I first met Midnight Target’s trainer, John Groucott, at the Doncaster May Sales in 2010 when he was keen to buy a 3yo filly we were selling, by Old Vic out of La Perrotine, but was unable to persuade his client to go to the price envisaged. Instead, he purchased another of our produce, a 3yo gelding by Alflora out of Dancing Pearl. The one he didn’t buy, Scholastica, was a good but ill-fated mare, winner of four races and Black-Type placed. The one he did manage to buy, Glenford Dorie, proved a useless racehorse and in part led to his client moving to another trainer. So I suppose I owed John a decent horse – but with Midnight Target the debt was eventually settled!
The original intention was to sell Right On Target’s orphaned foal by Midnight Legend as a 3YO, but after Sandra and I split up it seemed like a better idea to reduce costs by selling some of the young stock whose dates with the auctioneer were some way in the future. I had kept in touch with John after the Scholastica / Glenford Dorie situation, and in spite of Glenford Dorie’s deficiencies he deemed it a good idea to ask if we might have an affordable young horse. Midnight Target was available at the time; three of her siblings had won and her sire was beginning to prove himself, and John agreed to buy her as an unseen 2yo for a rather modest sum, including transport from Ireland.
John is a patient trainer of the school that believes in giving NH horses time to mature, and it was two years before he even gave her a name, though it is doubtful that all that time was required to come up with ‘Midnight Target’ for a filly by Midnight Legend out of Right On Target.
‘Target’ was five years old before she first ran, when 7th of 11 in a Bumper at Bangor in May 2015. After a six-month break, she came back to show a glimmer of promise when 5th of 16 in another NH Flat race, this time at her home track of Ludlow. She then finished 4th of 11 in her final Bumper appearance, at Uttoxeter, where a future broodmare colleague, Graceful Legend, was third. Midnight Target’s hurdles career began moderately, when she made mistakes and was pulled up at Ludlow; but she ended the 2015/16 season in better fashion when fifth and then third at Bangor.
Target’s first win came back at Ludlow on her first start in 2016/17, and, although I was by then living in Shropshire, I actually witnessed it on television in the bar at the Tattersalls Foal Sale at Fairyhouse. It was a modest enough race but she ran on strongly to lead close home for a nice win, and she followed this up with places in two of her three other hurdles that season.
The next season Target was sent over fences. She placed at Bangor and twice at Ludlow, a local course at which by now I had regularly met John and his co-owner, Elwyn Parkes. After she won her first chase, at Huntingdon, I came up with a cunning plan that I put first to John and then to Elwyn. This was that she should have a new target, a Black-Type race at Cheltenham. The race in question was the Listed TBA/EBF Mares Handicap Chase at the April meeting. Perhaps inspired by dreams of a Cheltenham run, they agreed to the plan.
The meeting was held on a glorious warm Spring day, featuring several mares-only races; there was also a TBA meeting, so I was a keen spectator. There were only 7 runners in the race and Target went off as 7/2 second favourite, ridden by her regular pilot, Lee Edwards. Lee decided to make the running and Target took to the task enthusiastically, jumping well but on several occasions going markedly to the right.
She was given a breather at the top of the hill but then pressed on before the second last, where she was challenged by the Skelton runner Pretty Reckless, the favourite The Bay Birch, and top-weight Tara Mist. Coming to the last Target still held the lead but challengers were all round her; she met it on a long stride and jumped it superbly.
After the last Tara Mist faded and Pretty Reckless found little, but The Bay Birch challenged strongly all the way up the hill. Target resisted her with equal determination, holding on by a length from a mare that, although giving her 2lb, was later rated 152.
.It was a great day for trainer, owners, jockey and stable girls – a win at the home of Jump racing and a dream come true. For me it didn’t quite match the thrill of Cheltenham 13 months earlier (probably nothing ever will), but it was wonderful to have played a part in helping people I like realise their dreams. At the end of the season John held a most enjoyable Open Day, and those associated with Midnight Target were presented with photographic reminders of the day. Mine is by my desk as I write this.
Target’s final season was the following one, in which at one time her main objective was to be the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter. En route, she gained two further second places, making her career record 3 wins and 11 first four placings from 22 starts, but an over-reach that cut into her front tendon sheath ended hopes of participation at Uttoxeter.
By now, Sandra had enquired about her as a broodmare prospect (I had agreed to stand aside) but had been told the owners would prefer to keep her; and I gave them entirely unbiased advice to have her covered by Telescope. However, after her injury John asked what my best offer would be as he would like her to come to me, with the option of having a filly from her. I made an offer that was not quite in the Lifeboat Mona class of 100 times what I had sold her for as a youngster, but it certainly represented a 30 times uplift, plus the ability to purchase a filly at a most reasonable price.
It was four years later, after Target had produced three colts (one of whom died as a foal), that John and Elwyn got the chance of a filly (by Dartmouth), but by then for various reasons they weren’t in a position to raise a weaned foal. Accordingly, I have kept her but hope that one day we might all see her race and perhaps give us another great memory as her mother once did.
For further details of Midnight Target’s breeding record, click on the Broodmares tab.