Like the other sires of Perrotine’s early foals, Midnight Legend was a stallion that had long taken high rank in my performance statistics; and he was the sire of Perrotine’s first colt, born on 13th May 2010.
Howard Johnson had by this time given up hope of a return on the ‘kicker’ on the deal we had made when he sold me Perrotine, namely that he would receive 25% of the price bought by her first colt, instead accepting £3,000 in lieu of half of La Doelenaise. Although the colt had far more quality than many produce of Midnight Legend, bringing the highest price of any of his foals that year (€16,000) when sold at Tattersalls November Foal Sale, this amounted to pretty much the same sum.
A few months later I called the purchaser, an Irishman named John Bleahen who specialises in developing young jumps horses, to give him the glad tidings that his sibling, Scholastica, had won her first race. John surprised me by saying that the colt had become a chronic weaver shortly after he got him home –just outside the timeframe in which he might have been returned under the Sale conditions. With hindsight, the colt’s delay in showing his nervous disposition was a lucky break for both of us.
The development really ought not to have come as a surprise, though, because Perrotine’s colt had the most difficult temperament of any foal Sandra and I bred. He was shy of people and getting a head-collar on him was a significant undertaking, as he would run screaming and squirming behind his mother.
One week after he was weaned, whilst turned out with other newly weaned foals, he clambered over a stone wall into an area of scrubland, then climbing the hill towards a disused quarry. His mother had to be brought back to call for him. At this, John jumped back over the wall one hundred yards further down, dragging a considerable length of electric tape with him. Amazingly, when he was recaptured and disentangled from the tape, he was found to be unharmed.
Such independent behaviour had probably been encouraged by time spent with his mother, who had twice taken him off our property for a half-mile walk down the road to the local vicarage, where the pair enjoyed a quiet spot of grazing on the lawn.
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Since the last I had heard of Perrotine’s Midnight Legend colt was that he had developed a serious weaving habit after his sale as a foal, I had no expectation that he would be reoffered as a store, the most likely route to market being that he would race in Point-to-Points and hopefully win one. However, one day in March 2014 Michael Moore called me and said that I mustn’t sell any youngsters out of Perrotine because John Bleahen had advised him that ‘the Midnight Legend is an aeroplane.’
He had been sold on to Alan Potts, the owner of Sizing Europe, and was being trained by Henry de Bromhead. The Weatherbys ‘Bloodstock Reports’ database revealed that his name was ‘Sizing John’, which I assumed was after John Bleahen but turned out to be for Alan Potts’ son.
Shortly afterwards, John (the horse) appeared in a Listed 4YO bumper at Limerick. His odds were 16-1, hardly suggestive of an aeroplane, and he was ridden quietly at the back of the field before running on well in the last two furlongs to be sixth, frustratingly only two lengths from the third place that would have brought Black-Type.
He next ran in another bumper, at Punchestown just over four weeks later. Starting at 20-1 he finished fourth this time, but even further behind the winner than before, completely outpaced before the turn into the straight. Six months later this became a little easier to forgive when the winner, Forgotten Rules, won the Group 2 Long-Distance Cup on Champions Day, beating (amongst others) the last two Ascot Gold Cup winners, Leading Light and Estimate.
Returning in Autumn, Sizing John went straight over hurdles, being prominent throughout and jumping well to win a Maiden race at Naas as 5/2 favourite. However, starting at 13/2, he was then comprehensively beaten (by 12 lengths) at Gowran Park by a horse that really did look like an aeroplane, the odds-on favourite Douvan. This did not look like a good advertisement for John’s chances in an upcoming Grade 1 for which he had been entered.
The week before that race the entry stood at 17, but Willie Mullins trained almost half and some of the others were dual entries by a single trainer, so there was hope that the field would cut up. However, John was also entered in two handicap hurdles later in the week, suggesting that he was not considered to be a Grade 1 horse at this stage.
However, on the day of the race he was one of only five runners for the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown, although the least highly-rated (and at 11/1 the longest priced) of the quintet. Two were Mullins horses, though thankfully not including Douvan. Favourite at 4/6 was the Ruby Walsh-ridden Nichols Canyon, a son of Authorized from a Dalakhani mare, who was a 113 rated dual Listed winner on the Flat. Heavy rain the day before the race had turned the ground from yielding to heavy. John had seemed to struggle in these conditions at Gowran, although his dam had loved them, but they should at least blunt the speed of the Flat-breds in the race.
