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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.
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