
Not so much amazing knowledge as material from an old article I wrote still stored along with hundreds of other pieces on a memory stick. The modern world of technology makes hoarding so much easier!
And I’m old enough to remember watching Mac Vidi win a race at Kempton in November 1979, when I was home on leave from Kuwait. That was one of the six consecutive 3M handicap chases he won that winter prior to his third place finish in the Gold Cup, aged 15.
I think I need one of those memory sticks nowadays just to get through the day!
I always wondered how a horse could improve so dramatically at such an age?
Talking of hoarding I still have the Sporting Life’s for the whole of that Cheltenham Festival meeting back in 1980. Probably in the loft with the VHS video!
Mac Vidi was before my time, but I’ve heard of his amazing Gold Cup run.
Can anyone tell me how long he continued racing for afterwards, and how did he meet his end aged 18? Had he retired by then? I know Sonny Somers was still winning races at that advanced age.
He continued racing for two more seasons after his Gold Cup run, his last race being in November 1981. But there were no more wins after his multiple successes in 1979/80.
I’ve no info on his retirement, but would assume that he remained in the care of his owner/breeder Pam Neal, who also trained him under permit for his last five seasons. She had a property on the edge of Dartmoor, where Mac Vidi was allowed out every day while she was training him.
One reason I was always interested in him, apart from that run of wins, what that his sire, Vidi Vici, was foaled in 1947, same year as me! In the detailed entry in Chasers and Hurdlers 1979/80, they allude to the age spread of the family by reporting that Vidi Vici had won a staying handicap at Goodwood in 1950, ridden by an apprentice claiming 5lbs – L Piggott.
From what I can gather his hind suspensory ligaments gradually deteriorated.
He did have a half sister who I think was also trained by Pam Neal called Boundless Grace.
Mac Vidi was nothing special after a decade of racing so his achievements in the 1979/80 season are still barely believable.
Thanks for the info apracing and Astralcharmer. What Mac Vidi achieved in 1979-80 really is mind-boggling.
Fascinating thread. I remember the old horse well. His sudden improvement at that age is a joy. My main question in racing for many many years now is the reason horses improve, away from the obvious in the young and inexperienced. Almost every NH season you get at least one who soars for a few races and then subsides again, partly due to the handicapper, no doubt.
Did Pam always train on Dartmoor? Maybe a move of location or training routine set Mac Vidi on the rise? I suspect that many horses become disenamoured with racing and or training very quickly. Sometimes, someone or something comes into their lives which lights their enthusiasm for a while. Being able to roam Dartmoor each day might well count as one of those things. Access to open fields and close company is probably another factor that makes for happy horses.
AP, just an aside. Have you tried AI? A few of the sites – ChatGPT is one – allow you to set up project folders. You can upload a ton of info to them – PDF or docx – and when you need a question answered, you simply type it in.
I wish I had time to scan all my chasers and hurdlers annuals and upload that data.
Mac Vidi was just before my time but have heard of him
The two old battlers i remember from just after that period were Jimmy Miff and Du Pluvinal who went round in the Military races at Sandown .Pam Neal was a retired Warwickshire schoolteacher so not your typical trainer. She bred a mare Jockette she bought for £100 and Mac Vidi was the result.
To quote Timeform;
‘Perhaps in this great enthusiasm, his zest for jumping and his heart for a fight, lies the clue to discovering a reason why he blossomed in the extraordinary way he did. He may well be what he is largely as a result of the individual and unconventional care given him in his last few years by his owner-breeder-trainer [Pam Neal], who has a guest house to run in addition to looking after her very useful old chaser. Mac Vidi is turned out in a field on Dartmoor for a large part of the day, by all accounts, and has probably thrived more on that than he would have done if he’d been left as one of the string of either of his former trainers.’
Jimmy Miff was such a fine staying chaser (ran 161 times!) but Aintree wasn’t his favourite place. You could always put a line through his name when looking at the list of National runners each year.
A horse like him or The Vintner would have laughed at the current day obstacles and probably would have had a decent chance of winning a modern day National.
160 odd runs , thats some effort . I remember another Jimmy going round the same time , Jimmy Chips he was called , no where near thd level of JM .
HCMW, I remember De Pluvinel (just!). He won the Royal Artillery Gold Cup as a 17 year-old at Sandown in 1990.
You might also remember the gallant grey Eastern Destiny who won a hunter chase as a 17 year-old at Nottingham in 1995. Sadly he collapsed and died after the race, though hopefully he went out doing something he enjoyed. He had plenty of other successes in his teens, and still appeared to have a zest for racing.
I’m not aware of any successes at such an extreme age since, though there might have been the odd one or two in points.
“A horse like him or The Vintner would have laughed at the current day obstacles and probably would have had a decent chance of winning a modern day National.”
Yes, I couldn’t help thinking back to their era when I read the article entitled “The World’s Biggest Horse Races” on the home page.
The description of the Grand National states it is “Run over more than four miles at Aintree, it is a brutal examination of endurance and jumping ability.”
Well, I suppose a horse still has to stay but it is not much of a jumping test nowadays.
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