John jumped out in front and made the running at a sensible gallop. At the third he jumped slightly right. Behind him, Nichols Canyon jumped far too early, crashing into the hurdle and sending Ruby Walsh to the ground. Rather unsportingly I rejoiced. Even more unsportingly I rejoiced even more a few seconds later when the Mullins second string, McKinley, pulled up. Now all John had to do was stay on his feet to win Black-Type!
On the far side there was a moment of anxiety when the riderless Nichols Canyon passed him on the inside and John jinked as if to run out, but his rider kept him on course. He continued to lob along in front, jumping well, as they made the long run to the second last. Here, Golantilla, in third, made a slight error; and rounding the bend the rider of Sub-Lieutenant began to niggle. Amazingly, John seemed to be going best.
Approaching the last John was asked to quicken and he immediately lengthened his stride to go several lengths clear. Now he just had to jump the last… ‘Just’!… ‘
He pinged it, throwing a beautiful leap that saw him land running; and he kept running all the way to the line to win by six and a half lengths. After the race television and newspapers reported it as 18-year-old jockey J. J. Burke’s first Group 1 winner. None of them mentioned that it was his slightly more mature breeder’s first Grade 1 winner too – and runner!
For much of the next two years, though, the story was of the repeated banging of Sizing John’s head against the brick wall that was Douvan.
I was at Cheltenham to watch John’s next start, in the very first race of the 2015 Festival, the Supreme Novices Hurdle. John started at 25-1 but ran a great race. Always prominent, he led at the second-last hurdle but had no answer when Douvan cruised past for an impressive win, losing second place to Shaneshill on the run-in, with future French Champion Hurdler, L’Ami Serge, back in fourth.
At Punchestown seven weeks later it was a similar story, with Douvan this time 7½ rather than 7 lengths ahead of John at the finish, again taking over from him before the last hurdle and leaving him outpaced on the run-in.
Hope reappeared once more at the start of the next season, when John turned to chasing and proved himself adept at the task by winning his first two chases, the second being the G2 Craddoxtown Novices Chase, in which he easily beat the subsequent Galway Plate winner, Lord Scoundrel. Surely there was a possibility that his nemesis would not show the same aptitude over fences?
That fond wish lasted just seven days, until Douvan easily dismissed 13 rivals on his chasing debut, showing just the same combination of cruising speed, agility and easy acceleration as he had over hurdles.
Any remaining hope that fences alone might make the difference was finally demolished when John once again encountered Douvan, in the G1 Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown on Boxing Day. This time John was ridden from behind Douvan, with the fond hope of passing him after the second last as he himself had been passed on previous occasions. If this tactic made a difference it was not a positive one: although Douvan made an error at the last he still strolled home 18 lengths clear.
Surely a pattern had now emerged, and it was evident that John was not likely to beat Douvan over either hurdles or fences, at least over two miles? Therefore I was somewhat discombobulated when both were given the same Cheltenham target, the Arkle Trophy over two miles. Douvan started at 1-4, John at 9-1 and this time the winning distance was back to a mere 7 lengths, with John running on for second after Vaniteux fell when under pressure at the second last, leaving subsequent dual 2 mile Grade 1 winner Fox Norton third.
The fact that, two days later, the finish of the same meeting’s 2½ mile Grade 1 Chase was fought out by horses I believed John would have beaten (all of whom either had been in the past or would be in the future) did nothing to dispel my feeling that he had run in the wrong race – and accordingly blown what might well have been my best chance of ever breeding a Cheltenham Grade 1 winner.
It was with a degree of frustration, at seeing John run his best but yet again encounter an inevitable defeat, that I watched him walk into the paddock after the Arkle. I remember running into Robert Chugg (who had originally imported his mother from France) after the race, and responding rather ungraciously to his comment of ‘well done’ by bemoaning the fact that he was running over the wrong distance. “Never mind”, Robert replied, “He’ll win the Gold Cup next year.” I don’t suppose either of us really believed it at the time.
The rest of that season was a real anti-climax. John at last ran over 2½ miles in a Grade 1 Novice Chase at Aintree three weeks later, but ran flat and was beaten 24 lengths into third by the ill-fated Arzal, with L’Ami Serge second. Then, apparently to test that being well beaten five times already by Douvan wasn’t a fluke, he tried again at Punchestown three weeks after that, now back at two miles. He finished a 22 length third, even beaten by the apparently inferior The Game Changer for second. At that stage John seemed to be heading in the wrong direction.
