The hunter-'chaser.

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Pulling a back tendon off his hock in that race put him on the easy list, and while attempts to get him back to the races were tried old injuries flared up and he was retired. Libby says: "Frank had told Dick to get to three from home and let him go," but Grittar had changed the plan and with a smooth passage throughout had no trouble holding off a challenge from Hard Outlook (rec. Although John was in the saddle for all of Spartan Missile's biggest wins, Jane was given the job on his racing debut as a four-year-old in a novices' hurdle race at Worcester. He'll go in one of the big races, which one I don't know yet, and we've got until March 1 to see if we give him an entry for Cheltenham.

I remember Steve Marshall and Derek Lane who worked for us saying Grittar was difficult to break in, and that was probably why he was sent to licensed trainer Walter Wharton at Melton Mowbray.After four uninspiring efforts – the best of which was a third place at Garthorpe under Peter Greenall, now Lord Daresbury – Gilman offered the ride to Dick Saunders' daughter Caroline. In simple terms, if Spartan Missile faced Hazel Hill in a handicap hunters' chase he would be asked to carry 18lb more, a significant weight concession to a horse we know is very good. Clifton said on Sunday: "My daughter Sarah got married in September and we had him as a bit of a guest.

It was gained despite his rider's stirrup leather breaking at the fence before Becher's Brook when the pin in the buckle snapped. Pacha Du Polder and Noble Prince managed to get closer to him at Aintree and Punchestown respectively, however neither could deny him a historic first triple crown of the top spring hunter chases at the big festivals. Dick's debut, at an end-of-season Garthorpe meeting resulted in victory in a five-runner confined race which Grittar won by a distance.The following day I took my children to a cross-country event, where Pete was so tired he fell asleep on his pony in the collecting ring. Libby says: "Frank would not pay a lot in stallion fees, reasoning you had no idea what you would get and the foal might die in a week.

Back on home turf, the JP McManus-owned gelding picked up a fifth Punchestown Champion Hunter Chase, a race he had first won as a five-year-old. After finishing second at the Cheltenham Festival he came out on top in a thrilling tussle to the line with the similarly progressive hunter Vaucelet. Willie Mullins' charge inflicted a second narrow defeat on a David Christie runner when beating Vaucelet in the Punchestown Champion Hunter Chase.Spartan Missile was moved to Nicky Henderson's Lambourn yard, and, on his first run at the age of 11 and in the name of Thorne's widow Wendy, finished second under Diana in the John and Nigel Thorne Memorial Hunters' Chase at Stratford. Reflecting on that time in her life, Diana says: "My father had come out of the army and bought the farm with a huge mortgage. Kohaku, the Aintree and Cheltenham Foxhunters are now dominated by professionally trained horses only here in the short term - look at last years winners! Sir Peter O'Sullevan's BBC commentary on the run-in reflected that Spartan Missile was "a great hunter chaser – more than a hunter chaser" and that Thorne was letting him hack canter to victory with a possible view to turning out for the National two days later, although that plan was shelved.

Enda Bolger’s star Hunter Chaser narrowly denied Colin McBratney’s Marito in the Cheltenham Foxhunters, whilst in the Aintree equivalent with Jamie Codd deputising for his suspended regular partner Nina Carberry, the Exit To Knowhere gelding proved to be eight lengths too good for Dineur.

Jane and I had our eventers as well as the pointers to ride and life at the farm was very busy, and since Stoneleigh was nearby we would go there for eventing clinics with top instructors like Bertie Hill, Harvey Smith and Robert Hall. The dominant force in the division throughout the 2014-2015 campaign, he had a slow start to the season when suffering defeats at the hands of Gordon Elliott’s Oscar Barton at Down Royal over Christmas and Willie Mullins’ Prince De Beauchene in the Raymond Smith Memorial at Leopardstown.