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Number 2
SERGEANT CECIL (2001-2008) Rod Millman
Sergeant Cecil’s journey from extremely ordinary two- and three-year-old to Group One winner at the age of seven is eyecatching enough, but it’s his extraordinary 2005 season that will be long-remembered as he pulled off one of the most astonishing feats of all time.
After six unplaced runs at long odds for Seamus Mullins, Sergeant Cecil joined Rod Millman’s yard halfway through his 3yo season on a mark of 63. Millman wrought considerable improvement from him and a stack of consistent placed efforts resulted, for which he was duly punished by the handicapper, until he finally got his head in front, winning twice at Sandown in 2003.
Further improvement ensued, Sergeant Cecil continuing to run consistently and he started the 2005 campaign not obviously well treated off 94, before heading to the Northumberland Plate a couple of pounds lower. Having already been ridden by a number of high-class jockeys, Alan Munro had now become his regular pilot, a factor that Millman subsequently stated was key to the horse’s development.
Held up before coming with a smooth run to take it up inside the final furlong, Sergeant Cecil won with relative comfort ahead of the smart Tungsten Strike. In the Ebor two months later, it was a repeat performance off four pounds higher, then it seemed the handicapper had finallly caught up with him ahead of the Cesarewitch, asking him to run off 104 and shoulder 9-08st against 33 rivals. The same tactics were employed of course, there being something of an air of inevitability about Sergeant Cecil’s withering late run to nail King Revo late on. He had won the three great staying handicaps in the same season. It was a unique performance, unmatched before or since, yet his SPs in those races – 14-1, 11-1, 10-1 – showed that he was only reasonably fancied but nothing more.
Sergeant Cecil had now risen out the top of the handicap and moved to Group racing, landing a spectacular hattrick via the Lonsdale Cup, Doncaster Cup and Group One Prix du Cadran in 2006 and the Yorkshire Cup in 2017, by which time he had reached a career-high rating of 117. Finally, age seemed to catch up with him and he was correctly retired the following year after a few lacklustre performances.
What amazes me so much about Sergeant Cecil’s treble-winning year was that he’d already showed considerable improvement before then, and had seemed to find his niche as a very decent, consistent 90+ handicapper. That wouldn’t exactly strike me as being the profile of a horse about to pull off such a feat. One would perhaps look to a less-raced, more unexposed type.
For me, the Plate-Ebor-Cesarewitch treble is every bit as unlikely as winning three Grand Nationals or training the first five home in the Gold Cup. It remains an astonishing feat, one that tests not just stamina in the most competitive way, but also a horse’s very constitution. The sheer number of runners in these races, including many specifically laid out in an attempt to win them, make Segeant Cecil’s great 2005 season an absolute stand-out memory.
Mike
Salut A Toi – The Campbells were brothers. Don’t know if either are still involved with racing, although I saw an article on-line saying that Ian was a trainer for the Classic Gold ownership scam many years ago & was subsequently fined, not that it seems he was heavily involved.
Mike
Number 3
CATS EYES (1983-1988) Martin Pipe
When Make A Stand blitzed past the post in the 1997 Champion Hurdle, it was simply another reminder of Martin Pipe’s ability to wring huge improvement out of seemingly modest horses. But by that time we’d all seen similar stories a number of times before from Mr Pipe.
Even at a paltry 1000gns, Cats Eyes looked an expensive 4yo in 1983 as he showed no form whatsoever in juvenile hurdles when trained by Ian Campbell. However, he did manage to win a novices seller at Exeter the following year and moved to Pipe’s yard following a 3400gns purchase.
Cats Eyes was to win five more races that season culminating in victory under 11-10 in the novices handicap Final at Aintree three weeks after running seventh in the Supreme Novices at Cheltenham. Both runs represented an extraordinary level of improvement. In 1985/86, he only ran a handful of times, including a fine second in the Irish Sweeps Hurdle, trying to give 5lbs to Bonalma.
Now comfortable at longer distances, Cats Eyes gave several excellent performances the following season, notably winning the Spa Hurdle from Riva Rose and finishing third behind Aonoch at Ascot amongst a slew of consistent performances. Despite not looking a natural jumper, Pipe had decided that Cats Eyes could have a future over fences and the following year, he mapped out a campaign that resulted in a four wins as a novice, and ended with a superb second to Golden Minstrel in the Kim Muir at Cheltenham. Sadly, that was to be it for Cats Eyes as he never saw a racecourse again, his so-promising chasing career never getting the chance to evolve.