I can’t say I know the reason why Alan Potts moved his horses from Henry de Bromhead to Jessica Harrington in the summer of 2016 (well, I probably could say but I was sworn to secrecy!). However, the move was from one very good trainer to another, Jessica Harrington. With it came a change of jockey, to Robbie Power, and (importantly to me at least) the possibility that John would be campaigned in a Douvan-free area over longer distances.
However, nothing much seemed to change at first, though, since John’s debut for his new trainer, eight months after his previous race, came in a Grade 1 chase at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting, admittedly over a full furlong more than two miles but once more facing the mighty Douvan. Once more too, John finished second to his old adversary, this time beaten eight lengths, with the good British chaser, Simply Ned, third and the horse that won the Cheltenham Novice Chase I had wanted John to run in, Black Hercules, fourth.
So in one way nothing had changed, but in another very important respect it had; his jockey was beginning to rumble him. Robbie Power later reflected: “When I rode him in Leopardstown, he was flat to the boards the whole way over two miles.”
Perhaps Sizing John needed a longer trip?
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2017: Anno Mirabilis
This hypothesis was first put to the test over 2½ miles against good but not Douvan-level opposition in the G3 Kinloch Brae Chase at Thurles three weeks later. Here John, wearing a white cap rather than the customary red (since the Pottses had another runner in the race), lay just behind the leaders until challenging between the second-last and last fences (actually these had been envisaged as the third- and second-last respectively, but the planned last fence was omitted).
He led on the long run-in after the final obstacle and was ridden out to finish strongly, beating the favourite, the de Bromhead-trained Sub Lieutenant, by 2½ lengths, with Black Hercules 12 lengths back in third. John had certainly got the trip.
Robbie Power’s post-race comment was: “He is so laid-back. I knew I had plenty left. He has that bit of speed. When I gave him a squeeze, he really quickened up. I think he would stay any trip. He is so lazy. The Ryanair would look tailormade for him.”
So we were making progress, but the Ryanair wasn’t really the race I was dreaming of. If he really ‘would stay any trip’, another race suggested itself as even more appropriate.
The real test of how good John might prove over longer distances came five weeks before Cheltenham, in the Grade 1 Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown, where he faced what looked like the best Irish-trained three-milers other than dual Gold Cup second Djakadam (namely Don Poli, Empire of Dirt, Carlingford Lough and Road To Riches), along with two British-trained contenders (More of That and Minella Rocco). The longest odds of any in the field were only 14/1, with Don Poli favourite and Sizing John second favourite.
John raced on the outside in mid division for the first two miles, as Road To Riches made the running from Don Poli, with More of That alongside John, and the others in rear. Minella Rocco, a Cheltenham winner the previous year, fell at the fifth, but little else changed until the race began in earnest with less than a mile to go, when the field closed up markedly.
John jumped the third last well and moved into a challenging position outside Don Poli, as Road to Riches faded. He was now going into unknown territory as regards race distance. Rounding the final bend, Don Poli began to be asked for a more serious effort, as were More of That and former dual-winner of the race, Carlingford Lough; but John was still on the bridle and moving very smoothly, with Empire of Dirt behind him but apparently travelling equally well.
Coming to the last Robbie pushed John to make his effort, and approaching the fence he edged ahead of Don Poli on his inside, with More of That trying to fight back on the outer and Carlingford Lough and Empire of Dirt closing from behind.
John met the fence on a perfect stride, ahead of the favourite; but, challenging on the outer, More of That hit the fence and sent his jockey crashing, as Empire of Dirt and Carlingford Lough made their efforts. He took off up the run-in for the final test of his stamina, with Don Poli trying to fight back; but his biggest challenge now came from Empire of Dirt on the inside.
Responding to four well-timed smacks of the whip, John ran on strongly to reach the line as the winner by three-quarters of a length and the same from the Gigginstown duo.
Robbie Power saluted the crowd as he passed the post for John’s second Grade 1 victory – and in the most important steeplechase run in Ireland. Watching on tv a couple of hundred miles away, I felt a wave of euphoria, not least because my confidence that John would be better over a distance of ground had at last been vindicated.
After the race Jessie Harrington was inevitably asked about Cheltenham. Her response was: “It will come down to the Gold Cup or the Ryanair. He wasn’t stopping at the end of three miles today, so we might go the Gold Cup route. We don’t know whether he will get 3¼ miles, but on better ground he might.”
