Aldaniti maintains eminence as the gelding who finished third in a race despite having a severe leg injury with a broken hind joint at the second jump.
His name, Aldaniti, was a concoction of a jumble of names from the four grandchildren of his breeder, Tommy Barron, Alastair, David Cook, Nicola and Timothy Barron.
The gelding was foaled in 1970 and became a boy equine as he grew. Unfortunately, Aldaniti was physically rejected by his dam Renardeau upon his birth and was rarely fed as Renardeau was short of milk. Aldaniti, therefore, slept hungry for most of that time until when he learned to accept other forms of nourishment. He was once referred to as ‘stag-kneed’ and later at the lowest moment of his life as an ‘injury-prone’ chaser. His limbs were once referred to as piano legs.
It was through the determination of his owners that Aldaniti, who had been recommended for putting down by the vets, went out to achieve great successes. Bob Champion, upon riding the horse, that he would win a national one day.
Josh Gifford, his trainer, didn’t want to make a purchase of the horse as he thought that 4 000 euros were too much for an animal he considered slow. His father-in-law who was at the sale with Josh at that time kept telling him to make another bid.
Despite his shortcomings, Aldaniti emerged as a world-class steeplechaser at the 1978/79 National Hunt season. He took the third place in Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1979 and took second place at the Scottish Grand National. He, unfortunately, sustained an injury at Sandown in November 1979 that put him off the racecourse for a year.
He resumed race coursing in 1981 where he took the lead at the eleventh and maintained his advantage for the rest of the race at the Fox Hunter’s Chase.
Aldaniti retired from racing in 1982 and spent the remainder at his farmer’s house at Sussex.
