It may have been a year to forget for most people in sport, but there are those in racing and breeding in Great Britain who had plenty to celebrate in 2020.
While so many were struggling to cope with the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the heroes emerged, often from unexpected quarters, producing ground-breaking achievements as British racing made a real mark on the international stage.
Here we look back at ten high achievers who made Britain proud in a year of successes book-ended by unlikely triumphs at two of the world’s biggest race meets - The Championships at Randwick in Sydney in April and the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland in Kentucky in November.
William Haggas
There is no doubt Thoroughbred racing is a global sport with international raiders plundering prize pots at festivals such as Ascot’s Royal meeting, the Breeders’ Cup, the Dubai Carnival and the Melbourne Cup. Such daring excursions were few and far between for UK-bred horses this year due to travel restrictions, but one man whose horses excelled in warmer climes in 2020 was William Haggas.
The Newmarket trainer and his young retained jockey, Tom Marquand, scored a famous Antipodean G1 double with Addeybb, who won the G1 WFA Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill in Sydney in March before repeating the trick a month later at Randwick in the G1 Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes, feature race on one of Australia’s biggest days - the second Saturday of The Championships.
“Addeybb was great. I was thrilled with him. It rarely works out like that when you plan so far in advance, so we’re pleased,” said Haggas.
The son of Pivotal went on to win the big race on another great raceday back home in October, relishing the soft ground once again to take the G1 Qipco Champion Stakes on British Champions Day at Ascot.
Haggas’ overseas success was not reserved for down under, however. On Arc day, One Master made history by winning the G1 Prix de la Foret for a third time, under a superb ride from France’s Pierre-Charles Boudot.
The 6-year-old mare - bred in England by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Pennsylvania-based Lael Stables – had been due to run in the G1 FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile at the Breeders’ Cup, but when raised muscle enzymes were discovered on arrival at Keeneland she was scratched. She is likely to be retired, with Haggas hailing her as “an absolutely brilliant mare”.
‘Team GB’ at the Breeders’ Cup
Headline act here has to be the British-bred and -trained Glass Slippers, who became the first ever European-born and -based winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Trained by North Yorkshire-based Kevin Ryan, for whom this represented a first Breeders’ Cup success, Glass Slippers was winning her third G1 - after last year’s Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp and this September’s Flying Five at the Curragh. And she was beaten only a neck when runner-up in this year’s Abbaye.
The remarkable 4-year-old was bred by owners Terry and Margaret Holdcroft and retained to race under the banner of their Bearstone Stud in Shropshire as the last progeny of broodmare Night Gypsy.
Mark Pennell, manager at Bearstone Stud, told GBRI (Great British Racing International) after the race, “She’s so cool. Wherever she travels, she just seems to thrive on it. There was something different about her today. She got very excited, pawing the ground and wanted to get on with it.”
Pennell added, “It’s just massive for everybody because we’re not a massive breeding operation; we don’t keep many horses to race. We lost the mare and decided that we were always going to keep that filly from a foal. She always looked like an athlete.
“I’ve worked with Terry and Margaret for 40 years and to get a horse like this at the end, it’s been worthwhile. If you’re persistent and keep trying, you’ll get one. We kept her, and raced her, and broke her in at home. We’ve done absolutely everything with her and it’s just been unbelievable.
Britain’s other Breeders’ Cup winner at Keeneland was Audarya in the Filly & Mare Turf, trainer James Fanshawe’s stable’s first ever Breeders’ Cup runner.
The 4-year-old had already enjoyed G1 success this year in the Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville in August for owner Alison Swinburn, who was quick to credit the team around Audarya and their efforts in preparing her for the contest.
“James and [wife] Jacko have done a phenomenal job out in Keeneland,” she told GBRI. “And it’s not just them. Helen, the travelling head girl who took Audarya out there, Geoffrey, her work rider, they’ve all done an amazing job at delivering the filly to the start of the race in absolute peak condition. She looked superb.
“His [James’] whole thing was keeping her relaxed and well within herself, which obviously she was because she ran the race of her life.”
Another memorable moment for ‘Team GB’ at Keeneland came when G2 winner Ubettabelieveit, trained by Nigel Tinkler in North Yorkshire, placed third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Hollie Doyle
It was a year packed with accolades for the brilliant Hollie Doyle, who finished third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the nation’s most prestigious sporting award, just after being named The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, and then yesterday won three Lesters - the annual awards recognising riding achievements in Britain.
Doyle recently beat her own record for the most wins by a female jockey in a flat season, won her first G1, finished fourth in the British championship (one place behind her boyfriend, Tom Marquand), and has now passed 150 winners for the calendar year.
