- This topic has 41 replies, 25 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Posts
I thought when I saw him before the race what a great beast he looked but kept with my £5 win bet with him, thinking UDS only prob had to stand up to win. Bet with the heart it certainly wasn’t but the win certainly tugged at my heartstrings
This is why racing can sometimes steal the hearts of millions. A truly wonderful moment in National Hunt history. Well done to everyone involved. Do we expect to see him on a racecourse again?
That slip on the final bend was a worry but one thing that struck me was how fantastic he looked in the unsaddling enclosure after the race, he didn’t look like he’d had a race.
Marlingford;I felt the same about SS but yesterday had me in bits. Somehow his connection with Nico took him above the ‘posh owners buy posh horse and win posh races’ status. Nico is so emotionally involved with the horse; so unusual for a work rider to then go on and win races on his charge. Makes it into a ‘National velvet’ type story in my eyes.
Wonderful pictures, Nathan. The horse looked so well in his coat – very close to what he did in his pomp – that alone gave plenty hope to supporters and all his fans.
One of the most magical moments of my life. My throat is red raw from screaming him home. Cried, laughed, cheered. it had it all. The KING IS BACK ON HIS THRONE.
MEGABEAST
That is all.
BlueSky @pghenn.bsky.social
So don't run, just like the others always do
I was one of those doubting Thomases who said that Sprinter Sacre wouldn’t return to the
glories of old .How wrong was I .
It just proves the old adage that form is temporary , class is permanent .
A remarkable training training feat from Nicky Henderson and his team and a truly wonderful performance from a great horse .
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Sprinter Sacre awsome!
Shame Mullins bottled out of taking him on with Douvan.Value Is EverythingHorse of the century, so far. You never know how much of a part the trainer has played in things like this, but Nicky’s had plenty brickbats, so deserves plaudits here
No retirement for SS according to Henderson. And why should they. He’s only 10 and had over a year off the track, so hopefully his legs should be fairly fresh. Seems to have totally got over the heart problems
Was away on Saturday, so recorded Sandown. Just catching up with it now. Before the race, C4 had a small feature on SS winning the Champions Chase. They showed from three-out, set to the song ‘Impossible Dream’. Watching him glide past Un De Sceaux between three and two out, then fly over the second-last – brings a tear to the eye. Amazing.
My favourite sporting moment of the year my a long way.
My wallet shed a tear or two that day Quelle Farce.
Considering all the retirement talk the previous season, it is a real story.
Should make a good film one day.Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
I have been a passionate NH fan for nigh on 50 years – not quite old enough to have witnessed the black and white images of Himself live, but I did see Himself in the flesh some years later at the HOYS. His presence there was quite remarkable. Arkle was regal; he was a king amongst other equines, many of them stars in their own spheres, and still he stood out, and he knew it. Rare indeed are such horses. Their qualities though are unmistakable. It is in the head and body carriage, the eye, the look, and the belief that they have in themselves. For all who saw him in his pomp, there was little doubt that Sprinter Sacre was such a horse. As he powered up the Cheltenham hill in March 2013, miles ahead of the wonderful Sizing Europe, he was, in the words of Simon Holt’s evocative commentary, ‘a steeplechaser from The Gods’. In Sprinter there was a magical combination of speed, sustained power and the jumping capacity of a stag. He was, quite simply, magnificent and unmatchable. The best two-mile chaser I have ever seen. The rest is history.
Like Arkle before him, for Sprinter Kempton at Christmas was the meeting where an equine God was reduced to a shadow of their capabilities. For some two years NH fans hung on the slender thread that Himself might return to the racecourse after his pedal bone injury. He never did. But Sprinter did return to the track. At first with a stutter, but then, two seasons on from the nadir, he has treated NH fans to a season of increasing incredulity. The Impossible Dream turned into reality: Schoer, Desert Orchid, QMCC & Celebration. Look carefully at the visual footage though. Not just at Sprinter’s performances on the track but at Sprinter before and after each race. There is a belief in this horse that gets stronger with every race, and with the applause that greets him on his return. It’s not just that he has his old aggression back. He has his confidence back as well – and the presence that comes with that. In a strange symmetry, Kempton at Christmas – as he and SDG went hammer and tongs down to the last – is, I believe, where it finally came back on the race track. Sprinter eyeballs SDG, and then out jumps him. He wins in the end a shade cosily, and looks in the winner’s enclosure just a little pleased with himself. At Cheltenham in March, on that unforgettable day, as he powers towards the home turn, he does the same to UDS, whose head turns as he comes alongside as if to say ‘WTF?!’ But it is at Sandown in the spring sunshine, at the Pond Fence, as he once more went upsides UDS (and caused that horse to attempt to jump with him) that NH fans were finally treated to something else. The return not just of Sprinter but of the old Sprinter. Forget what the official ratings might say, I have been watching NH racing long enough to know that that was a 180+ performance.
The old adage ‘they never come back’ is increasingly being challenged. What PN achieved a few years ago with Denman (another to suffer from an arrhythmic heart) in winning a second Hennessy was little short of remarkable at the time. But Sprinter’s return has been something else. This is because it has been the return of a two-mile chaser – the division where speed, power and jumping ability is at an absolute premium and where returns, correspondingly, are that much harder. ‘Happy holidays’ Sprinter – you, NJH, Salwar & Nico have given us days to remember all our lives.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.