John Trotwood Moore, one-time State Librarian of Tennessee, was a racist and defender of the Ku Klux Klan. But in the saying for which he is best remembered he did get one thing right: ‘Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilisation we will find the hoofprint of the horse alongside it.’
I was reminded of his words because of those used by trainer Christian Williams after his Kitty’s Light had won a famous victory in last Saturday’s bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown Park. Christian is not only an outstanding trainer of staying chasers, he is also the father of a little girl called Betsy who was recently diagnosed with leukaemia. In his distinctive Welsh baritone he declared: ‘We’re lucky to be involved in racing given what we’re going through. We can still have enjoyment through the dark days. When horses see children, they are like different animals. When we walk in tomorrow morning and Kitty’s Light sees us in his field, he’ll neigh and come running over to the family. They are such special animals.’
The inappropriately named L’Escargot has never been given due recognition for his achievements
Kitty’s Light, whom they have had since he was a yearling, is a lot more special than most. Technically, the son of Nathaniel is too small to be doing the job he does. He is not the best jumper of fences around and he takes time to warm up in his races for regular partner Jack Tudor. I have admired him nevertheless since the day he ran in the Badger Beers Silver Trophy Chase at Wincanton on 7 November 2020 as a mere four-year-old. Twenty lengths down, when baulked by a faller at the third last, he finished like a train to snatch what had looked like an impossible third place. I had him in my Spectator Twelve to Follow that season when he was the unluckiest loser of the year: in the bet365 Chase he was interfered with by a horse who was later disqualified and so finished second in a race in which he was the moral victor.
Unusually, I kept him in the Twelve for a second winter during which he finished second in the Scottish Grand National and third in the bet365. Reckoning Spectator readers would have got the point, I didn’t list him again this winter in which his performance has been truly sensational. Kitty’s Light first won the four-mile Eider Chase at Newcastle. Then he won the Scottish Grand National and just a week later completed a remarkable hat trick by winning this year’s bet365 Gold Cup. With such a short interval between the races, only one horse, Hot Weld in 2007, has ever before completed the Scottish National/bet365 double and it is a huge tribute to his trainer and rider as well as to the horse’s remarkable constitution. Kitty’s Light had already had six races before the Eider and in the last three triumphs alone he galloped a total of 14 miles while jumping 77 fences. Surely the horse of the year.
And how about this winter’s Twelve? Good news there, too. They ran between them on 39 occasions and assuming a £10 win stake on every occasion have returned a handsome overall profit of £246. Among some excellent performances we had ten victories. Chris Gordon’s Aucunrisque won the Betfair Hurdle at 9-1. Dan Skelton’s Midnight River won at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day at 6-1 and at Aintree at 15-2. Our Power won Kempton’s Coral Trophy at 11-2. Milton Harris’s Scriptwriter did us proud, too, winning at 4-1 and 11-1, while Iron Bridge, Maximilian, Manothepeople and Blue Beach also scored.
Before we begin to concentrate on the Flat, I must recommend an excellent look-back at jump-racing history. In No Snail (Fairfield Books, £20) David Owen successfully makes the case that the inappropriately named L’Escargot has never been given due recognition for his achievements. Owned by the American Raymond Guest, who had Derby winners with Larkspur and Sir Ivor, L’Escargot has tended to be remembered simply as the horse who denied Red Rum a hat trick of victories in the 1975 Grand National.
Guest, the one-time American ambassador to Ireland, was obsessed with finding a National winner and finally succeeded at his 13th attempt when L’Escargot came home first in his fourth attempt on the race (having previously been second and third). But L’Escargot had much more than that inscribed on his honours board. He was the only horse besides Golden Miller to have won both the National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (which he won twice), and in a busy career of 61 starts over nine seasons on the Flat and over hurdles and fences he also won in America. David Owen’s enjoyable history deals not just with L’Escargot’s exploits on the track but also with the Moores and Carberrys involved with him. It is, too, a reminder of how things have changed: in each of the years L’Escargot won the Gold Cup he had seven races. His National victory was the first for an Irish-trained horse in 17 years and 24 passed before there was another one.
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