According to Timeform, Burrough Hill Lad was the joint eighth best steeplechaser of the last 50 years or so,
rated just 3lb inferior to Desert Orchid and 7lb inferior to Kauto Star. Owned by Stan Riley and trained by Jenny Pitman, his main claim to fame was victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1984, in which he beat Brown Chamberlin, for whom he had been passed over by his regular partner John Francome.
However, that year he also won the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury and the King George VI Chase at Kempton. John Francome, who was reunited with Burrough Hill Lad in the King George VI Chase, later recalled, “Burrough Hill Lad was one of those horses you’d never get to the bottom of, a great big, strong powerful horse…” All in all, Burrough Hill Lad won 17 of his 27 steeplechases – including the Gainsborough Chase at Sandown three years in a row – and amassed nearly £200,000 in total prize money.
He was retired from racing, as a 12-year-old, in 1988 after pulling up lame on the gallops at home. He spent most of his retirement in Frickley, near Doncaster, before being put down in 2004 at the age of 28. That same year he featured at No. 44 in a poll of 100 favourite racehorses conducted by the Racing Post so was a popular fellow.
Amassing £200,000 in prize money is no mean feat and punter will have seen the benefits of that too. This was in ‘pre internet’ days so nowadays it may also have been possible to pick up a few nice bonuses of online bookmaker offers along the way. Bettingtop10.com can point yu in the right direction here. Odds also end to be more generous in this day and age due to more competition in this online gambling era. Outsiders especially tend to be available at much bigger odds, which is handy if you enjoy a speculative bet or two, and many are fans of multiple / accumulator bets based on the returns on offer. If you can latch onto a horse as good as Burrough Hill Lad and follow him tthroughout his career, you’ll be quids in!