The 24-year-old, whose remarkable season saw her rise from outside the top 500 to current world #106 in the TRC Global Rankings , making her the second-highest female on the planet, joins a distinguished roll of past Sunday Times winners that includes Dames Jessica Ennis-Hill and Kelly Holmes. She described that as “pretty crazy and humbling”.
Prince Of Arran
Another British horse with a great record in Australia is Prince Of Arran, who was placed in his third consecutive Melbourne Cup for Charlie Fellowes.
The Newmarket-based trainer noted that to finish third in a Melbourne Cup is “remarkable even on its own”, but to do it three times is a “really great achievement”, adding that he expected the horse – named for the Scottish island of Arran – to return for a fourth tilt at the ‘race that stops a nation’ in 2021.
Enable
The great mare has been the glittering star of European racing in recent times, casting a long shadow over the continent’s G1s since 2017.
A sixth position in this year’s Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in bottomless ground at ParisLongchamp proved one dance too many, however. Yet, Enable being Enable, she still found time in 2020 to make history: Ably aided by Frankie Dettori, she became the first horse to win a third King George at Ascot.
The Juddmonte-owned and -bred daughter of Nathaniel will certainly be remembered as one of flat racing’s most treasured characters and fiercest competitors, as well as a figure that transcended the sport.
Palace Pier
Enable’s trainer, John Gosden, kept his seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of superstars running remorselessly, regardless of the unconventional pattern to the season. Perhaps his most exciting charge was Palace Pier with victories in the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes and G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois, and he was subsequently named 3-year-old colt of the year at the 2020 Cartier Awards.
What’s more, the British-bred son of Kingman is likely to remain in training as a 4-year-old.
Mohaather
Another British-bred colt to showcase his class over a mile was Mohaather, who won a stellar renewal of the G1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood for trainer Marcus Tregoning and jockey Jim Crowley. A slowly run race saw Sheik Hamdan Al Maktoum’s 4-year-old boxed-in to a pocket and needing to switch around, which enabled him to show an electric turn of foot to sprint past the whole field in a late, destructive move.
This would, unfortunately, be his final race, as he sustained a serious training injury, described as “significant bone bruising to his near-hind fetlock”. He will now stand at Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Farm.
A filly who fetched a fortune
With many high-profile retirements at the end of the season, thoughts naturally turn to future generations. Book 1 of Tattersalls’ October Yearling Sale is renowned as the finest showcase of yearlings in Europe, and 2020 was no different.
A British-bred Galileo filly out of Shastye became the highest-priced yearling filly in the world when sold for 3,400,000 guineas to the bid of Coolmore’s MV Magnier.
Bidding on the beautifully bred filly mostly took place outside the sale ring, with David Redvers, Oliver St Lawrence and MV Magnier all placing bids via the bid-spotters. In the end it was the Coolmore team, standing alongside Swiss billionaire Georg Von Opel, whose horses run under the Westerberg banner, who were successful. The filly, consigned by Newsells Park Stud in Hertfordshire, is a sister to the Aidan O’Brien-trained G1 winners Japan and Mogul and is set to join her full-brothers at Ballydoyle.
“It is a great result for everybody involved, she has been bought in partnership with Westerberg,” said MV Magnier. “She is a very nice filly, she is a very nice mover, like Japan and Mogul. The mare produces great-looking stock and great racehorses.”
Mogul underlined the filly’s potential when he won the £2 million Longines Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin on December 13.
Honeysuckle
Bred in England by Dr G W Guy, Honeysuckle, is yet to taste defeat and added to her legions of admirers at this year’s Cheltenham Festival when she won the David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle under a brilliant ride from Irish jockey Rachel Blackmore.
The daughter of Sulamani travelled strongly for much of the way under Blackmore but looked at the mercy of favourite Benie Des Dieux coming into the home straight. However, the 6-year-old quickened the better of the two rounding the home turn to steal the advantage and extend her perfect record.
Honeysuckle extended her flawless record with second Hatton’s Grace this month, and her trainer, Henry De Bromhead, said: “The winning run continues – she’s just brilliant, tough as”, before adding that she would look to defend her Irish Champion Hurdle in February, ahead of a possible tilt at Cheltenham’s Champion Hurdle or defending the Mares' Hurdle. “We’ll see nearer the time what we decide to do.”
David and Patricia Thompson
Outside the racing industry, there has been recognition for some of its stalwarts.
Cheveley Park Stud owners David and Patricia Thompson were each awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for their extraordinary philanthropic work and charitable donations. The entrepreneur and his wife bought the Newmarket stud in 1975 and stand renowned sire Pivotal there. Patricia owned 1992 Grand National winner Party Politics, who spent his retirement at Cheveley Park Stud.
GBRI is the British racing industry’s designated first point of contact for overseas individuals interested in becoming part of the world’s leading racing and bloodstock industry. Visit greatbritishracinginternational.com