Category: Big Races

Did Sea Pigeon win the Ebor Handicap?

At the time of the retirement, as a 12-year-old, in March, 1982, Sea Pigeon was described as

‘probably the best known horse after Arkle and Red Rum’. He is best remembered for winning the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 1980 and 1981, but arguably his most memorable victory came in the Ebor Handicap at York in 1979.

Saddled with top weight of 10 stone and ridden by his regular hurdles partner, Jonjo O’Neill, Sea Pigeon was sent off the longest-priced of three runners trained by Peter Easterby, at 18/1. O’Neill had actually broken three toes in his left foot the previous week, but ‘hoodwinked’ the racecourse doctor by presenting his uninjured right foot for inspection and was passed fit to ride.

In any event, Sea Pigeon – on whom, according to Easterby, ‘you couldn’t come too late’ – hit the front, travelling easily, with a furlong to run and looked like winning comfortably. However, he stopped quickly and, with O’Neill dropping his hands in the closing stages, was tackled close home by the 3-year-old Donegal Prince, to whom he was conceding 40lb. After a nailbiting wait, Sea Pigeon was called the winner, by a short head, thereby smashing the previous weight-carrying record for the Ebor Handicap.

When did Lester Piggott ride his first Royal Ascot winner?

In a riding career spanning six decades, Lester Piggott rode 4,493 winners, including 30 English Classic winners and won the Flat Jockeys’ Championship eleven times, including eight years running between 1964 and 1971. Coincidentally, eleven was also the number of times Piggott won the highlight of Royal Ascot, the historic and coveted Gold Cup, including a notable hat-trick on Sagaro in 1975, 1976 and 1977.

Piggott not only remains the most successful jockey in the history of the Gold Cup but, by the proverbial ‘country mile’, the most successful jockey in the history of Royal Ascot. Of course, at various points during his career, Piggott enjoyed profitable associations with such luminaries of the training profession as Sir Noel Murless, Vincent O’Brien and Sir Henry Cecil. Nevertheless, his astonishing record of 116 winners, achieved long before the extension of Royal Ascot to five days in 2005, is unlikely to be beaten.

Piggott rode his first Royal Ascot winner, Malka’s Boy, trained by Walter Nightingall, in the Wokingham Stakes on June 20, 1952, as a 16-year-old, making all the running to win by 3 lengths. For the record, he rode his last Royal Ascot winner, College Chapel, trained by Vincent O’Brien, in the Cork and Orrery Stakes, now the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, on June 17, 1993, at the age of 58. The ‘Long Fella’ retired for the second, and final, time two years later.

How many times has Frankie Dettori won the Derby?

The short answer is that Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori has won the Derby twice, on Authorized in 2007 and Golden Horn in 2015. However, those facts alone do not tell the full story. The likeable Italian first rode in the Derby in 1992, finishing a remote sixteenth on Pollen Count, owned by Sheikh Mohammed and trained by John Gosden. Thereafter, though, he developed a Derby ‘hoodoo’, which he would not end until 15 years later. Indeed, Dettori had won all the other English Classic races at least twice apiece before winning the Derby for the first time in 2007.

When he did so, Dettori did so in style, storming clear in the closing stages to win, impressively, by 5 lengths. Backed as if defeat was out of the question, Authorized was sent off at odds of 5/4, thereby becoming the shortest-priced winner since Shergar in 1981. However, the race was not without anxiety for favourite backers, as Dettori sat well off the pace in the early stages. Trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam said afterwards, ‘Frankie was probably a bit further back than I wanted him to be, but Authorized has got so much class.’

Dettori would not win the Derby again until 2015, by which time he had lost his retainer with Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation and been banned for six months after testing positive for cocaine while riding in France. Nevertheless, he oozed confidence on 13/8 favourite Golden Horn, trained by John Gosden, sweeping past stable companion Jack Hobbs with a furlong to run to win, comfortably, by 3½ lengths.

 

Since 2000, which was the lowest rated horse to win the King George VI Chase?

The King George VI Chase is one of seven Grade 1 staying steeplechases run in Britain – three of which are restricted to novices – but, in terms of prestige, is second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Unsurprisingly, the roll of honour reads like a Who’s Who of steeplechasing talent since World War II and features legendary names such as Arkle, Desert Orchid and Kauto Star.

Equally unsurprisingly, according to Timeform, all of the winners since the turn of the twenty-first century, so far, have been awarded a rating of 160 or more, placing them in the ‘high class’ category. In fact, all bar two of those winners were awarded a rating of 165 or more, placing them in the foremost ‘top class’ category. The two exceptions were, in fact, Thistlecrack and Might Bite, who won consecutive renewals of the King George VI Chase in 2016 and 2017 and were both rated 163 by Timeform analysts.

The 2016 renewal was run on going described as good, good to soft in places, but featured just five runners. Thistlecrack, trained by Colin Tizzard, arrived at the top of his game, having effortlessly won his first three starts over fences and, although still a novice, was sent off 11/10 favourite. He jumped well and easily drew away from the fourth-last fence to win, impressively, by 3¾ lengths, eased down. His winning time was 5 minutes and 53.50 seconds, or 0.50 seconds faster than the standard time.

The 2017 renewal was a slightly more competitive affair, featuring nine runners, although the RSA Novices’ Chase winner, Might Bite, trained by Nicky Henderson, was a strong favourite at 6/4. Might Bite had come a cropper at the final fence, when 18 lengths clear, in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, run over the same course and distance as the King George VI Chase, the previous Boxing Day, but made amends in workmanlike style. Understandably, given the prevailing soft going, his winning time was 6 minutes and 6.60 seconds, or 12.60 seconds slower than the standard time.

 

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