The ground at Prestbury Park remained the favoured good to soft; Alary, a French horse expensively bought by John’s owner specifically to target the Gold Cup, had (to my delight) flopped at Exeter just a few minutes before John’s Leopardstown triumph; and behind the scenes Robbie Power was telling Jessie Harrington: “All he does is stay.” The decision swayed towards going for the most important race (certainly as far as I am concerned) in the Jump racing calendar…
I went to Cheltenham three days before the Gold Cup, with my friend Ian Callan, who had also witnessed John’s previous placings behind Douvan. The purpose was to see Lifeboat Mona race in the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle, but I left the ‘lucky overcoat’ I had worn for her previous black-type successes at home. It was required for a greater cause. Without its help Mona went wrong in the race and was pulled up, but it may have tuned out for the best as I was able to buy her back as a broodmare, which would have been impossible had she won.
Paddock tickets were impossible to come by unless you were one of the favoured few, but before Mona’s race I talked to one of the gatemen who kindly let me in to see her close up. On exit I offered him a ‘thank you’, which he refused. I then pushed my luck by saying that on Friday a horse I had bred would be running in the Gold Cup, and he kindly agreed to repeat the favour for the big race of the week. I don’t know the gentleman’s name but I remain in his debt.
Dorte and I drove down to Cheltenham on March 17th 2017 for the Gold Cup, with one of us apparently full of confidence and the other full of foreboding that nothing this good could possibly happen. I remember sitting in the car park before racing wishing I had stayed at home. We passed the time walking around the shopping village, having drinks in the bar with acquaintances we encountered there, and watching races of which I have no recollection whatsoever. Finally, the time came to proceed to the paddock and hope the kindly gateman would recognise me and let us in; he did.
I remember, as John walked around the paddock, looking up at the paddock screen showing the odds for the race; John was 7-1 fourth favourite, behind Djakadam, Native River and Cue Card. I clearly recall thinking that at those odds we were most unlikely ever to have a better chance that a horse we had bred would win a Cheltenham Gold Cup.
It was on that screen that Dorte and I watched the race, with me wearing my lucky overcoat with its lapel containing a metal shamrock advertising irishracing.ie and over a blazer on which were pinned metal badges promoting the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup 2017 and Sizing John with his green, yellow and red colours. They are still on that blazer.
Immediately before the race I ran into the man these colours belonged to, Alan Potts, and told him that I had bred Sizing John and wished us both luck. His response was what seemed to be a blank look and a grunt. Perhaps it was nerves – or maybe he didn’t realise someone had to breed the horse in the first place!
Early on, John was settled towards the rear on the inside, lobbing along as Champagne West, Bristol de Mai and Native River disputed the lead ahead of Djakadam. Tea for Two fell at the second fence but little else changed other than that John gradually eased forward to lie behind the leaders after the first circuit, going easily.
At the top of the hill the field began to close up, with John improving after the fourth last. Three out, Native River led with Djakadam beginning to challenge and Champagne West starting to fade. John was moving into contention when Cue Card fell on his outside whilst already being ridden along.
Coming round the bend to the second last, Native River led on the inside with Djakadam now being ridden and John moving smoothly into third place on their outside; the others were all under pressure. Before the fence, just after the bend, Robbie began to ask John for his effort. As usual, there was no instant whoosh of acceleration – but there was a quickening of the stride, and as they came to the fence John poked his head in front.
Djakadam hit the fence and pitched slightly; John jumped it perfectly and quickened away; whilst Native River ran on gamely without being able to match the pace of the leader. It was with an element of disbelief that I saw the baby I had once seen come into the world approach the last fence in the Cheltenham Gold Cup galloping strongly and 1½ lengths in front.
One, two, three, jump! Robbie & John’s timing was perfect, producing a beautiful leap that saw him land clear of Djakadam and Native River and begin his climb up ‘the hill of dreams’ – and of broken dreams.
John’s stride stayed long; stamina was not an issue. Djakadam tried to fight back but began to fade; Native River kept going in his metronomic fashion, unable to quicken. Near the line, Minella Rocco, outpaced coming into the straight, ran on to catch Native River for second place, with Djakadam just behind; but by then Robbie was raising his whip to wave in celebration to the crowd as Sizing John passed the post – the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. So dreams can come true, at least once in a lifetime!
