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Just watching old film of the horse and firstly what a gorgeous horse he was. Secondly what a magnificent jumper of a fence. Some breathtaking leaps in amongst a few fiddles. Would loved to have watched him live. Never fell in his whole career. Must have been fantastic to ride. Dessie very similar but he wasn’t as fast at the fences as tingle creek. So deserves a race to be named after him.❤️
The definition of a specialist 2 miler – broke Sandown’s track record multiple times which would (and don’t tell the welfare brigade this) meant that he was asked to race on fast ground multiple times.
Clearly that must have had a huge negative impact on his longevity because…..oh wait er nevermind, he ran 80 times (52 in UK) in total during his career!
Pendil beat him comfortably, giving him weight, around Sandown. If Pendil had remained at 2 miles he would have been unstoppable.
TC wasn’t the best 2-miler but he was electric across a fence, and most especially down the Railway Straight at Sandown. But he was the horse that first got me addicted to 2-mile chasers as a show jumping mad kid.
Dessie was as bold in terms of where he’d take off from, but he wasn’t as fast through the air.
Pendil – if my memory serves – was somewhere between the two. Faster through the air than Des but not quite so bold (?mad) as either Des or TC in taking on a fence. The other one in this league was The Captain – Mad – Christy!
80 runs says it all about TC’s constitution and soundness. His third ‘Tingle Creek’ came when he was 12. As LD73 says, that record’s as much a comment on current levels of longevity, durability and soundness at the top level.
What I hadn’t realised until now was TC’s connections: his sire (Goose Creek) is half to none other than Milan Mill – dam of Mill Reef. Is it any wonder that he became a significant NH influence when there’s jumping like this in those lines?
Prior to the 1974 race, Pendil had won the Hermitage Chase at Newbury over 2m 4f, narrowly beating Game Spirit by half a length and conceding 4lb.
Tingle Creek had previously run on 31st August at Stratford in the Virginia Gold Cup Hanicap Chase, trouncing his three opponents. Osbaldeston was 10 lengths adrift at the line despite receiving 1st 12lb from Tingle Creek.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
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