- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Posts
The Horse That Launched Four Thousand Winners.
It was in October 1980 that Martin Pipe acquired the horse that was to make his name much more widely known, Baron Blakeney. Timeform states that he was bought for 7,800 gns at Newmarket sales, but another source I’ve read says that the horse was moved to Pipe after failing to make his reserve at Newmarket. Either way, he joined the assorted collection of selling hurdlers on the family farm, with a juvenile hurdle campaign as the plan.
Baron Blakeney, a son of the eponymous Derby winner and out of a dam that was a half sister to the top class stayer Grey Baron, seemed an unlikely candidate for early two year old races over 5F. But trainer Bill Marshall obviously disagreed and the Baron provided his owners with some big days out in his first four starts. Not that he showed much himself, but runs at Sandown on Whitbread Gold Cup day, Newmarket on 2000 Guineas day, Epsom on Coronation Cup day and Royal Ascot on Gold Cup day, sound like a decent social calendar!
That stamina would be his strong point became evident later that season, as he ended up running in maidens over 1M 2F at Haydock (4th) and Nottingham (2nd), the latter on the softest ground he encountered that year. Out early as a 3-y-old, he confirmed that promise with a win at Leicester over 1M 4F in the first week of the season, again relishing very soft ground. But the rest of that season was disappointing and tailed off with the Baron showing nothing when fitted with blinkers in his final start. Hence to the sales, and on to the Pipe stable.
He began over hurdles at Exeter on New Years Day, 1981, finishing an encouraging second on soft ground. That was followed by defeat in a better race at Sandown, where he finished out of the frame on good ground, a performance that seemed to establish his limitations at two miles. I was present when he broke his duck at Wincanton in Div2 of the Mere Maiden Hurdle on Kingwell Hurdle day, staying on strongly from between the last two hurdles to win by eight lengths at 7/1. He was out again just six days later, taking on older horses in a novice hurdle at Worcester over 2M on heavy ground. He carried the penalty to another comfortable success, returned at 9/4.
So to Cheltenham, where in a field of 29, the Baron was unsurprisingly sent off at 66/1. You can find the film of this race on Youtube and see that he needed every yard of the 2M 1F on heavy ground to catch and pass the favourite Broadsword close home. I don’t have figures to prove the point, but I suspect the first prize of £15,100 exceeded the total money won by Pipe in any previous season. Broadsword took his revenge when the pair met again at Aintree, where a 7lb penalty (he gave 4lbs to Broadsword), better ground and the sharper track all worked in favour of the winner.
Pipe then switched Baron Blakeney to the flat, running fourth in the Queen’s Prize at Kempton, winning the Great Metropolitan Handicap at Epsom five days later (ridden by Cauthen, 3/1 fav) and ending with an unplaced run in the Chester Cup. That completed a sequence of seven races in ten weeks and the Baron had earned a break. Worth noting here that unusually, he’d won the three hurdle races as an entire colt, and that he was in fact never gelded,
Returned to hurdling in the 1981/82 season, he had a difficult time, as so many Triumph Hurdle winners did in those days. Taking on the best older hurdlers at distances from 2M to 2M 5F, often at level weights, proved beyond him, and old rival Broadsword had the beating of him when they met, as did previous Triumph Hurdle winners, Pollardstown and Heighlin.
But things took a turn for the better in the spring, and a full campaign on the flat produced one victory, as well as second places in the Ascot Stakes and the Goodwood Stakes. He even took on the mighty Ardross in the Doncaster Cup, not disgraced in finishing fourth. The win came shortly before Ascot in the Syd Mercer Memorial Handicap at Warwick, run over just short of 2M 3F. That was a race that had been won by David Elsworth in the previous two years, and the Baron’s name was inscribed on the trophy below those of Heighlin and Rising Fast. You all remember the former, and I remember the latter, because he ran in my colours.
By the end of the 1982 flat season, Baron Blakeney was established as a decent dual purpose performer, capable in long distance handicaps on the flat and and a useful, but difficult to place, hurdler. The 1982/83 NH season was another disappointing campaign, rescued only in mid May by a win in an amateur riders hurdle at Newton Abbot, a race over 3m 2f on heavy ground – an earlier meeting that month had been called off due to a waterlogged track.
The 1983 flat season was equally poor, six runs at 2M+ without troubling the judge, by the end of which, Timeform downgraded his description to ‘poor handicapper’ and declined to offer a rating. What followed has to go down as one of the greatest transformations in racing history, although it’s something that I suspect very few people remember. The Baron is forever linked with his success in the Triumph Hurdle, but the conversion of this small entire horse into a top class staying novice chaser must rank with anything ever achieved by Martin Pipe.
A long, dry autumn delayed his first chase appearance until Dec 30th at Taunton. To put it politely, the 3M 1F novice event for amateur riders, was a poor contest, and his task was made easier when the favourite failed to complete, leaving the Baron to beat two 50/1 shots. The race also featured one of the most unlikely trainer/jockey combinations I ever saw, with Mr Oliver Sherwood taking the ride here. Further wins followed at Fontwell (Feb 6th) and Newton Abbot (Feb 14th), both over 3M 2F, both ridden by his usual jockey, Paul Leach.
Then he was sent to Hereford on Saturday March 3rd, for a 2M 4F novice chase. That trip on good to soft ground, combined with a 10lb penalty proved too much for him, but his second place owed much to the fact that he ran into a 7lb claiming amateur who rode four winners at Hereford that afternoon – Mr R Dunwoody. This run was also intended as a final prep for the Sun Alliance, but he sustained a knock that kept him out of Cheltenham. Perhaps that was beneficial, as his finest hour was yet to come.
Baron Blakeney lined up for the 3M 1F novice chase at Aintree as a 14/1 shot, facing a future Gold Cup winner, Forgive N’ Forget, a future National winner, West Tip and the second and fourth from the MIldmay of Flete, Donegal Prince and Captain Dynamo. Forgive N’ Forget had been second in the Sun Alliance and started 6/5 favourite under Mark Dwyer. West Tip had only managed 7th in that race under an amateur, but had the advantage here of John Francome. The Baron however was reunited with Oliver Sherwood – I believe Paul Leach was injured and he’d also missed the Hereford race.
Rather than me describing what happened, see it for yourself:
Watching that little grey horse jumping alongside West Tip, is like seeing members of two entirely different breeds of horse. That would have been a great way to end his racing career, but the temptation of taking advantage of a lenient handicap mark in the Midland National was too great. Just nine days after Aintree, he carried an 8lb penalty under Sherwood (West Tip also ran, ridden for the first time by Dunwoody). After making most of the running, he faded from three out to finish fourth.
Baron Blakney was retired to stud and produced his share of minor jump winners, the best of them being the ten time scorer, High Baron, whose successes for Robert Alner included the Feltham Novice Chase at Kempton. The Baron was one of a number of tough dual purpose horses that were a feature of racing in the 70’s and 80’s. But the changes we’ve seen to the racing program, the fact that lower rated horses can’t get into the big staying handicaps any more, make it almost impossible for any horse nowadays to have his sort of career.
Try naming the last horse you remember that started racing as a two year old in April, went on to the Triumph Hurdle, ran in the Chester Cup, at Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood, the Doncaster Cup and ended up winning a Grade 1 staying novice chase. And still had the equipment necessary for a career at stud!
- Total Posts 2553
A good read that, AP, cheers
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.