On the way home my friend Martin Stevens of the Racing Post rang to ask how it felt. He was unable to use my exact quote: “******* incredible!” Emma Hockenhull then called to ask us to Shade Oak for a celebration meal, which ended a perfect day in the perfect way, in the company of friends that share the impossible dreams that drive obsessive NH breeders.
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I hadn’t intended to go to Punchestown for Sizing John’s last appearance of the 2016/17 season – indeed, I rather hoped he wouldn’t go himself rather than risk ending the season in anti-climax. However, a few days before the meeting Martin Stevens commented that he assumed we would be going, and it got me thinking we just might.
Being a last-minute arrangement there was no hotel booking, just a lunchtime flight into Dublin and an evening return to Manchester, with hire car to provide the transport and breeders’ passes provided by Punchestown racecourse. John’s target was the Punchestown Gold Cup, in which he was attempting to become the first horse ever to win the three Gold Cups (Irish, Cheltenham and Punchestown) in the same season. His rivals included Cheltenham acquaintances Djakadam (who looked by far the biggest danger), Champagne West and Outlander, but also former Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Coneygree.
John looked in good order in the paddock (for which the security constraints were far less tight than Cheltenham, with a main entrance where badges were meant to be checked and a back entrance where no-one bothered to); and we remained there to watch the race.
From early on Coneygree went to the front and made the running at a good pace, with Champagne West following and Djakadam several lengths back. John stayed two to three lengths behind the horse perceived as his greatest rival, as usual jumping smoothly and efficiently. As they passed the stands the first time, Coneygree was several lengths clear, with John still tracking Djakadam in fourth and Fleminstar and Outlander apparently struggling behind them.
With a mile to go Outlander pulled up, never having travelled well; and at the fourth last the metronome in Ruby Walsh’s head told him the time had come to move Djakadam closer to the leader, as Champagne West began to struggle. Robbie took John to his outside, ready to challenge.
The three leaders jumped the third last well, to begin the turn into the straight: Coneygree was being ridden; Djakadam was pushed along to reach him; and John too had to be asked for his effort. The three headed into the second last almost in line. John lurched slightly on landing at this fence and lost a little momentum, as Djakadam began to take control from the still-fighting Coneygree. Robbie’s movements became more urgent.
Coming to the last Djakadam was narrowly in front, with Coneygree still within reach on his inside and John beginning to challenge on the outer.
John jumped the fence the best of the three; but despite Djakadam pitching on landing he was swiftly away and still led as the three raced for the finish.
It was a desperate battle all the way to the line, with John closing inch by inch on the leader and Coneygree still not giving way.
In the last few strides John’s head showed in front, but as heads bobbed Djakadam was only inches away. As they passed the line John’s head was up and Djakadam’s down, making for a desperately close decision, although Robbie clearly thought he had won.
He was correct: winner of a memorable race by a short-head from a rival wearing the dreaded Douvan colours – I don’t suppose John noticed the irony, and I was too relieved to!
Dorte and I hugged each other in the paddock, then our friend Julie Thomas and her daughter Verity; then we welcomed John back before having a swift celebratory drink with David & Kathleen Holmes, who were there on an unofficial ‘TBA Regional Meeting’. My residual feeling was not one of exhilaration, as it was after Cheltenham, but of relief that John had pulled off the treble and left Cheltenham memories untarnished by subsequent defeat.
When Robbie Power retired from riding, at the Puchestoen Festival five tears after that day, he described the 2017 Punchestown Gold Cup as the most memorable race he ever rode in, with a desperately close finish after a tremendous battle, and the creation of a little piece of racing history as John became the first horse to win the three Gold Cups in a single season.
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That summer we were able to enjoy looking at Telescope’s first foals and luxuriate in the memories of a wonderful season, hoping but not expecting (I have seen too many things go wrong with racehorses) for more glory days in 2017/18.
Eventually autumn came and we once more had to return to the reality of worrying about whether John could repeat his successes. He was originally meant to run in the Betfair Chase followed by the King George VI Chase, in pursuit of a million-pound bonus for winning those two and the Cheltenham Gold Cup; but desperate ground at Haydock scuppered the attempt. So John’s reappearance came back at Punchestown in the 2½ mile Grade 1 John Durkin Chase, in which he faced a small field headed by the winner of the race for the past two years… Djakadam.
Djakadam started as 5/4 favourite with John 2/1, another old rival, Sub Lieutenant, at 7/1 and high-class chaser, Bellshill, at 14/1 – but this was not to be a repeat of the April encounter.