Martin Pipe was the inventive pioneer who truly revolutionised jumps training, adding a much-needed level of professionalism to the game and never being afraid to to run his horses frequently and place them to their best advantage. Many, many horses had their careers improved by him and any of them could have replaced Cats Eyes on this list.
But there’s something extra-special about Cats Eyes – he really was of seemingly no ability early on, yet he went from pulling-up in low-grade juvenile hurdles to performing in high-quality races over both obstacles at all the big meetings. He was the ultimate in rags-to-riches tales. We all love one of those and nobody was better at providing such alchemy than Martin Pipe.
Mike
Number 4
CASPIAN PRINCE (2011-2021) Tony Carroll, Dean Ivory, Roger Fell, Tony Coyle, Michael Appleby
There’s certain horses that you’d follow off a cliff but none has put me through the financial wringer quite as much as Caspian Prince. And yet it started so well…
The succinct greyhound racing comment “qk aw, made all” had already been applied to Caspian Prince more than once as he took his place in Epsom’s Derby Day Dash in 2016. It was a race he’d won in 2014, that victory kicking off a sustained period of improvement over the next two seasons. No race looked more appropriate for him and he duly obliged by the narrowest of margins carrying a chunk of the Betlarge millions. I had firmly placed him in my imaginary notebook to follow up on any return to Epsom’s rapid, down-dale 5f.
He turned up for the Dash again in 2017, but he’d been finding life harder in handicaps and was running off a higher mark (107) than the previous year. Added to that, he’d pulled the supposedly coffin-box draw of 1 of 19. I shrewdly left well alone as he obliged at 25-1. A couple of weeks later, he ran well to finish 4th in the Scottish Sprint Hcap at 16-1 when carrying my money and then landed a Group Two at the Curragh at 10-1 without it. The pattern had been firmly established.
In 2018 he was back for The Dash again and no way was he going unbacked this time; he weakened into 13th place. Again he went for the Scottish Sprint as his next race and as he was patently out of form I left him alone, only to watch him positively bolt up at 16-1. I backed him to win The Dash again in 2019 (he didn’t), punted him a couple more times that year (lost) and finally in an act of desperation backed him at 90-1 to win a Group One sprint at The Curragh (he lost, but actually ran really well). By 2020, I’d given up on randomly backing him, which was particularly dense, as he won another four races, including back-to-back Gosforth Park Cup wins at 28-1 and 12-1.
To be truthful, I always really enjoyed watching Caspian Prince race no matter that he gave me several head-in-hands moments. We all love front runners, but there’s something particularly thrilling about ‘bang out, make all’ horses, especially in decent-quality sprint races. He was tremendously game, uncomplicated and a high quality performer – his last win this summer was off a mark of 100 as a 12yo. I was delighted to see him retire in one piece.
However, there is a financial saying that the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent and Caspian Prince demonstrated to me that that can very much apply in racing too.
Mike
I always read that as VDQS, which is Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure. (Or plonque)
Mike
Number 5
LATALOMNE (1997-2005) Brian Ellison
There’s something absolutely comic about the way Vinnie Keane throws himself theatrically to the ground and beats the turf as his mount Latalomne capsizes when leading 2 out in the 2003 Champion Chase. However, he could be forgiven the amateur dramatics as this was an exact re-enactment of the same pair’s demise 12 months earlier. It was desperate luck.
Latalomne made a winning racecourse debut at the age of three in a Nottingham maiden for Ed Dunlop, but by the time he joined Brian Ellison as a 5yo he had only raced half a dozen times, albeit in decent company. He looked a promising recruit to jumps on his very first outing, a 6l novice hurdle win over Turgeonev in February 2000 but was still being highly-tried on the flat, running in the Lincoln and the Royal Hunt Cup that year.
Going chasing in 2001, Latalomne ran up a sequence in novices before finding the Tingle Creek too hot, meaning he went off 14-1 for his first tilt at the Champion Chase the following spring. He seemed to have the winner Flagship Uberalles cooked when falling two out, but who knows? It was certainly the best form he’d shown over fences to date.