Sub Lieutenant led early, followed by Djakadam, with Sizing John tracking him. At the second fence John made an uncharacteristic error, landing slightly sideways, but he swiftly recovered. After four fences Djakadam took over, with John still keeping in touch, Sub Lieutenant next and the rest some way behind.
At the tenth fence, with around a mile to run, John moved almost alongside the leader before being eased back; but at the third last his challenge became more serious and Robbie asked him to go on. Rounding the bend, where in April he had been forced to work to get to Djakadam, Robbie asked him to take over and he soon strode clear, with Djakadam struggling to go with him
John jumped the last two perfectly and ran on strongly to the line, winning by 7 lengths from his old rival, with Sub Lieutenant back in third, A Toi Phil fourth, Carlingford Lough fifth and Bellshill pulled up. Passing the post Robbie concentrated on looking back at the second, rather than waving in relief to the crowd.
To my eyes, and to those of the people responsible for awarding Racing Post ratings, it was John’s most dominant performance – and the only one in which I barely felt a frissom of anxiety.
At the ITBA Awards Dinner that year, Sizing John was voted ‘Irish Horse of the Year 2017’. Not too many British-breds have received that accolade!
However, the racecourse commentator who, not unreasonably, predicted another great season for Sizing John was wrong. The John Durkan was his last ever win. In his very next race, Leopardstown’s Christmas Chase just 18 days later, John failed to close on the leaders when asked for his effort, finishing a leg-weary 7th of 12 runners. After the race he was reported to be ‘clinically abnormal’. He was meant to be still on track to defend his Gold Cup title when scratched from the race shortly beforehand, this time with a reported hairline fracture of the tibia.
Comeback talk continued the next season, with reports of a pleasing return to full training and excellent schooling sessions with Robbie Power; but planned comeback races went by without him, and eventually there was news of another ‘setback’ and the 2018/19 season went by without an appearance.
It was New Year’s Eve 2019 before John again reached the racecourse, in a hurdle race at Punchestown that was intended to set him up for the Irish Gold Cup, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National – all of which bar the last I regarded as forlorn hopes at the age of ten.
We were at Uttoxeter that day, watching the racecourse debut of John’s baby sister, Anythingforlove, and there was no tv coverage of Punchestown. It was as well that this was the case, for at the second-last, still travelling well but some way behind the leader, John fell for the only time in his career. At first, he was reported to be a little bruised but otherwise fine, but as the weeks went by there were no further entries and eventually no further runs.
2020/21 was instead meant to be the season for a full return to the track. “He’s still only ten and with not a lot of miles on the clock” were the optimistic noises coming from his stable. Then, a few days before an anticipated return to the racecourse that I at least was fearing, the news came out of yet another setback and permanent retirement from racing.
I hate to see former champions race on in their declining years, beaten by horses that they would once have left well behind, and I dreaded that fate for the best horse I am ever likely to breed. I therefore felt a sense of relief that the various problems that had stopped John from racing in what should have been his peak years also prevented humiliation in his declining ones.
The memories of Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown will never be overlaid by recollections of him struggling against lesser horses in the very same races in which he once triumphed so memorably. As he lives out his retirement in the fields of Ireland, perhaps he has some distant equine memory of them too!
Exactly 12 years to the day when we sold Sizing John as a foal, I met up with him again for a private visit. I had been on the lookout for Robbie Power at the Fairyhouse Sale; and eventually encountered him, introduced myself and thanked him for recognising of John that ‘All he does is stay’ – and for his superb riding of the horse in his Gold Cup triumphs. I was pleasantly surprised when Robbie told me that John was presently at his yard, a 15 minute drive from the sales-ring, being reschooled for racehorse showing classes; and he invited me to visit whenever it was convenient.
The next day, November 9th 2022, I travelled with my friends Julie Thomas and Becky ‘Bonkers’ Bailey in their deluxe hired Scoda to Downpatrick, County Meath, where we enjoyed a lovely half-hour with John in the company of Robbie’s sister, Elizabeth (herself an Olympic event rider), and mother, Mags (evidently a pretty good broodmare when using leading Irish showjumper Con Power as the sire). John was initially distracted in his stable by the trimming of a large tree outside and by the fact that his old friend Supasundae, who was also in residence, had been allowed out into the field and he hadn’t – but once led out he relaxed and posed for some memorable (at least for the three visitors) photos.
To read about the foal La Perrotine produced after John, click on BATOUTAHELL.