Well-beaten at Aintree soon after, Latalomne seemed to have lost his form altogether when trailing in miles behind Edredon Bleu in the Haldon Gold Cup in November. Following a couple of pre-Christmas outings over hurdles he unsurprisingly went off at 25-1 for the 2003 Champion Chase and was certainly going well enough when buckling at the same fence as the previous year. The winner Moscow Flyer was also travelling well at that stage however, and it should be noted that Martin Pipe’s Seebald was still upsides when falling independently at the same fence.
Latalomne was something of a mystery. He never showed anything like the top-class form he displayed in those Champion Chase runs, including being well beaten in other races at that course. He returned to a mix of runs over flat, hurdles and chases until his retirement in 2005, being trained briefly by Martin Pipe and then Noel Wilson, for whom he turned up at 25-1 in a ladies amateur race at Redcar!
Latalomne makes my (Alternative) Top Ten list because racing’s such a bummer at times. No sport holds itself hostage to both luck and varied opinions so much. It’s it’s frankly impossible to tell whether Latalomne would have won one, two or none of those Champion Chases, although on both occasions he would surely have been mighty close. However, both races are up on YouTube so why don’t you decide..? (And look out for Vinnie in the background!)
Mike
Cheers AP, I thought it would have something to do with race conditions changing and that looks pretty obvious in hindsight!
On further searching for Bill O’Gorman, I didn’t realise he was Newmarket’s youngest licensed trainer at the age of just 21 in 1969 and he actually got his Flat jockeys licence some years later, which certainly seems the wrong way round!
Just to add to his list of well-known 2yo sprinters – Brondesbury in 1982, Superpower in 1988 and Macs Imp in 1990 were all multiple race winners and at a higher level than Provideo and Timeless Times. O’Gorman also trained the 33-1 1983 King’s Stand winner Sayf El Arab who was then a 3yo.
Mike
Number 6
PROVIDEO (1984-1985) and TIMELESS TIMES (1990-1991) Bill O’Gorman
In 1975, Barry Hills’ filly Nagwa set a modern-day record for 2yo wins with 13 from her 20 races. Five years later, Sir Mark Prescott’s Spindrifter equalled that in one less run. However, back in the 19th Century, a colt called The Bard had won no less than 16 races, which looked impossible to match until along came Bill O’Gorrman…and did it twice!
Provideo was speed-bred by the smart sprinter Godswalk and banged out the gates winning the Brocklesby, before landing a host of minor events throughout the mid-season. As the year progressed, he was tried in better company, winning the Star Stakes at Sandown and the Ripon 2yo Trophy. He also ran well in defeat in Listed company, notably behind Petoski in the Champagne Stakes over 7f at Goodwood.
Timeless Times was a fairly cheap yearling purchase who enjoyed a really prolific start of the 1990 season. By early July, he’d already won 14 races, all of them modest stakes affairs, and looked a certainty to pass Provideo’s modern-day record. However, he was only to run another six times and added a couple more wins including the Timeform Futurity at Pontefract. Appropriately, both Timeless Times and Provideo won Pontefract’s Spindrifter Stakes, named after the Prescott horse.
The final tally shows Provideo winning 16 of his 23 2yo races, mostly with Tony Ives up, and Timeless Times 16 of 21, under Alan Munro.
In strict form terms, Provideo was probably better than Timeless Times by a few pounds although neither were in the same street as the leading 2yos from their respective seasons. Bill O’Gorman had a fine reputation for handling older sprinters, I remember African Chimes winning multiple times in the early 90s with his daughter Emma up, but he began to fall out of favour, perhaps being stereotyped as a precocious-style sprint trainer only. By his own admission, he was also a bit too frank with owners at times! I understand he retired in the late 90s but would be interested to hear if he’s still involved in racing.
Indeed, the whole business of winning lots of races as a 2yo now seems distinctly out of fashion. I can only presume that the modern calendar or race conditions mitigate against it (Anybody know why that should be? There seems to be a preponderance of nursery handicaps nowadays, which can’t help). And there maybe a welfare angle as well, with trainers less keen to be seen racing young horses ‘excessively’. It should be noted that both Provideo and Timeless Times only showed modest form at three and both were packed off to stud soon after, Timeless Times proving quite successful.
I doubt if we’ll ever see the likes of these two again therefore, so they could be in the record books for a long old time. I remember when Provideo was running every week, the publicity surrounding him was huge, making the national TV & press. It speaks loudly of racing’s media footprint back in those days. By the time Timeless Times was running, there was far less coverage and in the unlikely event that such a feat should re-occur nowadays, I should think BBC Sport would report it somewhere below Cristiano Ronaldo’s favourite cheese.
Mike
Number 7
SULUK (1988 – 1993) Reg Hollinshead
All-Weather Jumping was an ill-fated experiment that lasted from late 1989 until February 1994. When War Beat became the 13th fatality over AW obstacles that year, the BHB immediately paused it and it never resumed.
However, one man’s meat and all that…Suluk’s 26 victories (18 over jumps, 8 on the flat) netted his connections a mathematically-neat sum of £52k, which says plenty about UK prizemoney but also how perfectly such a fairly moderate horse was placed. This was largely down to his penchant for running in modest AW hurdles, especially around Southwell where he twice ran up winning sequences in 1990 and 1993.
Ironically, Suluk was injured as an 8yo in his final race in August 1993, failing to get the better of the also prolific, splendidly-named Hiram B Birdbath. Surprisingly, he was still an entire and he enjoyed a very modest career at stud soon after.
Training locally to both Southwell and Wolverhampton, Reg Hollinshead had been an early-adopter to AW racing and knew the time of day when it came to placing his horses, as many bookmakers throughout his seemingly-eternal career would no doubt attest. However, it would be fair to say that not everyone was on-board with AW jumping – fields could be small and uncompetitive (Suluk himself was often sent off at odds-on) and punters never seemed to be fully behind the idea. There was little mourning when it was abandoned.
In recent times, there have been whispers about a potential revival for such racing, supporters of the idea convinced that the surfaces nowadays are vastly improved from when it was last tried, which to be fair was at the very start of AW racing in this country. They may have a point, but the last thing racing needs is any more self-inflicted PR wounds so I’d be surprised if such an idea ever really gets off the drawing board.
Suluk was never a champion and never threatened to become one. But in his own quiet way, he was a revolutionary, carving a slightly heroic niche for himself in an almost-forgotten and rather unloved area of jumps racing. He showed that with plenty of heart and a degree of specialisation any horse with some ability can become a winner – which is ultimately what the game is all about. For that at least, he deserves to be remembered.
Mike
did the half-hour delay affect the others’ performance? Doesn’t account for the good time, of course
I wondered if it helped, but having watched the race no end of times in recent years, I don’t buy the idea that somehow everything else ran miles below form. It’s just a fantastic performance – incredible visual turn of foot around 2f out after a sustained pace attack. Couldn’t believe my eyes!
Mike
I remember Turbo Linn, who did it the other way round – started off by winning five bumpers then ended up a Group 2 winner on the Flat!
Mike
Number 8
HOMECOMING QUEEN (2011-2012) Aiden O’Brien
Most high-quality horses are remembered for a number of very good performances. However, a rare few manage just one top-class outing, seemingly from out of the blue. Homecoming Queen is most definitely in the latter category, her extraordinary win in the 2012 1000 Guineas being something that looked extremely unlikely prior to that race and even more inexplicable subsequently.
Homecoming Queen’s 2yo career had been steady enough with a nursery and listed fillies’ to her name and she seemed thoroughly exposed after eleven runs in the year, ending with a tailed-off last at the Breeders Cup. Well beaten on reappearance, she scrambled home in a Leopardstown classic trial and started at Newmarket as a 25-1 shot which seemed about right. As an habitual front-runner, she bounded out in an attempt to make all. Only this time, they never saw which way she went.
Seemingly quickening repeatedly throughout the race she passed the post 9l clear of the subsequently high-quality runner-up Starscope, trashing multiple group one winners Maybe and The Fugue back in third & fourth. The form looked bombproof and the time – a full two seconds faster than dual Derby winner Camelot’s effort on the same ground the previous day – only underlined this.
The Observer’s Richard Baerlein once advised his readers that “now was the time to bet like men” in relation to Shergar’s participation in the 1981 Derby and I took this belatedly to heart for Homecoming Queen’s next run, in the Irish 1000 three weeks later. I made her a three’s-on-shot to follow up yet she was available at a ridiculously generous 6/4 prior to the race, which in hindsight should have set some alarm bells ringing! However, value is value and I saw this as a straightforward “point & shoot” for her pilot Joseph O’Brien against what looked like a far more modest set of opponents than she’d disposed of at Newmarket.
Homecoming Queen never picked up at all when challenged and finished fourth, before heading to Ascot for the Coronation Stakes where she was out the back, more than 13l behind Starscope – who she’d slammed at Newmarket. She was favourite on both starts. It was all utterly bemusing and despite some predictable excuses from her camp, she was soon bundled off to an unimpressive broodmare career, presumably before any more reputational damage could accrue.
Homecoming Queen will forever be a horse that ran one exceptional race and as a consequence, I doubt if she’ll be much talked about in the future. After 30 years in the gambling business the Curragh race made me re-learn that the hard way that there’s no such thing as a certainty, although at the odds available, I’d be more than happy to strike exactly the same bet today.
Mike
Oh dear, poor old Vodkatini getting the ‘cheers’ of the crowd..!
Great video that AP, so much to like. Especially good to see Taffy Jones who won endless small races over his long season career but was a bit out of depth here. Also impressed by the way the racecourse announcer repeatedly manages to balls-up the result of this 5-runner race at the end!
Mike
I was at Sandown the day Vodkatini declined to take part in the Tingle Creek – he got almost as big a cheer from the crowd as he cantered back past the stands, as Desert Orchid did when he won the race
Great stuff AP!
Mike
Drone
Wisley Wonder would definitely be one for the rogues gallery. However, you’ll be dismayed to know that most of the remaining 8 horses actually managed to get to the end of a race or two!
Mike
Cheers Marlingford, I wasn’t aware of that. Door Latch was another of Gifford’s, also very smart. In that PtP, they would have been racing at 16yo & 17yo respectively after having not set foot on a racecourse for years. Frankly, pretty unbeleivable and unacceptable.
Mike
Number 9
VODKATINI (1982-1992) Peter Haynes, Josh Gifford
Vodkatini could well be described as Alex Higgins in equine form. Like the mercurial Ulsterman, when he was good, he could be very good indeed, but when he didn’t fancy it…
The signs were there from the start, Vodkatini running out on his hurdling debut in 1982 yet showing decent winning form albeit pulling like crazy on most occasions. He seemed to go sour over the next couple of seasons, but a change of stables from Peter Haynes to Josh Gifford worked wonders with five wins in 1987/8 (in one of which he whipped round at the start) including the Grand Annual.
The following season, he went off favourite in the Tingle Creek (then a handicap) and duly planted himself. Yet he’d been in prime form at that time, jumping well and staying on strongly to take quality handicaps at Ascot twice and Cheltenham, and then tanking along in the King George behind Desert Orchid before running out of steam over the 3 miles to finish third. However that Cheltenham win in December 1988 was to be his last as the old rogue began to totally lose the plot…
Now operating at the highest level, he was prominent when falling in the Victor Chandler & the Champion Chase, before again disgracing himself Hamlet advert-style at the Grand National meeting and earning a warning from the stewards about future races. Vodkatini’s form over the next couple of seasons started to decline quite markedly and it began to contain more letters than numbers. Connections finally called it a day after he pulled up in a low-grade chase at now-defunct Folkestone in early 1992. He last five runs read: FUPPP
At his best Vodkatini could easily be rated in the 160s – a highly talented performer, if not quite top class, who ran some tremendous races. His bullish, headstrong temperament was probably as much a reason for all his successes as it was for his failures. He always seemed to be running with the choke out to some degree, yet he frequently went after his fences and on going days there was nothing wrong with his jumping. As a betting proposition, his antics were normally priced in, although he no doubt turned the air blue in betting shops over the years. He would prove most entertaining nowadays with bookmakers offering all sorts of refunds.
Before joining Peter Haynes, Vodkatini had been an unraced cast-off from Nicky Henderson, but it was Josh Gifford who got the very best out of him, albeit that I don’t think he or anyone else ever truly understood the horse. There’s a story that out of desperation to get him to jump off, Gifford once chased him around at the start whilst shaking a Coke can full of pebbles. I mean, it’s probably nonsense but don’t you just want to believe it?
Mike